One Day Wonder #101

For 3 horns, 1 trumpet, 3 trombones and tuba.

OK, this is as much of a cheat as #63 & #64. Here’s the story: a favorite jazz pianist of mine formed a hard-rockin’ duo with a drummer whom I hold in quite high esteem – keep in mind that we’re in the jazz-rock-miscellaneous genre here. Whenever they play, it’s really loud. So they’re this duo, but they have a problem: they don’t have enough tunes. I see them live, am amply impressed, promise them much material and get to work – with their blessing, I might add. It's not like I said, "Take my tunes or die." Anyhow, I write them something like five tunes in two weeks (which was a lot at the time) and present them with said tunes as quickly as I can get them on paper. Since my damn computer is broken (damn spyware!), I resort to writing them out on manuscript paper like a common peasant. I give them these tunes with a certain amount of flourish. They choose to do none of them. That’s OK. Hey, it’s a free country. My conception for them was different than their conception of themselves. It doesn’t matter. This is the second tune I wrote for them. It’s a swing-funk number that I pared down from the original. I wanted to give them an semi[funk alternative to all that loud stuff. And it really is OK. They're still better than the Bad Plus. Maybe other tunes that I wrote for them will follow. I can’t guarantee anything, but it’s possible – especially if I’m desperate for material.

All right, so about the piece... It's in 8/4 with the drums countering in 3. The only problem is - you guessed it - no drums. No problem! I just let the trombones be the drums. Just as every tool can be a hammer, I'm firmly behind the concept that any instrument can be a drum. Sure, it spells a really boring part for the 2nd and 3rd trombones, but they're the heart of the tune. OK, them and the tuba. So the bass line and beat go on under both terse and flowing lines and culminate in a shout chorus that should be about five times louder than it is. There, that's the whole story of this piece.