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I Remember... is an homage to four jazz trumpeters Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie each of whom made a great contribution to the idiom and had a major influence on the current generations of jazz musicians. It seemed the best way to honor these players was to represent them directly, and so excerpts from their recorded performances are quoted and embedded within a larger work.
I Remember... is a fantasy weaving in and out of the various solos in a meditative or dream-like manner. The rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums) from the original performances are not present. This allows listeners to focus on the trumpet, conjure the style of each artist, ideas from certain well-known improvised solos, and the lyricism and drama that touched so many.
This work offers trumpeters interested in jazz improvisation and styles specific insights into the approach of great jazz trumpeters of the past. Performers will benefit from experience playing in the swing style, and by listening to recordings of each of these players they will become aware of subtleties not easily captured by notation. However, the notation represents the music accurately and no prior knowledge of either improvisation or jazz styles is required. I Remember... can serve the accomplished jazz performer by paying homage, and serve the jazz neophyte and audience as a gateway to these four great trumpeters and a better sense of jazz style and history.
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About the composer:
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Dana Wilson is a composer, jazz pianist, and conductor. He holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Meet the Composer. His compositions have received the Sudier International Composition Prize, Ostwald Composition Prize, and International Trumpet Guild Composition Contest Prize. Wilson's works are published by Boosey and Hawkes, Ludwig Music Publishers, and Dorn Publications; and recorded on Klavier, Albany, Summit, Open Loop, Mark, Redwood, Musical Heritage Society, and Kosei Recordings. He is co-author of Contemporary Choral Arranging, published by Simon and Schuster and has written articles on diverse musical subjects.
Wilson is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music in the School of Music at Ithaca College in New York. He has been a Yaddo Fellow (Saratoga Springs, New York), a Wye Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Charles A. Dana Fellow, and a Fellow at the Society for Humanities, Cornell University.
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