Rachel Barton Pine & Matthew Hagle - Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers (2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” (Washington Post) known for her “bravura technique and soulful musicianship” (New York Times), headlines a groundbreaking album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.

World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa’s A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Billy Childs’s Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata/tone poem written as a response to a fatal shooting by police. Another premiere is Wendell Logan’s violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington’s 1935 composition, In a Sentimental Mood.

The album’s title track, Dolores White’s improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations and a blues harmonic language. David N. Baker’s gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Blue/s Forms and Louisiana Blues Strut befit a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. Each movement of William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist. Clarence Cameron White’s Levee Dance, a favorite of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance. Errollyn Wallen’s Woogie Boogie is a humorous and inventive reimaging of the boogie-woogie blues dance. Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Filter, with a new opening cadenza written specially for Rachel Barton Pine, conjures the sounds of electronic dance music and psychedelic guitar. Concluding the program, Charles S. Brown’s A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.

Tracklist:
1. Blues 04:16
2. Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin : I. Plain Blues: quarter note = 88-96 01:21
3. Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin : II. Just Blues: Very free 02:59
4. Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin : III. Jettin' Blues: Fast 02:33
5. Louisiana Blues Strut : (A Cakewalk) 02:35
6. Suite for Violin & Piano : I. Suggested by Richmond Barthe, "African Dancer" 04:34
7. Suite for Violin & Piano : II. Suggested by Sargent Johnson, "Mother and Child" 06:10
8. Suite for Violin & Piano : III. Suggested by Augusta Savage, "Gamin" 02:11
9. A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin : I. Walk Around Brudder Bones 03:54
10. A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin : II. Neumedia 02:56
11. A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin : III. Little Diamond / Bird on the Wing Jigs 01:58
12. A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin : IV. New Orleans Clog 00:58
13. A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin : V. New Orleans Clog Blues 03:22
14. Levee Dance 03:55
15. In a Sentimental Mood (arr. W. Logan for violin and piano) 03:29
16. Blues Dialogues : I. Blues Feeling 03:24
17. Blues Dialogues : II. Expressive 02:45
18. Blues Dialogues : III. Fast and Funky 01:13
19. Blues Dialogues : IV. Moderately Fast 02:54
20. Woogie Boogie 02:29
21. Incident on Larpenteur Avenue 07:49
22. Filter 04:40
23. A Song Without Words 03:13
24. Lenox Avenue : The Blues (Arr. for violin and piano) 03:57

Personnel:
Rachel Barton Pine (violin)
Matthew Hagle (piano)