program notes - Rockport Music

1
harlem quartet
Friday
july
Ilmar Gavilán, violin
Melissa White, violin
Jaime Amador, viola
Felix Umansky, cello
WITH
Aldo López-Gavilán, piano
8 PM
GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY ALLAN AND KATHE COHEN
ALMENDRA
Abelardito Valdés (1911-1958)/Arr. Nicky Aponte
A NIGHT IN TUNISIA
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (1917-1993)/Arr. Dave Glenn
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
Antônio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994)/Arr. Dave Glenn
TAKE THE “A” TRAIN
Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)/Arr. Paul Chihara
:: intermission ::
EPÍLOGO
Aldo López-Gavilán (b. 1979)
TALKING TO THE UNIVERSE
Aldo López-Gavilán
ECLIPSE
Aldo López-Gavilán
PAN CON TIMBA
Aldo López-Gavilán
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 69
WEEK 5
the program
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
In their work together, the quintet of Harlem Quartet and Aldo López-Gavilán has developed
a repertoire that honors composers, arrangers, jazz musicians, and other performers who
incorporate improvisation into their music. All the works on this evening’s concert are
performed in that tradition. The composers and arrangers who are named have provided a
musical platform for the unique interpretations of the Harlem Quartet and their partner,
Aldo López-Gavilán.
In 1979 the pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán was born in Cuba into a family of talented
and accomplished musicians. His mother, Teresita Junco, was a well-known concert pianist and
pedagogue. She performed and recorded both with Aldo and with his brother, the concert
violinist Ilmar Gavilán, the founding leader of the Harlem Quartet. Their father, Guido, is a
conductor and composer.
As a pre-schooler, Aldo wrote his first music compositions and had his first piano instruction
from his mother. He began formal studies at the age of seven and made his debut as a pianist
at the age of twelve. In addition to learning the demanding classical piano repertoire, Aldo
developed remarkable improvisational skills at a very young age.
Aldo López-Gavilán has an active international career, performing as soloist and in ensembles
throughout the world. In 2006 the conductor Claudio Abbado invited him to perform as a concerto
soloist in a concert honoring the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, and in 2007 he performed
Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto with Abbado in Caracas and Havana. In 2012 he made his debut
at Carnegie Hall in the concert “Voces de Latino América.”
Aldo’s seven CDs reflect the breadth of his repertoire, which ranges from classical to jazz and
includes many of his own compositions and improvisations. His first CD won the 2000 Grand Prix
at Cubadisco, and he was included in the DVD set Cuban Pianists: The History of Latin Jazz.
• • •
ALMENDRA
Abelardito Valdés (b. Havana, November 7, 1911; d. Havana, December 9, 1958)/
Arr. Nicky Aponte
Composed 1938
Abelardito Valdés
Abelardito Valdés was the beloved leader of a highly popular Cuban dance orchestra that
bore the same name as this danzon, its theme song: “Almendra” [Almonds]. During the
period of its greatest fame, in the 1940s and ’50s, ballroom dancers flocked to Almendra’s
live performances of its extensive repertoire, which their devoted public also knew from the
many albums that Almendra recorded.
A NIGHT IN TUNISIA
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (b. Cheraw, South Carolina, October 21, 1917;
d. Englewood, New Jersey, January 6, 1993)/Arr. Dave Glenn
Composed 1941-42
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie
The great Dizzy Gillespie was a trumpeter in the Earl Hines Band during the hey-day of bebop
when he composed this piece, which he called “Interlude.” Both Sarah Vaughan and Anita
O’Day recorded it (with lyrics by Jon Hendricks) under that title, respecting Dizzy’s disdain
for the other title. “Some genius,” said Dizzy, “decided to call it ‘Night in Tunisia.’” By the
70 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
name “Interlude,” Dizzy Gillespie and his Sextet recorded it for Victor in 1946, a 78 rpm disc
that in 2004 was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. It is currently available on several
hundred recordings, adapted and arranged for every conceivable combination of instruments
and voices. In his memoir “To Be or Not to Bop,” Dizzy Gillespie explained the origin of the
musical idea. Sitting at the piano, he noticed that the notes of chord progressions he was
improvising created a melody with a Latin, or oriental, feel. Playing it with a bebop rhythm
created “a mixture with a kind of syncopation in the bass line,” different from the regular
four-beat bass. He subsequently referred to it as an “anthem to bebop, ” which introduced
Afro-Cuban rhythms into American jazz.
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
Antônio Carlos Jobim (b. Rio de Janeiro, January 25, 1927;
d. New York City, December 8, 1994) /Arr. Dave Glenn
Composed 1962
In 1962 the composer Antônio Carlos Jobim and his friend, the poet Vinicius de Moraes,
created a song for the musical theater piece Blimp, a work that they were creating in their
home city, Rio de Janeiro. Originally titled “The Girl Who Passes By,” the samba became one
of the most-performed, most-recorded popular songs in the history of the genre. Eventually,
the original Portuguese lyrics were supplemented for international purposes by Norman
Gimbel’s English lyrics, so that the tall and tan, young and lovely Girl from Ipanema was
soon “passing by” her fans all over the world. By one estimate, the song has been recorded
ca. 250 times. Although its popularity made “Tom” Jobim’s name familiar in international
households, his work as a prolific composer, arranger, singer, pianist, guitarist, performer,
and recording artist would have stood alone, even without his famous Girl, as one of the
most extraordinary bodies of musical endeavors in the twentieth century.
The Brazilian songwriter
Antônio Carlos Jobim, also
known as Tom Jobim, was a
prolific composer, arranger,
singer, pianist, guitarist,
performer, and recording
artist.
TAKE THE “A” TRAIN
Billy Strayhorn (b. Dayton, Ohio, November 19, 1915; d. New York City, May 31, 1967)/
Arr. Paul Chihara (b. Seattle, 1938)
Composed in 1939
In September 2007 the Harlem Quartet released its first CD, entitled “Take the ‘A’ Train.”
The title track features an arrangement by Paul Chihara of the famous Duke Ellington
theme song composed by Billy Strayhorn.
Take the “A” Train, the
Harlem Quartet’s first CD
(White Pine Music), features
the title song.
In this energized four-minute piece, a diverse world comes together: the African-American
composer Billy Strayhorn, who wrote so many famous compositions for the Duke Ellington
orchestras; the Japanese-American composer and arranger Paul Chihara, who has created
soundtracks for countless cinema and television films; and the Harlem Quartet, whose
stated purpose is “to advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new
audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire, highlighting works
by minority composers.”
35TH SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 71
The composer and pianist Aldo López-Gavilán has provided commentary for the final four
pieces on the program.
Notes
on the
program
EPÍLOGO
Aldo López-Gavilán
Composed before 2009; 7 minutes
From the DVD Más allá del Ocaso [Beyond the sunset]: “Epílogo” was originally written for solo
piano, solo clarinet, and orchestra. The central theme explores a dream-like lyricism, highly
modulatory, as well as a triumphant musical gesture reminiscent of “Nueva Trova,” a style
pioneered and made famous by troubadour singers Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanés. It
also showcases Aldo López-Gavilán’s characteristic canon in the development section,
where all instruments stagger a rhythmic figure that constructs a sonic kaleidoscope.
TALKING TO THE UNIVERSE
Aldo López-Gavilán
Composed before 2009; 7 minutes
Aldo López-Gavilán’s
seventh, and most recent
CD (2014) is De todos
los colores y tambien
verde [About all the colors,
and green, too]
From the DVD Más allá del Ocaso [Beyond the sunset]: “Talking to the Universe” has gone
through several transformations from piano solo to piano jazz band to piano jazz band with
orchestra. The quintet version captures the intimate and yearning quality of a person sending
a message in a bottle out to the vast universe, as well as the vibrancy and wholeness of
feeling in union with the cosmos. It culminates in a complex and exhilarating counterpoint
of gradually increasing energy as preparation for launching out of planet earth.
ECLIPSE
Aldo López-Gavilán
Composed before 2009; 4 minutes
From the DVD Más allá del Ocaso [Beyond the sunset]: Originally written for violin and piano,
“Eclipse” is a personal piece that expresses great vulnerability. It was written for Aldo’s brother
Ilmar, addressing the emotional toll taken by the involuntary separation of the two brothers
due to political circumstances, as Ilmar went to the United States, while Aldo remained
in Cuba.
PAN CON TIMBA
Aldo López-Gavilán
Composed before 2014; 4 minutes
From Aldo López-Gavilán’s most recent (2014) CD, De todos los colores y tambien verde
[About all the colors, and green, too]: “Pan con Timba” is a quintessential Cuban piece, joyful
and contagiously optimistic. The title means “bread with unknown something,” classic
post-Cuban revolution humor, as the younger generation, instead of indulging in self-pity,
embraced humor as a psychologically uplifting device to deal with the scarcities of their
lives. This humor is now a staple, an essential component, of the current Cuban identity.
The piece features many types of “Cuban tumbao”—a reiterative rhythmic pattern—and
intertwined elements derived from popular contemporary Cuban dances.
72 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM