Episode 10 - Feb 1, 2021

Ed Bland’s music defies classification. His early music training was as a jazz saxophonist in his native Chicago, but he found the predictability of jazz rhythms to be too limiting for the kind of music he wanted to create, as he later explained:

“My world changed when I heard a recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Not only was the music alive, it swung!… I felt that if I could uncover the secret of why Stravinsky’s music swung, and combine that knowledge with what I knew about swinging from my jazz background, I might be on a fruitful mission.”

This mission led him to draw on all the musical experiences he encountered in life. He eventually dubbed the unique blend of styles “urban classical funk.”

Bland’s work has been sampled by Beyoncé (“Creole”) and featured in movies (A Soldier’s Tale) and video games (Test Drive Unlimited). His groundbreaking documentary film, The Cry of Jazz, is included in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry as “a historic and fascinating film that comments on racism and the appropriation of jazz by those who fail to understand its artistic and cultural origins.”

Learn more about Ed Bland at edblandmusic.com.

Ed Bland: For Bassoon

Lori Wike | bassoon

hosted by Jeff Counts
recording mastered by Michael Carnes
produced by Chris Myers (argylearts.com)

Transcript

Jeff Counts

Welcome to the NOVA Podcast. My name is Jeff Counts. I’m your host for this episode, and I’m thrilled to have in studio with me Lori Wike, principal bassoon of Utah Symphony. Welcome, Lori.

Lori Wike

Hi! How are you, Jeff?

Jeff Counts

I’m doing very well, Lori, and it’s great to talk to you today. We’re talking, the two of us, about Edward Bland, an African American composer. Died not too long ago, in 2013, and interestingly, he described his style as “urban classical funk.” To me, that meant that the synthesis of European traditions, jazz music, and West African drumming created for him a very distinct voice. How did you come across the music of Ed Bland? Was it through this bassoon piece, or did you already know about him? And what did you learn?

Lori Wike

I came across Ed Bland’s music through the bassoon piece when I was researching unaccompanied works for the basooon at the beginning of the pandemic. And I became very intrigued by him. A composer, an arranger, producer, filmmaker, writer. He made a 1959 documentary called The Cry of Jazz, which I found very fascinating when I watched that, in which he uses the structural features of jazz as a metaphor for the lived African American experience.

I was also really intrigued at how transformative Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was for him and his compositional trajectory. A quote from him in one of his composer statements was “Not only was the music alive, it swung.” And it really transformed where he went. He started out as a jazz clarinetist, and many of his works from that point on, as you said, they synthesized African American popular music forms with the compositional traditions of Western classical music and West African drumming.

Jeff Counts

So, the bassoon as a solo instrument is not something that’s got as rich a repertoire as the violin or the piano, per se, but I think it’s a very expressive instrument, and I read one of the descriptions of this piece in particular, For Bassoon, as running the gamut of the emotional range of the bassoon, from what this writer said, the “serious” to the “sarcastic.” I also interestingly read an article by the bassoonist of the Imani Winds, who talked about how the bassoon is often seen as the “clumsy” instrument of the orchestra. It’s the Grandfather in Peter and the Wolf, and it often gets kind of “funny” jobs to do in the orchestra. Talk a little bit about the bassoon as an expressive vehicle for yourself as an artist and what kinds of repertoire you’re drawn to.

Lori Wike

You know, in the orchestra, it’s true there are some of these classical “clumsy” solos. But I would say more commonly, the principal bassoon solos are more of a lyrical, tenor register variety. And that’s kind of what we as bassoon players really live for. That’s kind of some of our greatest moments in any kind of repertoire written for the bassoon, in those really gorgeous tenor register solos of the orchestral repertoire.

Jeff Counts

Almost in the range of the human voice, really, when you get to that part of the bassoon.

Let’s talk about the piece. Written in 1979, and it definitely has some of those jazz influences I mentioned before. And I find the music, when I hear it, to be very internal, almost like a performer playing with headphones on. Sort of playing for themselves. Improvisatory, almost. But I’m sure it’s all written down, and I’m sure it’s all very technical. What’s it like to prepare this piece?

Lori Wike

I found it a lot of fun, actually. I liked the incorporation of the jazz elements, the transformation of the initial melodic motive throughout the piece, some very intricate rhythmic structures. He wrote it the same year as probably my very favorite piece of his, that became known to me this summer, his Piece for Chamber Orchestra, in 1979. It’s a real tour de force composition that I would love to hear played at some point.

Jeff Counts

Have you ever gotten to do For Bassoon live, or did you learn it for this?

Lori Wike

I learned it for NOVA.

Jeff Counts

So I’m hoping you get an opportunity, when things get a lot better, to actually play it for live human beings someday.

Lori Wike

That would be fun. I would like to do that.

Jeff Counts

Well, until then, let’s enjoy this performance. Lori Wike, principal bassoon of the Utah Symphony, playing Edward Bland’s For Bassoon.