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

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:
1-01. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Blues (04:16)
1-02. Rachel Barton Pine – Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin – I. Plain Blues: quarter note = 88-9 6 (01:21)
1-03. Rachel Barton Pine – Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin – II. Just Blues: Very free (02:59)
1-04. Rachel Barton Pine – Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin – III. Jettin’ Blues: Fast (02:33)
1-05. Rachel Barton Pine – Louisiana Blues Strut – (A Cakewalk) (02:35)
1-06. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Suite for Violin & Piano – I. Suggested by Richmond Barthe, ‘African Dancer’ (04:34)
1-07. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Suite for Violin & Piano – II. Suggested by Sargent Johnson, ‘Mother and Child’ (06:10)
1-08. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Suite for Violin & Piano – III. Suggested by Augusta Savage, ‘Gamin’ (02:11)
1-09. Rachel Barton Pine – A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin – I. Walk Around Brudder Bones (03:54)
1-10. Rachel Barton Pine – A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin – II. Neumedia (02:56)
1-11. Rachel Barton Pine – A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin – III. Little Diamond _ Bird on the Wing Jigs (01:58)
1-12. Rachel Barton Pine – A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin – IV. New Orleans Clog (00:58)
1-13. Rachel Barton Pine – A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin – V. New Orleans Clog Blues (03:22)
1-14. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Levee Dance (03:55)
1-15. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – In a Sentimental Mood (arr. W. Logan for violin and piano) (03:29)
1-16. Rachel Barton Pine – Blues Dialogues – I. Blues Feeling (03:24)
1-17. Rachel Barton Pine – Blues Dialogues – II. Expressive (02:45)
1-18. Rachel Barton Pine – Blues Dialogues – III. Fast and Funky (01:13)
1-19. Rachel Barton Pine – Blues Dialogues – IV. Moderately Fast (02:54)
1-20. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Woogie Boogie (02:29)
1-21. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Incident on Larpenteur Avenue (07:49)
1-22. Rachel Barton Pine – Filter (04:40)
1-23. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – A Song Without Words (03:13)
1-24. Rachel Barton Pine, Matthew Hagle – Lenox Avenue – The Blues (Arr. for violin and piano) (03:57)