Bassed On
Bruce J. Taub
About this work:
Bassed On was written for my friend and colleague, Lisa Stokes Chin. It is based on the bass part of a piece I wrote in 1980 titled Fragile Lady for Soprano, Contrabass, Piano and Jazz Drum Set (ad libitum) to a poem by Edward Gallardo. The piece was dedicated to another bassist friend, Miss Julie Bernardo who was also a jazz singer and leader of the Julie Bernardo Trio. The poem had been written about her years earlier and when I met Mr. Gallardo we discovered that Julie was a mutual friend. The music was not meant for her to perform, however since she was a completely intuitive musician who, in fact did not even read music. Julie passed away soon after I was able to present her with a copy of the finished manuscript. Max Lifchitz and North/South Consonance premiered the piece in 1984 so it was only fitting that the version for contrabass solo be also premiered on one of Max's concerts. I had thought about writing a solo piece for quite some time and when Lisa asked me to write a piece for her I had the idea of basing it on the earlier Fragile Lady which I have always been particularly fond of for both musical and emotional reasons. The piece is meant to be very free and improvisatory in nature. It has also been perfomed by Bertram Turetsky. Bassed On is published by C.F. Peters Corporation.
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:07:00
Ensemble type: Solo instrument, non-keyboard:Double bass
Instrumentation: 1 Double bass