Root Progressions Album & Program Notes

Track Listing ANTHONY DAVIS PIANO HEAVEN 01. SPHEROID (3:50) 02. TURQUOISE (5:21) 03. SHARDS FOR C.T. (7:45) JON JANG 04. ANCESTORS & SISTERS (9:10) ARTURO O'FARRILL 05. MIS GUERREROS THE MYSTIC SECRET) (6:52) GERNOT WOLFGANG TWO MOVEMENTS 06. PENDULUM (5:03) 07. SHIFT (6:16) JAMES NEWTON 08. EIGHT CALLA LILIES (11:53) LINDA MAY HAN OH LITTORAL TALES 09. HIGH TIDE (2:30) 10. LOW TIDE (6:17) 2024 BIOPHILIA RECORDS

Credit Listing Recorded March 14-15, 2024, at the EVELYN & MO OSTIN MUSIC CENTER Produced by JUDITH SHERMAN Executive Producer: GLORIA CHENG Engineer: JUDITH SHERMAN Assistant Engineer: STEVE KAPLAN Mixed & Mastered by JUDITH SHERMAN & JEANNE VELONIS PHOTOGRAPHY Cover image: VERNE EVANS Gloria Cheng (inner panel: VERNE EVANS Anthony Davis: ERIK JEPSEN Jon Jang: BOB HSIANG James Newton: ERON RAUCH Arturo Farrill: JEN ROSENSTEIN

Linda May Han Oh: ROBYN TWOMEY Gernot Wolfgang: LEFTERIS Biopholio™ Design & Layout by AESTHETICIZE MEDIA Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Christine & Hugo Davise Fund for Contemporary Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and UCLA Chancellor's Arts Initiative Grant.

Special thanks to Matthew Vest, Luis Henao, and José Carillo of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music; Ben Salisbury of Steinway & Sons; Rocco Somazzi of Angel City Arts.

Deepest thanks to Piano Spheres.

PROGRAM NOTES by the composers: Anthony Davis: PIANO HEAVEN is a work in 3 movements dedicated to three composers and pianists who have had a profound influence on my musical development. The first movement, “Spheroid”, dedicated to Thelonious Monk, explores Monk's rhythmically charged world of space and time. The opening section of the piece explores the musical realms of Monk compositions like Evidence, that reveal his imaginative play with space in variations that suggest Monk's sense of play with the unexpected. The second part of the movement explores Monk's inventiveness in song form and his fragmented approach to stride.

The second movement, “Turquoise”, is dedicated to Duke Ellington through some indebtedness to Abdullah Ibrahim, the wonderful South African pianist, championed by Ellington in the early sixties. The title comes from Ellington's fascination with all shades of blue from On A Turquoise Cloud, to Transbluency, Azure, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue and the Blue section of Black, Brown and Beige. The first section of the piece is a blues variation that as the theme is played three times with melodic embellishment that transports listener through time and place from South Africa to Minton's. In the second section in the movement, the piece looks back at Ellington's piano work like The Clothed Woman, revealing Ellington's harmonic and dramatic imagination at the same time recalling a dance in Cape Town. The blues returns to conclude the movement.

The third movement “Shards for C. T.”, is dedicated to the great innovator Cecil Taylor. I remember hearing him in a solo piano concert in Munich, Germany which was one of the most amazing piano performances I have ever seen. Cecil Taylor has been unappreciated as a composer. His early work like Conquistador, which is the first Cecil Taylor music I heard, showcases the contrasting textures that he creates emanating from the piano with unsettling riffs and an approach to modal music through clusters and explosive gestures with either hand. His music is dramatic, lyrical and filled with allusions to the Blues. He was an early mentor of mine and I remember, vividly, Cecil holding court in a club usually right next to the piano. One evening in the Tin Palace, the piano bench broke and I was sent tumbling off the stage only to be caught

by Cecil Taylor sitting next to the piano. As a pianist, I can say that Cecil Taylor continues to save us and his music has allowed us to be ourselves.

Jon Jang: Ancestors & Sisters (2022) is in the form of a fantasy with a theme and two variations. The theme is based on the Ballad of Hua Mu Lan, a Chinese folk song about a woman warrior, which is dedicated to four unique Chinese American women warriors: the late guzheng (Chinese zither) virtuoso Zhang Yan, pianist Gloria Cheng, poet Genny Lim and the late educator-activist Alice Fong Yu, who was one of the co-founders of the Square in the Circle Club.

Inspired by my collaboration with Zhang Yan, I developed a piano technique that simulates the sound of the guzheng, as well as the yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) taught by Shirley Wong-Frentzel.

The Square in the Circle Club was the first Chinese-American women’s social activist organization in San Francisco Chinatown which was founded in 1924. The name of the Square in the Circle Club is in reference to the old Chinese coin characterized by its round outer shape and square center hole. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in China, the old coin symbolized the unity of yin and yang, and men and women. This unity is expressed in the Square in Circle Club’s motto: “In deeds be square (fair and honest), in knowledge be allaround.” Zhang Yan, Gloria Cheng, Genny Lim, and Alice Fong Yu carved their own niche by dancing to the beat of a different flower drum.

Arturo O’Farrill: Mis Guerreros refers to the Orishas (Yoruban Deities) that are assigned to protect you in the spiritual realm. They are Eleguá, Oggun, Ochosi and Osun. One places an altar to the Orishas in a corner of their home and offers gifts of tobacco, rum, coffee, sweets and music played by the maracas. An incantation/prayer is offered, and personal supplications can be added.

The piece is created in four sections meant to reflect the attributes of each deity. The beginning section is a series of tone rows that are accentuated by percussive tone clusters.

The next section is a series of -tuplets that alternate between groupings of 5 and 6 separated by a grouping of 4. The -tuplets are accompanied by ambiguous but diatonic harmony which then becomes the setting for a majestic theme.

The third section is based on actual Batá rhythms that are found in the worship rites that are a part of Yoruban religious practice. Each rhythmic element is introduced and layered and then the process is reversed so you end with the pattern that you begin with. The harmonic setting is a densely packed cluster spread out over two-octave spans. The majestic thematic material is then introduced over a left-hand summation of the Batá rhythms.

Variations of the -tuplet pattern are reintroduced before the fourth section is introduced. It is a fast series of jazz-like runs meant to suggest a final offering of personal supplication. This is followed by reverse third section which returns to the single rhymical element.

Four simple chords meant to evoke the Orishas at peace are simply stated and the fabric of the tuplet study with the diatonic chords is reversed in range. The -tuplet study is treated in left-hand right-hand mirror and the melody is simply stated. Four chords again mirroring the respite of Eleguá, Oggun, Ochosi, and Osun are stated at the very end.

Gernot Wolfgang: The title Two Movements has a double meaning. The first refers to the piece as a whole consisting of two separate movements. The second, based on associations that came to mind while I was composing, has to do with actual motion, physical and perceived.

The first movement, “Pendulum”, describes a succession of various swings of a pendulum. The musical realization focuses on the initial energetic impulse once the pendulum is released, and the winding down of the pendulum’s oscillation, including its standing still. The middle phase of the swing is left out.

Months after finishing the whole composition I came upon an alternate interpretation of what “Pendulum” could be about. One could think of it as a monologue, characterized by a series of statements alternating with thoughtful pauses. Musically speaking, the pauses (represented here by held chords) also allude to thoughts expressed by masters such as Debussy: "Music is the space between the notes” and Miles Davis: “It’s not the notes you play; it’s the notes you don’t play”.

The second movement, “Shift”, sets up rhythmic expectations which are upended almost immediately by subtle metric changes. The additions, or subtractions, of 1/8th and 1/16th notes in successive bars create a constantly shifting perception of the groove presented by the piano.

As the movement progresses, this material slowly gives way to bell-like interludes with fading repeated notes. A pensive middle section connects to the return of the “shifting” rhythmic introductory material, followed by a quiet ending in which repeated, fading notes reappear.

James Newton: My composition, Eight Calla Lilies , is dedicated to my precious wife, Jo Ann Newton. The title reflects her favorite flower, the tropical calla lily. The Biblical reference from Matthew 6:28 NKJV, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin," reflects the imagery and feeling of the composition. Eight Calla Lilies is a love letter that deeply expresses my infinite love for Jo Ann through a new 21st-century compositional view of impressionism. This new approach to impressionism moves chronologically beyond Debussy to include Ellington, Messiaen, Monk, Dutilleux, and Coltrane. Duke Ellington's introduction to "Solitude" on Ellington Indigos inspired the score references to Ellington. The clusters Duke utilizes also encourage my use of clusters in other sections of Eight Calla Lilies.

Just as Debussy translated Japanese visual art into musical sounds, today's composers can observe James Webb telescope images from across the universe and translate them. The Webb telescopic images are awe-inspiring and led me to new approaches to musical form and harmonic color.

Growing up in Harlem, NY, Jo Ann attended music and dance classes at the Joseph P. Kennedy Community Center, the Harlem School of the Arts, and Mabel Hart's Dance School. Her most vivid and lasting dance class memory is performing warm-up exercises to Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau. We have listened to it together many times over the years. Recently, I heard a transcendent performance that led me to believe that I must have been subconsciously leaning on it while composing sections of Eight Calla Lilies. The "as through water" sections now connect to that reference and some gentle textures from McCoy Tyner's masterful recording, Echoes of a Friend.

Just before I composed Eight Calla Lilies, my wife's younger brother and mother passed away.

The middle section expresses her deep and enormous grief. Ultimately, in the final section, she is renewed and revitalized. Just as she and I made a pilgrimage during a recent trip to New York, this section returns to Harlem with a short homage to Bud Powell's contribution to be-bop with contemporary harmony.

Linda May Han Oh: Littoral Tales is a piece in two movements – “High Tide” and “Low Tide”. It is a celebration of the love of water and the ocean - in all its untamed and awe-inspiring beauty. Both composer and performer are avid swimmers and have spent much time in coastal regions. The ocean can be a source of a solace and calm, but it is also an arm of mother nature much more powerful than humans. This piece was inspired by the work of the late great pianist Geri Allen who was a powerful role model to myself and many others.