Layale Chaker & Sarafand Inner Rhyme
Flying Lotus Flamagra
Shafiq Husayn The Loop
Kaytranada Bubba
Anne-Sophie Mutter / John Williams Across the Stars
Anderson .Paak Ventura
Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet Orange
Solange When I Get Home
James Tenney Changes: 64 Studies for 6 Harps
Dwight Trible Mothership
Honourable mention: Marvin Gaye You’re the Man
My interview for I Care If You Listen.
My interview for I Care If You Listen.
My interview for I Care If You Listen.
My review for I Care If You Listen.
My interview for I Care If You Listen.
Brandon Coleman Resistance
Tigran Hamasyan For Gyumri
Zaki Ibrahim The Secret Life of Planets
The Internet Hive Mind
JACK Quartet Everything That Rises (John Luther Adams)
Kuniko Drumming (Steve Reich)
Kukuruz Quartet Julius Eastman Piano Interpretations
Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists Black Panther: The Album
Kelly Moran Ultraviolet
Georgia Anne Muldrow Overload
Steve Reich/International Contemporary Ensemble/Colin Currie Group Pulse/Quartet
Esperanza Spalding 12 Little Spells
Kali Uchis Isolation
Kamasi Washington Heaven and Earth
Tierra Whack Whack World
Aretha Franklin The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970
Alarm Will Sound with Meet the Composer Splitting Adams (Cantaloupe)
Sarah Cahill with Regina Myers and Samuel Adams Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog)
Ars Nova Copenhagen First Drop (Cantaloupe)
Julius Eastman The Zürich Concert (New World)
ÌFÉ IIII+IIII (Discos Ifá)
Kelly Moran Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp)
Sampha Process (Young Turks)
Tyshawn Sorey Verisimilitude (Pi)
Moses Sumney Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)
SZA Ctrl (Top Dawg/RCA)
Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)
John Williams Close Encounters of the Third Kind · 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition (La-La Land)
Music by Linda Catlin Smith, Martin Arnold, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Marc Sabat Canadian Composer Series (Another Timbre)
Various Artists Spiritual Jazz 7: Islam (Jazzman)
Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote)
Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam)
King We Are King (King Creative)
Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA)
Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello)
Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia)
Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)
reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets
Wally Badarou Back to Scales To-Night (Barclay · Expansion)
The Emotions Blessed: The Emotions Anthology 1969-1985 (BBR)
Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings (Sony)
Bernard Herrmann Twisted Nerve (Stylotone)
John Williams Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (La-La Land)
Various Artists Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria (Soundway)
Various Artists Star Trek: 50th Anniversary Collection (La-La Land)
23 (2016) was composed as an homage to Steve Reich and is dedicated to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday. All of the material in this piano miniature derives from melodic patterns and sonorities in his music. (This is true to a lesser degree about some of my earlier pieces as I have pointed out elsewhere.) The starting point for this process was measure 23 from Piano Phase (1967) and Reich’s favoured key signature of D major/B minor. There are several other works and Reichian tonal centres referenced, sometimes in quick or overlapping succession.
I avoided transforming melodic or harmonic entities beyond recognition, emphasizing spontaneous musical flow over structured collage. Fans of the elder composer may enjoy listening for references however subtle they may appear. Others may note that 23 sounds similar to my other piano pieces, which reflects the great influence Reich has had on my work. A tribute seems only fitting.
Happy 80th, Steve!
Composed September 2016
Recorded live with no edits October 2016, Roland digital piano direct
Photo: Carolyn Cole
Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2016
