Ethan Iverson - Ethan Iverson Playfair Sonatas (2024) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Pianist, composer, and writer Ethan Iverson will release his next album Playfair Sonatas digitally and as a 2-CD set on November 15, 2024 via the Urlicht AudioVisual label. Playfair Sonatas features six sonatas composed by Iverson for six different instruments and piano, and recorded by Iverson with some of today’s most vibrant classical performers – Miranda Cuckson, violin; Makoto Nakura, marimba; Carol McGonnell, clarinet; Mike Lormand, trombone; Taimur Sullivan, saxophone; and Tim Leopold, trumpet. The album is bookended by a Fanfare and Recessional performed by the whole ensemble.

Playfair Sonatas was born in 2020 during the pandemic, when Iverson met curator, producer, and frequent commissioner of new work Piers Playfair for a summertime outdoor dinner. Like most musicians that year, Iverson had downsized and was concerned about making a baseline income. He had recently moved and rented a smaller, cheaper studio, and when Playfair asked if there was anything he could help with, Iverson replied, “Yeah, I’d love to cover the studio rent for a few months.” The two agreed that in exchange for six months of rent, Iverson would write six sonatas, and that Playfair would be allowed to choose the instrumentation.

Writing these Playfair Sonatas led Iverson to composing larger works, including his Piano Sonata, recently recorded as part of his album Technically Acceptable on the Blue Note label. Seth Colter Walls wrote of the piece in The New York Times, “Classical in conception… it also contains traces of crunchy harmonic modernism and the bumptious sounds of vintage American jazz styles.”

Iverson’s Playfair Sonatas similarly showcase this signature approach. The sonatas intertwine 21st-century jazz gestures with the formal structures of Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn. While the outer movements are titled with traditional tempo indications (Allegro, Rondo, Scherzo, and similar), the middle movements of each work are dedicated to an artist whose work blended jazz and classical.

TRACKLIST

1. Ethan Iverson - Fanfare
2. Ethan Iverson - Violin Sonata: I. Andante – Allegro moderato
3. Ethan Iverson - Violin Sonata: II. Blues (for Ornette Coleman)
4. Ethan Iverson - Violin Sonata: III. Rondo. Allegro
5. Ethan Iverson - Marimba Sonata: I. Allegro
6. Ethan Iverson - Marimba Sonata: II. Blues (for Eric Dolphy)
7. Makoto Nakura - Marimba Sonata: III. Cadenza
8. Ethan Iverson - Marimba Sonata: IV. Rondo. Presto
9. Ethan Iverson - Clarinet Sonata: I. Allegro
10. Ethan Iverson - Clarinet Sonata: II. Music Hall (for Carla Bley)
11. Ethan Iverson - Clarinet Sonata: III. Scherzo – Minuet
12. Ethan Iverson - Clarinet Sonata: IV. Rondo. Allegro moderato
13. Ethan Iverson - Trombone Sonata: I. Allegro moderato
14. Ethan Iverson - Trombone Sonata: II. Hymn (for Roswell Rudd)
15. Ethan Iverson - Trombone Sonata: III. Rondo
16. Ethan Iverson - Alto Saxophone Sonata: I. Allegro
17. Ethan Iverson - Alto Saxophone Sonata: II. Melody (for Paul Desmond)
18. Ethan Iverson - Alto Saxophone Sonata: III. Allegro
19. Ethan Iverson - Trumpet Sonata: I. Allegro
20. Ethan Iverson - Trumpet Sonata: II. Theme (for Joe Wilder)
21. Ethan Iverson - Trumpet Sonata: III. Rondo
22. Ethan Iverson - Recessional



Thanks to the Original customer.