38a Hill Street Blues (2002)
for marimba and vibraphone (2 players)
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Playing Score (2 copies) BDE 807
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Video
Michael Blake Ensemble https://youtu.be/FKOCvnQeWyM
Première
First performance: Thursday 6 March 2003; Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom;
Adam Bushell vibraphone, Tom Norell marimba
Further performances: 24.05.2003; Brighton Festival, UK; Adam Bushell vibraphone,
Tom Norell marimba
8.07.2004 New Music Indaba, Grahamstown, South Africa; Frank Mallows vibraphone, Magda de Vries marimba (South African premiere)
25.09.2007 Baxter Concert Hall, Cape Town; Michael Blake Ensemble (Frank Mallows vibraphone, Magda de Vries marimba)
18.11.2007; ZK Matthews Hall, Pretoria; Michael Blake Ensemble
Programme note
“38a Hill Street Blues” owes something to the uhadi bow music of the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape where I used to live. It also owes something to stride piano playing (in particular Meade Lux Lewis’s Honky Tonk Train Blues) which I listened to a lot in my teens. The title itself possibly owes something to an American television series, but was in fact my home address in Grahamstown. I wrote the piece, in the desert in Namibia during January 2000, at the request of Marcel Worms for his ongoing New Blues for Piano project, and arranged it for tuned percussion in 2002.
for marimba and vibraphone (2 players)
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Playing Score (2 copies) BDE 807
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Video
Michael Blake Ensemble https://youtu.be/FKOCvnQeWyM
Première
First performance: Thursday 6 March 2003; Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom;
Adam Bushell vibraphone, Tom Norell marimba
Further performances: 24.05.2003; Brighton Festival, UK; Adam Bushell vibraphone,
Tom Norell marimba
8.07.2004 New Music Indaba, Grahamstown, South Africa; Frank Mallows vibraphone, Magda de Vries marimba (South African premiere)
25.09.2007 Baxter Concert Hall, Cape Town; Michael Blake Ensemble (Frank Mallows vibraphone, Magda de Vries marimba)
18.11.2007; ZK Matthews Hall, Pretoria; Michael Blake Ensemble
Programme note
“38a Hill Street Blues” owes something to the uhadi bow music of the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape where I used to live. It also owes something to stride piano playing (in particular Meade Lux Lewis’s Honky Tonk Train Blues) which I listened to a lot in my teens. The title itself possibly owes something to an American television series, but was in fact my home address in Grahamstown. I wrote the piece, in the desert in Namibia during January 2000, at the request of Marcel Worms for his ongoing New Blues for Piano project, and arranged it for tuned percussion in 2002.
