Turtle Island String Quartet: Blue Rondo à la Turk
Merely referencing Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" didn't make Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk" (1959) Third Stream. Instead of combining jazz and classical elements, "Blue Rondo" simply wedged 4/4 blues solos between a bravura 9/8 enclosure. Recognizing that a sandwich is not a salad, the TISQ here mixes ingredients much more tastily. The piece's overall form is unchanged, but when played by string quartet instead of jazz quartet, time-signature shifts are less abrupt, more organic. Third Stream boosters have long dreamt that string players would someday learn to swing. Turtle Island à la Turk is our dream come true.
November 30, 2007 · 0 comments
Tags: blue rondo à la turkDave Brubeck: Blue Rondo à la Turk
Using Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" as a reference point, Brubeck adapts the 9/8 time signature that intrigued him during an Istanbul visit, and creates a driving enclosure for straight-ahead 4/4 blues solos by himself and Desmond. As with "Take Five" (Brubeck's hit 1961 single to which "Blue Rondo" served as flip side), simplification makes the experiment fun. As to what the blues have to do with Turkey, it's long been rumored that during the Turkish War of Independence, W.C. Handy proffered his "St. Louis Blues" as the Republic's national anthem. When Turks wisely chose instead the stirring İstiklâl Marşı (Independence March), Handy's "St. Louis Blues" was made the USA's national anthem, and is now sung perfunctorily before ballgames.
October 30, 2007 · 0 comments
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