Holcombe, Bill - Blues Concerto for alto saxophone
My feeling is that this piece is best appreciated as a purely classical piece. Any sonority that hints at blues or jazz language is merely incidental, apart from the odd moment in the Pastoral. The stylistic nuances are best portrayed when the focus is centred upon the rhythm. Trying to reconcile this work with the blues greats of history: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker seems like a futile and insurmountable task. Oddly described as 'delightful', this concerto might be more convincing if it shed the 'Blues' in its title, then the 'delight' would be apt. I'm not sure that blues is ever supposed to be delightful. The piece is a great showcase for performers and certainly has exciting runs and interesting rhythmic patterns. Certainly Holcombe had credentials as a big band arranger, having worked with Tommy Dorsey amongst others, but the piece exists in a musical no-man's-land and is hard to successfully interpret. Should there be an effort to emulate a jazz orchestra's lead alto sound? Or is the aim simply a vivacious concerto with a nod to blues? The result is more Broadway than BB King, but perhaps if one can accept light-music for what it is, then there is no problem.