Search - Anne Mette Iversen :: Best of the West + Many Places

Anne Mette Iversen Quartet & the string quartet 4Corners: Best of the West: A jazz-suite for double-quartet; Best of the West is written by Anne Mette Iversen for her jazz quartet, the Anne Mette Iversen Quartet and the string quartet 4Corners. Musically Best of the West is inspired/has grown out of Ms. Iversen's background in both jazz and classical music, and aims to bring together these two; maybe the two most profound/sophisticated music traditions of western culture. Best of the West is, so far, the pinnacle of Ms. Iversen's compositional writings, as it succeds in bringing together jazz and classical music on equal terms. The piece is written in 4 movements like a classical symphony, and the musical union happens as each movement is based on a traditional classical form, being: EAST - Allegro (medium/up), SOUTH - Adagio (slow), WEST - Menuet (waltz), NORTH - Presto (fast). The musical content is derived mainly from the jazz language, although there are times within the suite, where the writing, particularly for the strings, is best described as contemporary classical music. The piece expresses variety in feeling and emotion that bring into attention the multifaceted world we live in; i.e. a world which requires open-mindedness and focus on communication between cultures as a central ingredient in our lives. This theme is underlined in the music particularly in that the string-quartet and the jazz-quartet maintain their identity and individuality throughout the piece. Unlike most meetings of jazz and classical music, where one style performs a subservient role, or both styles are diluted beyond recognition, Best of the West manages to present each group and style at it's most compelling, and this way, in purely musical terms; it illustrates the beauty of concepts such as interaction, conversation, dialog and mutual support. Anne Mette Iversen Quartet: Many Places: Anne Mette Iversen Quartet has made three records together and toured once a year in Europe the past three years. Many Places compiles music from various periods of these three years, and on this recording the quartet has matured into one unit, one voice, one identity; speaking in the musical language of Anne Mette Iversen, but flavored with the individual voices of each band member. There is no overall programmatic idea to the album Many Places, but rather different personal stories behind each tune. Many Places toys with the theme that one can settle down many places, i.e. anywhere, and create an at- home feeling; because man can adopt to any situation as long as one stays true to oneself and one's own needs. 2004 is simply a description of a certain swinging moment; Milo Man is a reflection and an ode to Anne Mette's first born son; and Out the Atlantic is saying goodbye to life on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Pjerrot's Smile is the comic teasing figure that will run around in circles with you; and Sambavian is an attempt gone off track to express Anne Mette's love for Brazilian music. The three tunes Cataldo One, Cataldo Ballad and The Square in Ravello are all composed during an artist residency on the Amalfi Coast in Italy in 2006. They are respectively 1) trying to catch the hectic New York atmosphere from afar, 2) capturing the beauty of the Amalfi Coast, and 3) watching the children in play on the center square in front of the church in Ravello.