Realizing it's been a while since I've posted anything here, and longer yet since I posted any music—the primary attraction of this blog, certainly—I thought I ought to rectify that. But I haven't been writing, or releasing, much lately—only so many hours in a day! (isn't that the saying?)—which presents a slight problem for the idea of posting new music.
One of the benefits of being barking mad, however, is that one's never lacking for sources of inspiration! Contemplating this very problem, for instance, I happened to look down and see the side of the box that housed the tiny travesty of a meal I'd just had, and observed what, I suppose, is their current marketing slogan, in the way of a question: "Have we satisfied The Crave? 1-800-THE-CRAVE". "mon Dieu! Absolutely not!" was my initial reaction—no, seriously, the French and all (it happens)—but then I had a thought (yes, unbelievably, that happens too [stop laughing!—no, really, John, stop laughing]) and realized maybe they had after all... though hardly with the victuals.
Rather, "The Crave" is one of the best known (and one of my personal favorite) piano works by ragtime / jazz pioneer Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe, better known as "Jelly Roll" Morton (1890-1941). I will include a recording of the man himself playing it below for comparison.
But what does that have to do with my dilemma? (Thanks for asking.) I decided to see if I could make a convincing string quintet out of "The Crave". I'll let you folks decide whether I was successful in the endeavor—but if I wasn't, it's no worry, as I still learned something: to wit, how surprisingly annoying it is to try to notate Jelly Roll's rhythmic phrasing in midi! This frustration is reflected in the string arrangement being a little less than half the length of the piano recording included here. It is still faithful to his composition, only I've worked from a more pared down version of the song than the one he's playing below (that version is the one recorded by Alan Lomax in 1938, and comes from disc 6 of Jelly Roll Morton, The Complete Library of Congress Recordings (Amazon: CD
Enjoy!—and feel free to dance if that tango spirit gets to you. (That's a first I think—I'm pretty sure I could never before be accused of writing dance music.)
