Six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, arranger and
conductor Vince Mendoza was at Temple University and the Kimmel Center for the
Performing Arts this past March as part of a week-long residency with students
at the Boyer College of Music and Dance. This culminated with the world
premiere and recording of Constant Renaissance, available August 2 on the
College's own label, BCM&D Records, which has produced 30 recordings and
garnered three GRAMMY® nominations.
Constant Renaissance is a new work featuring trumpeter
Terell Stafford, alto-saxophonist Dick Oatts and the Temple University Studio
Orchestra. Mendoza wrote the piece with Stafford and Oatts in mind, both of
whom are on the jazz faculty at the university. Mendoza was inspired by
Philadelphia’s history with jazz and its connection to innovation, reinvention
and rebirth. “You might say that the city is in a ‘constant renaissance,’”
Mendoza states, "and although some might say that jazz was the “other”
sound of Philadelphia, in reality, many of the important innovations in jazz
were born in the clubs and streets of this city after World War I, riffing and
morphing, and eventually cross pollinating with the work of other artists in
Philly."
The composer chose three jazz luminaries who all hailed from
the City of Brotherly Love – Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday and John Coltrane.
The first movement of the piece, “Bebop Elation,” through its rhythmic bounce
and acrobatic melodic nature, evokes Gillespie’s impact on Philadelphia’s
progressive music scene and integrated audiences in the early 1940’s. The city
named him "Dizzy," and the name stuck -- and there was no other Dizzy
Gillespie. John Birks Gillespie arrived in Philadelphia in 1935 at the age of
18. Even then he was a pioneer, with his trumpet playing reaching for the stars
and Philadelphia embraced him. In November 1942, Dizzy Gillespie secured an
extended engagement at the venerable Philly jazz spot, The Downbeat on Ludlow
Street, most known for its embrace of progressive music and its racially integrated
audiences. It was a key location in the history of jazz in the city. It was
there that Dizzy honed his already original musical ideas and set the stage for
his later encounters in New York City that cemented Bebop as the new music for
the next generation.
The second movement, “Solace and Inspiration,” is dedicated
to Billie Holiday, whose voice, according to Mendoza, “was a source of solace
and inspiration." Mendoza continues, "there is indeed something
transcendent and mysterious about the voice of Billie. Her sound was about
beauty, but also pain, love and longing. Her phrasing seemed to float in
mid-air. She sang her life, but she always kept her inner self in a private
space. She was the unmistakable soulful voice of jazz." A Philadelphia
native, Holiday often came back to Philly to perform during her short career,
most often seen at the ornate Earle Theatre on Market Street.
Saxophonist and composer John Coltrane inspired the third
movement, “Love, a Beautiful Force,” which embraces the use of ostinato as a
sense of meditation and nod to improvisation. Coltrane lived and worked in
Philadelphia from 1943 to 1958, but it was toward the end of that period, after
leaving the Miles Davis Quintet in 1956, that Coltrane, struggling with drug
addiction, returned to his Strawberry Mansion house to kick his habit, and find
his inspiration and spiritual awakening. The compositions and recordings
following this period became some of the most defining works in 20th century
music and a continued guiding light followed by generations of jazz musicians.
"The ostinato motive of this movement is in constant variation from
beginning to end. The conclusion of the piece morphs into a more contemporary
treatment of the ostinato, in a constant ascension to the heavens, in gratitude
for the path Coltrane has cleared for us" Mendoza states.
Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance
regularly commissions major composers to write or arrange new pieces for
student ensembles. “It’s an invaluable experience for our students to rehearse,
perform and record new works,” said Robert T. Stroker, Dean and Vice Provost
for the Arts at the university, “having a composer of Vince Mendoza’s
reputation and stature on campus for a week gives our music students a unique
opportunity to learn from one of the best in the field.”
Vince Mendoza has been at the forefront of the Jazz and
Contemporary music scene as a composer, conductor and recording artist for the
last 25 years. According to All About Jazz, Mendoza “daringly expands the
vernacular by including elements of abstract impressionism, romanticism and a
highly unorthodox palette to position him as the clear and natural successor to
the late Gil Evans.” The composer has written scores of compositions and
arrangements for big band, extended compositions for chamber and symphonic
settings, while his jazz composing credits read like a “who's who” of the best
modern instrumentalists and singers in the world today. Mendoza was recognized
as 'Best Composer/Arranger' by Swing Journal's critics poll in Japan. His album
Epiphany features his compositions played by the London Symphony Orchestra. El
Viento and Jazzpaña further pushed the boundaries of Jazz and Flamenco Music.
Mendoza’s 2011 solo release Nights on Earth features his compositions arranged
for small and large ensembles, with guest appearances by Luciana Souza, Malian
vocalist Tom Diakite, and musicians from Spain, Africa, and Brazil. His GRAMMY®
nominated big band release Homecoming celebrates his compositions for the WDR
Big Band in Koln, Germany while his trumpet concertino, “New York Stories”, and
his “Concerto for Orchestra" commissioned by the Czech National Symphony
weave his individual approach to jazz rhythms and instrumental colors through a
grand symphonic tapestry.
Mendoza's arranging has appeared on many critically
acclaimed projects that include dozens of albums with song writing legends and
vocalists such as Björk, Gregory Porter, Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau, Bobby
McFerrin, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, Sting and Joni Mitchell. He has 6 GRAMMY®
Awards and 33 nominations. Mendoza is the composer in residence with the West
Deutsche Rundfunk in Koln, Germany. He is also the Conductor Laureate of the
Netherlands Metropole Orkest, of which he was Chief Conductor for 9 seasons. In
addition, he appeared as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles and New York
Philharmonic, as well as other orchestras throughout Europe, the U.S., Japan,
Scandinavia, and the U.K. Mendoza has also written commissioned compositions
and arrangements for the Turtle Island String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, the Los
Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Metropole Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, The
Hollywood Bowl, West Deutsche Rundfunk, The Czech National Symphony and the
BBC. Mendoza’s music was featured at the Berlin Festival and he has frequently
performed at the Monterey, Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals.
Vince Mendoza · Constant
Renaissance // BCM&D Records · Release Date: August 2, 2019
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