Page 8 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

at this time was contrasting in style, and yet often evocative, plaintive and haunting,
and so iconic to the aural landscape of America. Fascinated by the meeting point of
these two styles at this time between both composers and performers, Balsom looks
to share her deep love for this particular character of the instrument that defies
genres.

The album will also feature Balsom’s newly edited version of Bernstein’s Lonely
Town from his 1944 musical On the Town , depicting a visitor’s bewilderment and
loneliness despite being in the crowds of New York City. This is followed by Ives’
extraordinary, ethereal and pioneering 1908 work The Unanswered Question for solo
trumpet, flute quartet and strings, asking the “Eternal question of existence”.
Balsom knew that Gershwin’s iconic and much loved work Rhapsody in Blue,
originally for two pianos, came out of copyright in 2020, so swiftly planned and
commissioned a new large scale orchestral arrangement from leading arranger Simon
Wright, to include a prominent solo trumpet line, that weaves in tandem with the
solo piano line, with a new orchestral backdrop. Working with her long time musical
partner Tom Poster to further expand their repertoire together was one of her many
incentives for this work.

The final two tracks of this album change gear entirely, with Balsom trading her
customary C trumpet for an old Bb copper belled instrument, in order to somewhat
channel the softer, more mellow tones that were envisaged by Miles Davis for this
music. The legendary collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans that began in
1959 on their Sketches of Spain album not only produced some of the most iconic
music ever to come out of America, but showed Gil Evans’ sophisticated
understanding of classical orchestration flung into a jazz context, and crucially Miles
Davis almost as an inventor of another side of the trumpet – forging a new path in
creating a planned out, pre-meditated and composed “deep song”. For this new
recording of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, Balsom felt that the Britten Sinfonia
were a perfect match, comprising of many of the UK’s finest musicians, equally at
home in classical and jazz music. Gil Evan’s unusual collection of instruments has
been reassembled here, and makes for a rich and evocative sound world. Balsom’s
final track is another exploration of a Miles Davis and Gil Evan’s creation – a luscious
harmonic arrangement of Kurt Weill’s My Ship – which shows another side of Balsom’s
performance style – playing softly into a very close microphone, once again telling the
story of heartfelt longing.

Alison Balsom commented, “This album has been an utter joy to make. I loved every
minute of the sessions with the brilliant Britten Sinfonia, conductor Scott Stroman,
oboist and cor anglais player Nicholas Daniel and my great friend and collaborator
pianist Tom Poster. The concept of this project began decades ago, when I decided
that Copland’s Quiet City was a work that everyone needed to hear – especially so as
Copland reveals the scene so brilliantly via the solo trumpet and cor. There is a true
melancholy in this work that only a certain type of trumpet playing can achieve, and
across the collection on the album I’ve tried to show that through the unique lens of
the trumpet, the wonderful bridge and mutual respect between the classical
composers and arrangers, and the jazz greats can be seen. For many of us, the
sentiment behind Quiet City is pertinent at the moment, as we emerge from the