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Ballad in 7​/​8

from Consorting with David by Paul Winter Consort

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If the Consort repertoire has a “war horse,” the “Ballad in 7/8" is it. This melody came from a piano piece by Bela Bartok. It was a Rumanian folk melody, in 7/8 time, that Bartok had collected in his ethnomusic expeditions in the Balkan Mountains.

The opening section became a great jumping-off place for free-form soloing, by various members of the Consort, often one or more of the percussionists, and most always our cellist.

The finale section, as a bookend, then comes back to the original theme. This is called a “head chart,” in the lingo of jazz groups.

Over the years, this free field-of-play, in the middle of this suite has proven to be an amazing garden for unique improvising. The first flower that bloomed was our original cellist Richard Bock. Richard was a masterful classical player, who had never improvised. He used this seed-theme, and the license of this unfettered space, to explore the range of cellistic techniques from the solo literature he knew so well. Richard grew, like a sunflower, to become a virtuoso improviser, in this free-form context.

Richard’s solo on “Ballad in 7/8" in our album The Winter Consort, blazed a trail. It became a tradition, in the cello lineage of the Consort. The torch was passed to David when he joined us in 1970, and from him to Eugene Friesen, in 1978, who has carried it now for 42 years.

In this performance in Tokyo, the first slot is given to our percussionist, Tigger Benford, playing the five tuned timpani and the seven un-tuned surdo’s, of our superset. Tigger then handed the baton over to David.

Our Japanese audience was mind-boggled by David’s solo playing. They’d never heard anything like this before.

credits

from Consorting with David, released February 26, 2021
Written by Traditional Rumanian, arr. Bartok, Winter
(Umpawaug Music, ASCAP)

Paul Winter / alto sax
David Darling / cello
Robert Chappell / harmonium
Jeff Van Nostrand / bass
Tigger Benford / drums, super-set (timpani & surdos)

Recorded live, Tokyo, April 10, 1977

Unreleased recording

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Paul Winter Litchfield

Paul Winter is a seven-time Grammy-winning saxophonist, whose sextet was the first jazz group to perform at the White House in 1962. His second group, the Paul Winter Consort, interweaves sounds from the natural world with classical and ethnic traditions, and the spontaneous spirit of jazz. Their annual Winter Solstice Celebrations and Earth Mass are among the most popular events in New York. ... more

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