A Conductor’s and Performer’s Guide to Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone - Chester Jenkins

119 JENKINS: …and I’ve done ImPercynation and Suite Dreams and so I’ve done a number of your works and I’m drawn to your music. I actually watched the live stream of the premiere of this, because I was like “oh that’s cool” and I’ve just fallen in love with the piece since then! And I figured if I’m going to have to write a research paper it might as well be on something I like! BRYANT: Good call! (both laugh) JENKINS: In one of the blog posts, and you were just talking about this, you were talking about how Joe had started improvising around it. You said, “Fortunately, I recorded several takes of this, and after he left, I experimented with the recorded material out of context, and wove melancholic harmonies around his playing to form part of movement II”. Can you provide an example of where that might be? BRYANT: The original…yeah. Give me a second, I’ve written several pieces since then. JENKINS: I totally understand. BRYANT: I clear my brain after each one and go onto the next. That’s why when people refer to bar numbers, I’m like, “I don’t know”. JENKINS: (laughs) BRYANT: Ok, 2 nd movement, bar 117 when he enters. JENKINS: Yes BRYANT: Page 44, so that whole passage through 132 up until the credenza, that’s just a transcription of something he played. I still have all these files somewhere, I don’t throw anything away. So that was, if I recall correctly, that is literally what he played, but all this was over the 3 rd movement. So at a different tempo. So what I did is took the file out, took out all the reference stuff, and just played it out of context, but then I started improvising these long gossamer harmonies around it, based on it. And it just “Like Ohh, this is fun” (both laugh) BRYANT: I mean, it’s a whole different direction. Because I was recontextualizing it and writing music around someone else’s notes but those person’s notes were based on my notes to start with. JENKINS: Yeah (laughs) BRYANT: You know, so it was run through a Joe Lulloff filter. (both laugh)