By Tom Varner
Hello to horn friends all around the world! I am looking forward to playing and sharing with you all in Ghent this summer 2019. It will be great to see many old friends and to meet new ones. I've been performing at IHS events ever since Towson, Maryland (1985?), and it is always wonderful.
At Ghent, I'll be performing on Thursday with the Mallet-Horn Jazz Band, led by Arnaud Delepine. It's a fantastic group, a kind of big band but only with horns and vibes and rhythm section. We'll be doing music by Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, and also two pieces by me: Seattle Blues, and the Main Section from my suite Nine Surprises. Here is Seattle Blues in its original form (three brass, four reeds, bass and drums) — the reeds and brass will be played by the multi-horns and vibes. Here is Nine Surprises Main Theme (first three minutes or so) — This piece has a bit of a Bach cantata influence, with low group, middle group and high group weaving in and out — in Ghent all the groups will be played by horns. We'll have a blast!
We also plan to have another special guest joining us--my old friend Arkady Shilkloper. I've known Arkady since the early 80s, when we used to write each other old-fashioned letters in the Reagan-Brezhnev era ("I wish you peaceful skies!") Here is a nice example of Arkady and me playing together in the Vienna Art Orchestra, on "Bruxelles ma Belle," a little bit ago, in 2000. Arkady solos first.
And lastly, I'll be leading a large horn ensemble workshop on improvisation, open to all, so join us! This is an example of some of the wild and beautiful workshop sounds we made at IHS Regional Symposium in Indiana Pennsylvania, 2016 (thanks to Heidi Lucas, George Marshall and Steven Cohen) --Who knows what kind of beautiful sounds we will make in Ghent! See you there! All the best, Tom Varner
