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Groove
for bass clarinet
solo part
Level of difficulty: very difficult
NDV 30084P
Groove is the result of feeling stuck, frustrated, irritated, and annoyed. In the fall of 2001, during
the first year of my masters program at San Francisco Conservatory, I was hard at work on an epic,
serious piano piece, when I hit a wall and simply could not get anywhere with it. Then one night I
went to a concert of Conservatory faculty playing chamber music, and I found myself so annoyed
by the polite applause, by their pretty little bowties, by the tastefulness and refinement of their
playing, by all the formalities and niceties that seemed to get in the way of direct communication
of the music. After the performance I went up to the practice room and vented by jamming on
my bass clarinet. I liked what I was coming up with – it was raw, aggressive, unrefined, and direct,
everything I was missing from classical music at the time – and I started writing some of it down.
Over the next few days I got down all of the ideas that would form the basis of Groove. I worked
on this material off and on over the course of about a year until I finally molded it into its
(hopefully) coherent yet still raw final form.
About the composer
Composer and clarinetist Jonathan Russell is active in a wide variety of music, from classical to
experimental to klezmer to church music. His work stretches the boundaries of contemporary
classical music, opening it up to the sounds and attitudes of the other musical traditions
surrounding it. He has received commissions from ensembles including the San Francisco
Symphony, Empyrean Ensemble, ADORNO Ensemble, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Harvard-
Radcliffe Orchestra, and Imani Winds, and has collaborated with choreographers Janice Garrett
and Charles Moulton. He also plays in, composes for, and is a founding member of the Sqwonk
bass clarinet duo, and is co-director of the Switchboard Music Festival. Jonathan has a B.A. in
Music from Harvard University and an M.M. in Music Composition from the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music. He is currently a PhD student in composition at Princeton University. For
more information and to hear more of his music, visit www.jonrussellmusic.com.
