th
Four Episodes for Jazz Orchestra, Narrator,
Dance Company & Choir
__________________
Composed & Orchestrated by Buzz Jones ASCAP
Poetry by Langston Hughes

Hughes came of age as a poet and novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He cites Walt
Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, & Paul
Laurence Dunbar as early influences. Several of his masterful works include The Weary Blues (1926),
The Ways of White Folks (1934), as the lyricist for
Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (1947), and two autobiographical volumes The Big Sea (1940) and I
Wonder As I Wander (1956). Arnold Rampersad notes “his art was firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling even as he cherished his freedom as an artist.” Langston Hughes was passionate about jazz. He wrote convincingly about the art form and the musicians who risked so much to bare their souls.

New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
Riverfront

Episode 1
OCEANS APART
Elegua was a god worshiped by the
Yoruba people of West
Africa. The music is based on the Afro-Cuban folkloric style of Bembe and the C lave rhythm.
POETRY Negro & Poem (1)

Episode 1
OCEANS APART
Cape Roca speaks to three rhythmic grooves that evolved in South America,
Latin America and the Caribbean – Bossa
Nova, Calypso, and Mambo.
POETRY Our Land & Caribbean Sunset

Episode 2
NORTHERN TANGENTS
Konkomba literally means “poor man’s brass band.” A solemn chorale springs to life as the Second Line percussion beat propels a New Orleans funeral procession. The Dixieland combo focuses on collective improvisation while the dancers interpret the story.
POETRY
As Befits A Man

Episode 2
NORTHERN TANGENTS
Red Dawn Blues is a “gut bucket” 12 bar blues tune featuring a solo vocalist and the band singing the refrain.
Chicago was a hotbed of activity for emerging jazz voices in the 1920s such as Louis Armstrong and Earl
Hines.
Saturday
Night

Episode 2
NORTHERN TANGENTS
18 th and Vine pays tribute to Bennie Moten and
Count Basie. Southwest of Chicago lay Kansas
City and a collection of jazz clubs located at 18 th and Vine Streets. Swing dancing ruled the day in the 1930s as territory bands crisscrossed the country serving up “hot” rhythms for dancers of all ages.
POETRY
Boogie 1 am
Gone Boy

Episode 3
COAST TO COAST
Lenox Avenue at Midnight is a sultry ballad featuring alto saxophone supported by a broad palette of nocturnal colors. Hughes’ poetry transports us to Harlem rooftops where “the moon is shining” and the “night sky is blue.”
POETRY
Lenox Ave: Midnight
Harlem Night Song

Episode 3
COAST TO COAST
In the1940s, jazz players began to push to boundaries of conventional swing music and
Bebop was the result. Dig and Be Dug is a bop tune for septet that you would have heard at
Minton’s Playhouse – pyrotechnics and virtuosic solos abound.
POETRY – Jazzonia
& Motto

Episode 3
COAST TO COAST
Silver Rain is a passacaglia and fugue in triple meter. Cool and Third Stream jazz began to surface on both coasts by the early 1950s. Smoother textures, less angular melodic lines and use of classical forms defined the music as a reaction to Bebop.
POETRY
In Time of Silver Rain

Episode 4
GROOVE MACHINE
Lulu was a madam who organized the most notorious brothel in New
Orleans’ Red-Light District of Storyville at the turn of the 20 th century. A reprise of the Afro-funk motive and a free jazz section leads directly to the finale.
Poetry – Afro-American Fragment

Episode 4
GROOVE MACHINE
Text for The Old Tan Path is taken from the Old Testament books of Isaiah and
Daniel. The dancers join the orchestra and choir for a joyous gospel “shout.”
POETRYTambourines