WESTBETH
by Jeff Kowalkowski [2002]

 

duration: 30'

[world premier: BKA BERLIN/Germany - unerhörte Musik – april 22nd 2003]

 

Jeff (*1967) lives in Chicago, his hometown.  His music is a melting pot of different cultures and listeners have described his music as “eclectic” from his earliest works as a teenager.  In his scores there are graphic elements and traditional notation, performance and theatrical activities are often essential components of his music, atonality shifts to sugar-sweet, cheezy wellness-jazz-breathed on kitsch-tone, often unexpected classic-romantic textures, mixed up in a bizarre way with memories of sentimental pop-music, everything vacuum-imbued by avantgarde-sounds. All these facets of artistic expression skills bubble relaxed and easygoing out of him. Fondly we gave him the title MASTER OF BAD TASTE.

 

WESTBETH is after CUT UP OR SHUT UP, ANCHOR and #372 the fourth piece Jeff has written for us.

 

He wrote about his piece:

"I am thinking about writing a concerto for electric bass, perhaps you would function as the orchestra, and Mathias would be the soloist, with many cadenzas"

(e-mail 26 March 2002)

"For this CONCERTO, I envision Three Boom Box parts. Is this o.k. with you? They do not have to be good boom boxes, I will give you three CDs that are used for playback during the piece. Matt would be in the middle of the stage on a riser, 3 or 4 feet above the stage. He is surrounded by the three boom boxes. You will perform seated on the floor in front of him with your back to the audience. You will have many "instruments" besides accordion."

(e-mail 28 March 2002)

I am almost finished with the concerto. I hope you will like it. the title is: "Westbeth Concerto" Named after the WestBethune artist colony in Greenwich Village where I stayed in New York. I had the idea there while taking a shower. And I wrote it in the subway, bus and airplane, and then also on the subway in Chicago on the way home. I will send it in a week or so, I hope."

(e-mail 16 March 2002)