Work
Deep Stew
for electric violin, bass clarinet, Hammond organ and drum kit
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About
"Have you ever lost your mouth or anything in that small area... your lips, your teeth, your tongue, your tonsils? The throat – everything around there. You'd be in deep stew, yes." Patti Labelle, Moon Shadow
Listening to the Hammond-centred sound of the Peddlers in my parents' car in 1974, I'd feel positively queasy. Ransacking my Dad's cassette collection a few years, I stumbled across some of this old 'driving music'. Somehow I no longer felt nauseous when I listened to it. Around the same time I bought my brother a collection of Rare Groove for his 30th birthday. One of the stand-out tracks is of Patti Labelle singing her version of Cat Stevens' Moonshadow. The central section is an insanely long rant by Labelle in which each of the musicians solo (including a fabulous Hammond improv). Deep Stew takes it title and its spirit from this crazy sequence of 'what if's.
Commissioned by the Composers' Association of New Zealand with funds from the QEII Arts Council, Deep Stew was premiered in 1994 at Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand. The Bang on a Can All-Stars gave the work its American premiere in 1995 at New York's Lincoln Center.
Commissioned note
Commissioned by the Composers Association of New Zealand with funding from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council (now Creative New Zealand)
Performance history
05 Nov 1994: Performed by an ensemble including Miranda Adams (violin), Danny Poynton (organ); Ilott Concert Chamber, Wellington
26 Feb 1995: Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars
13 Mar 1995: Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars