Playing one night only, “Chamber Music Inspired by Hollywood” will be a feast of California jazz.
At 7 p.m. Friday, the first program in the Unitarian Universalist Recital Series launches its season with three California-based musicians who have ties to the movie industry, shared experience in California higher education and a love for Durango.
“Our recital consists of pieces we have played together in the past,” said pianist Cindy Williams. “We realized most of them were written by composers who had written for the movies.”
If you go
WHAT: “Chamber Music Inspired by Hollywood,” UUFD Recital Series.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 419 San Juan Drive.
ADMISSION: $25 adults, $8 students and children. Online at durangouu.org/recital-series or cash or check at the door.
MORE INFORMATION: Contact Marilyn Garst at 385-8668 or mmgarst1940@gmail.com.
A professional musician with a varied career as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and collaborative pianist, she now lives full time in Durango. She began serious studies in her native Texas and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano at the University of Southern California. Since 1995, she’s been a faculty member at Pasadena City College and has performed in many capacities around the world. Since moving to Durango, Williams has enticed musical colleagues to Colorado for unusual performances like the Artie Shaw birthday bash last May 23 at the Methodist Church.
Friday, she will be joined by long-term California friends and professional colleagues clarinetist Helen Goode and bassoonist Carolyn Beck.
“Helen divides her time between teaching at Cal State Long Beach and Durango,” Williams said. “Carolyn lives in LA and teaches at Cal State Los Angeles.”
The trio will open with Bill Cunliffe’s “Nostalgia in Corcovado.” The three movements, Samba, Improvisation and Choro will no doubt set an energy level to be sustained throughout the evening. Cunliffe is a well-known jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger. His most famous film score was created for “On the Shoulders of Giants,” a work about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While working in the movie industry, he also managed to persist in academia. He is Distinguished Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton.
After Cunliffe’s opening trio, Beck will perform a bassoon solo titled “Rick’s,” from Charles Fernandez’s full-length “Casablanca Sonata.”
“The tune ‘As Time Goes By,’ is familiar to just about everybody,” Williams said.
“Helen’s solo clarinet piece is called ‘Viktor’s Tale’ from the movie ‘The Terminal’ starring Tom Hanks – composed by John Williams,” Williams said.
Andre Previn’s Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Bassoon will close out the first half of the program with movements simply titled Lively, Slow and Jaunty.
After intermission, Goode and Beck will present an unusual woodwind duo by Gernot Wolfgang titled “Uncle Bebop” from the film “Three Short Stories.” David Anthony Jones’ “Cascade Falls” follows.
“Of course, we had to add local composers into the mix, although Gernot Wolfgang has retired now to Santa Fe,” Williams said.
The program will conclude with a big work: Nino Rota’s Trio for Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano.
“Nino Rota composed scores for many of Fellini’s films, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘The Godfather,’ for example,” Williams said.
As the organizing dreamer of the jazz-Hollywood recital, Williams hinted there may be a surprise at the end, not to be given away here but worth waiting for.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
