Walk the Walk
for baritone sax (or bass clarinet or contrabassoon) and percussion (2005)
Instrumentation: Baritone sax (or bass clarinet or contrabassoon) and percussion (one or two players)
Publisher: Boosey and Hawkes, Hendon Music (BMI)
Duration: 8 minutes
World Premiere: May 3, 2005 / Knitting Factory, Main Performance Space, New York, New York / Opus 21
Program Note:
Walk the Walk for baritone sax and percussion was commissioned by Opus 21 for a concert honoring pianist Joe Hunter and the Funk Brothers, a group of Detroit studio musicians who played on all of the historic Motown releases from 1959 to 1972. Using a deconstructed fragment from the Temptations’ “My Girl” as a compositional idée fixe, Walk the Walk takes the listener through a world of virtuosic Detroit blues, rock, jazz and Latin Motown musical grooves.
–Michael Daugherty