Creat de Bill Benzon
Epistrophy Variations
This piece reflects rhythmic interests I developed while playing with Ade Knowles and others in the AfroEurasian Connection/New African Music Collective. Ade is a superb percussionist in Afro- Cuban and West African (esp. Ghana) traditions. The suite takes the form of a set of variations based on the chord changes to Thelonius Monk’s "Epistrophy." Monk’s melody is not used the piece. Note that the time feel for this piece is not a jazz time feel, it is to be played (more or less) straight. The idea of creating a multi-movement suite by providing different rhythmic settings for the same melodic/harmonic material goes back at least to Chico O’Farrill’s “Manteca Suite.” This was written for Dizzy Gillespie—based, of course, on his tune—and recorded on Verve in 1954. O’Farrill uses standard Latin rhythms as the basis of this four-movement suite, with the first movement being similar to Gil Fuller’s original chart for “Manteca.”