Jazz Suite – for Alto Saxophone (or Clarinet) and Piano

After the Jazz Suite for Flute and Piano (ED 20922), this Jazz Suite ventures still further into the realms of jazz idiom and many passages – such as the Cadenza in Daydream and the final Allegretto section of the Variations – even resemble Bebop improvisations. The underlying formal structures, in particular ternary form and variations, are nevertheless firmly rooted in the classical tradition. An alternative clarinet part has been included as this instrument shares a similar range to the alto saxophone and is likewise equally at home in both concert halls and jazz clubs. Although the notes are fundamentally the same, the respective parts explore and exploit these instruments’ more effective and comfortable registers through octave transpositions, with the saxophone generally taking the middle range (roughly from a to f’’) whilst the clarinet rises without effort to the higher register an octave above.