Complex City
Subtitle: From Jazzhattan Suite
General Info
Year: 1967 / 1977
Duration: c. 7:50
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Jazz orchestra
Publisher: Noslen/C.F. Peters
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Out of print.
Instrumentation
- Full Score
- Flute I-II-III-IV (I-II doubling Piccolo)
- Oboe I-II
- English Horn I-II
- Bassoon I-II
- Contra-Bassoon I-II
- B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
- B-flat Bass Clarinet I-II
- B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
- Horn in F I-II-III-IV
- Trombone I-II-III-IV
- Tuba
- Timpani
- Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:
- *Bongos
- *Claves
- *Conga
- *Drum Set
- *Latin Percussion
- *Orchestra Cymbals
- *Snare Drum
- *Vibraphone
- *Xylophone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Saturday, October 7, 1967, was declared “Jazz Day” in New York City by Mayor Lindsay and featured the premiere of Nelson’s Jazzhattan Suite in the Central Park Mall. The suite was commissioned by Jazz Interactions through Broadcast Music, Inc. and contains six movements showcasing the diverse jazz scene in New York City. It was also during the late 1960s that Robert Austin Boudreau, the founder and conductor of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO), was introduced to Nelson through Dizzy Gillespie. Boudreau heard Nelson perform Complex City at the Stage Deli located at 834 7th Avenue, New York, and recommended the piece be transcribed for AWSO without saxophones. Nelson’s original instrumentation included flute, clarinet, saxophones, horn, trumpets, trombones, tuba, piano, percussion, vibes, bass, and drums: a typical wind instrumentation found in a concert band instead of a jazz band. AWSO first performed this new arrangement of Complex City by Nelson in Pittsburgh, Penn., on June 24, 1973.
Complex City is divided into two parts. The first is a delicate, classically inspired opening using open major chords which slowly builds through the horns playing the main motive from La Cucaracha (“The Cockroach”), belonging to the Mexican corrido genre, a narrative metrical tale and poetry forming a ballad, reminiscent of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. As the music builds and the motives are layered, the octatonic scale (the diminished scale in jazz) forms the basis of the harmonic and melodic motion interspersed with mixed meters which are slightly off-kilter, similar to the cockroach with only five legs.
The second section moves to a moderate jazz tempo in 6/4 centered around the C octatonic scale. A 16-bar harmonic progression of I-IV-V-I contains rising parallel major chords, a melodic line in the English horns, and a countermelody in the horns, both using motives found in the opening of the first section. A slight detour in mixed meter and homophonic texture leads to a gradual overlapping of arpeggiated octatonic chords and rising bass line leading to a climactic descent into a fast jazz-swing tempo in double-time. Here the melody is punctuated by full and syncopated jazz shouts building to the soloist feature. Once the soloists conclude, the music enters the coda and final statements of the piece leading to an abrupt and wailing conclusion.
- Program Note by Brad Jopek
Jazzhattan Suite is a big band jazz album composed and arranged by Oliver Nelson and performed by the Jazz Interactions Orchestra. It was recorded in late 1967 and released in 1968 on Verve Records. Complex City is the sixth cut on the album.
- Program Note from Wikipedia
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Maryland (College Park) Wind Orchestra (Brad Jopek, conductor) - 8 December 2023
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Complex City (1979/2012)
- Concerto for Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone and Wind Orchestra (1979)
- A Cucumber Pickle
- Fugue and Bossa (1979)
- Majorca (arr. Tatgenhorst) (1967)
- Solo in 5/4
Resources
- Brad Jopek, personal correspondence, December 2023
- Jazzhattan Suite. Wikipedia. Accessed 9 December 2023
- Nelson, O.; DuBoff, R.; Sultanof, J. (2012). Complex City: From the Jazzhattan Suite [score] Jazz Lines Publications: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.