Roger Aldridge's Original Music

[Roger Aldridge]

40 pieces of original music have been posted to my composer’s page at the American Music Center. This includes 7 scores (for various ensembles), 18 contemporary jazz tunes and extended pieces, 7 tunes exploring Appalachian and Celtic fiddle traditions (Roots Music), and 8 tunes I describe as “jazz-traditional hybrids”.

This selection of music covers a lot of ground: old-timey fiddle tunes, rags, blues, waltzes, ballads, sambas, tangos, contemporary jazz, and pieces that explore New Music directions. There’s even a jazz lullaby! I consider this selection to be representative of my work.

Here's a link to my AMC page -- http://www.amc.net/RogerMAldridge At the AMC page, click on the Compositions tab (above the picture) and scroll down the list of scores and tunes. Click on the name of a piece to see the background information I’ve written about it. The PDF files contain a score or leadsheet and the MP3 files are demo recordings. The music and recordings can be downloaded to your computer.

Demo recordings are being gradually added to my AMC page. My goal is to eventually have recordings for all 40 pieces.

All of my music at the American Music Center is intended to be USED and is available without charge. If you find something that you like, please work with it and perform it. Of course, give credit to the composer....and tell others about it. Hearing from musicians who discovered my music and are performing it is appreciated.

 

[Gandalfe]

Kudos! I luv how you are working to get sound samples for the charts too. Once you find something you like, then all you have to do is figure out the instrumentation needs to reproduce. For example, some charts need a fiddler.

 

[Roger Aldridge]

Jim,

I envision my compositions as being flexible with respect to interpetation and instrumentation.

For example, my tune Rubber Chicken Rag was recently performed by a flute & guitar duo. They are classical musicians and absolutely superb players. I stressed to them that I consider my notated music to be a point of departure and they were empowered to take it in whatever direction they wanted. They were thrilled with this concept and came up with a brilliant interpetation. It turned out that Rubber Chicken Rag was a big hit at their concert. And, I was happy with how they went beyond the written notes.

With that in mind, I encourage folks who are looking at or working with my music to be creative and not be limited by instrumentation or anything else. For example, I'd LOVE for contemporary jazz players to work with my old-sounding fiddle tunes. Remember the Sonny Rollins recording of cowboy songs in the 50's? I envision my "roots music" as not being for only traditional musicians or fiddle players.

Being creative, HAVING FUN, and breaking through marketing classifications are the key words!

Again, Forum members, all of the music I've posted at the AMC is to be used and there is no charge for it. Hopefully, among the 40 pieces, you'll find something that jumps out at you.

Thanks Jim!

Roger

 

[jbtsax]

Thanks Roger for that wonderful link to your bio and music. I especially like the "Snoring Dog's Waltz" and "Sunset on the Chesapeak". Both your melodic and harmonic ideas have a refreshing originality to them. Everything I have ever tried to compose has ended up sounding like something I have heard before, so I have learned to respect those who can truly be creative and not just imitative.

 

[Roger Aldridge]

JBTSAX,

Thank you for your kind words!

It took me around 20 years to develop what I consider to be my own voice. Each of us has one inside…expressing who we are. It's important to keep writing (just as we have to keep practicing our horns).

My summer music project this year was to go through a stack of old originals and see which ones I liked. I was amazed at how many of them I had forgotten about and not used in a long time. I liked some of them very much as is. Others needed some minor revision and then I was quite happy with them. Then, there were those tunes that didn’t have much going for them and I’d be embarrassed to them have performed. In hindsight, even the tunes that fell into the last category served a purpose in that I was working on my writing. After all, not every tune that one writes is going to be a blast over the wall.

Now, I follow my intuition and write when there’s a leading -- such as music or concepts coming to me in a dream or in an intuitive flash. Many of my best tunes flowed out fairly easily and it felt like my role was to simply write them down. It’s like they had a life of their own. Whereas, the tunes that I slaved over and worked on in a more mental fashion no longer speak to me and I’m content to put them back in the file cabinet.

I'm happy that you found some tunes that speak to you.

Roger