Broadway Boogie
Broadway Boogie was commissioned by Leigh Baker and was premiered by the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Brass Band as part of their 2014 Brass in Concert programme at the Sage, Gateshead.
The work is inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie, which was his last fully completed picture. Mondrian arrived in New York in 1940, one of the many European artists who moved to the United States to escape World War II. He fell in love with the city immediately, as well as Boogie-Woogie music – to which he was introduced on his first evening in New York.
Broadway Boogie is an exciting, dynamic work that is directly influenced by the work of Piet Mondrian. The atomized bands of stuttering chromatic pulses, interrupted by light grey, create paths through the work suggesting the city’s grid, the movement of traffic, and blinking electric lights – as well as the rhythm of jazz.
The piece features on the Prima Vista Musikk CD, Definity.