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The Jazz Suite for violin and piano was commissioned by the McKim Fund of the Library of Congress for violin virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci.

The five movements are intended to represent abstract impressions of places and things connected to jazz.  While each of the movements uses jazz gestures, harmonic and rhythmic language reminiscent of jazz, and exhibits a pervasive improvisational quality, they are not intended to be jazz pieces per se; rather, each of the movements is designed to showcase some facet of Ricci's formidable virtuoso skills.

The first movement is called "Minton's"  after one of the clubs in which the musical experiments that led to bebop took place.  The first theme is folk-like in character and is presented in a forthright manner by the violin.  The second theme follows a time worn tradition in jazz, that of basing tunes on extant harmonic structures. The structure in this case is that of the bebop composition "Half Nelson," written by trumpeter Miles Davis.  Both theme statement and theme treatment are abstract and are intended to suggest rather than describe bebop music.

"Harlem Saturday Night" is an abstract musical portrait of a Saturday night dance uptown and uses the sort of ostinato common to both boogie woogie and rhythm & blues.

Over the constantly shifting rhythmic and harmonic patterns in piano, the violin weaves a continuous atonal, disjunct melody infused with the dance rhythms of rhythm & blues. After the material has run its course, the theme returns in octaves leading to an abrupt ending.

The title "Perfume/Perspiration" intends to convey a delightful combination of sweetness and earthy funkiness.  The movement opens with unaccompanied violin languorously unfolding the melancholy theme via the use of single line, contrapuntal passages, and dissonant double stops.  After a brief interlude the melody is restated in piano, accompanied by a wide-ranging counter-line in violin.  Then there is a third statement of the material by the violin at a slightly faster tempo.  A third theme, pastoral in nature, is tossed back and forth between violin and piano.  A brief return to the first thematic material brings the movement to a quiet close.

"Jamaican Jam" is in the light, playful style of a calypso, song. In the introduction the piano and the violin set the character of the movement by stating the raw harmonic and melodic material (a tone row) in a typical calypso rhythm.  The first theme is played by the violin and after a brief transition, is followed by a second theme, brighter and livelier in character.  In the first half of the development the second theme is fragmented and tossed about between violin and piano.  In the second half of the development the first theme is reintroduced in pizzicato violin, first solo and then accompanied in a very sparse manner by piano.  A very brief recapitulation leads to a surprise ending.

The final movement, "52nd Street," returns to the spirit and style of the first movement.  As with the first movement, an extant harmonic progression ("Back Home Again in Indiana") serves as the basis for the new material.  The theme, which is rangy, disjunct, and jazz-like in character, is stated in violin over a strongly rhythmic piano accompaniment. An infectious ostinato in shifting meters prepares the way for an abstract improvisatory development.  A brief recapitulation leads to a final virtuosic flourish which concludes the suite.  --David N. Baker

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