don banks 476 5923 nexus nexus meeting place equations I & II victorian college of the arts orchestra and jazz ensemble marco van pagee MUSIC DIRECTOR
02 03 Don Banks 1923-1980 Meeting Place [29 04] 1 Movement 1 2 04 2 Movement 2 7 52 3 Movement 3 4 32 4 Movement 4 6 31 5 Movement 5 2 12 6 Movement 6 5 53 Danny Healy alto saxophone, Carlo Barbaro tenor saxophone, Benn Sutcliffe baritone saxophone, Nadje Noordhuis-Fairfax trumpet and flugelhorn, Jordan Murray trombone, John Delaney guitar, Tom Lee bass, Barnaby Gold drums, Luke Howard synthesizer Nexus [19 10] 7 Movement 1 6 57 8 Movement 2 7 29 9 Movement 3 4 44 Danny Healy alto saxophone, Tim Stevens piano, Nick Haywood double bass, Darren Farrugia drums Equations I & II [13 01] 10 I 6 30 11 II 6 31 Total Playing Time 61 22 Victorian College of the Arts Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble Marco van Pagee music director
04 05 don banks Don Banks born 25 October 1923, South Melbourne died 5 September 1980, Sydney I have to admit that before coming to Australia in 1976 I was totally unaware of Don Banks or his music. In the late 1970s when I was a member of the international chamber music group Ensemble I (Richard Runnels horn, Spiros Rantos violin and Brachi Tilles piano) played Banks fabulous Horn Trio widely in Australia and in Europe. The Horn Trio was written for and premiered by legendary Australian musicians Barry Tuckwell, Brenton Langbein and Maureen Jones. The Banks Horn Concerto was also dedicated to Barry Tuckwell, who describes Don Banks as a highly accomplished composer and a wonderful friend. Barry Tuckwell pointed out in our conversation that Banks was one of those rare composers who really understood all technical aspects of the instruments he wrote for. His flair for orchestration, texture and tone colour, evident in so many of his compositions, made him unique among Australian composers. Don Banks grew up in a musical environment. His father was a professional jazz pianist and there was a variety of musical instruments in the Banks household which the young Banks was eager to learn to play. The hands-on experience playing multiple instruments (violin, piano, trombone), as well as his insatiable curiosity were to serve him well as a composer. With this background it is easy to understand why Banks took a great interest in jazz and improvised music. As a young trombonist he used to sit in Roger and Graeme Bell s jazz band. In the late 1940s, when he was a student at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Banks formed one of the first bebop bands in Australia, The Don Banks Boptet. It was during this period that he met composer and jazz pianist Keith Humble, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.
06 07 In 1950 he left Australia for London where he studied composition with the famous Mátyás Seiber. In 1953 he studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. It is interesting to note that neither Seiber nor Dallapiccola taught Banks the twelve-tone composition technique which was to become such an important compositional tool in his works. Banks interest in serial music was clearly evident when he attended seminars given by Luigi Nono in Salzburg in 1956. In London in the late 1950s Banks was very much in demand in the commercial arena composing music for cartoons, comedy movies and horror movies, especially for Hammer Films. However, Banks passion for jazz was not diminished and he formed a friendship with John Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Meeting Place was first recorded by the Dankworth ensemble and London Sinfonietta a recording that is sadly no longer available. When recording Meeting Place we encountered some interesting challenges. We have a good idea of the instruments Bach used in his day, hence the many recordings available performed on period instruments. But the synthesizer Banks used in Meeting Place in 1970 created a problem since it was long since superceded. We could not find Banks original synthesizer. We tried to simulate as far as possible with a modern synthesizer, the original Dankworth/London Sinfonietta recording. marco van pagee Banks interest in the latest technology and electronics led to the establishment of the electronic music studio in Canberra at the School of Music, where he had accepted the position of lecturer in composition in 1972. Don Banks became Head of Composition at the New South Wales Conservatorium in 1979 when he was already suffering from cancer. He died in 1980. Through his outstanding craftsmanship, professionalism, musical creativity and imagination Don Banks has left us a great legacy. This compact disc is our tribute to a great Australian innovator and composer. Marco van Pagee
08 Don Banks musical estate was bequeathed to the National Library of Australia in Canberra. He wrote extensively on many subjects, including program notes on some of his works. The following notes are the composer s own on both Equations I & II and Nexus. EQUATIONS is a piece of third-stream music. This latter term was coined by the American composer Gunther Schuller [in 1957] to indicate a type of music which contains both jazz and classical elements. Equation I was written for a group of 12 players a mixture of jazz and serious music and first performed by an ensemble directed by Keith Humble at his Centre de Musique in Paris. It s based on the permutations of a 4-note motive and is rather strictly written in that it allows little freedom for improvisation by the players. Equation II was commissioned by the Bromsgrove Festival at a later date, and here the piece is freer in style in that improvisation is encouraged. My basic aim remained the same in that I was concerned with both groups of players sharing the same material, and that I considered the contribution by the jazz group an added advantage in throwing new light on my basic motives. This idea was further developed in my pieces Meeting Place and Nexus. NEXUS reflects my interest in jazz music. Although I sometimes write for jazz forces alone, I am more concerned with the merger of jazz and chamber music or jazz with orchestra and electronic music. The second movement is slow and thoughtful it s a kind of ballad and has six sections: A B A B1 A1 B 09 Orchestral introduction Trumpet ballad and solo Orchestral interlude Don Burrows plays the ballad Orchestral interlude poco più mosso Trumpet ballad and orchestral coda The last movement has a closer integration of the instrumental forces and is built on the jazz rhythm section which cooks almost throughout the whole of the movement. A decorative orchestral feature, a high pitched woodwind and piano phrase, is further developed in a massive, slow, central section which is scored in 8-part harmony. This contrasting section, with its ponderous, low, percussive beats, gives way to a quiet return from the rhythm section. The front line enters and keeps on building over this the orchestra joins in accenting prime beats of the basic rhythm, and the decorative woodwind passages flicker over all until a climax is reached. A short coda follows. (Don Banks program notes reprinted by kind permission of the National Library of Australia.) The piece is in three movements. The first, Allegro, shares thematic material between the orchestra and quintet and there are improvised solos for each member of the jazz group.
10 11 Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan Recording Producers Lydia Warren, Mal Stanley Recording Engineer and Mastering Mal Stanley Assistant Recording Engineer Nic Mierisch Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Music, The University of Melbourne VCA Director and Dean Professor Andrea Hull AO Head, VCA School of Music Professor Jonty Stockdale Concerts Administrator Lyndall Metzke www.vca.unimelb.edu.au ABC Classics thanks the Banks Family; Lyndall Metzke (Victorian College of the Arts); Robyn Holmes, Emma Sekuless (National Library of Australia); Alexandra Alewood, Melissa Kennedy (ABC Classics). Recorded 24-26 April 2002 in the Iwaki Auditorium of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation s Southbank Centre, Melbourne. This recording was commissioned by ABC Classic FM s Jazztrack and Young Australia programs. The music of Don Banks is published by Schott and Co. 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.