Steve Griggs - Music
recordings | scores | past productions | work in progress
Work in Progress
Cup of Joe Brazil
Detroit jazz saxophonist Joe Brazil was the first professor of Black Music at the University of Washington. This program imagines scenes related to Brazil's community building through music in the face of civil rights injustice. This project was sponsored a 4Culture Individual Artist Project and Jack Straw Foundation Artist Support Grant.
Inspired by Jamie Ford's novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, the actual history of Seattle's Panama Hotel, and injustices endured by Japanese Americans during WWI, this program combines narration and music. This project was sponsored through a 4Culture Historic Site Specific Grant.
Alma Brasileira: Soul of Brazil
Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote collections of songs under the title choro. Choro is a Brazilian musical genre characterized by sadness that is performed in jam sessions with improvizing instrumentalists. This concert will reimagine Villa-Lobos Choros 1, 5, and 6 with additional music from Antonio Carlos Jobim. The ensemble will include saxophone, flute, English horn, French horn, guitar, vibraphone, harp, piano, cello, bass, and percussion.
Mash-ups!
Inspired by hip hop DJs, Steve sampled classic jazz records and mixed them with poetry.
- Alabama - music by John Coltrane, words by Martin Luther King.
- Contemplation - music by McCoy Tyner from The Real McCoy, words by Nikki Giovanni from the Collection of Poetry by Nikki Giovanni.
- Fantasy - music by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from Ugetsu, words by Art Blakey.
- Fun - music by Cannonball Adderley from Live at the Club, words by Cannonball Adderley.
- Soon
After - music by Elvin Jones from And Then Again, words by Maya
Angelou.
Rearranging Standards
Standard melodies provide opportunities for fresh treatments. Here are some of my ideas.
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Chinese Melodies
Earshot Jazz produces and concert series that asks the question, "What will jazz be like in the 21st Century?" My idea is that the rise of urban living in China will influence jazz. For this project I am setting traditional Chinese melodies in a jazz context.
Genetic Sequences
Besides being a musician, I have a career in clinical research information technology. An important area of research is the linking of genetic information with the health of individuals and populations. This project combines my musical and technical careers by using my genetic sequence as source material for composition and improvisation.