Five Solos

Instrumentation: Cello and Piano

Composition date: 2024

Duration: 20 minutes

First performance: given by AbiHyde-Smith, cello and Jocelyn Freeman, piano on the 13th January, 2025 at 1901 Arts Club, London

Five Solos (Rhythm/Changes) is a nod to my formative music education, studying jazz,  especially the jazz guitar of my heroes Pat Metheny and Wes Montgomery.  

Five Solos isn’t a jazz piece as such; neither the cello or piano are required to improvise,  but it does use elements of jazz: repetition of chordal patterns, a soloist exploring musical  motifs on top of those chords, and a strong rhythmic pulse.  

Five Solos is also a salute to Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata, 90 years old in 2024, with  reference in the third and fifth movements to this cornerstone of the cello repertoire.