Peripatesis A concerto for cello and big band There must be innumerable reasons why a composer writes a piece of absolute music, i.e. music for no other purpose than just listening to it. For me, it always comes down to the people who will play it. I have known Yuri Hooker since his return to Winnipeg, when he joined the cello section of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and started playing and teaching around town. In all those years, I have yet to hear him make anything less than the deepest heartfelt music — thoroughly prepared, and delivered with a rare combination of humility, virtuosity and style. About seven years before the composition of this piece, he came to me for some guidance in learning the ins and outs of jazz improvisation. It was clear from the start that he had the ears and the intelligence to do whatever he wanted in this endeavour, and it was only a question of how much attention to it his demanding schedule would allow. It was then that I thought how cool it would be to get him in front of the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. Some seeds take a while to come to fruition, and it was a long road to the first performance of the piece. In the meantime, I learned a lot about the possibilities of both the cello and the big band. Peripatesis explores some of that territory, the title reflecting the wandering through different styles, grooves and textures that characterizes the piece’s trajectory. When I started the piece in late 2009, I wanted to know how others had approached the task of pairing the cello with a big band. Apparently, nobody had tried it before — unless this is the one human phenomenon that the internet missed.
