44th Street Funk

Listen to the work here!
 
44th Street Funk is a work for baritone saxophone and marimba, part of an ongoing series entitled M+1. This is a series of mixed duets featuring the marimba, alongside a variety of woodwind, brass, string, percussion, and other instruments. Thirty-six duets have been planned out, of which 44th Street Funk is the second, and these duets, following from the letter-and-number-infused title of the series, begin with letters or numbers covering the alphabet and Arabic numerals (A-Z, 0-9) once each.
 
44th Street Funk is named indirectly after the location of my high school in Las Vegas, Nevada. When I would walk to the convenient store across the street from my school, a regular occurrence given the late hours of marching band and drumline rehearsals, I would see “4400” indicated below the street sign. In the absence of numbered street names in Las Vegas, I thought to take that and turn it into a title for a piece, which manifested into this work. The instrumentation arose from a plan to play the work with a close friend, and although this performance didn’t materialize, the work is in a way dedicated to him, and all the friends I became very close with in my high school band.