Category

July, August and October

★★★★ from Downbeat

Dave Douglas GIFTS Trio will embark on a brief European tour beginning Oct 27 2023 in Firenze Italy

A lot of Rare Metals was written during my residency at the Aaron Copland House. In particular Safeway, which was written as a response to the political violence in Tucson, Arizona which occurred the day I began my residency. Copland himself was constantly speaking to contemporary events and public engagement in his music, and I felt that influence, as well as some of his musical mannerisms, strongly as I composed.

In Stanford this past summer one of their friendly drivers had Duke Ellington's Latin American Suite in his disc player. I started to really look forward to those rides... The late sixties/early seventies suites like The Queen's Suite, the UWIS Suite, The Goutelas Suite were always among my favorites.