Composition for string quartet (two violin, viola, cello), based on three pieces by Charles Mingus: “Nostalgia in Times Square,” “Alice’s Wonderland,” and “Better Get Hit In Yo’ Soul” (in his autograph score, Hemphill stylizes this last title as “Betta Gititin Yo Sole”). This work was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and premiered by them in November 1988. The archive includes Hemphill’s autograph score, photocopies of the parts used by Kronos in performance, and a copy of the score, prepared and edited by Marty Ehrlich and used for publication by Subito Music. As of this writing, it has not been commercially recorded.
From Marty Ehrlich: This piece includes a cello part that captures Mingus’s sense of virtuosity and style. It is a substantial, through-composed work that extends upon the type of re-imagining Hemphill did with the World Saxophone Quartet for pieces by Strayhorn and Ellington, Junior Wells-Mel London, and Marvin Gaye. There is a recorded performance of the work in the archival collection, by the Daedalus String Quartet at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.