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Composition for soprano saxophone, two guitars, bass, drums, and percussion. This instrumentation and other annotations suggest that the piece was written for the JAH Band. The archive includes a score in holograph. No known recording.
From Marty Ehrlich: The 26-measure score has some extensive chordal writing in the guitar parts.
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Composition for alto saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums. The professionally copied parts in the Julius Hemphill Papers indicate that it was originally written as a trio for saxophone, cello, and drums, the configuration in which it was recorded on Live from the New Music Cafe (1992). A guitar is included in the arrangement recorded by the JAH band on Georgia Blue (1984).
Found on: Georgia Blue, Live from the New Music Cafe.
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This composition exists in several forms in the Julius Hemphill Papers, with various scores and parts. Its earliest appearance on a recording is on the unreleased “Janus Sessions” from 1977. The only commercially released recording is for saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone) on the World Saxophone Quartet album Dances and Ballads (1987).
An early version for trumpet, alto saxophone, bass, and drums, which appears in Music Manuscript Notebook 3 (MMN3), was apparently the basis for the saxophone quartet arrangement. “Sweet D” was also arranged for saxophone sextet and was included in the performance “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.” It was published in the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet Collection by Subito Music.
Found on: Dances and Ballads.
From Marty Ehrlich: “Sweet D” shares the same instrumentation as “Sanctified Dreams,” which is the adjacent score in the compositional notebook. There are professionally copied parts for alto saxophone and trumpet, by the same copyist who did parts for Hemphill in the early 70s, which may help date this work.
The archive includes a recording of this piece performed at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in 1987. In one of the rare examples in which Hemphill introduces his compositions from the stage in a live performance, he tells the audience: “A colleague and friend of mine is quite popular and deservedly so. Initially upon his coming to New York, him being a young fellow and all that, he acquired the nickname, briefly, of ‘Sweet D.’ This piece is dedicated to David Murray.”
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Composition for soprano saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums. The archive includes a score in holograph and professionally copied parts for saxophone, bass, drums, and guitar. The guitar part suggests that Hemphill added this instrument after he had decided on the others, with the note in Hemphill’s hand: “same as the soprano line, except inked-in notes.”
From Marty Ehrlich: This is a 20-measure piece, with chord changes, and a repeating rhythmic pattern, with changing notes in the bass. Alex Cline recently told me that this work was performed by the JAH Band. The archive includes a rehearsal tape of this piece as performed by Hemphill and a bassist.
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Composition for alto saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums. The archive includes a score and a guitar part, as well as professionally copied parts in manuscript for alto saxophone, guitar, and bass. There is an archival recording from 1984 of the JAH Band playing “Pigskin” with this instrumentation. “Pigskin” is also the basis for one of the movements in the big-band suite “Drunk on God.” For the recording of “Drunk on God” for Julius Hemphill Big Band (1988), this movement is renamed “Motion as the Terrible Language of the Future.” Hemphill rewrote the last four measures of “Pigskin” for the big-band version, as indicated on one of the alto saxophone parts in the Julius Hemphill Papers.
Found on: Julius Hemphill Big Band.
From Marty Ehrlich: Julius played football in high school and was a big fan. He once said to me, “everyone is into football in Texas.” Thus the title, Pigskin.
The Julius Hemphill Papers is an archival collection at New York University. The collection contains scores, audiovisual documentation, and other material related to the life and career of composer and saxophonist Julius Hemphill. Materials are accessible by appointment. Click here to learn more.