I composed Variously Blue for the Verdehr Trio, who gave the premiere performances of the piece in 2010 in New York City and Washington, D.C.
This album includes the Verdehr’s recording of the piece.
Another wonderful trio— Vasko Dukovski, Jennifer Choi, and Alexandra Joan—have recorded the piece on the 2014 album of my chamber music, Sea of Reeds (Navona Records).
In terms of the piece’s origins: When I began sketching the piece, I happened to improvise a lively, angular theme based on a 12-bar blues progression, and thought it would be a fun and interesting challenge to write a set of variations based on that progression, thinking about the many colors available for these three instruments. I have always been interested in exploring the idea that the variation form, in essence, is often used in jazz and blues; and that I might be able to explore the connections between jazz and concert music through such a set of variations. While some of the sections sound specifically “bluesy”, in general the piece uses the theme and its underlying harmonic pattern as a taking-off point for a varied range of moods and textures: playful, lyrical, mysterious, boisterous.