Jazz-n-jive

A sometimes quirky collection of jazzy little numbers and reminiscences of the vintage rock-n-roll era from the composer of the well-known Saturday Night Jazz Suite for pedal harp. Paul Lewis was inspired to write these pieces when his wife, Sharon Elizabeth, took up the lever harp.

ROCK-A-BYE BOOGIE: Boogie-woogie time! Memories of the rock-n-roll years of the late 1950s and 60s.

LARGO IN JAZZ: A gentle jazz take on the famous Largo from Dvorak's New World Symphony.

WALTZIN' TIME: Time for a jazzy waltz! Paul Lewis enjoys composing jazz waltzes. One of them, composed in the '60s, was broadcast several times a day for a very long time indeed as accompaniment to a BBC Television test card. This piece is in the same style. FOUR BUT NOT SQUARE!: Four-square the left hand walking bass may be, but the syncopated right hand melody is anything but!

JIVE IN FIVE: Overtones of jive in an unlikely five-beat rhythm, leaving the would-be dancer with a spare foot at the end of each bar! The melody makes use of characteristic jazz blue notes: the flattened third and seventh of the major scale, i.e. E flat and B flat in the key of C, while the accompanying harmony has E natural - something easily achieved on lever harp as, unlike the pedal harp, the left and right hands can be tuned differently.

LOPSIDED RUMBA: An even more unlikely rhythm for this rumba - seven quavers to the bar instead of eight! In the absence of the bongos that traditionally accompany this Cuban dance, the fingers of both hands tap out the rhythm on the soundboard to begin and end the piece. BOSTON'S BLUES: Not Boston the city in America but Boston the Boxer dog in Tauranga, New Zealand! He is owned by the composer's friends Pete and Janet O'Shea, who posted a picture on the internet of Boston looking rather disgruntled. As Paul began composing this piece the photo of Boston sprang to mind and inspired the main melody. With some nifty lever changes and bluesy lever slides.

ROMANCE IN ROCK: A gently rocking melody in the style of a love song from the era of the first teenagers in the modern sense: the '50s and '60s. Built on the 1-6-4-5 chord sequence beloved of pop song writers of the twentieth century.

HARPING ON: A bright minor key number to end the collection, contradicting the belief, widely-held by non-musicians, that music in a minor key has to be sad!