As members and contributors to today’s music and artistic community, it is unfair to continuously program and replay pieces of the past. Art is ever-changing and ever-growing, and playing music exclusively of the past suppresses growth of today’s music community.
The past is something we can learn from. From it we can harvest growth and inspiration, but from within it we risk falling into repetition. This is what I believe Nietzsche meant when he implored to “Interpret the past… out of the fullest exertion of the present… Otherwise you will draw the past down on you.” We cannot solely live from the past and live in ignorance of change. Change and evolvement is what keeps the present going; it is what promises a future.
Music of today that I would love to perform is very strongly influenced by the past and would not exist without the history and culture of soul, funk, and disco, but it also exists today, re-interpreted by living composers, musicians, and DJs. Songs ranging from Stolen Gin and ADLR’s “House in Maine,” to Omar Apollos “Evergreen,” to The Free Label’s “On To The Next One” would all be fantastic to play and jam with on the tenor saxophone. As would some modern jazz pieces, such as “Rising Part I” and “Find Joy” by JK Group. I am selecting this because I really love how today’s artists are reviving and revitalizing it. The music is rich with history and culture, not over-played, and is fantastically jammable. These selections support a vibrant community that is growing in today’s music industry. Beyond funk and tenor sax, I’d select music from Anne Nikitin to play on piano. Her most recent score accompanies the Netflix film “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes.” Soundtrack composition is very much a male-dominated field and I had difficulty finding a score from October 2022 that was written by a female. I would choose to play this music because I want to see more representation of females in this industry. I would hope to inspire others to perform Nikitin’s music as well, utilizing my position as a contributor to the music community to bring attention to female composers.
