Liner Notes

1 CHARLESTON 1/4/86 Popular 1920s dance from U.S.A. Relates to the piano playing of both George Gershwin and Ron Reah. 3:28

2 MAXIXE 25/12/85 Brazilian dance, the forerunner of the samba. Ancestry lies in the piano works of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934). 2:54

3 RAMBLE 21/10/85 Title from Percy Grainger. A microdot operatic transcription revealing a post-romantic concern with extravagant counterpoint and visionary gesture. 4:20

4 DUB 26/10/85 Unextravagant skeletal reggae. The house next door used to contain a late-night reggae club. 2:58

5 MAMBO 11/8/85 Afro-Cuban style from 1940s — those of Perez Prado are the best known. Parsons' compositions explore a restricted area of information and are often rhythmically challenging. 3:23

6 NOCTURNE 27/1/86 The colourful hothouse variety associated with early 20th century British residents (Sorabji, par excellence) constituting almost the opposite of Bartok. 4:32

7 BOSSA NOVA 1/8/85 Brazilian jazz samba from 1950s as defined by the guitar rhythms of Joao Gilberto and the compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Skemptonian in economy and apparent simplicity. 2:56

8 BOOMERANGS 9/6/86 The musical material is only capable of repetition and transposition and relates to no genre in particular. For an Australian. 2:52

9 QUASI TAMBURA 13/6/86 Title from 53rd variation of the Passacaglia from Sorabji's 'Opus Clavicembalisticum'. Tambura is an Indian drone-like instrument. 4:33

10 TANGO 22/6/85 Argentinian rather than Spanish or Brazilian. For Mikhashoff's Tango collection: the first of the set to be written. 3:00

11 THELONIOUS 5/1/86 A tribute to the great jazz pianist. Contains the most demanding instruction of the set- 'Play like Thelonious Monk' 2:37

12 ALLEGRO BARBARO 30/7/85 Salvaged from an unfinished piece for Javanese gamelan. Alkan, Bartok and Leo Ornstein provide the precedents. 2:56

Total playing time 41.27

(biographical note @ 1988)

Dave Smith was born in 1949 and educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was a member of the Scratch Orchestra since when he has played in several composer/performer ensembles (principally with John Lewis, Michael Parsons, Howard Skempton, John White, Gavin Bryars and Ben Mason) and also with the English Gamelan Orchestra and Liria (specialising respectively in Javanese classical and Albanian folk music) and the Leicester Bley Band. Dave Smith has visited Albania several times and has written articles on the music as well as arranging Albanian compositions for performance. His own 'Albanian Summer' (1980 - a 4S-minute work for saxophone and piano) is recorded on PRACTICAL 2. Much of his recent work is for solo piano and includes 'I fought a monster today' and 'The Armagh Women' both of which feature spoken texts (by Bobby Sands and Margaretta D' Arcy). At present, he teaches at Leicester Polytechnic where he arranges much music for tuned percussion ensemble.