elevenses

elevenses is a jazz ensemble piece that can also be played as a piano solo and was composed in 2001 when Reddy was living in Konstanz, Germany. Only a recording is available as yet – the one below made in 2002 by Surendran Reddy and Daniel Schläger and freely downloadable – although ACE may, at some stage, be able to offer a transcription. The word ‘elevenses’ is a very British word, defined in Collins English Dictionary as ‘a short break when you have a cup of tea or coffee, and sometimes biscuits, at around eleven o’clock in the morning’. This ritual features in Reddy’s autobiography, the life and opinions of surendran reddy, gentleman? in a little story about Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet – hence the illustration on the right by E.H. Shepherd from A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner – and it may have had other personal connotations for the composer. His daughter, Lîla, for example, wrote a little song for Winnie-the-Pooh that Reddy features on the last track of his album, rough ‘n reddy (1996; ACE-362). Elevenses is also one of the seven meals a day that Hobbits eat, in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.