don’t give a damn blues

This is one of many pieces Surendran Reddy wrote for his jazz ensemble Channel 18 in the late 1980s to mid 90s. The group comprised Reddy on keyboard(s), Denny Lalouette on bass, Rob Watson on drums, and Bruce Cassidy on EVI or electronic valve instrument, a synthesised trumpet. There is only one source for this work, a 4-page printout of a fully written out keyboard part that Reddy typeset on his Atari computer c1990. What it shows clearly is that the piece works well as a piano solo or as an ensemble piece. In the first recording below, for example, Reddy plays don’t give a damn blues as a solo, with the tune only beginning after a five-minute bluesy introduction. In the second recording he plays it with drummer Daniel Schlaeger, and in the third, with tabla-player Florian Schiertz.

The piece begins with a quotation from the opening of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor – as can be seen on the sample image to the right – and later on, it quotes from Rondo alla Turca and other pieces by Mozart.