Cats Tales - Peter Graham

Cats Tales pays tribute to four wonderful musicians who shared a love of jazz and New York City. Film composer Elmer Bernstein is remembered in 1) Catalonia before a musical gear change that references the work of his contemporary colleague, “Bernstein East”, aka Leonard Bernstein. The presence of West Side Story looms large here.

Henry Mancini's most famous composition (which concerned a cat of the pink variety) provides the inspiration for the 2nd movement, 2) Catwalk before saxophone legend Sonny Rollins’s jazz standard Airegin is given a contrafact treatment in 3) Scat! allowing a number of instrumental soloists to shine.

NB: The suite can be extended by including the trombone solo Catnap and the Toccata (available separately)