Bay of Pigs/Gee’s Bend/TROYJAM
Albany Records/September 2021
MICHAEL DAUGHERTY
BAY OF PIGS for classical guitar and strings
Manuel Barrueco, classical guitar
GEE’S BEND for electric guitar and orchestra
D.J. Sparr, electric guitar
TROYJAM for narrator and orchestra
Michael Lippert, narrator
Anne Carson, librettist
DAYTON PHILHARMONIC
Neal Gittleman, Conductor
This recording features three imaginative and dynamic works by GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty. The Dayton Philharmonic gives exciting performances under the baton of long-time music director Neal Gittleman, joined by classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, electric guitarist D.J. Sparr, and narrator Michael Lippert. Bay of Pigs for Classical Guitar and Strings evokes the bittersweet and turbulent events of past and present Cuba. Gee’s Bend for Electric Guitar and Orchestra is a tapestry of syncopated grooves, slow blues and spirituals inspired by the quilts and African-American women quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. TROYJAM for Narrator and Orchestra, with a poetic libretto by Anne Carson, retells the story of the Trojan War from Homer’s Iliad, but with a twist: the Greeks, led by the “lyre-strumming” Achilles against the Trojans led by Hector, decide to play the instruments of the orchestra in a wild jam session to make music, not war.