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'Wild is the Wind' (2018) came out of a series of recent conversations I had with bass clarinettist Gareth Davis about what kind of work he would most like me to write for him - we had been talking about collaborating on and off for some years. Gareth has been working with a number of composers over a number years on a project called 'Standards', contemporary responses to classic jazz tunes. This project appealed to me greatly, jazz being a great love of mine, and so I asked my now-wife for titles of some of her favourite Nina Simone songs. Her suggestion of "Wild is the Wind" was a good one because I did not know that song and was able to respond to it quite objectively, deconstructing the melody and some of Nina's performative gestures and making a new construction based on those elements, while trying to retain something of the song's original character.
'Wild is the Wind' was written for Gareth Davis, who premiered it at the 2018 Gaudeamus Music Week in The Netherlands. The piece is dedicated to my wife Dušica.