The Indigo Train by Joel Love | Composer published on 2021-10-22T17:31:45Z The Indigo Train (2015) takes its inspiration from a variety of sources and was written for my high school band director, Gary Wells. His son, Alex Wells, is the head band director at PN-G and wanted me to write a piece for his Dad. I first started out researching all kinds of things, and through various conversations learned that Gary grew up working on trains; his father worked at the train depot and his childhood is rich with experiences working on trains. For me, trains inspire images of the deep south and the rich history of the blues, which was born there and eventually traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago. This piece begins with a few bluesy solos by the bass clarinet, saxophone, and euphonium, followed by an ominous depiction of a mysterious railyard. The piece gets moving with a bluesy A section that three different melodies that are used throughout the piece. I imagined a person quickly traveling through railcars, experiencing a slightly different music in each. After a briefly-latin section, the piece moves into a sultry clarinet solo and then a ballad-like climax before rearing up to start moving again. Everyone gets together for one more last big chorus and a bluesy piccolo solo rips through the melodies heard before. The recording you hear was taken after the revisions of the piece in 2021. The SFASU Wind Ensemble is heard in this recording and was led by Dr. Tamey Anglley. Genre Jazz & Blues