Ebony Concerto (Stravinsky)

Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto in 1945 (finishing the score on December 1) for the Woody Herman band known as the First Herd. It is one in a series of compositions commissioned by the bandleader/clarinetist featuring solo clarinet, and the score is dedicated to him. It was first performed on March 25, 1946 in Carnegie Hall in New York City, by Woody Herman's Band, conducted by Walter Hendl.

Stravinsky's engagement with jazz dates back to the closing years of the First World War, the major jazz-inspired works of that period being L'histoire du soldat, the Ragtime for eleven instruments, and the Piano-Rag-Music. Although traces of jazz elements, especially blues and boogie-woogie, can be found in his music throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it was only with the Ebony Concerto that Stravinsky once again incorporated features of jazz into a composition on a far-reaching scale. The title was originally suggested to Stravinsky by Aaron Goldmark, of Leeds Music Corporation, who had negotiated the commission and suggested the form it should take. The composer explained that his title does not refer to the clarinet, as might be supposed, but rather to Africa, because "the jazz performers I most admired at that time were Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, and the guitarist Charles Christian. And blues meant African culture to me."

The official blurb published with the score says that Stravinsky had been so impressed with recordings of the Herman band, such as "Bijou", "Goosey Gander", and "Caldonia", that, when asked, he agreed to write a piece for them with a solo clarinet part for Herman. However, according to Herman's trumpeter and arranger Neal Hefti, this story may be somewhat embroidered. Hefti and his trumpeter colleague, Pete Candoli, were both great fans of Stravinsky's music, so after Hefti returned to the band after six months spent in California working in the film industry, Candoli wanted to know if he had met the great man. Hefti had not, but pretended he had done, and embellished his story by claiming, "I played him the records [of the Herman band], and he thinks they're great." The rumor quickly spread, and within two days the publisher Lou Levy of Leeds Music had arranged for Herman to contact Stravinsky (who probably had never heard the Herman band up to that point), and this led to the commission of the concerto.

...
Wikipedia