Richard Roblee - Blues for Brass

Black people in the southern United States had plenty of reason to feel misery and despair long after the abolition of slavery, and the blues evolved, around 1900, as a song style in which those feelings could be expressed. You can hear the sad tone of the blues right at the start of this piece, in the solo for trombone that opens it. Later on, when the other instruments come in, the music gets livelier. But the blues is still there.

Richard Roblee (born 1943)

A trombonist himself, Richard Roblee is a prominent composer for brass instruments. He gained a place in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra when he was seventeen, and later moved to the Honolulu Symphony as principal trombone. While there, in the capital of Hawaii, he also played in a dance band and worked with popular entertainers. After that he moved to Germany to teach.