Edgar Meyer - Old Time

You know what an 'old timer' is: a bloke who's been around for a long while, in the same place, and has seen everything. He probably doesn't move too fast any more-but his mind does, and this portrait seems to be looking through his eyes into that bright and alert old brain. Old timers no doubt prefer old-time music, and this piece has a lot to do with the kind of fiddle playing you could have heard at a country dance long ago. The 'fiddle', though, is a double bass - the composer's own instrument, with which he has a lot of fun.

Edgar Meyer (born 1960)

Composers start out from what they hear. Edgar Meyer, brought up in Tennessee in a musical family, heard music of many different kinds when he was young, including classical and jazz, as well as another kind of music that had developed in the United States, like jazz, from a mix of European and African sources: bluegrass. To him these different kinds of music were basically the same. They all had melody and they all had rhythm. He learned to play them all, on his double bass, and he drew on them all in the music he composed. His range as a musician is broad. He plays piano, banjo and several other instruments besides the bass, and he has worked as a performer and composer with artists from classical and non-classical traditions.