Mike Curtis

Global Tour

Global Tour is a journey through four of my favorite styles of music: funk, jazz, klezmer, and tango. As opposed to a commission or an idea from my publisher, this piece began without any preconception. A small germ of a funk phrase led to a finished tune, and somehow I thought to follow it with a breezy West-Coast jazz waltz. With the addition of Abraham Goldfaden's 1880 Jewish lullaby, Rozhinkes mit Mandlen, (Raisins with Almonds) I thought I had completed something called Funk, Jazz, and Klez, but in a midnight dream a propulsive tango theme to tag on clean jerked me out of bed!' (Mike Curtis)