Bertram Turetzky: Slam's Jam for double bass ensemble

About the Composition  Slam’s Jam was commissioned by the International Society of Bassists (ISB) for their 2009 Young Bassists Programme. It was composed between 2008-9 and is in memory of Leroy 'Slam' Stewart (1914-1987) who was a famous jazz bassist who hummed or sang along as he played.  The piece celebrates this aspect of his playing in a jazz and rhythmic style and offers improvisations and many opportunities for the adventurous ensemble. There are also percussion parts playable by bassists or percussionists and the possibilities are endless.  Slam’s Jam includes five bass parts, two of which are percussion only, and can be played by quintet or larger forces.  About the Composer Born on 14 February 1933 in Norwich, Connecticut Bertram Turetzky took up the tenor banjo at the age of 12 or 13, he switched to the guitar in high school, having fallen in love with jazz, and then changed to the double bass which he described as '...the core of everything, the glue between the harmony an