Armand Russell: The California Suites for unaccompanied double bass

About the Composition The California Suites is aimed at the intermediate bassist, bringing together three suites for unaccompanied double bass, each comprising four movements, and all connected in some way to the state of California, where Armand Russell now lives. The music is inventive and rhythmic, offering musical and technical challenges in equal measure, and music which offers much to performers and audiences alike. Written in a modern but lyrical and accessible idiom, each suite is carefully crafted to create short mood pictures or musical landscapes of this beautiful part of America.  “The Bodega Set is one of the series that I composed in what I think of as a California series. The name Bodega is the name of a bay on the edge of the Pacific Ocean near where I reside. There are some historical connections to the early Spanish explorers who stopped there long ago but now there are new villages and homes on the coast of this bay. So too this piece has a mix of traditional genres