for percussion quartet and electronics, November 2008)

Jack is a work written for marimba for four hands, vibraphone and crotales. It is based on the poem performed and recorded by writer and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson wrote the poem as an “ode” to the American beat-generation writer Jack Karouac whom he described as “one of his most influential friends.”

Ode to Jack Kerouac
By Hunter S. Thompson

Four dogs went to the wilderness
Only three came back
Two dogs died from Guinea worm
The other died from you
Jack Kerouac…

After the solo reading, the music comes in, with a constant rhythmic pulse set on the final word of the poem “you”. A vibraphone and crotales enter to give a metallic sound contrast to the wood timbers of the marimba. The vibes and crotales drop out, leaving the marimba for four hands to accompanying a rhythmically driven speech excerpts derived from the poem. Thompsons raspy baritone voice is cut into short repeated rhythmic cells, aligning into metric patters. After two short rhythmic sections, the vibraphone re-enters, on an offbeat pattern against the marimba, accompanying Thompson’s closing words “Jack was an artists in every way; I admire the dog thing most of all.” It ends with a buzzing distortion sound when Thompson shuts off the recorder in mid-sentence.

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