Eric Funk: The Drums Must Never Stop! - A Salsa Encore for double bass quartet

About the Composition

The Drums Must Never Stop! is a fun and accessible piece, rich in melodic and rhythmic invention, and ideal for any audience or occasion.

Instantly appealing, the quartet offers solo possibilities for each bassist and an opportunity for the intermediate quartet to feel the groove.

" As a professional jazz pianist for the last 40 years, something I do as a hobby really, I've noticed that the audience always gets really evoked when we kick a Montuna/Salsa/Samba groove.

It occurred to me in writing this salsa encore for my friend David Heyes that the furthest thing from the minds of the audience at a double bass recital would be the inclusion of a Latin groove, high intensity work at the end. So I wrote this work as a little 'surprise package'.

The joke which inspired the title speaks to the great humour I've always found with double bass players. They take themselves and their music seriously but are always able to laugh and take great joy in the process - not always the case with instrumentalists who play instruments in the higher registers!" [Eric Funk / Montana, USA]

About the Composer

Eric Funk (b.1949) has composed 170 major works, one third of which were commissioned, including nine symphonies, four operas, nineteen concertos, six string quartets, numerous large and small choral works and chamber works.

His music has been recorded and performed by Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Moscow String Quartet, Moyzes String Quartet, Elizabeth Croy (soprano), Gregory Young (clarinet) and the Meritage String Quartet.

In 2018 he was received an Emmy Award for Best Music Composition as part of the six Emmy Awards given for the Montana PBS/Scott Sterling documentary "The Violin Alone", the 2018 American Prize in Composition "Best Concerto of the Year" (Variations on a Theme by Jan Hanus for Violin & String Orchestra), and the leading international 2018 Global Music Award with two gold medals for classical music and composition for his Piano Concerto No.1. Eric Funk taught at the School of Music at Montana State University (USA).