Third Coast Percussion Releases First Single GLASS: AGUAS DA AMAZONIA

GRAMMY Award-winning percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is out today with the first single, "Aguas da Amazonia: Negro River," from their upcoming album capturing TCP's new arrangement of Philip Glass's Aguas da Amazonia. The full album, Glass: Aguas da Amazonia, will be released on Rockwell Records on Friday, January 10, 2025. Beginning Sunday, January 26, 2025, TCP will perform the same arrangement on a collaborative tour with flutist Constance Volk and Twyla Tharp Dance, pairing this new arrangement of Glass's popular work with a dance choreographed by Tharp. The Twyla Tharp Dance: Diamond Jubilee tour celebrates Tharp's iconic 60 years in choreography. TCP also celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025. In a video featuring Volk and members of Third Coast Percussion, the artists describe how the project came about.

"We have been fortunate to work with Glass and his music a number of times over the years," said TCP artist and Executive Director David Skidmore. "Creating this new arrangement of Aguas in close collaboration with Twyla has been a dream come true. We've learned so much from the creativity and vision she brings to her work."

In the upcoming album, TCP brings its own style and instrumentation to Aguas da Amazonia, building on the work of the composer and previous interpreters of the music. Composed as a suite of nine pieces named for rivers in South America's Amazon Basin, the work was commissioned from Glass by Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo in the 1990s. In the first commercial recording of the work, Brazilian ensemble Uakti reorchestrated Glass's original piano composition for its own unique collection of custom instruments, providing inspiration for TCP's later arrangement. "We felt that these arrangements, made by Uakti's founder Marco Antônio Guimarães, made a very compelling case for adapting Glass's music to different instrumentations," TCP wrote in its album notes. "Uakti's unique sonic palette shone through very clearly on these recordings, without obscuring Glass's musical identity in the process." TCP went on to create its own arrangement for percussion instruments, recording four pieces from the suite on its 2018 album Paddle to the Sea. The remaining pieces were later arranged for live performances worldwide. In 2023, TCP further revised its version of Aguas da Amazonia into a bespoke arrangement for Twyla Tharp Dance, featuring such instruments as a marimba made of glass and another made of red oak planks, a set of chromatically tuned PVC pipes, a sun drum (tunable tongue drum), synthesizers and a djembe. Flute solos written and performed by Volk also feature prominently in these performances.

"All of this has taken our ensemble into new artistic territory," TCP stated, "but has also brought us back to our classical music roots: viewing ourselves as the next step in an evolving performance practice of music that different artists before us have put their stamp on; music which we expect others in the future to make their own as well."

TCP's collaboration with Twyla Tharp Dance represents one of several ambitious projects timed for the ensemble's 20th anniversary season, which brings them into collaboration with leading musicians, choreographers and composers from around the world. Among their season highlights are tours with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and composer/violinist Jessie Montgomery, and premieres of new commissioned works from Tigran Hamasyan and Jlin, as well as Montgomery. A "TCP 20th" microsite is available at tcp20.thirdcoastpercussion.com with more information on the ensemble's history and milestone engagements.

The premiere performance of Twyla Tharp Dance: Diamond Jubilee will be held on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at the University of Minnesota's Northrop Auditorium (Minneapolis), before touring to the University of Iowa on January 29, 2025; Detroit Opera on February 1 and 2, 2025; Cal Performances at University of California, Berkeley on February 7, 8 and 9, 2025; University of California, Santa Barbara on February 11, 2025; Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Costa Mesa, CA) on February 15 and 16, 2025; the New York City Center, from March 12 to March 16, 2025; The Kennedy Center, from March 26 to 29, 2025; the Modlin Center for the Arts on April 5, 2025; and Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago on April 10 and 12, 2025.

The Diamond Jubilee program also includes Tharp's Olivier-nominated Diabelli Variations, set to Beethoven's masterpiece of the same name. Weaving together elegant humor, vibrant energy and technical prowess, the choreography shifts effortlessly from ballet to jazz and modern styles, with elements of social and street dance. The first and only choreographer to take on this intensely demanding and exceptionally complex work, Tharp powerfully channels the composer's sparkling wit and layered genius into the medium of dance.

Aguas da Amazonia Tracklist
1. Amazon River [3:52]
2. Purus River [4:53]
3. Tapajós River [2:02]
4. Japurá River [4:37]
5. Negro River [2:51]
6. Tiquiê River [1:43]
7. Madeira River, Part I [3:58]
8. Xingu River [4:41]
9. Paru River [2:35]
10. Madeira River, Part II [4:50]

Total Time: 36:02

Performers
Third Coast Percussion: Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, David Skidmore
Constance Volk, flute

Producer: Colin Campbell
Session Engineer: Taylor Hales
Editing and Mixing: Colin Campbell, Taylor Hales
Mastering Engineer: Joe Lambert
Recorded August 20-22, 2024 at Electrical Audio
Artwork © 2024 Constance Volk
Graphic Design, Bark Design, Chicago
Liner Notes: Robert Dillon and David Skidmore
Publishers © Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc.
Used by permission. (ASCAP)

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