In May, 2003, I was fortunate enough to play alongside top British mandolinist, Alison Stephens, who achieved international recognition by providing the soundtrack for the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Ali has recorded for Chandos, and other leading CD companies, and returned here to Plymouth in September, where she gave a solo recital in the City Museum Lunchtime Series. For the occasion, I wrote her a little number entitled Ali's Jazzarello!.
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In May, 2003, I was fortunate enough to play alongside top British mandolinist, Alison Stephens, who achieved international recognition by providing the soundtrack for the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Ali has recorded for Chandos, and other leading CD companies, and returned here to Plymouth in September, where she gave a solo recital in the City Museum Lunchtime Series. For the occasion, I wrote her a little number entitled Ali's Jazzarello!.

Ali has since asked me to write two companion pieces to Jazzarello, and these are all shortly to be published by Astute Music, both for solo mandolin, and mandolin duo. I have now arranged all three pieces for piano solo.

The third of the three, The Mando-Rag, is basically a ragtime dance, but makes use of the mandolin's characteristic tremolo effect. Rhythmically I have tried to put in a little 'mediterranean' feel at times.

Ali's own website is a real wealth of information, including details of her latest CDs, pictures, performances, and certainly worth a visit if you want to know anything at all about Ali, and the mandolin, of course!

All Reviews

There are 2 reviews for this score

Full of new ideas
Sometimes is it risky to move away from the norm, because the results can be poor. Nowever, this piece, which does move away from the normal ragtime structure, is a delight to listen to. There are many different rhtythms here to entice and delight. The imitation mandolin tremolo in the right hand of the first strain sound very authentic and can easily be imagined being played on a mandolin. The music is chromatic and enjoyable. Well done. Paul.

Paul Copeland

brill
great jazzy piece i loved avery millisecond of it, it had a great tune, it was very catch, eleven out of ten.

Isabel Trew