John Mackey: Asphalt Cocktail (2009)

John Mackey (b. 1973)
John Mackey (he/him) has written for orchestras (Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony), theater (Dallas Theater Center), and extensively for dance (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Parsons Dance Company, New York City Ballet), but the majority of his work for the past decade has been for wind ensembles (the fancy name for concert bands), and his band catalog now receives annual performances numbering in the thousands.
Recent commissions include works for the BBC Singers, the Dallas Wind Symphony, military, high school, middle school, and university bands across America and Japan, and concertos for Joseph Alessi (principal trombone, New York Philharmonic), Christopher Martin (principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic), and Julian Bliss (international clarinet soloist). In 2014, he became the youngest composer ever inducted into the American Bandmasters Association. In 2018, he received the Wladimir & Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He resides in San Francisco, California, with his spouse, A. E. Jaques, a philosopher who works on the ethics of artificial intelligence for MIT, and also titles all of his pieces; and their cats, Noodle and Bloop.
Asphalt Cocktail (2009)
Several years ago, when I was living in Manhattan, I was walking down Columbus Avenue with my good friend (and fellow composer) Jonathan Newman. Somehow, the topic of titles for pieces came up, and Newman said a title that stopped me in my tracks there on the sidewalk: “Asphalt Cocktail.”
I begged him to let me use the title. “That title screams Napoleonic Testosterone Music. I was born to write that!” I pleaded. “No,” was his initial response. I asked regularly over the next few years, and the answer was always the same: “No. It’s mine.” In May 2008, I asked him once again, begging more pathetically than I had before, and his answer this time surprised me: “Fine,” he said, “but I’ll be needing your first-born child.” This was easily agreeable to me, as I don’t like kids.
Around this same time, my wife and I were talking to Kevin Sedatole about his upcoming performance at the CBDNA National Convention. It was my wife who suggested to Kevin, after coaxing him with cocktails ourselves, that I write a piece to open his CBDNA concert, and that piece should be “Asphalt Cocktail.” Kevin told his friend Howard J. Gourwitz about the idea for the piece, and Howard generously agreed to personally fund the commission as a gift to Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony. The piece is dedicated to Jonathan Newman, because without his title I’d have written a completely different piece, like “Bandtastic! : A Concert Prelude.”
“Asphalt Cocktail” is a five-minute opener, designed to shout, from the opening measure, “We’re here.” With biting trombones, blaring trumpets, and percussion dominated by cross-rhythms and back beats, it aims to capture the grit and aggression that I associate with the time I lived in New York. Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides. Serve on the rocks.
-Program Note by Composer
Instrumentation
For Wind Ensemble
Performer
Michigan State University Wind Ensemble
Conducted by Kevin L. Sedatole
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[@steverman2312]

If theres anything ive learned from john mackey: hes really good at making brass players and percussionists happy

[@causticcenturion7531]

That, and also crying in the case of Frozen Cathedral (I loved and hated learning that part at the same time.)

[@cadyheron9951]

we played this my senior year of high school and i got to be the cocktail shaker trash can percussionist and i was LIVING

[@steverman2312]

@@cadyheron9951 i begged my high school director to let us play it and he said no cause it wasnt sophisticated enough when i got into college i asked my director there if we could play it and he also said no cause its too hard

[@cadyheron9951]

@@steverman2312 oh noooo. it did sound like trash for several months while we were learning cause the timing is so exact so i bet your hs director just didn't want to admit he didn't want to teach it haha

[@deathpixelgaming]

and making woodwinds either very happy or very angry

[@jenkinsfamily2229]

Literally my favorite wind band piece of all time. Asphalt Cocktail operates in two settings: "this stuff is quiet but it's somehow making me sick anyway" and "HOLY SHIT BALLS THAT'S A LOT OF SOUND" and I love every second of it

[@RyanBassBone]

Bass bone player here and this part is so good

[@johnnytheyoungmaestro]

I'm so happy you uploaded this! This has to be one of my favorite John Mackey pieces! :)

[@danielponder690]

I'm getting a drunk Frank Ticheli or Eric Whitacre vibe from this...some nice bassoon stuff in this!

[@rossanopinelli5150]

Very enthusiast! Great piece indeed.

[@boboutthere3764]

Wow.... that's outstanding....

[@carcar087]

never thought id encouter a piece called asphalt cocktail... real good

[@rebelynescobar]

new friend here..watching from USA

[@quantumsoap2719]

dam daniel a fellow john mackey n tf2 fan u don't see that very often

[@johnmackeyenthusiast]

kablooey

[@robert_270]

K is the best part of the whole piece

[@jenkinsfamily2229]

Yup. that five note percussion assault at bar 238 is what i live for

[@fear5913]

Bro we play a part of this in our show and it's so fun

[@cyrven]

Same here dude

[@orphanincinerator9551]

Wizard music

[@pikachuchujelly7628]

This guy sure loves 7/8

[@andreww.9342]

1:55 may be why you're here

[@jonahstek651]

What instrument is that at the bottom that has the quintuplets

[@johnmackeyenthusiast]

if you're referring to 5:17, it should be marching snare drum, a china cymbal with a splash inside, and a splash cymbal. check out the instrumentation page for the percussion key.

[@Someone2464-]

3:56