In 2012, I set out to write a piece of music inspired by the blues scale. My idea was to use the notes of the C blues scale as the main pitch material for the piece, without writing a traditional “12-bar blues.”

At one memorable performance of the wind band version, Eugene Corporon introduced the piece to the audience and explained how I was first taught the blues scale by my middle school band director. He said, “so we have a music educator to thank for this piece.”

He was right - this piece is the direct result of a music educator who brought passion and creativity to their teaching and inspired a young beginning saxophonist who still remembers those middle school jazz band rehearsals.

Fast forward to 2025 when my good friend Chung Park, Conductor of the St. Olaf Orchestra asked me if I’d thought about arranging Magnolia Star for orchestra. Honestly, even though I’ve written a bunch of pieces for orchestra and arranged several more, I hand’t considered it. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. So here we go!

About Magnolia Star

When I was playing saxophone in my middle school jazz band, we started every rehearsal the same way – with an improvisation exercise that our director created. It was a simple yet brilliant exercise for teaching beginning improvisation and allowing everyone in the band a chance to “solo.” As a warm-up at the opening of each rehearsal, the whole band played the blues scale ascending, resting for one measure, descending, and resting for another measure (see example below).      

During the measures of rest, each member of the band took turns improvising a solo. Looking back, this exercise not only got the band swinging together from the start of rehearsal, but it made improvisation, a daunting musical task to many, seem within everyone’s abilities. This experience was my introduction to the blues scale, and I have long wanted to write a piece inspired by this group of pitches.

In Magnolia Star, I explore various ways to use these pitches in harmonies, melodies, and timbres, creating a diverse set of ideas that will go beyond sounds that we typically associate with the blues scale. I didn’t want to create a “blues” piece, but rather a piece in my own musical voice that uses and pays homage to the blues scale.  

Nearly all of the pitches used in Magnolia Star fit into the concert C blues scale. It is interesting to note that embedded within the C blues scale are both a C minor triad, an Eb minor triad, and an Eb major triad. I explore the alternation of these tonal areas right from the start of the piece, and continue to employ them in different ways throughout the entire work.

Another influence was trains and the American railroad. The railroad not only provides some intriguing sonic ideas, with driving rhythms and train-like sonorities, but it was also an integral part of the growth of jazz and blues in America. In the late 19th century, the Illinois Central Railroad constructed rail lines that stretched from New Orleans and the “Delta South” all the way north to Chicago.

Many southern musicians traveled north via the railroad, bringing “delta blues” and other idioms to northern parts of the country. The railroad was also the inspiration for countless blues songs by a wide variety of artists. Simply put, the railroad was crucial to the dissemination of jazz and blues in the early 20th century.

Magnolia Star was an Illinois Central train that ran from New Orleans to Chicago with the famous Panama Limited in the mid 20th century.