A composer emailed me via Facebook the other day with the following question:

How do you go about coming up with such interesting titles for your pieces (i.e. Asphalt Cocktail – I’m not even sure what that means, but it’s a great title)? This is something I’ve struggled with this for many years, and certainly do not want to be that composer that gives forms names to all of his titles (concerto, sonata, etc.).

Honestly, and I don’t think this is a secret for anybody who reads this blog, but I don’t come up with my own titles. I used to, but I ended up with titles like “Star Rockin’ Dance.” (Seriously, that’s the real title of a piece I wrote at Juilliard for drum set and piano.  Steve Bryant mistakenly called it “Superstar Piano Rockin,” which is even better/worse.) When I worked with choreographers like Robert Battle (Artistic Director Designate of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company — woot!), Robert would come up with the titles for the dance, and that would also become the name of the music.  Rush Hour, Strange Humors, Mass, Damn, and Juba are all pieces that I wrote in collaboration with Robert, and those pieces retained the titles he created.

The title “Redline Tango” came from a partial rip-off of a title of Steve Bryant’s, “RedLine.”  His work was a piano piece at the time that I wrote my original orchestral version of my piece, but both his piano work and my orchestral work eventually became band pieces, making the title similarity a little more awkward.  (One of my few claims to fame is that composer John Adams once told me that “Redline Tango” was a really good title.  So, um, thanks, Steve.)

One title, “Asphalt Cocktail,” was of course stolen (well, given, after much coaxing) from composer Jonathan Newman.

I have come up with my own titles on occasion over the past few years, the last one that I can recall being “Turning.”  (Is that why nobody plays “Turning” — because of the title?  Sigh.)  90% of the time, starting with Sasparilla, the titles have come from my wife, AEJ.

(Speaking of Sasparilla, a piece that was almost never played up until now, why are there 11 performances scheduled already for this season?  It even has three — THREE! — performances in Norway!  WTF.  Is there some big cowboy cartoon convention happening in Norway this winter?  It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little surprising that a 5-year old piece would go almost unnoticed until now, and suddenly be all over the place.  Maybe that will happen to Turning next year.  Hint.  Hint.)

Sometimes, AEJ comes up with the title before I write the piece.  That happened with “Turbine.”  We were looking up at a ceiling fan, and she suggested a piece that would ramp up like a jet turbine.  I took that idea, combined it with my fear of flying, and wrote the piece.

Usually, though, I write a piece, play it for her, and she tells me what it’s called.  I don’t know how she does this so effectively, but her titles are pretty damn good — perfect, even.  I asked her once what makes a good title, and she said that a good title should be “an invitation.”  It’s like somebody is throwing a party, and they send you an invitation — in this case, an invitation to listen to a piece of music.  If I invite you to come to my “Sonata in Eb” party, I doubt you’d come.  First off, what the hell is that party about?  I mean, it’s in Eb, and it probably goes to Bb or something super damn exciting like that, but I don’t have perfect pitch, so I don’t care about your stupid Sonata in Eb party.  That sounds boring as shit.  I bet that party is dry.  Screw that.

But if I get an invitation to an “Asphalt Cocktail” party, hell yeah, I’m going to that party, ’cause that party is going to rock.

The invitation needs to be accurate, though.  If you get an invitation to a costume party, and you dress up like a pimp (and why wouldn’t you?), and you show up to the party and in fact it’s not a costume party but an evangelical family’s bible study party, you’d be surprised and annoyed.

I bitched on here once before about pieces with titles that aren’t accurate — a piece called “Sparkle” that has no sparkle, and a piece called “Espresso” that is more about the thick goo at the bottom of the cup than the caffeine jolt you get from espresso — and that stuff annoys me.  If I get an invitation, and it says, “Sparkle,” you damn well better show me some crazy-ass sparkling.  That piece needs to be all loaded with crotales and glock and shit like that.  I came here for some damn sparkle.  If I don’t need sunglasses to listen to your piece, then you’re wasting my time and pissing me off.  And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

So to answer the question, how do I come up with titles? I ask AEJ to do it for me. Wow, that is not remotely helpful for anybody else. The best advice I can give, though, is to make your title an invitation, don’t be too literal or cheesy (“Pretty Flowers” may be your inspiration, but that is one lame-ass literal, cheesy title, and I would kick that title’s ass and steal its milk money if I ever saw it alone in an alley), and make your title accurate. And if all else fails, find yourself an AEJ.

On one of our last nights in New York — after a seven-week stay — we had dinner at Mario Batali’s restaurant, Babbo. You know it’s fancy when the menu has a leather cover…

… and the Diet Coke comes with the lemon wedge on a silver tray.

Here’s Babbo’s amuse bouche — a slice of bread with balsamic-marinated chick peas. I wouldn’t normally think of chick peas at an Italian restaurant, but this was delicious — if not particularly dainty. Dinner at Babbo is not a “light meal,” as you’ll see.

As she did at any restaurant where it was offered, AEJ started with the tomato special — these fresh, heirloom tomatoes with basil, olive oil, and fresh mozzarella.

I can never resist a good beet, so I had the roasted beet tartare with chianti vinegar and ricotta salata. You can’t see it in this picture because of the shallow depth of field, but just behind the “tartare” were various garnishes, like coarse sea salt, mustard, chives, and, if I remember correctly, anchovy paste. This was very good, but it looked a little more interesting than it tasted.  (It really needed the sprinkled sea salt.)

We split a pasta course. This is goat cheese tortelloni with dried orange and wild fennel pollen. The combination of creamy goat cheese with the brightness and acidity of the orange was fantastic.

For my main course, I had the braised beef. It looked small — it was probably a 2″-square — but lordy, that was plenty when the richness was this far off the charts. Delicious.

It was mad-tender.

This fresh roasted corn side dish was incredible. There was a very dry, tart cheese mixed in, but I can’t for the life of me remember what kind of cheese it was. But wow, this was good.

And this is AEJ’s main course — a grilled pork chop with cherry peppers (oh man, those ruled), cipolline, and aceto manodori. I don’t think the photo truly captures the massive size of this Flintstonesque hunk of pork.  After she finished dinner, I was so inspired by her dish that I hit AEJ over the head with my club and dragged her back to my cave.

Coffee? Why not — especially when you get this fun sugar box with it!

I sweetened mine with this raw sugar stick.

My dessert was the best dessert I had all summer — and I’d had some doozies of delicious. This is blueberry almond cake “Sottosopra” with toasted almond gelato. Good christ, it was amazing.

AEJ went with the homemade strawberry ice cream. For an upcharge that would make you think they were offering an optional spoonful of liquid gold, you could add this aged balsamic (was it 30 year? 50 year? I don’t remember for sure…). It was like thick chocolate syrup. For the price, I thought he was going to leave that bottle, but all we got was a spoonful. Turned out, as rich as it was, that a spoonful was all we needed.

The balsamic was insanely great on the strawberry ice cream.  Why have chocolate sauce when you can have balsamic vinegar?

Whereas WD-50 and Eleven Madison Park had been all about modern innovation, Babbo is straight-up yum. There’s no foam or sous vide or liquid nitrogen — there are just perfect, fresh ingredients and masterful preparation.  I love a frozen tomato lollipop as much as the next guy, but sometimes it’s nice to just have an unadulterated, fresh tomato.  Nom.

I’m working on a blog entry about our dinner at Mario Batali’s restaurant, Babbo, but in the meantime, it seemed a general update was in order.  Please forgive the list approach, but it’s a lot of small odds-and-ends…

* My newest piece, “Hymn to a Blue Hour,” completed in early August, will be available for performances starting December 4.  (The world premiere, at Mesa State College, is on December 3.)  If you haven’t checked out the demo recording, I hope you will. There are some exciting performances coming up for “Hymn…,” including a performance in December at the Midwest Clinic with the Texas A&M Wind Symphony, and with the top Texas All-State Band in February.

* Plans are under way to record “Kingfishers Catch Fire” on BluRay, in full-surround sound, this fall.  More about this after the session.

* The Ohio State University Wind Symphony (Go Bucks!) will be recording “Asphalt Cocktail” this fall for upcoming release on the Naxos label.

* I made my national radio debut yesterday when “Kingfishers Catch Fire” was featured on public radio’s Performance Today.  The web-stream of the broadcast is still online.  The performance, by Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, was phenomenal.  Hearing the broadcast, I’ve no idea why I never posted this recording on the website, but I’ll do that as soon as I receive the master recording.

* The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps toured this summer with “Asphalt Cocktail.”  The corps placed third at the national finals — their best showing ever.  Congratulations!

* Upcoming campus residencies include the University of Michigan (September 28-October 1 — my birthday!), Eastern Michigan University (a few rehearsals during the U. Michigan visit), Florida State University (October 17-19), Texas A&M Corpus Christi (November 17-18), Mesa State College (December 1-4), University of Northern Colorado (January 13-14), University of Florida (February 16-17) , Sam Houston State (April 8-9), and Michigan State (April 16-17).   All scheduled performances are viewable on the Performance list.

* Although it’s not really a “residency” since I already live here, I’m especially excited about the upcoming rehearsals and performance here at the University of Texas, where, on September 26, Joseph Alessi (principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic) and Jerry Junkin will perform “Harvest: Concerto for Trombone,” at Bass Concert Hall — the “big hall” here at UT.  The concert will also include “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and the second half will feature Frank Ticheli’s piece, “Playing with Fire,” with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band.

* I’m about to write a true “grade 3” piece.  (For those who don’t know what that means, “grade 3” refers to technical difficulty, on a 1-5 scale.  A “grade 3” should be playable by just about any high school band, and most middle school bands.)  This piece should be completed by November 1.  In a first, at least for me, the consortium was funded entirely through connections on Facebook.

* I intend to spend the afternoon playing NCAA 2011.

* Lastly, this summer, the Brass Band of Battle Creek gave the premiere of their brass band arrangement of “Asphalt Cocktail.”  Here’s the video: