By Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork | RZA is back with a new album—a recording of the score to A Ballet Through Mud, which the Wu-Tang Clan alumnus wrote and composed for performance in 2023 at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver, Colorado. Performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Christopher Dragon, the score includes spoken word and orchestration that RZA says was inspired by revisiting his childhood notebooks. The recorded version will stream, via Platoon, from August 30.
RZA said in a press release:
I have been composing my whole life, although I didn’t know initially that was what I was doing. The inspiration for ‘A Ballet Through Mud’ comes from my earliest creative output as a teenager, but its themes are universal—love, exploration, and adventure. I hope people use it to score their own lives, to transform a drive to the grocery store or sharing a meal with loved ones into something magical, to be inspired and let their imaginations take them into a different chamber, if only for a moment.
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Go here for a track listing and to read the rest of the article:
https://pitchfork.com/news/wu-tang-clan-rza-new-album-is-a-ballet-score-with-colorado-symphony-orchestra/
Jazz Monroe is a music and culture writer based in London. His work also appears in The Guardian, The Independent, and elsewhere.
Photo: A Ballet Through Mud | From RZA’s Facebook page
Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA’s New Album is a Ballet Score With Colorado Symphony Orchestra
