Opus 900 for Big Band

During a musical career that lasted over seven decades, bassist, composer, arranger and jazz orchestra leader Miljenko Prohaska (Zagreb, September 17, 1925 – Zagreb, May 29, 2014) left a remarkable trace on Croatian music. His vast oeuvre, which extends from jazz to pop, a large number of music-drama works, film scores, works for wind, jazz, review and tamburitza orchestras, as well as chamber music, will remain a thing of value in the Croatian musical heritage and a challenge to all who in the years and decades to come are going to attempt to register and systematise it. An important part of his body of work is related to third stream music. It was in this style that he wrote compositions performed by combos and orchestras abroad. In fact, Prohaska is the only Croatian composer for jazz orchestra some of whose compositions and arrangements have become a part of the standard world repertoire. His name, then was mentioned in the same breath as those of world music greats. He worked and was friends with numerous famous jazz artists such as John Lewis, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Michel Legrand, Art Taylor, Slide Hampton, and played in the international orchestras of Gerry Mulligan and Clark Terry. His Intima is the most-played jazz composition by any Croatian writer and the only Croatian jazz number to have found a place among world jazz standards, played and recorded by numerous well-regarded musicians in America and elsewhere. The original words for the composition were penned by legendary jazz journalist, writer and encyclopaedist Leonard Feather. Miljenko Prohaska completed the composition Opus 900 on April 3, 1994. The name of the composition is connected with the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Zagreb. For in 1094 the bishopric of Zagreb was founded on Kaptol. Since the whole of 1994 in Zagreb was devoted to the commemoration of this magnificent anniversary, many cultural events were thematically related to the celebration. One such event was the Spring Jazz Review Zagreb 1994, which was held from April 18 to April 20 in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall and organised by the Zagreb Jazz Club and the Croatian Composers’ Society. Although in the newspaper coverage and in the announcements of concerts that still exist and in the extant programme booklets of the Review the composition Opus 900 is never explicitly mentioned, taking into account the time of the composition and the context of the celebration of the anniversary, it is very likely that Prohaska composed the work precisely for this occasion, and it is possible, although it cannot be claimed with 100% certainty, that it was then first performed. In the world of Croatian jazz Opus 900 very rapidly became extremely popular and is still often performed. As a work written in the jazz orchestra tradition with its five saxophones, four trombones and five trumpets with the addition of a Rhodes- sound keyboard instrument Opus 900 is delightful with its lush sonority and energy by which it has become a not-to-be missed part of the concert repertoire. What makes Opus 900 special is its power and grandeur. In this composition Prohaska perfectly showed the power of big band music, using sections of the orchestra in order to create powerful sound with huge contrasts and dynamic tension. The composition provides space for soloists on the piano, for example, the third trumpet or the tenor sax, to express themselves to the full through improvised solo parts. The rhythm and melody that generate this composition breathe the mastery of Prohaska, while each of the instruments in the orchestra has the opportunity to shine.