Track Listing

1. The Curve Ball (4:26)
2. The Emery Ball (2:34)
3. The Spit Ball (AKA: The Dew Drop, The Spitter) (2:33)
4. The Goo Ball (AKA: The Tar Ball) (3:26)
5. The Screw Ball (2:18)
6. The Knuckle Ball (3:05)
7. The Ephus Ball (AKA: The Folly Floater, La Lob) (2:02)
8. The Sinker Ball (2:58)
9. The Slider (AKA: The Grease Ball) (1:56)
10. The Splitter (2:15)
11. The Fast Ball (AKA: The Bullet) (2:45)
12. The Change Up (3:07)
13. The Slow Ball (3:46)
14. The Breaking Ball (2:45)
15. The Bean Ball (AKA: The Duster, A Little Chin Music)
16. The Strike Out (2:35)

 

Description

Commissioned by JOHN ZORN and released in 2003 on his TZADIK label's "Great Jewish Music" series, Kramer's 16 instrumental audio-theater pieces form a melancholy memorial to baseball's greatest hitters, Hank Greenberg. Orchestral and folk instrumentations gently entwine to create a slow-motion audio soundtrack for one of the greatest swingers in the history of America's great pastime. No fan of Kramer's ever-expanding composer's canon should miss these pastoral explorations into the past. These brief yet entrancing musical vignettes (each one named after a different "pitch") transport the listener to a time long gone.