About eight years ago I wrote some music for double string quartet and contrabass. It was a suite of songs inspired by characters and settings from the novels of James Ellroy. The concert never happened, due to an injury suffered by one of the violinists.

At some point, Ellroy himself was speaking in Houston, and I went there with the manuscript score, and he autographed it with an enormous cursive “J,” infusing it with tremendous joo-joo.

About three months ago I found the manuscript in a box of other music in my house. Wheels started turning with a tremendous grinding sound.

Finally, last weekend, Crime Scenes was performed, among many other works, at the inaugural performance of the ChamberLab series.

Enjoy!