Ode (2005) for solo contrabass was commissioned by and written for contrabassist P. Kellach
Waddle, and is dedicated in memory of jazz bassist and teacher Bob Stata, who died on June
14, 2005 at the age of 52. (Stata commissioned and directed the premiere of Cooman's The
Great Wilno (1999) for solo piano and wind ensemble.)
This work is cast in a single movement and contrasts passionate sweeping figurations with
lyric melodic material in the bass's upper register. An elegaic chorale section appears in the
middle and returns at the end, dying away to nothing.