DON'T LET GO is a Chamber Music America new jazz works commission (funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation). Structured as a song-cycle, it explores the nuances and complexities of “hope” in the context of current social, political, and environmental realities.reflected on the seemingly increasing depths of systemic racism in America and the possibilities forchange. In his liner notes for the recording, Slocum writes, “As a result of pandemic-related closures, it wasthe first time my wife and I had traveled in many months. It felt like a new perspective, at least early in thejourney. The shape of this composition outlines the evolution of my reflections throughout the course of thattrip. The primary theme is introduced in the prelude and developed throughout the suite. Although the workjourneys from B minor in the opening two movements to eventually reach D major in the final movement,most of the piece follows a sonic trajectory moving away from optimism, but clinging to a kind of blind hopeand beauty (real or imagined) in our collective potential for change. The final movement, a rearrangementand development of the main theme, is inspired by Pat Metheny’s “Is This America?” It’s my understandingthat Mr. Metheny composed that song as a musical response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Fifteenyears later, I’m not sure that we’ve made a great deal of progress as a society.”