CHRISTIAN McBRIDE - The Movement Revisited
Mack Avenue Records MAC1082
Christian McBride (bass, composer and arranger) Steve Wilson (alto sax and flute) Todd Bashore (alto sax) Ron Blake (tenor and soprano saxes) Loren Schoenberg (tenor sax) Carl Maraghi (baritone sax) Michael Dease (trombone) Steve Davis (trombone) James Burton (trombone) Doug Purviance (bass trombone) Lew Soloff (trumpet) Ron Tooley (trumpet) Frank Greene (trumpet) Darryl Haw (trumpet) Warren Wolf (vibraphone, tambourine, timpani) Geoffrey Keezer (piano) Terreon Gully (drums)
Alicia Olatuja (lead vocals) J.D Steele (choral arranger & lead vocals) The Voices of Flame Choir,
Sonia Sanchez, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Dion Graham, Wendell Pierce (narrators)
Recorded Sept. 8-11 Avatar Studios, New York
Subtitled `A Musical Portrait of Four Icons` this ambitious piece by Christian McBride is a sort of jazz oratorio for big band, instrumental soloists, a ten strong choir, vocalists and four narrators who recite and dramatize to musical accompaniment the words of civil rights activists Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali and Dr Martin Luther King. The texts are taken from their speeches and writings and additionally words drawn from Barak Obama’s inaugural acceptance speech serve as a coda in which all the speakers participate in turn. All the sources are listed in the sleeve notes but it would be useful to have a link to a libretto that one could download for easy reference.
Originally written for smaller forces in 1998 as an Arts Society commission for Black History Month and conceived as a musical portrait of the civil rights movement in the USA, McBride subsequently revised his brief to the more modest aim of celebrating key figures whom he found personally inspirational following criticism that his chosen icons weren’t part of the same movement and sat uneasily together. Personally I think those reservations were rather over sensitive because whilst it is true that they were not operating as a single group with its own clear aims and manifesto they all had strong affinities and played seminal roles in the affirmation of black cultural consciousness and the assertion of civil liberties. Rosa Parks, for example, cited Malcolm X as her personal hero and admired his defiant stand in speaking out against the injustices of segregation and discrimination whilst being wholly in step with King’s more ameliorative, less militant stance.
The important issue here though is how effectively McBride’s suite operates as a work of art and conveys and captures his subject’s ideas and personalities in musical and dramatic terms and in this respect the contribution of the four narrators is critical. There is a lot of spoken dialogue as you would expect, usually accompanied with the minimal instrumental resources of bass, drum or piano ostinati and often with choral descants. The three male voices are provided by actors, two of whom will be familiar to readers who followed `The Wire` T.V drama series, whilst the part of Rosa Parks is taken by the distiguished poet and leading figure in African-American arts, Sonia Sanchez. The men succeed brilliantly in capturing the nuances of their subject’s voices – Dion Graham is particularly good as Ali- but I found Sanchez’s portrayal of Parks rather mannered because of her tendency improvise with different inflexions and metres. For me, her stylistic approach rather detracts from the quiet power of Park’s message as heard in the available recordings of her speeches.
Additionally, each icon is ascribed a musical interlude and it is within these pieces that the main jazz and instrumental content is found, creating space for soloists like Warren Wolf, Geoff Keezer and the various horns, to produce superlative performances all round. There is also a stunning vocal of operatic intensity from mezzo soprano Alicia Olatuja in the song dedicated to Malcolm X and the Voices of Flame, with their chorus master J.D Steele in the lead, get to let rip on two tunes that lifted out of the context of this piece could become hit tunes in their own right. The first of these is `Rumble in the Jungle` which perfectly captures the insouciance of Ali’s wit and boisterous character and then a joyful soul/gospel tune `A View from the Mountaintop` in celebration of King’s optimistic, integrationist vision.
The suite ends with the narrators intoning the words of President Barak Obama which seemed so liberating and visionary in 2008, leaving us with the uncomfortable thought that in spite of all the inspirational words and stirring music, not least the brave defiance of McBride’s chosen icons, the resurgence of racial conflict currently being experienced shows we are still a long way from Dr King’s `Promised Land`, however if music like this provides sustenance and comfort for those searching for ways of resolving continuing tensions and injustices it will have done its work.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Mack Avenue Records MAC1082
Christian McBride (bass, composer and arranger) Steve Wilson (alto sax and flute) Todd Bashore (alto sax) Ron Blake (tenor and soprano saxes) Loren Schoenberg (tenor sax) Carl Maraghi (baritone sax) Michael Dease (trombone) Steve Davis (trombone) James Burton (trombone) Doug Purviance (bass trombone) Lew Soloff (trumpet) Ron Tooley (trumpet) Frank Greene (trumpet) Darryl Haw (trumpet) Warren Wolf (vibraphone, tambourine, timpani) Geoffrey Keezer (piano) Terreon Gully (drums)
Alicia Olatuja (lead vocals) J.D Steele (choral arranger & lead vocals) The Voices of Flame Choir,
Sonia Sanchez, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Dion Graham, Wendell Pierce (narrators)
Recorded Sept. 8-11 Avatar Studios, New York
Subtitled `A Musical Portrait of Four Icons` this ambitious piece by Christian McBride is a sort of jazz oratorio for big band, instrumental soloists, a ten strong choir, vocalists and four narrators who recite and dramatize to musical accompaniment the words of civil rights activists Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali and Dr Martin Luther King. The texts are taken from their speeches and writings and additionally words drawn from Barak Obama’s inaugural acceptance speech serve as a coda in which all the speakers participate in turn. All the sources are listed in the sleeve notes but it would be useful to have a link to a libretto that one could download for easy reference.
Originally written for smaller forces in 1998 as an Arts Society commission for Black History Month and conceived as a musical portrait of the civil rights movement in the USA, McBride subsequently revised his brief to the more modest aim of celebrating key figures whom he found personally inspirational following criticism that his chosen icons weren’t part of the same movement and sat uneasily together. Personally I think those reservations were rather over sensitive because whilst it is true that they were not operating as a single group with its own clear aims and manifesto they all had strong affinities and played seminal roles in the affirmation of black cultural consciousness and the assertion of civil liberties. Rosa Parks, for example, cited Malcolm X as her personal hero and admired his defiant stand in speaking out against the injustices of segregation and discrimination whilst being wholly in step with King’s more ameliorative, less militant stance.
The important issue here though is how effectively McBride’s suite operates as a work of art and conveys and captures his subject’s ideas and personalities in musical and dramatic terms and in this respect the contribution of the four narrators is critical. There is a lot of spoken dialogue as you would expect, usually accompanied with the minimal instrumental resources of bass, drum or piano ostinati and often with choral descants. The three male voices are provided by actors, two of whom will be familiar to readers who followed `The Wire` T.V drama series, whilst the part of Rosa Parks is taken by the distiguished poet and leading figure in African-American arts, Sonia Sanchez. The men succeed brilliantly in capturing the nuances of their subject’s voices – Dion Graham is particularly good as Ali- but I found Sanchez’s portrayal of Parks rather mannered because of her tendency improvise with different inflexions and metres. For me, her stylistic approach rather detracts from the quiet power of Park’s message as heard in the available recordings of her speeches.
Additionally, each icon is ascribed a musical interlude and it is within these pieces that the main jazz and instrumental content is found, creating space for soloists like Warren Wolf, Geoff Keezer and the various horns, to produce superlative performances all round. There is also a stunning vocal of operatic intensity from mezzo soprano Alicia Olatuja in the song dedicated to Malcolm X and the Voices of Flame, with their chorus master J.D Steele in the lead, get to let rip on two tunes that lifted out of the context of this piece could become hit tunes in their own right. The first of these is `Rumble in the Jungle` which perfectly captures the insouciance of Ali’s wit and boisterous character and then a joyful soul/gospel tune `A View from the Mountaintop` in celebration of King’s optimistic, integrationist vision.
The suite ends with the narrators intoning the words of President Barak Obama which seemed so liberating and visionary in 2008, leaving us with the uncomfortable thought that in spite of all the inspirational words and stirring music, not least the brave defiance of McBride’s chosen icons, the resurgence of racial conflict currently being experienced shows we are still a long way from Dr King’s `Promised Land`, however if music like this provides sustenance and comfort for those searching for ways of resolving continuing tensions and injustices it will have done its work.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
