Christian McBride performance, live recording highlight returning U-M Jazz Festival
Christian McBride
A world premiere recording of a work by Christian McBride highlights the return of the University of Michigan Jazz Festival on February 13.
The festival, which took a 1-year hiatus in 2009, typically combines a day full of musical education opportunities for high-school students with a showcase concert in the evening.
That’s again the plan as the festival returns, but this year’s concert is something special: Internationally acclaimed bassist and composer Christian McBride will be on hand with his rarely performed “The Movement Revisited,” a major work honoring pioneers of civil rights. The initially four-movement work specifically pays tribute to Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. But now, McBride has written a 5th movement inspired by the election of Barack Obama as president.
And the University of Michigan performance, at the Power Center for the Performing Arts, is expected to be recorded for a CD to be released by Detroit-based Mack Avenue Records, festival Director Dennis Wilson said. “The Movement Revisited” will also be performed in Detroit (at Second Ebenezer Church) the day after the Ann Arbor stop, and that event is planned to be recorded for a DVD.
"This is a personal thing for me. This is something I've felt very strongly about," McBride said in a phone interview last week.
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“The Movement Revisited” performances will involve the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, directed by Wilson, a U-M faculty member; along with the Christian McBride Band and the Second Ebenezer Majestic Voices. The University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble will also perform.
The feature concert comes at the end of a day of seminars, workshops and other activities aimed at high school students, this year featuring a special focus on the contributions of Charles Mingus. And the educational opportunities also extend to university students who help in a variety of ways to produce the festival, Wilson explained.
Since the festival is tied to Black History Month, one other development this year is a natural. The festival recently announced it will introduce a new award this year: the University of Michigan John Conyers Jr. Jazz Advocacy Award, to be presented in “recognition of extraordinary achievement in the world of Jazz by an advocate or patron.”
Conyers himself — the longtime member of Congress from Detroit, well known as a civil-rights advocate, among other accomplishments — will receive the honor in its first year, and he is expected to speak during the festivities.
Of course, the centerpiece of the day will be the performance of McBride’s “The Movement Revisited.”
The piece has its roots in 1998, when McBride — known as one of the top talents on today's jazz scene — was commissioned to compose a piece for gospel choir and jazz ensemble in Portland, Maine. With guidance from gospel great J.D. Steele, he hit on the concept for “The Movement Revisited”: with deep ties to civil rights being a key part of the tradition in both jazz and gospel, "It only seemed appropriate that this would be something about the civil rights movement," McBride said.
Of course, countless musical icons — from R&B and soul as well as jazz and gospel — contributed to the movement. McBride found inspiration there, but also in the magazines from the era: He said his grandmother held on to old copies of EBONY, JET, Newsweek, LIFE and others for decades, and reading those, "I got a sense of what the '60s were like."
The initial version of“The Movement Revisited” was performed 4 times in New England, then shelved. But 10 years later, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic's jazz series, McBride saw a good opportunity to revive the piece. He rewrote the last 2 movements of the work, expanding it for a 30-piece choir and big band, and ultimately adding a fifth movement honoring President Obama.
Leading Saturday's performance, the Christian McBride Band includes Ron Blake, saxophone; Geoffrey Keezer, piano; Terreon Gully, drums; and Warren Wolfe, vibes. They will play with the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, which consists of some of the region’s top players, including a number of U-M faculty members and/or familiar local names such as Paul Finkbeiner, Ellen Rowe, Pete Siers and Andrew Bishop.
In addition to the music, “Movement” features narrators reading the words of the civil rights pioneers, which Wilson stressed is a key part of the work: “It’s bigger than the music. It’s more than the music.”
The Michigan performances will be recorded, with release dates planned for some time next year, McBride said. With luck, a tour may follow.
Christian McBride Band live at the 2008 Detroit International Jazz Festival:
Bob Needham is director of entertainment content for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at bobneedham@annarbor.com or 734-623-2541, and follow him on Twitter @bobneedham.