Two huge works and a gratifying performance
Two massive epics rewarded a large and faithful audience on Opening Night of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Last Friday, Nov. 7, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 shared a program with an unusual jazz work at Oakland’s Paramount Theater. Led by conductor Michael Morgan with verve and wit, the symphony thundered in its big moments, was pithy in its textures and performed with agility throughout.
Tchaikovsky’s powerhouse is one of the all-time greats, an opportunity to hear fine solos and big ensembles stretched across a huge tapestry of color and emotion. Of special note was clarinetist Diane Maltester, whose cool resonance brought Tchaikovsky’s inner strife and a pure Russian loneliness into focus.
Other stars included the French horns – Meredith Brown, Alex Camphouse and Alicia Telford bounced golden notes off the Paramount’s beaux-arts walls. Andrea Plesnarski and Robin May showed us a primitive streak in an oboe’s upright and narrow density. And throughout, it was a joy to watch Morgan stabbing with his baton or melting into romantic passages.
Brubeck, St. James: Brothers in Arts
And after that blockbuster we had a collaboration that would have been the envy of many symphonies, the West Coast Premiere of Brothers in Arts, a fusion of classical musicians and a fabulous jazz quintet. It took guts to turn a classically trained cadre into a jazz powerhouse, but Michael Morgan did a creditable job of pushing that boundary, as he has in the past.
Premiering last year in Brittany, Brothers in Arts partnered the symphony with electric bass, keyboard, accordion and two composer-performers – Chris Brubeck on trombone and Guillaume Saint-James on sax – for a work that explored a time 70 years earlier, when both composers’ fathers had been in France for its 1944 liberation by the Allied troops.
Guillaume’s father was a doctor and amateur musician in Brittany, whose life was saved by Allied doctors during the Normandy invasion. And Chris’ father, famed jazz artist Dave Brubeck, was part of that liberation effort. In a strange turn of events, shortly after arriving in France he was tasked to begin an army jazz band after three USO singers showed up without a pianist. That band was the first integrated band in an army that was still segregated, and the timing, just days before the Battle of the Bulge, probably saved his life.
After performing together and then comparing histories, Chris and Guillaume decided to co-compose a work, an homage to their fathers and to their fellow freedom fighters. It was written in eight movements to describe the heady emotions of those times.
“Wave of Tranquility” began with a tape of the cries of seagulls and slow rush of surf. And then a snap of drumstick and visceral low notes from cellos set the ground.
While classical composers are a lonely lot, jazz is an art of collaboration, and that’s how this was stitched together. Guillaume wrote the first movement, leaving room for Chris to embroider his trombone solo, and then Chris took a turn with the next movement, “American Cowboy,” using Guillaume’s sax to explore the musical influences of his father’s era. Here, the strings had a Western piquancy, Copland-like harmonies that invoked wide-open plains. And then pianist Jeff LaDeur worked his way up the keyboard with figures that turned sharply rhythmic, as sax and trombone dipped into ragtime and Big Band.
In “Red Sand,” Guillaume built darker themes out of the bloodied beaches of Normandy, as taped voices called out across the years. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,” cried Churchill, and other voices followed in French, exotic against big orchestral gestures.
Among the many artful textures was the strident wheeze of accordion, played by Didier Ithursarry with fingerings of liquid lightning, often arrayed against snare on a field of soft strings. In addition to Oakland’s excellent percussionists Ward Spangler and Kevin Neuhoff was French drummer Christophe Lavergne, aptly described as “unbridled” in the program notes. Seated within a dangerous array of drums and high hats, he was a treat to watch as well as a backbone for the music.
A favorite of the crowd was the appearance of three teen-aged vocalists from Vocal Rush, an a cappella group created at Oakland School of the Arts, singing “Wolfpack Boogie” as Brubeck accompanied on piano. And earning another big ovation was a movement of pure and contemporary jazz, as the soloists celebrated their art and our freedom.
And after that art, it was the Epilogue that appeared to move the audience the most. Here, alto sax repeated the opening themes as a trumpet played evening taps and musicians took turns calling out “liberté” and “never again.”
Afterwards, I ran into the Assistant Principal cellist, Joseph Hèbert, and asked him how classical musicians learn to feel the “lean” of jazz, referring to a difficult-to-define quality of emphasis and timing.
“Lean? Well, in this group we are all moving together. Some people may take baby steps, but everyone is still moving in the same way. Brubeck notated the score very carefully so you can follow that.”
His comrade, Principal cellist Dan Reiter, was posed that question a week earlier. “Terri [Baune, the concertmaster] just gave us her bowing suggestions, and that makes it easier.” Both Dan and Joe are fluent in jazz, and their 2011 jam session with violinist Regina Carter was a legendary moment with the Oakland Symphony. Morgan and this talented group, with their long commitment to experiments and fusion, were able to bring out the strengths and fragility of two different genres.
Tchaikovsky’s genius is timeless. But the rapt faces in the audience showed that the fight for freedom – and art – is also as relevant today as it was 70 years ago.
—Adam Broner
Photo of Chris Brubeck, left, and Guillaume Saint-James.