WYNTON MARSALIS'S 'ALL RISE' STIRRED SOULS AT HILL AUDITORIUM

 

Wynton Marsalis

For two decades, I've attended Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis University Music Society concerts. Under Marsalis's stewardship, the JALCO is the current reigning G.O.A.T. of international jazz orchestras. Bank on Marsalis to deliver monumental projects like culturally and politically relevant recordings such as "From the Plantation to the Penitentiary," "The Abyssinian Mass," remodeling the music of jazz overachievers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Paul Whiteman, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Thelonius Monk. I've often left JACLO concerts, wondering if Marsalis would ever run out of steam. But Saturday evening at Hill Auditorium, Marsalis pulled off another massive undertaking, "All Rise (Symphony No. 1.) For Symphony Orchestra Jazz Orchestra, and Chorus." Positively, the most ambitious work of his 22-year association with the University Musical Society. Rivaling in scope and depth, his epic 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio "Blood on the Fields." "All Rise" Marsalis, composed in 1999, has only been performed periodically. It has 12 movements. Each movement was seasoned with the blues and executed meticulously by participants University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, University of Michigan Choirs, UMS Choral Union, and key members of the JALCO. Over 200 collegiate and professional musicians shared the same space, treating the near-capacity audience to over two hours of musical bliss. The musical cohesion was staggering. It was Marsalis's brainchild, but the linchpin of this elaborate spread was the conductor, Kenneth Kiesler. It appeared Kiesler meant for the movements to come off as 12 mini-concerts. The movements—"Jubal Step,"" A Hundred and a Hundred, a Hundred and Twelve," Go Slow (But Don't Stop)," "Wild Strumming of Fiddle," "Save Us," "Cried. Shouted. Then Swung,"" Look Beyond," "The Halls of Erudition and Scholarship," El "Gran' Baile de la Reina," "Expressbrown Local," "Saturday Night Slow Drag," and "I Am (Don't You Run From Me)—were soul-stirring and dispelled the myths classical musicians cannot swing or play the blues. The classical musicians cut up on "Go Slow (But Don't Stop)" and "Cried. Shouted. Then Swung," proving they can swing and navigate any form of the blues with equal aplomb. Near the end of "All Rise, " I wondered how many audience members had a full-blown spiritual experience absorbing all the awe-inspired music. Given how most in the audience roared after the last movement and the standing ovation that lasted 15 minutes, the two-plus hours of musical bliss had induced that feeling in many of them.