August 1, 2007
Marciac, France
Music consists of a nearly hour-long piece by Wynton titled: Music, Deep Rivers in My Soul.
Its point of departure is a poetic text by Maya Angelou and it is set for a jazz quintet with a speaker and a dancer.
The format echoes Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, but unlike the Stravinsky/Ramuz story of a soldier who makes a pact with the devil, the Marsalis/Angelou work is a portrait of black music, those who create it and those who listen to it. Wynton’s score embodies a kaleidoscopic amalgam of blues, Gospel, funeral marches, spirituals, swing and bebop.
Personnel
- Ali Jackson – drums, tambourine
- Carlos Henriquez – bass
- Dan Nimmer – piano
- Jared Grimes – dance
- Walter Blanding – tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet