South Florida Classical Review

The Marcus Robert Trio performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the New World Symphony Saturday night at the Arsht Center.

Joy was in the air as the New World Symphony opened the new year with a jazz-oriented program Saturday night before a nearly full house at the Arsht Center. A rendition like no other of a Gershwin classic and music of one of America’s great original voices plus a French view of the blues made for an entertaining and illuminating evening. Andrew Grams, who has become New World’s go-to conductor in recent seasons, presided efficiently and the Marcus Roberts Trio was on hand to heat up the proceedings.

Marcus Roberts has long been one of the great jazz keyboard artists. Despite his blindness, he has been a stellar performer, composer, arranger and pedagogue for decades. Roberts currently holds teaching positions at Florida State University and Bard College.

His arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue adds Roberts’ own variations on Gershwin’s themes and his brand of swinging virtuosity. Gershwin himself was a famous improvisor at the piano so Roberts’ iteration is in line with the composer’s freewheeling spirit. Roberts has played the work innumerable times so how much of his reading is still an improvisation remains questionable, particularly in the sections where he is joined by the two other members of his trio.

Still, his pianism was often stunning. From the piano’s first entrance, Roberts mixed stride and bebop with Gershwin’s melodies, his bass and drum partners eventually joining the party. That vibe enlivened the orchestral sections with Grams and the players exhibiting additional life and verve.

Even when adding embellishments over the orchestral lines, Roberts’ touch could be elegant as well as hard charging. Roberts and Grams gave the iconic central theme sweep and flow, with inventive additional keyboard permutations. Martin Jaffe was the agile bassist of the trio and Jason Marsalis proved red hot on the drum set. The entire audience was on its feet at the last notes.

Andrew Grams conducted the New World Symphony Saturday night.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was one of the most distinctive and prolific creative artists in America’s musical history. One of the great jazz pianists and band leaders, his compositional output spans multiple genres. He could write pop tunes that held their own with the best of Tin Pan Alley. The success of those standards (including “Caravan,” “Satin Doll,” “Sophisticated Lady” and many more) has tended to eclipse his numerous forays into classical and crossover projects. (Indeed, Ellington was writing crossover scores before anyone knew what that was.)

Ellington’s 1960 arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Suite from The Nutcracker was the concert’s sit up-and-listen opener. Arranged by Ellington’s longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn with additional symphonic scoring by trumpeter-conductor Jeff Tyzik, the suite is almost an original creation. Ellington utilized Tchaikovsky’s melodies only as a hazy undercurrent, with the original themes  sometimes barely recognizable.

The opening bars of the “Overture” are as close as the piece comes to Tchaikovsky’s original. Swinging brass take the secondary subject and turn it into an anthem out of Harlem. No longer a waltz, “Dance of the Floreodores” features a wailing trumpet that bends toward the blues. Hot rhythm decorated “March of the Peanut Brittle Brigade” and the “Sugar Plum Cherry” proved cleverly disguised. Omar Lateef’s brilliant trumpet solos stood out in a performance that captured Ellington’s zany, tongue in cheek but affectionate vision of Tchaikovsky.

In 1943 Ellington wrote a seven-movement, forty-minute suite Black, Brown and Beige (which included vocal sections) for his band. Musicologist-conductor Maurice Peress made a symphonic distillation in 1970, reducing the piece to three movements and eighteen minutes.

Peress’ edition is more like Cliff notes compared to Ellington’s pathbreaking original. Even so, Ellington’s wealth of inspired melodies manages to come through. With multiple additional saxophones, the distinctive wah-wah of the trombone, blazing brass and sonorous strings, the Ellington sound cast its spell. Grams’ beat emerged too measured and weighty in the initial “Black: A Work Song” segment but the conductor brought out much of the rhapsodic trajectory of “Brown: Come Sunday” and the festive aura of “Beige: Light.”

James Price Johnson’s Victory Stride resounded in the true stride jazz spirit. Throughout the concert, the New World fellows’ flexibility was fully in evidence. Unlike many musicians of previous generations, the jazz inflected idiom seemed part of their musical DNA.

Darius Milhaud’s La creation du monde was the program’s outlier. The 1923 ballet score preceded Gershwin’s rhapsody by a year and may be considered the first fusion of jazz and the symphonic concert hall. Mixing the American sound that was sweeping through Europe with Gallic grace and a lyrical bent, Milhaud’s work is a gem.

The opening alto saxophone solo establishes the bluesy atmosphere and more upbeat moments offer plangent contrast. Grams drew crisp playing from the chamber orchestra forces and the players were on top of each variation of meter. The blending of high art and popular culture was fully realized in a finely detailed performance.

Stéphane Denève and John Adams conduct the New World Symphony in an all-Adams program featuring The Chairman Dances , I Sill Dance, Doctor Atomic Symphony and After the Fall with pianist Vikingur Olafsson  7:30 p.m. January 17 and 2 p.m. January 18 at the New World Center in Miami Beach. nws.edu

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