Jazz Meets The Symphony

... is an exciting combination in which the power and dynamics of a symphony orchestra are combined with the daring and spontaneity of jazz improvisations.  

It is possible that encounters are pre-determined by fate. Perhaps some of them are compelled by necessity, or maybe they are due merely to chance. In any case, this program is the superimposition of two strong musical forces: jazz, which was born around one hundred years ago, and the symphony orchestra, with a lifetime of more than two centuries. As we approach the new millenium, the music of this concert celebrates the coming down of walls and fences.

"There is an imaginary world, perhaps in a different dimension, where a street in Vienna intersects a street in New York City. Beethoven, Mahler, Ellington, and Gillespie are gathered around a piano in a tavern, exchanging ideas, improvising, and sharing melodic patterns and chord progressions. More musicians join in. Johann Sebastian Bach, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong. Variations around a theme bring together two cultural heritages and merge in a stream that runs through time. While they play, they are aware of their differences, which they welcome. At the same time they concentrate on their similarities."

"In creating this project, i have tried to articulate my own thoughts, which reflect my parallel activities in the jazz and the classical worlds. I have never understood the building of walls and fences that seperate peoples, ideas, and music."
Lalo Schifrin

FILM MUSIC CLASSICS
CONDUCTOR/PIANO: LALO SCHIFRIN
&
Local Symphonic Orchestra 

The programme will be selected from the following songs:

"Casablanca" - As Time Goes By, "Gone With The Wind" - Tara's Theme, Western Medley (High Noon, The Magnificent Seven, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly ), "Breakfast At Tiffany's" - Moon River, "James Bond" Theme, "Cincinatti Kid", Symphonic Sketches of "Cool Hand Luke", "Bullit", "Wizard Of Oz" - Over the Rainbow, Movie Classics Medley (Dr. Schiwago, Lawrence of Arabia, Zorba the Greek, The Third Man), Space Medley (2001, Star Wars), "The Godfather" - Love Theme , "Mission: Impossible" and many more.

This concert is a celebration of some of the beautiful songs and some of the most memorable music that have been enhancing our own adventures in the mirror of the movie screen. On this journey we feel the dangers that threaten our heroes, we fall in love one hundred times, we sing, we laugh, we cry and finally we triumph.

Who could have predicted one hundred years ago that the Lumiere Brothers' invention - they called it animated photography - was going to become the collective dream of the 20th century? As we open the movie theater doors and filmakers' visions emerge from the shadows, infinite layers of musical sounds are interwoven with the images on screen. And thanks to that music, later on, the illusion transforms itself into a memory of haunting melodies, infectious rhythms and seductive sounds.

Since 1964 Lalo Schifrin is counted with over 150 Soundtracks (amoung which are hits like "Mission: Impossible", "Mannix", "Cool Hand Luke", "Bullitt" and "Dirty Harry") amoung the most important and sought after film music composers in Hollywood. For his work he received six Oscar-nominations, four Grammy Awards, the ACE Award, the BMI Life Achievement Award, and amoung just a very few of his collegues a star on the world-famous "Walk of Fame" in Hollywood.

GILLESPIANA

As soon as I had joined Dizzy Gillespie´s band, he said, "Why don´t you write something for us?" His words triggered my imagination, and the ideas started to flow. Diz had been one of my greatest inspirations (still is), and the composition process was intense and exhilarating. A few days later, I took the sketches of "Gillespiana" to his home and played them on the piano. When I finished, he asked me "How are you going to orchestrate this work?" I replied "I hear a jazz quintet (solo trumpet, alto sax doubling with flute, piano, bass, and drums) plus a brass band (4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 4 French horns, tuba) and Latin percussion (congas, bongos, timbales, etc.)"

Diz immediately called Norman Grantz who was at that time the head of Verve Records. With the telephone in his hand he asked me how long it would take to arrange it. "Three weeks," was my response. He told Norman, "Book a studio a month from now." And this is how the "Gillespiana" was born.
This piece is a suite in five movements and is a musical portrait of John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie.
The first movement "Prelude" starts with an introduction, the opening curtains, to the inner drama of Dizzy´s life, which he solved with energy and vigor of his music. Jazz was his passion.
The second movement, "Blues", reflects his birthplace, Cheraw, South Carolina, where he heard and played the first chords of gospel, blues and other traditional kinds of music that he absorbed. We could say that his first beat was born with the blues.
The third movement, "Panamerica" is an homage for his love of Latin American rhythms. One always remembers his association with Chano Pozo in the 1940’s and his ingenious integration of jazz with the musical currents coming from the Carribean, South and Central America.
"Africana", the fourth movement, pays a tribute to Diz’s ancestry, a source of great pride.
Finally, the "Toccata" is a synthesis of the four previous movements.
My greatest satisfaction is that Diz enjoyed playing the "Gillespiana" and that we played the piece together many times. He took it in concerts to the four corners of the world and I was always moved by his performance as well as the reception by the public.

Lalo Schifrin
(liner Notes from the1997 re-recording of the "Gillespiana" with the WDR-Bigband, Jon Faddis and Paquito D’Rivera)

LATIN JAZZ SUITE

The "Latin Jazz Suite" is an inner journey to different landscapes of musical styles and dances, which since my early youth have awakened my interest, both as a performer and as a composer. The dances I have chosen have definite boundaries. My task was to transform them in order to become vehicels for the musical expression of the soloist and the band.

I. MONTUNO

"Montuno" has a definite Cuban influence. Nevertheless, the jazz elements permeate throughout this first movement to the point that the harmonic progressions expand as if they were organized variations. Through this process, the band creates an atmosphere which surrounds the soloists by becoming the background to their improvisations or by interjecting short dialogues. Only during the son-montuno section the band becomes the center of gravity of the movement. In this case, the harmony is reduced to a raw simplicity, which allows a complexity of rhythmic figures and colorful orchestration.

II. MARTINIQUE

This movement is evocative of the Caribbean islands. The use of the guitar (stopped sounds) and special effects by the organ are my own interpretation of the steel drums which are so prevalent in Caribbean music. A very straight-forward, melodic theme is contrasted with a bridge which creates recurring tensions in its harmonic structure, and keeps building to the point of bitonality by the band and the soloists. Slowly the musical textures unfold in reverse order, and the introductory bass line is re-stated.

III. PAMPAS

In "Pampas" I explore the use of the Argentinean rhythms which are an amalgamation of Indian, African and European influences. This third movement paints the human struggle within a vast space with infinite horizons. It is constructed around several elements: an introduction, a first theme, a recurring interlude and two connecting themes. These sections and commentaries are performed by the orchestra and precedes the recapitulation of the main themes and motives. Finally, the coda is a contraction of the introduction, and darkness closes the cycle of a day in the pampas.

IV. MANAOS

Since the early part of the 20th century, Brazilian music has been a close relative of jazz. The vigor and energy of the rhythms from the north of the exuberant Brazilian universe are significant. From Bahia to the Amazon River (bird songs by the flutes), back to Bahia and finally Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, the themes and textures are traveling through a pulse full of vitality. In one of the sections the band is featured as a gigantic percussion instrument, and the soloists are given the opportunity to expand their ideas to their maximum potential. The general feeling of the movement is a defiant cascade of sounds which overflows the echoes of the old Opera House in Manaos, the legendary city once invaded by the jungle and then reborn, as if awakened by the murmurs of the tropical winds.

V. RITUAL

As a tribute to the African roots of Latin Jazz, the fifth movement starts with the gathering of the Yoruba congregation. We hear their footsteps, which are the saxophones and trumpets playing very fast on the keys of the instruments without tone, and the rest of the band making very soft noises. The gourd and the conga drums call for the beginning of the ceremony. A flute plays the introduction as a prayer. Perhaps the essence of the entire "Latin Jazz Suite" is in this solo, which is written throughout. I chose some African scales of four and five notes each, and incorporated additional notes from the chromatic scale, dividing the octave in equal parts. (This is a procedure used in European 20th century music.) Instead of trying to imitate African music, I do try to convey the feeling of the place. The impressions of each movement are abstractions of the different points of the journey. After the solo flute the dance in 12/8 meter starts (bass, drums, percussion.) The soloists state a theme (chant-like.) The nature of scales, which can be used for a free improvisation. The structure is rather open and the band once in a while alternates rhythmic punctuations and figures, with the re-statement of the theme as a cannon. The different textures and dynamic allow for a mythical counterpoint of excitement and solemnity.

VI. FIESTA

"Fiesta" is a celebration of joy, exhilaration and hope. A lively rhythm brings the impulse to the theme, which has a flamenco flavor. The Spaniards brought the gypsy music to the Americas. Since the gypsies are of Hindu origins, I purposely chose this musical language to extend the unifying experiences of the whole suite. Not only is there an implicit fraternal foundation in the term "Latin Jazz" (the Americas), but we offer our recognition to the peoples and cultures from Africa, Europe and India. The whole world dances united for a future in which tolerance, togetherness and spiritual renewal weave the fabric of our aspirations for a better life.

LALO SCHIFRIN