Ravinia 2022, Issue 2

career when Wynton Marsalis invited him to tour and record with the Wynton Marsa- lis Quartet (later, Sextet and Septet, 1985–91). Meanwhile Roberts ventured on an indepen- dent career as solo pianist and frontman, win- ning theTheloniousMonk Piano Competition (1987) and releasing his first album, The Truth Is Spoken Here (1989). In 1995, he formed the Marcus Roberts Trio, today featuring bassist Rodney Jordan and drummer Jason Marsalis (Wynton’s youngest brother). CBS News’s 60 Minutes profiled Roberts in a segment hosted by Wynton Marsalis entitled “The Virtuoso,” which aired on March 30, 2014. Roberts holds an appointment as Associate Professor of Music at his alma mater, Florida State University, and is a Visiting Distin- guished Professor of Music at Bard College. At FSU, he formed the Modern Jazz Genera- tion, a multigenerational ensemble in which members of his trio mentor up-and-coming jazz artists. Roberts has received three honor- ary doctorates from The Juilliard School (2014), Brigham Young University (2021), and Bard College (2022). His recent compositional projects include a trio of works ( America Has the Blues, Seeking Peace, and UnitedWe Play ) for jazz piano, jazz ensemble, and orchestral strings, commis- sioned by the American Symphony Orchestra for the short film United We Play , which pre- miered online on December 9, 2020, and is still available for free viewing. On February 4, 2022, Deutsche Grammophon released an album entitled America that featured British violinist Daniel Hope, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, German singer-songwriter Joy Denalane, and the Marcus Roberts Trio. A live audio/video recording by the Modern Jazz Generation, called Tomorrow’s Promis- es , premiered on June 9. The Marcus Roberts Trio will release its next CD, Rhythm in Blue , in the fall of 2022. Marcus Roberts has, for many years, dis- played a special affinity for the music of George Gershwin: both musicians effortlessly Marcus Roberts cross the boundary between jazz and classical styles. His trio released Gershwin for Lovers, a collection of standards, in 1994: the album rose to the top of the jazz charts. The follow- ing summer, Roberts premiered his impro- vised interpretation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Chicago with his trio and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra on July 1, 1995. He followed with Portraits in Blue (1996), an album featuring his improvised adaptations of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and “I Got Rhythm” Variations , with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and conductor Robert Sadin. The Marcus Roberts Trio issued two live recordings with conductor Seiji Ozawa: A Gershwin Night (2004) with the Berlin Philharmonic and Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F (2006) with the Saito Kinen Orchestra. In 2014, Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra commissioned Roberts to write “a new concerto for jazz trio and orchestra,” which became the Rhapsody in D . Roberts has known Ozawa since a performance of his improvised version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Boston Sympho- ny Orchestra on July 26, 1996, at the Tangle- wood Music Festival. The Marcus Roberts Trio joined the Saito Kinen Orchestra and conductor Toshiaki Murakami in the world premiere of Rhapsody in D on August 28, 2016, at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Roberts added this dedication to the score: “Through music, we share in the beliefs and achievements of all cultures by the simple act of listening and allowing the music to influ- ence and change us into our better selves. To Seiji, with deepest gratitude.” The title Rhapsody in D is a dual homage to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F . “My goal was to connect the jazz and classical genres using a modern composi- tional framework,” Roberts explained, “and a lot of spice and flavor from American and European cultures.” This single-movement work combines structural principles bor- rowed from the concerto, rhapsody, and theme-and-variations. The introduction steadily builds in intensity and dynamic in preparation for the two main themes, the first lyrical and the second “buoyantly frivolous.” Eight variations follow, each paying tribute to a different musical tradition or luminary. Roberts identifies specific individuals who influenced the first group of four variations: a minuet à la Prokofiev and Stravinsky, two variations conjuring jazz pianist Erroll Gar- ner, and a segment inspired by Maurice Rav- el, whose music also influenced Gershwin. The second group of four variations portrays important places of music-making. Roberts recalls the festive street ensembles in New Orleans in variations five and eight, while variations six and seven “bring me back to my church roots in an exploration of gospel music combined with an earthy blues feeling.” ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841–1904) / WILLIAM ARMS FISHER (1861–1948) “Goin’ Home” (arranged by Adrian Dunn) The melody of Czech composer Antonín Dvořak’s Largo movement in the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, B. 178, embedded itself in public consciousness within years of its Carn- egie Hall premiere on December 15, 1893. The slow, eminently singable melody proved memorable and easily transmissible, like a folksong. Almost three decades later, William Arms Fisher, a composer, writer, and former student of Dvořak’s at the National Conserva- tory of Music in New York City, added lyrics in dialect to the melody. The Oliver Ditson Company of Philadelphia first published his adaptation in 1922. In this form, “Goin’ Home” circulated widely as a “traditional spiritual.” Four years later, Fisher edited and published an extensive collection of Seventy Negro Spirituals . In the preface to the sheet music, Fisher de- scribed a wistfulness he perceived in the or- chestral original, an emotion fueled by the composer’s time spent in the Czech commu- nity of Spillville, IA, his two-week encounter with Native American members of a “Kick- apoo Medicine Show,” and his interactions with Black students at the conservatory, most notably Harry T. Burleigh. “The Largo , with its haunting English horn solo, is the out- pouring of Dvořák’s own home-longing, with something of the loneliness of far-off prairie horizons, the faint memory of the red-man’s bygone days, and a sense of the tragedy of the black-man as it sings in his ‘spirituals.’ Deeper still, it is a moving expression of that nostal- gia of the soul all human beings feel.” These details tell the story of the well-known lyrics, but what about the origin of the mel- ody itself? According to Fisher, his former teacher created themes inspired by the spirit of authentic melodies. “This enthusiasm, this discovery [of African American spirituals and Cover of “Goin’ Home” sheet music, music by Antonín Dvořák and lyrics by William Arms Fisher Refrain: In the Lord, in the Lord, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord; In the Lord, in the Lord, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. Before I’d stay in hell one day, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord; I’d sing and pray myself away, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [ refrain ] I’m born of God, I know I am, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, I’m purchased by the dying Lamb, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [ refrain ] Going to shout and pray and never stop, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord; Until I reach the mountain top, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [ refrain ] MARCUS ROBERTS (b. 1963) Rhapsody in D Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, harp, piano, upright bass, drum set, and strings Legendary jazz pianist and groundbreaking composer Marthaniel “Marcus” Roberts en- joyed his first musical experiences at home and church in Jacksonville, FL. Like his mother Coretta, who went blind from glauco- ma as a teenager, he lost sight in both eyes to cataracts at age 5. Marcus plunked his first pi- ano at church, where his mother was a gospel singer. Coretta and her husband Solomon lat- er saved enough money to buy their inquisi- tive 8-year-old son a piano, which he taught himself to play: “I sat right down. I thought, ‘This, apparently, is for me. I could work on this all day’ ” ( Time , July 17, 1989). Roberts entered the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in Saint Augustine at age 10 and began classical piano lessons with a sightless teacher, Hubert Foster, two years lat- er. He developed a fascination with jazz after Foster introduced him to the recordings of Art Tatum, a pianist who also had impaired vision. Roberts met Wynton Marsalis in the summer of 1980, when the 19-year-old trum- peter performed with Art Blakey andThe Jazz Messengers at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The following year, Roberts entered Florida State University as a classical piano major, studying with Leonidas Lipovetsky. Before his senior year, Roberts received an of- fer that would forever alter the course of his RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 4 – JULY 17, 2022 38