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Christian McBride: The Movement Revisited

 (Walt Disney Concert Hall, 2,265 seats, $83 top)

By RICHARD S. GINELL

Presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. Reviewed May 16, 2008.
 
Performers: Christian McBride, Bob Sheppard, Keith Fiddmont, Ron Blake, Rickey Woodard, Greg Huckins, Andrew Martin, George Bohannon, Wendall Kelly, Craig Gosnell, Dan Fornero, Warren Luening, Willie Murillo, Bijon Watson, Geoff Keezer, Trey Henry, Terreon Gully, Brian Kilgore, St. James Sacred Nation Concert Choir. Narrators: James Avery, Loretta Devine, Carl Lumbly, Wendell Pierce.
 

Born in 1972, Christian McBride was too young to have experienced first-hand the history that Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X made -- and he was in elementary school when Muhammad Ali fought his last bouts. So his ambitious new work, "The Movement Revisited," performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday night, comes from the perspective of someone grasping the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement as handed down. Certainly McBride can be credited for reaching high -- and at its best, this nearly hourlong cantata packed some joyous power.

"The Movement Revisited" started life a decade ago as a piece for small instrumental group and gospel choir, but when McBride came to the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the creative chair for jazz, he was able to expand it considerably. Now the choir is joined by a big band, fronted by four actors who recite words taken from the speeches, interviews and talks of Parks (Loretta Devine), King (Wendell Pierce), Malcolm (Carl Lumbly) and Ali (James Avery).

None of the actors tried to mimic the inflections, timbres and speech rhythms of their models. Because their voices and images still resonate today via recordings and film, something was lost in the transfer; they weren't in the room with us, and we missed them.

Also, the texts that McBride chose for the actors to read tended to be on the tame side. We heard Malcolm in his last, more conciliatory, post-hajj period, and King's usual "I Have a Dream" speech, with only a hint early on of some of his more dangerous denunciations of the U.S. military machine. Probably the most direct, basic points were made by Ali amid some humorous bluster circa the 1974 George Foreman fight.

Yet McBride, perhaps reflecting his experience as a master bassist anchoring his rhythm section, organized the piece very effectively -- having each narrator (except the incorrigible Ali) introduce the next, matching each personality with an appropriate idiom. With his skilled large ensemble smoothly moving from one camp to another without any sense of stylistic vertigo, McBride delivered mainstream jazz for Parks, Coltrane spirituality for Malcolm, crazy drums and funk for Ali and uplifting gospel for King.

And by giving King the last word, McBride was able to save his best musical material for last, establishing a fine, soulful, handclapping groove that sent everyone out of the hall with a warm feeling.