Highlights Civil Rights Icons Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Muhammad Ali, as well
as Barack Obama, Through the Voices of Sonia Sanchez, Wendell Pierce, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Dion Graham
In the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement achieved its
greatest moments, gifted bassist and composer Christian McBride was not yet born.
As a child in the 1970s, he learned the history of the movement in school, but
due to a quirk of fate – his grandmother’s fortunate propensity for saving old
things – he found another source of information that spoke to him on a more
emotionally accessible level than history books.
“When I was a kid, I used to spend hours looking at old
copies of Ebony and Jet magazines that my grandmother saved,” he says. “To read
contemporaneous writings by black writers about events and people who were my
history – our history – that was absolutely fascinating to me. It was the
greatest gift my grandmother could have given to me.”
That gift played a major role in the creation of The
Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons, McBride’s stunning
masterpiece about “the struggle,” which is now a 20 year-long, continuously
evolving project. The work combines elements of jazz, gospel, big band, swing,
symphony, theater and dramatic spoken word, in a clear-eyed yet optimistic look
at where our society has come from and where it is hopefully headed.
Born in Philadelphia, McBride was a gifted musical prodigy
who soaked up influences from every direction. At the tender age of 17, he was
recruited by saxophonist Bobby Watson to join his group, Horizon. During the
1990s, he proceeded to work with some of the biggest names in jazz, including
Pat Metheny, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard and Chick Corea as well as major
pop and rock stars like Sting, Paul McCartney, James Brown and Celine Dion. His
abilities were also coveted by the classical music world, including opera
legends Kathleen Battle and Renee Fleming.
In 1998, a musical commission from the Portland (Maine) Arts
Society set in motion what would eventually become a major part of his life’s
work. The only stipulation for the commission was that it had to include a
choir. “At that time, I called it a musical portrait of the Civil Rights
Movement,” Christian says. “I thought about those times and decided that rather
than try to write a history of the movement, I wanted to evoke its spirit and
feeling.”
Written for just a quartet and gospel choir, that original
version of The Movement Revisited gave only a hint of what the piece would
eventually become. In 2008, the L.A. Philharmonic asked if he would like to
remake it as a far bigger version for their upcoming season.
The Movement Revisited grew into a sweeping four-part suite
for big jazz band, small jazz group, gospel choir and four narrators who convey
the pain and pathos, euphoria, joy and ultimately hope of the struggle through
the words and writings of four iconic figures, not only of the movement, but
America: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and
Muhammad Ali.
“The movement was obviously much bigger than the four
historic figures I included,” Christian notes. “But these four icons are people
that touched me deeply, therefore I decided to put the tagline “A Musical
Portrait of Four Icons” as opposed to calling it a portrait of the Civil Rights
Movement.”
In 2008, the new version of The Movement Revisited premiered
to universal acclaim in a celebrated performance at the Walt Disney Concert
Hall. A few months later, Barack Obama was elected President and McBride was
asked by the Detroit Jazz Festival to perform The Movement Revisited again,
this time at Detroit’s famed Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Detroit Jazz Festival
asked him to expand the suite to include President Obama, which led to the
creation of a fifth and final section of the suite, “Apotheosis, November 4th,
2008,” in which the icons quote Obama’s victory speech.
When time came to record The Movement Revisited for the
album release, McBride began the all-important casting of four narrators who
needed to possess the empathy, humor and gravitas to bring the words of these
civil rights legends to life, especially for a new, younger audience.
For the voice of Rosa Parks, he made what some may have
thought an unexpected voice by casting a non-actor – Sonia Sanchez, the great
poet, author and artist. “She’s so majestic,” says McBride. “Sonia is one of
our greatest voices. She was part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and
early 70s.” To portray Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he turned to the great
character actor Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme), who possessed the stirring
presence and ringing tones necessary for the role. Two other great actors,
Vondie Curtis-Hall (Chicago Hope, Daredevil) and Dion Graham (Malcolm X, The
Wire) were recruited by McBride to play Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali,
respectively. Both do a remarkable job of channeling the passion, fury and in
Ali’s case, his razor-sharp humor.
It might seem the divided times in which we find ourselves
right now are crying out for the album release of a work such as The Movement
Revisited, and for Christian McBride the evolution of the piece has come to
fruition at just the right moment.
“If you look at history, there were a number of artists who
dedicated their music to what was going on in terms of the struggle,” McBride
says. “In many ways, there are some new battles we’re fighting, but I feel that
these new battles fall under the umbrella of equality, fairness and human
rights – and that’s an old battle.”
