Preview
FOLKSOPERA
Saturday, March 1
Grace Presbyterian Church
It’s been almost 40 years since Duke Ellington debuted the first of three compositions called The Sacred Concerts. Now, for the first time in Canada, you can hear a replica of the sacred music Ellington performed for audiences all over the world.
Called The Best of the Sacred Concerts, this ambitious and dramatic performance by Calgary group FolksOpera will feature a 15-piece big band, a 25-voice choir, five vocal soloists, a tap dancer and a narrator.
The brain-child of FolksOpera leader James Beer, this performance promises to be an exhilarating and poignant experience. Ellington’s compositions still touch us, as the event’s conductor and pianist Dave Klinger recently observed.
"At rehearsal, all of a sudden it hit me and I got a lump in my throat – I thought, ‘Holy smokes, this is really very moving,’" he says. "Sometimes you lose sight of that when you’re working on it, but all of a sudden it was there. I think there are going to be lumps in the throats and there are going to be some tears (at the concert)."
The original Sacred Concerts – the first in 1965, the second in 1967 and the last in 1973, a year before Ellington’s death – were considered groundbreaking performances. Because of them, many saw that jazz could have a spiritual side. The performances also broadened the definition of church music, with some saying it was part of a movement to make the music of the church more relevant to the times.
Ellington’s music is often poignant – as in the beautiful "Come Sunday," which will be performed here by Calgary Opera vocalist Jacqui Lynn Fidlar – but there is definitely another side to the compositions.
"There’ll be laughter," says Klinger. "In the first piece, (Ellington) talks about conditions that did not exist at the beginning of time – from headaches to romantic troubles. He has a whole essay talking about it: there was no aspirin, there were no headaches and, in the line I like, he says, ‘no men trying to fill an inside straight.’"
Ellington’s introduction for the first Sacred Concert was the stirring "In the Beginning God." Awarded a Grammy in 1966, this 15-minute work has been described as a series of climaxes and will provide the dramatic opening for the Calgary performance. Featuring at least three solos – on trumpet, tenor saxophone and drums – it grips the audience.
"I mean, what an opening," says Klinger. "That thing could have been the end."
It’s fitting that this ambitious performance will take place in an inspiring setting: Calgary’s Grace Presbyterian Church. With a seating capacity of 900 and clear sightlines from each of those seats, the church is ideal for Ellington’s sense of theatricality.
"We walked in there one afternoon last spring," says Klinger, "and he (James Beer) said ‘this is what I want!’ and I thought, ‘Right, this is it.’ It’s just the physical space – it is magnificent." |
