Stefon Harris: Portraits of the Promised (for 9 pieces)

[Lazaro Vega]

 

Portraits of the Promised

STEFON HARRIS, marimbist, vibraphonist & composer

with Blackout and Friends

Thursday, October 5, 2006 | 8:00 pm | Chenery Auditorium, Kalamazoo

Musicians

Anne Drummond, flute

Mark Gross, clarinet

Tim Warfield, tenor saxophone

Jeremy Pelt, trumpet

Roland Barber, trombone

Derrick Hodge, bass

Xavier Davis, piano

Terreon Gully, drums

Fontana Chamber Arts commissioned five-time Grammy Award-nominated composer, marimbist and vibraphonist Stefon Harris to compose, publish and perform a jazz suite. The resulting work, Portraits of the Promised, is a full-length work written for marimba and vibraphone, and an ensemble of eight accompanying artists.

The world premier of this work, as well as music from Harris's new Blue Note CD "African Tarantella, Dances with Duke, a Tribute to Duke Ellington" including excerpts of "The Queen's Suite" and "The New Orleans Suite" are featured on the program.

Tickets: Adult $30 Zone I, $22 Zone II, Students $5

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Jazz Underwriter: Kalamazoo Gazette

Funded in part through Meet the Composer's Creative Connections.

Presented in cooperation with the People's Church of Kalamazoo.

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To request a season brochure, or for tickets, call (269) 382-7774.

www.fontanachamberarts.org

Touring schedule:

10/2/2006 Residency, Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo, MI

10/3/2006 Residency, Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo, MI

10/4/2006 Residency, Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo, MI

10/5/2006 Residency, Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo, MI

10/5/2006 Chenery Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI

10/6/2006 Residency, Fontana Chamber Arts Kalamazoo, MI

10/10/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/11/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/12/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/13/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/14/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/15/2006 Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL

10/16/2006 Michigan Council Foundation Kalamazoo, MI

10/18/2006 Carnegie Hall New York, NY

10/20/2006 The Egg Albany, NY

10/26/2006 San Francisco Jazz Festival San Francisco, CA

10/27/2006 The Jazz Bakery Los Angeles, CA

10/28/2006 The Jazz Bakery Los Angeles, CA

10/29/2006 The Jazz Bakery Los Angeles, CA

10/30/2006 The Atheneaum La Jolla, CA

[Lazaro Vega]

Stefon Harris taps faith roots for jazz

Sunday, October 01, 2006

By William R. Wood

An agnostic jazz musician who is the son of a Pentecostal preacher will play an original musical work dedicated to a Kalamazoo Unitarian-Universalist church.

Stefon Harris, a composer, marimbist and vibraphonist, will make a statement about his views on faith when he presents ``Portraits of the Promised'' on Thursday at Chenery Auditorium.

Through ``Portraits,'' Harris makes an ``analogy about organized religion and how there are many paths to enlightenment,'' he said.

The jazz suite will offer tonal impressions about discovering faith, following it, being deceived and swallowed by it, and living with it among the contrasting faiths of others, Harris said by phone recently from his home in Sayreville, N.J.

Harris, 34, who is black and grew up in Pentecostalism, became an agnostic as an adult. He said he discovered that his current views about faith are not so different from the views of members of People's Church in Kalamazoo.

``I met with the minister and members of the church about what Unitarianism is and the history of the church,'' Harris said. ``It is broad and open-minded, and that's the way I am, and I felt a kinship. The way I perceive it, it's a group of people who come together and discuss the core issues of unity, the meaning of love and respect. Those things were always at the forefront of our discussions.

``It is ironic that I've done something for a church and don't get into organized religion,'' he said.

Through a request from People's Church and a grant from the Gilmore Foundation, Kalamazoo's Fontana Chamber Arts commissioned Harris to compose and perform his jazz suite to communicate the church's history and commemorate its 150th anniversary.

Harris first performed ``Portraits of the Promised'' on May 21 at the church for church members. Thursday will mark the first time the piece is performed for the public.

People's Church members received more than the 20 minutes of music they originally hoped to get. Harris' piece, which took eight months to compose, is about an hour long. Harris is to perform it at Chenery with his band Blackout and several other studio musicians from New York.

People's was doubly lucky that Harris was well-oiled to create a suite. His new CD, ``African Tarantella, Dances with Duke'' (Blue Note, 2006, $17.98), to be released nationally on Tuesday, contains another Harris suite, ``The Gardner Meditations,'' and re-orchestrations of two Ellington suites.

Also, one of Harris' previous suites, ``Grand Unification Theory,'' received a Best Jazz Album Grammy nomination in 2003.

``You start to hear complete stories (in your head as a musician), and the best way to express them is in the suite format,'' said Harris, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music.

Although he doesn't share his family's views about faith, he doesn't regret growing up in the Pentecostal church and attending three-hour services on Sundays ``and 12 hours on New Year's Eve,'' he joked.

Church life gave him exposure to the history of musical expression in black culture.

``The core elements of jazz are very similar to what you are exposed to in the black church,'' Harris said. ``When you testify, you tell a story. Same thing when you play something.''

But more important, the church life gave him deep exposure to the culture around the church music -- black culture.

It was common to see public emotional expression during services. Such expression is normal in African-American life, Harris said.

``If you feel something in a black church, it is expected that you call out, `Amen!''' Harris said. ``Oftentimes in teaching jazz, that element is not talked about, and people just play chords and scales. You don't need to be an African-American (to play with feeling), but you do need to have something to say.''

Tapping that core feeling is the trick, Harris said, adding, ``Everyone is unique and beautiful, everyone has something to share.''

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/k...050.xml&coll=7

[Werf]

I just watched video footage of Harris conducting a lecture on the process of composing this piece. He first, after speaking extensively with the church officials, wrote a free verse poem. Then he divided various lines of the poem into 8 movements. The first movement is Eden's Dream, which represents people living in the Garden of Eden, all as one. The second movement is Run, which layers various rhythms, minor sounds (dark), and happy sounds by the various instruments in modes that build into improvisations. In the third

movement, Stainglass Times, Harris co-ops an early church hymnal feeling, like early Bach. The fourth movement is Portraits of the Promise, in which he mimics the momentum of people reaching up, as one, in a Pentacostal Service. Dancing Movement, Laughing Stars, is the fifth movement, where Harris taps into Buddhist or Beatific vibrations, creating a happy feeling. The sixth movement is Mara, who is a demon figure, tempting and distracting. This movement is based around one repeating chord, upon which the improvisation builds frenetically, and is one of Harris's showcases in the piece. Number seven is Snake Charmer, using clarinet to climb the melody. Eighth movement is One where the multiple rhythms and melodies from the previous movements coalesce into a tapestry of one.

Harris sat at the piano and alternated from reading the lines of the poem, and then pecking the chords and melodies, while talking about the themes of each movement. He also demonstrated various modes, chords and notes that can cause specific feelings or emotions in the listener, and how he applies them to composition. Harris mentioned that this is the method he employs more with suite composition than with shorter pieces, where he might just improvises until the motifs of melody emerge, and inspire him to write.

The guy is articulate, passionate, and joyful in his lecture style.

WGVU TV is doing a five camera shoot of Thursday's performance for future broadcast on PBS, and for a DVD project.