[ABOVE:
Victory Stride:
The Symphonic Music of James P. Johnson;
The Concordia Orchestra; Marin Alsop, Conductor; Music Masters 67140
(1994) BELOW: Jazz
Nocturne - American Concertos of the Jazz Age;
Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra; Richard Rosenberg,
conductor; Naxos 8.559647 (2011) (Cover painting: Piano
Etude
by Hugh Dunnahoe)]
James
Price Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey Feb. 1, 1894.
One of the most significant developments in his legacy in the past year has been the erection of a grave marker in
his honor at his previously unmarked burial plot. It was financed by
a fundraising party at a prominent nightspot in New York City. A
great tribute to the composer's compositions and piano performances
since his prior birthday has been the 2011 release of the Naxos
American Classics disc Jazz
Nocturne - American Concertos of the Jazz Age.
Naxos
says in the liner notes of this CD: “Arkansas' Hot Springs Music
Festival pairs world-class mentors with talented pre-professional
apprentices on full scholarship; the two groups play side by side in
orchestral, chamber music, solo recital, vocal, choral and opera
repertoire. For two weeks, these musicians form a unique community,
presenting twenty concerts and over 250 open rehearsals for music
lovers from across the globe. Over 20,000 people attend Festival
events each year, and recordings from its concerts are broadcast
nationwide via National Public Radio.”
The
distinctive repertoire performed at the Hot Spring Music Festival and
recorded in the Naxos
American Classics series
has been of great help to AfriClassical.com.
The releases of the music of Edmond
Dédé (1827-1903),
Charles
Lucien Lambert, Sr. (1828-1896) and
Lucien-Leon
Guillaume Lambert, Jr. (1858-1945)
have made it possible to add each of the three composers to the
website.
Richard
Rosenberg conducts the Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra
in James P. Johnson's Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody, orchestrated
by William Grant Still, the opening work on the CD Jazz
Nocturne: American Concertos of the Jazz Age; Naxos 8.559647
(2011). He writes in the liner notes: “This
disc marks the première recording of the complete, final orchestral
version of the work. As one of the first successful large-scale
musical works by an African-American composer, Yamekraw
thus played an important rôle
in the development of American music in the twentieth century.”
The
full-throated rendition of Yamekraw, in the final version
orchestrated by William Grant Still, conveys the throbbing vitality
of the Jazz Age. Harry Reser's Suite for Banjo and Orchestra
provides a noticeable change of
instrumentation. George Gershwin's A Rhapsody in Blue
is the next work. The disc ends with the two works of Dana Suesse, a
rarely-heard composer of the era whose presence is a reminder that
the Jazz Age belonged to women composers as well as men.
