Victory Stride: The Symphonic Music of
James P. Johnson
The Concordia Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Conductor
Music Masters 67140 (1994)
of Stride Piano & Classical Music
NJ Ballet celebrates past, future with new work
Feb. 16, 2014
The
first program of the season takes place at the Mayo Performing Arts
Center in Morristown on Sunday, Feb. 23. The program features a new work
set to “Harlem Symphony,” a composition by pioneering jazz artist (and
New Brunswick native) James P. Johnson.
The New Jersey Ballet will be joined onstage by the New Jersey Youth Symphony, conducted by Jeffrey Grogan.
During the next few months, the New Jersey Ballet will premiere a total of seven newly commissioned works.
...
Many
people associate jazz in New Jersey with the likes of Count Basie or
Sarah Vaughan. But McRae found in his research that James P. Johnson was
a crucial figure in the evolution of jazz from ragtime.
McRae
compares Johnson’s “Harlem Symphony” to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in
Blue” in its melding of jazz themes in a symphonic setting.
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