Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom (Motéma Music)
Ted Nash Big Band
Released September 2016
Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2017
YouTube:
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Spotify:
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About:
On September 9, 2016, GRAMMY® Award-nominated composer, arranger and multi- instrumentalist TED NASH will release his third large ensemble recording, Ted Nash Big Band – Presidential Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom. It is an ambitious, culturally trenchant album inspired by eight iconic political speeches of the 20th century, each centering on the essential human need for freedom. Marking Nash’s debut on Motéma Music and his 13th recording as a leader, the full suite features an overture plus eight movements, each preceded by inspirational words from a famed world leader: John F. Kennedy, Jawaharlal Nehru, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, Aung San Suu Kyi, Lyndon B. Johnson and Nelson Mandela.
Presidential Suite highlights Nash’s absolutely unique approach to this material. Nash transcribed the actual pitches and rhythms of the speeches and then transformed them into motifs, riffs and grooves, placing each into musical contexts that embrace the character, location and era of the speaker. Working with the world-class players of the Ted Nash Big Band, he wove the spaces for solos into these eight through-composed works, and his colleagues in the band did their own research into the meaning and history of the underlying speeches. They responded with solos of remarkable sensitivity and power. Nash writes:
When I hear a speech offered from the soul of a great person, I’m moved by the rhythm, the cadence, the pauses, what it communicates, and even the audience’s reaction. It’s like music. Great political speeches inspire us to believe we are capable of achieving great things together. It is my hope that when people listen to Presidential Suite, they will be reminded of not only how far we have come but also of how much we still have to do regarding human rights and freedom.
The astounding result is that every moment of Nash’s score is imbued with the essence – with the very sound – of the presidential speech that inspired it. Ultimately he transforms these impassioned words by inspirational leaders into music – our universal human language – and frees them from the pages of history.
It’s the genius of Ted Nash to realize that a stirring speech also has inherent musical qualities: lyrics, cadence, rhythm, and melody…we are given a chance to consider again the greatness and meaning of these speeches. And by reinterpreting these familiar speeches into music, Nash allows us to hear them afresh, in all the vigor and spontaneity with which they were first delivered. – From the liner notes by Douglas Brinkley and Kabir Sehgal.
After recording his musical interpretations of each speech and essay, Nash and Executive Producer Kabir Sehgal invited guests with special connections to these leaders to read each text passage: actors Glenn Close and Sam Waterston bring their humanitarian convictions and special skills for interpreting historic figures; civil rights legend and politician Andrew Young was a close friend of Nelson Mandela; Senator Joe Lieberman was inspired by Kennedy to run for public office; author and wellness expert Deepak Chopra met Nehru when he was a boy in India; CNN History commentator and author Douglas Brinkley edited Reagan’s diaries; diplomat William vanden Heuvel directed the Roosevelt Institute and founded the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy in New York City; and David Miliband, former Secretary of State for Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs for the United Kingdom, was deeply influenced by Churchill’s speeches. The musical and historical contexts of each speech and musical movement of Presidential Suite are revealed in the extensive liner notes by New York Times best-selling authors Brinkley and Seghal.
Ted Nash is known for his unique ability to mine other art forms to inspire his own musical creations and to put forth expansive ideas about the universal human experience. Regarded as one of the most significant jazz composers of the 21st century, his last large ensemble recording, Portrait in Seven Shades, explored the form, colors and compositions of Matisse, Chagall, Pollock and other great painters and garnered two GRAMMY® Award-nominations.
The project features the Ted Nash Big Band: Ted Nash, Dan Nimmer, Carlos Henriquez, Ali Jackson, Sherman Irby, Charles Pillow, Victor Goines, Walter Blanding, Paul Nedzela, Ryan Kisor, Kenny Rampton, Marcus Printup, Greg Gisbert, Vincent Gardner, Chris Crenshaw and Elliot Mason. Special musical guests are: Wynton Marsalis and Joe Temperly, Nash’s longtime orchestra colleague who passed away in May. Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom was originally commissioned by Jazz At Lincoln Center, of which Nash has been a member since 1998. The work premiered there in 2014 and then at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Disc one features the full suite, in which the words of each iconic leader are read by a current day arts, sports or political figure, and are then reinterpreted musically by Nash and his finely tuned ensemble, which transforms the speeches into timeless works of musical art. A second bonus disc features the musical selections by themselves. My hope is that people will be moved by the music and also by the incredible sentiment found in these speeches. They are timeless variations on freedom. I see it as our privilege and responsibility as artists and as citizens to remind our leaders of what is important. I’m excited to share this with all music fans and believers in freedom and democracy worldwide,” shares Nash.
Track Listing:
1. Overture (Ted Nash) 1:31
2. Joe Lieberman Reads John F. Kennedy (Ted Nash) 1:22
3. Ask Not- Kennedy (Ted Nash) 5:40
4. Deepak Chopra Reads Jawaharlal Nehru (Ted Nash) 1:43
5. Spoken at Midnight- Nehru (Ted Nash) 5:39
6. William Vanden Heuvel Reads Franklin D. Roosevelt (Ted Nash) 1:34
7. The Four Freedoms- Roosevelt (Ted Nash) 8:23
8. Douglas Brinkley Reads Ronald Reagan (Ted Nash) 1:20
9. Tear Down This Wall- Reagan (Ted Nash) 4:05
10. David Miliband Reads Winston Churchill (Ted Nash) 1:46
11. This Deliverance- Churchill (Ted Nash) 4:58
12. Glenn Close Reads Aung San Suu Kyi (Ted Nash) 1:44
13. Water in Cupped Hands- Suu Kyi (Ted Nash) 4:15
14. Sam Waterston Reads Lyndon B. Johnson (Ted Nash) 1:48
15. The American Promise- LB Johnson (Ted Nash) 6:11
16. Andrew Young Reads Nelson Mandela (Ted Nash) 1:35
17. The Time for the Healing of the Wounds- Mandela (Ted Nash) 5:16
Disc 2 (Music only)
Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 from above
Personnel:
Ted Nash Big Band
Ted Nash: conductor, arranger, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
Dan Nimmer: piano
Carlos Henriquez: acoustic bass, electric bass
Ali Jackson: drums, percussion
Sherman Irby: alto saxophone, flute, alto flute
Charles Pillow: alto saxophone, flute, alto flute; clarinet, soprano saxophone
Victor Goines: tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute
Walter Blanding: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Paul Nedzela: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Ryan Kisor: trumpet (lead)
Kenny Rampton: trumpet
Marcus Printup: trumpet
Greg Gisbert: trumpet
Vincent Gardner: trombone (lead)
Chris Crenshaw: trombone, vocal (Disc 1, #17, Disc 2, #9)
Elliot Mason: trombone
Guest Musicians
Zach Adelman: percussion (Disc 1, #13, Disc 2, #7)
Ansel Scholl: cowbell (Disc 1, #17, Disc 2, #9)
Wynton Marsalis: trumpet (Disc 1, #15, Disc 2, #8)
Joe Temperly: baritone saxophone (Disc 1, #11, Disc 2, #6)
Deepak Chopra: reader (Disc 1, #4)
Glenn Close: reader (Disc 1, #12)
Joe Lieberman: reader (Disc 1, #2)
David Miliband: reader (Disc 1, #10)
William vanden Heuvel: reader (Disc 1, #6)
Sam Waterston: reader (Disc 1, #14)
Andrew Young: reader (Disc 1, #16)
Recorded September 14, 2014, at Jazz At Lincoln Center, New York, NY, and Varis Leitchtman Studio
Executive Producer: Kabir Sehgal
Producers: Kabir Sehgal, Douglas, Herschel Garfein, Robert Allen, Alexandre Walser
Senior Producer: Jana Herzen
Engineering and Mixing: Rob Macomber
Mastering: Doug Schwartz
Review:
As we live through the most contentious and
divisive political cycle in US history, the Ted Nash Big Band Presidential
Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom couldn’t be more relevant. The
significance hits home quickly and pointedly as former Connecticut State
Senator Joe Lieberman follows the opening “Overture” with words of
JFK that say, in part: …”civility is not a weakness….”
Nash is well known for his role in Wynton
Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, an
association that dates back more than fifteen years. Under his namesake Big
Band, Nash had released the critically acclaimed Chakra (Plastic
Sax Records, 2013) and some half-dozen leader dates. Highly regarded as both a
saxophonist and composer, Nash is a GRAMMY® Award-nominated composer and
arranger as well as a multi-reedist. More importantly, he has long displayed a
creative intellect that goes beyond the music to explore broader issues.
As a composer, Nash doesn’t simply revel in
traditionalism. While he adheres to a fundamental foundation, the
improvisations can reflect a wide-open sense of creative freedom and the
combination is what makes him a unique writer and arranger. At work, counter to
the big band sound of the ensemble, are inventive solos such as Nash’s own on
the Jawaharlal Nehru inspired “Spoken at Midnight” and
trumpeter Kenny Rampton and
bassist Carlos Henriquez on
“The Four Freedoms” based on FDR’s speech. Baritone saxophonist Joe
Temperley is featured on “This
Deliverance,” a Winston Churchill-inspired piece of Temperley’s
suggestion. The saxophonist unfortunately passed away not long after the
recording of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom.
Those familiar with the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz Orchestra will quickly recognize that Nash’s Big Band is essentially
manned by the same personnel. Though Marsalis appears only on “The
American Promise,” it is a memorable contribution. He shares the solo
spotlight with the great drummer Ali Jackson from JLCO and the Marsalis quintet. Tenor saxophonist Walter
Blanding, pianist Dan Nimmer and Henriquez are members of the three groups as
well and each contribute outstanding solo performances throughout the suite. By
the time the album closes with the Nelson Mandela inspired “The Time for
the Healing of the Wounds” with its infectious world rhythm (and
trombonist Chris Crenshaw’s spoken
vocal) the listener has not only been moved by the thought-provoking ideas
behind these speeches but by Nash’s stunning inventiveness in
translation.
The high concept behind Presidential Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom is not new for the ambitious Nash. The JLCO’s Portrait in Seven Shades (Jazz at Lincoln Center, 2010) was a seven-movement suite paying homage to modern masters of painting Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Dali, Chagall and Pollock. With Presidential Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom adds another level of complexity in pairing the excerpts of these famous speeches with the appropriate readers before taking each piece to its musical interpretation.
The two disc set features a second disc that consists of the music segments without the narration but the combined elements are not to be missed. The CD features a thirty-seven page booklet that includes background on the historical context of each of the speeches recognized here, perspectives on the readers of those speech extracts and personal insights from best-selling authors Douglas Brinkley and Kabir Sehgal who serve as Producer (there are six in total) and Executive Producer respectively. In their notes, the two point out precisely what makes this album such an important work as they cite it as a cue to keep …”the essential vision of freedom in the forefront of our dialogues, our actions, and our culture.”
Karl Ackermann (All About Jazz)
