Saxophonist and composer Denys Baptiste referred to pulling the cast and technology together for his commemoration of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech as like herding cats.
Keeping moggies in order would be a mite less ambitious, methinks.
It is 10 years since Baptiste premiered his Let Freedom Ring! suite, which was inspired by the 40th anniversary of King's momentous oration, and Baptiste prefaced its new companion piece, Now Is The Time, which opened the concert, by commenting that not much had changed in the interim period.
Video evidence over the evening supported him. Some heinous stuff was depicted on the screen - not all of it relating to America's civil rights struggle. Although Now Is The Time faced up to realities with a very involved and rather episodic score, in sum it carried a positive message with beautiful writing, not least for the four-piece string section, who acted almost as mood commentators. The large local choir provided vocal uplift and the band of mostly young London jazz players reacted to Lemn Sissay's rhythmical poetry with redoubtable grooves and keen improvising.
If this music had a still-being-played-in quality, Let Freedom Ring! by contrast had the unstoppable, exhilarating flow of a piece that has developed its own momentum through repeated performances. Often reminiscent of Charles Mingus's marriages of political comment, gospel, blues and uncompromising, hard swinging jazz, it allowed the band room to express themselves and involved the choir and the audience in impromptu hand claps and chants. Its Free At Last finale - part jazz gig, part prayer meeting - was a rousing affirmation of music's potency as a healing force with a mighty feelgood factor.
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