
You’ll have to forgive this rather blatant act of promoting something that I’m behind, but to borrow a phrase from Vice President Joe Biden, this is kind of a “big fucking deal.” It’s a big fucking deal because this is the first time Stravinsky’s entire score for The Rite of Spring has been arranged for modern jazz orchestra. It’s a big fucking deal because we have perhaps the best big band in the Mid-Atlantic region to perform the work. And it’s a big fucking deal because it’s happening right here in Baltimore!
Here are the dirty details: You can hear the Rite of Swing presented by the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern Music Series TONIGHT (May 12, 2010) at the Metro Gallery at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.—yes, there are two sets. AND, I’m thrilled to announce that the 7:30 p.m. set will be livestreamed online by Radar Redux! Click here to be transported to Radar’s live page.
As you might expect, creating a new arrangement of any kind of the complete Rite of Spring score is no easy task. I’d certainly want to know what was going on in somebody’s head as he/she made their way through something so daunting. Luckily for the curious among us, Darryl Brenzel, the amazing jazz composer/arranger we commissioned to create the new arrangement, kept a journal of his exploits on his blog Stravinsky for Jazz Ensemble. And with the support of a grant from Meet The Composer, we were able to hold two open rehearsals in advance of the performance. Here’s a shot from one of them (and you can check out all the open rehearsal photos at Mobtown Modern’s Flickr page):

We were very fortunate to receive some really awesome pre-event coverage, including this Critic’s Pick by Lee Gardner in the Baltimore City Paper, a wonderful profile of Darryl by Lauren LaRocca in the Frederick News-Post, and this interview of Darryl by yours truly right here in these pages. Our Rite of Swing performance also did not go unnoticed in the blogosphere as it was given a plug by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, by Jerry Bowles, who first coaxed me onto the internet over at his vital ‘new music’ community website Sequenza21, by our friends from the Out Of Your Head collective, and by Shawn Galvin, a percussionist and ‘new music’-lover from Raleigh, NC.
Hope to see you at the Metro Gallery tonight for this truly unique event!