Saturday, May 01, 1999
Duke's 'Muir Woods' mesmerizes CSO crowd
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Call it classical fusion. Pianist/composer George Duke took his cue from Duke Ellington, the jazz great who inspired Mr. Duke as a child and who occasionally crossed over from jazz to classical.
On Thursday, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra gave the U.S. premiere of Mr. Duke's Muir Woods Suite, an arresting hybrid of straight-ahead jazz and classical — with hints of new age and world music.
With Mr. Duke at the piano and his rhythm ensemble out front, it was a mesmerizing happening that gripped 2,346 listeners for most of an hour. The piece, arranged in seven “phases,” is a musical tribute to the redwood forest near his Northern California home, where he camped out as a boy.
That Mr. Duke is an accomplished pianist, who could weave elegant, inventive jazz improvisations through the work, came as no surprise: His jazz history is extensive. But he's also a conservatory-trained composer, and his symphonic music was deeply evocative and well-crafted — with cinematic colors and even a classy fugue.
The first phase entered the world of night music and towering trees, embellished by the mystical sound of wind chimes. Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira inserted world music elements and performed lengthy solo drumming sets using an array of exotic instruments — Chinese gongs, caxixi (shakers), cow bells, timbales, babla (South African rattles), toys and even a frying pan — while making bird calls and chant-singing in Portuguese. He called his brew Afro-Brazilian, saying, “I'm inspired by nature and spiritual energy.”
The fine young lion Christian McBride delivered a wonderful bass solo, traveling up and down his instrument with virtuoso arpeggios, and drummer Chester Thompson also had a moment in the sun.
But ultimately, the moment belonged to Mr. Duke and the rich, sonorous textures he created at the keyboard echoed in the orchestra. Under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, the orchestra never covered him, although it played tentatively most of the time.
Mr. Lopez-Cobos concluded with Respighi's crowd-pleasing Fountains and Pines of Rome, the latter with Wagner tubas, flugelhorns and euphoniums in the balcony.
The CSO repeats at 8 p.m. today at Music Hall. Tickets: 381-3300.
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