What does a 19th-century symphony repertory standard have to do with a brand-new work for jazz quintet and orchestra?
The Oakland East Bay Symphony posed this fascinating question at the Paramount Theatre on Friday night by programming Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony alongside a new piece co-composed by acclaimed jazz musicians Chris Brubeck and Guillaume Saint-James.
While the programming choice was certainly intriguing, the new work was also interesting in and of itself.
Brubeck and Saint-James have more in common than winning awards for their music: Both of their fathers were in France at the time of the country’s liberation in World War II. Chris Brubeck’s father Dave, the legendary jazz musician, was an American soldier who shipped to Normandy in 1944, five months after the D-Day invasion, as a member of Patton’s 3rd Army. Alain Saint-James was a doctor and amateur jazz musician who had been living in France under German occupation.
Chris’ father Dave Brubeck … was an American soldier who was in Normandy just weeks after the D-Day invasion …
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris, Burbeck and Saint-James co-composed a piece to honor their fathers and the forces of liberation: the Americans of Patton’s 3rd Army who joined with the French Resistance and Free French Army to win the historical — and collaborative — victory.
The result is Brothers in Arts: 70 Years of Liberty (a pun on “brothers-in-arms”), which was co-commissioned by the Orchestre symphonique de Bretagne, Florida’s Sinfonia Gulf Coast, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony.
The jazz quintet consisted of Brubeck (trombone/piano), Saint-James (saxophones), Jerome Seguin (bass), Christophe Lavergne (drums), and Didier Ithursarry (accordion, which deliberately evoked Paris).
Eight movements narrate or dramatize key moments of the liberation while recalling various popular musical styles of the 1940s. Brubeck and Saint-James individually composed separate movements, yet borrowed musical ideas from one another and worked together to form the piece’s overall structure.
Brothers in Arts begins with “Wave of Tranquility,” which Saint-James wrote to convey the calm of Normandy before the war. Next is “American Cowboy,” Brubeck’s depiction of his father before he became a soldier.
At the center of the work is the fifth movement, which, in three parts, tells of Dave Brubeck’s experience during the start of the Battle of the Bulge (which happened months later in Belgium and northeastern France). Just days before the surprise German attack, three USO volunteers who came to sing for the troops asked if anyone could play piano for them, and Dave volunteered. The performance unwittingly spared him from the imminent and gruesome battle because his commanding officer asked him to form a band. The band, dubbed “Wolf Pack,” was also important because it was the first racially integrated ensemble in the U.S. Army.
Dave’s USO singers were portrayed on Friday by three talented members of Vocal Rush, an award-winning group of students from Oakland School for the Arts. While Vocal Rush usually sings a cappella, in "Wolfpack Boogie," the trio was accompanied by the whole ensemble, including the younger Brubeck reenacting his father’s offer to play piano. The result was a unique musical texture, laden with historical significance, yet also highly accomplished fun.
The piece concludes with two contrasting movements. The seventh is singular for a few reasons: It is the only movement that sounds contemporary, it foregrounds the quintet, and the quintet’s performance was outstanding.
Here and throughout, I was impressed by the sensitive interchanges between Brubeck and Saint-James. Trombone and saxophone are musically quite different instruments that these two performers nonetheless made seem subtly attuned: “brothers-in-arts,” indeed. Following that, the solemn final movement recapped melodies from the opening while members of the orchestra uttered phrases including “never again” in multiple languages.
In hindsight, it’s hard to believe that preceding all this was a consummate performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Maestro Michael Morgan, who began his 25th season with Oakland East Bay Symphony on Friday, suggested the choice was simply a case of pairing a new work with an old favorite.
After the performance, however, I was fortunate to catch Concertmaster Terrie Baune outside the Paramount, who offered another explanation: that the inclusion of this canonic work by a Russian composer made sense since the Soviet Union was one of the Allies during the war. As I thought about Baune’s idea, I realized this particular Russian work is, moreover, famous for its “fate” motif that resounds in all four movements. The resultant — and ultimately triumphant — ad aspera per astra trajectory seems highly congruent with the liberating victory that Brothers in Arts commemorates.
Irrespective of how one might choose to interpret the programming, the well-executed evening heralded a promising 2014-2015 season for the Oakland East Bay Symphony.