'The World
at Peace' at Symphony Space
Herb Boyd - special to the New York Amsterdam
News
There is no way to know for certain where the
creative genius of Yusef Lateef ends and where Adam Rudolph's begins in
their composition "The World at Peace," which was given its New
York premiere Saturday evening at Symphony Space. Those familiar with their
works might surmise that the languid, expressively Eastern-tinged portions
of the. 100-minute long composition were penned by Lateef and the engagingly
percussive segments can be attributed to Rudolph.
Such speculation, however, is both futile and
pointless since the piece has a seamless flow, a delightful continuity
that invoked a variety of conflicting images from the first movement to
the fourth.
The program notes by the composers provide a
few clues about their intentions. "In composing this piece,"
said Lateef, whose longevity is as ageless as his music, "I explored
avenues I hadn't explored before. A plant living within another plant is
known as an endophyte in biology, and I relate some of these ideas to constructing
melodies and counter-melodies from intervals already existing within a
vertical chord."
When Rudolph says that one of his compositional
tools is "cyclic verticalism" which integrates elements of West
African rhythm, the two composers strike an affinity, and this confluence
of rhythm and sensibility surfaced through the performance. It was particularly
apparent when sections of the ensemble were isolated, in effect, paired
in order to develop harmonic or melodic-intensity.
This method was evident right from the start
with Lateef and Ralph Jones blending their alto flutes in such singular
fashion of density that the notes were extended and deepened at the same
time. Before the concert, trumpeter/flugelhornist Charles Moore indicated
that "Coltrane Remembered," part of the first movement, was related
to "Naima," one of Coltrane's loveliest melodies. "With
the alteration of one note," Moore explained, "Yusef creates
an entirely new and original composition. His music is all about structure
and instrumentation."
Indeed. And a poignant example of this occurred
when Moore's flugelhorn meshed with Jones's bass clarinet and Lateef's
C-flute. Pulsing below this entrancing arrangement was Rudolph's relentless
percussive strokes, and his hands were a blur, faster than hummingbird
wings. After a chorus or two, the propulsive rhythm was in command, and
drummer Hamid Drake and vibist David Johnson pushed the beat to the edge
of chaos.
"I also create a certain aesthetic by assigning
a group of notes to a certain instrument, exclusive of other instruments
which are assigned other groups of notes," Lateef further explains
in his notes. "I derived this idea from Chaos Theory, and the music
that results brings to my mind the music of the Banda, a group of people
from Central Africa." Again, this approach is significant and converges
with Rudolph's polymetric concept and his penchant for drumming styles
and techniques of West Africa.
At the end of the second movement, all of these
notions congeal and reach a powerful crescendo that echoes Coltrane's "Africa
Brass," only here it's a concoction of strings, udu horns, batas and
an electric guitar. The powerful rage gave way to lush serenity after intermission
and the sprigs of beauty blossomed in Marcie Brown's resonant cello, in
Jones's pretty obbligatos on soprano saxophone, in Kenn Cox's pointillistic
forays at the piano, in Johnson's dazzling marimba and most compellingly
in Lateef's haunting flute,
At the core of "The World at Peace"
is a blues sensibility. It is an orchestral redemption song that celebrates
world music, a passionate tone poem about our human drama, our endless
possibilities.
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