Christian McBride Big Band and Harry Belafonte: The Movement Revisited
Christian McBride Big Band
Harry Belafonte
HERITAGE SIGNATURE CHORALE
Allow extra time for travel and parking: Please note that a soccer game will take place this same evening at the nearby Ludwig Field. Please plan to arrive early.
Event Attributes
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s changed America. Since that time, the movement has inspired millions of people to work for human rights causes.
In 1988, jazz bassist Christian McBride composed The Movement Revisited, a four-part suite dedicated to four major figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
McBride will kick off the Center’s 2013–2014 season with a new incarnation of The Movement Revisited performed by his Big Band and Washington DC’s Heritage Signature Chorale with spoken word selections by special guests, including civil rights activist and artist Harry Belafonte.
This project was made possible by a grant from the Maryland Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Maryland Humanities Council.
This program is also supported by the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council.
This event is part of our Civil War to Civil Rights: The Well-Being of a Nation series.
Preview by The Gazette
“I feel very, very fortunate to have known and have worked with Mr. Belafonte a number of times over the last 18 years,” McBride said. “The fact that he agreed to do this, is just hard to fathom ... You talk about the movement revisited, he’s one of the last people from the movement. He is the movement. So he brings some authenticity that I think will make a tremendous impact ...”
– CARA HEDGEPETH, The Gazette, September 5, 2013
Christian McBride interview on Maryland Morning
Listen as Christian McBride talks about the process and development behind "The Movement Revisited" on Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast.
Christian McBride & Inside Straight: People Music
Listen to Christian McBride's new album with acoustic quintet Inside Straight. Track 5, "The Movement, Revisited," is drawn from the larger work he'll perform here.
"The Movement Revisited" (2009)
Listen to the last section of "The Movement Revisited," which is dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.
Review of 2008 performance at Walt Concert Disney Hall
The connection between jazz and spoken word reaches back at least as far as the beatnik poetry and jazz performances of the 1950s. One could also make a case for the long historical presence of music — most of it drawing upon the same roots that nourished jazz — in African American churches.
McBride drew upon both those sources, sometimes applying the spontaneity of improvisation, sometimes unleashing the inspirational sounds of gospel voices, supporting it all with massed big band textures and a propulsive rhythm section…He shaped each of the movements — "Sister Rosa (Rosa Parks)," "Brother Malcolm (Malcolm X)," "Rumble in the Jungle (Muhammad Ali)" and "A View From the Mountaintop (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)" — to musically characterize aspects of their subjects or their accomplishments.
– DON HECKMAN, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2008