When it comes to mixing classical and jazz, the problem is not that there’s too much music, it’s that there’s not enough.That’s what Christopher Confessore, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra’s resident conductor, found when putting together the program for Tuxedo Junction, the opening program on this year’s Music at McClellan series.
The show starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. The weather forecast is favorable, with only a 30 percent chance of isolated rain.
The program, named after the famous song and the sort-of-famous area in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham, brings together members of the symphony with jazz cats from the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. But Confessore discovered that there were no arrangements that brought a symphonic sound into the realm of jazz. The basic challenge: Symphonic groups have lots of people, jazz groups have only a comparative handful. When the former plays the latter’s music, everybody has to have something to do.
Enter Tommy Stewart, musician, teacher, arranger. The Jazz Hall of Fame inductee (1988) was born in Gadsden in 1939 and was trained early in the intricacies of operatic and classical music, particularly Mozart. But he also had his own club band, which found its way to Anniston in the late 1950s to perform at Cobb High School, Calhoun County Training School and at what might be recalled as "Mae Frances’ Place" on West 15th Street.
Known for his talent as an arranger, Stewart worked some 18 months to create 20 brand-new arrangements of jazz standards for symphony.
"I knew it would be a great thing to do," said Stewart, an old hand at collaboration, having worked in the past with such names as Gladys Knight, Barry White, Wynton Marsalis and Birmingham’s Erskine Hawkins, who wrote the song "Tuxedo Junction."
Calling it a "meshing of styles," Stewart says his goal was bring in the ASO as an "accompanying mechanism" for the jazz players, much as an operatic orchestra is basically background music to the primary talent, the singers.
"These new arrangements are a great way to showcase all this talent that’s right here in this state," Confessore says.
About a dozen of Stewart’s arrangements will be performed at McClellan, as will a couple of his own compositions, such as "Piedmont Park," named for the Atlanta public space.
The program Saturday is designed to showcase the jazz musicians’ talent as well as put local fans in a Memorial Day mood. To that end, the first half of the program is a series of marches and patriotic pop by the symphony musicians, all 55 to 60 of them. Of course, "Stars Fell on Alabama" is part of the repertoire.
Act Two will bring all that jazz and Big Band, including "Satin Doll," "Body and Soul," "Let The Good Times Roll," "Don’t Get ’Round Much Anymore" and finally — like "Free Bird" at the end of a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert — "Tuxedo Junction."
The show was first performed last month in Birmingham as the final concert of the ASO Super Pops series. And the name Tuxedo Junction comes with an iconic meaning: It was the name of the Birmingham neighborhood nightspot that inspired Erskine Hawkins to write a song of the same name. That song — celebrating "where people go to dance the night away" — became a musical landmark of the World War II era, in part because of its popularity in posh New York City circles.
Here are the jazz musicians, all members of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, who are scheduled to perform in the Tuxedo Junction program:
Frank Adams. He learned to play the clarinet from his older brother, Oscar Adams, Jr., Alabama’s first black Supreme Court Justice. Frank Adams received a diploma, with honors, in theory and composition from the University of Chicago. At the age of 21, he became the youngest member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Collins "Bo" Berry. Born in Birmingham, Berry played trumpet in the original Commodores’ back-up band in the early ’70s.
Cleve Eaton. He was playing his mother’s piano at the age of five, and turned his efforts toward the saxophone by the time he was eight. Cleve took up the trumpet two years later, and when he reached the age of 15, he was introduced to the string bass, which is his instrument of choice. He was a member of the Ramsey Lewis Trio and also part of the Count Basie Orchestra.
Foxxy Fatts. A Birmingham native, Fatts began his drumming career around 8 years of age and was the drummer on the million-selling single "One In A Million You" by Larry Graham.
Rickey Powell. Born in Birmingham in 1948, Powell attended Dillard University in New Orleans with a major in vocal music, then transferred to Talladega College as a voice major. Powell toured in Europe with Gloria Gaynor of "I Will Survive" fame and then performed in the longest running off-Broadway show in New York history, Mama I Want to Sing.
Roszetta Johnson Scovil. Her commanding voice, much like Dinah Washington, has landed her on tour with jazzman Bill Doggett and as a stand-in for vocalist Candy Staton. Scovil had a national hit with "A Woman’s Way."
Tommy Stewart. As a teenager, Stewart studied with the legendary "Fess" Whatley. Later, he attended Alabama State University, where he served as the leader of the well-known Alabama State Collegians. Later, as an educator, he was assistant band director at Morehouse College and music instructor at Georgia State University. Stewart is the co-founder of the African-American Philharmonic Orchestra.
Harry Young. Better known as Doc Soul Stirrer, he as worked with the Count Basie Band and singer Jeffrey Osborne.
Music at McClellan
What: Tuxedo Junction with the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame & Alabama Symphony Orchestra.When: Sat. 8 p.m.
Where: Near McClellan’s Duck Pond, follow signs.
How much: $20 adults, $5 children 4-11.
Contact: 310-0852, 800-489-1087 or www.musicatmcclellan.org.
Future shows:
• The Miracles & the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. June 4. 8 p.m.• Broadway Under the Stars with Kristi Tingle-Higginbotham and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. June 11. 8 p.m.
• Classical Spectacular with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. June 18. 8 p.m.
