Review One
Review One
MLK TRIBUTE CONCERT
Louisville Orchestra
Orchestra members, soloist remarkable in King tribute
By ANDREW ADLER • Jan. 22, 2003
aadler@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
It can’t be an easy thing to decide what to include for an hour’s or so worth of music honoring the late Martin Luther King Jr. But each January the Louisville Orchestra tries to balance sometimes competing interests to come up with repertoire that is accessible and relevant and that sounds at least reasonable in acoustically inhospitable venues.
Monday night’s event marked the orchestra’s return to the Kentucky International Convention Center, the second time there for the ensemble in six years of MLK celebration concerts. The inevitable components were all in place {ndash} two readings of excerpts from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, sing-alongs of “Amazing Grace” and “We Shall Overcome” and similar fare.
Not so inevitable was some remarkable singing from guest soloist Marsaisa Byrd, who may be defining a new voice type: bass-baritone-tenor. This was a fellow who summoned up vast vocal color in heroic service to his material, making the Cascade Ballroom’s amplification seem kind of an afterthought.
Amid Charles Floyd’s arrangements of four traditional spirituals, Byrd pretty much took the place apart. When he had finished, conductor Albert-George Schram remarked that the orchestra ought to collaborate with Byrd again soon. Amen to that.
Elsewhere, the orchestra skirted the expected for the satisfyingly jaunty. Selections included Frank Proto’s “American Overture” to Bruce Healy’s Dixieland-infused “Saints!!!” in which “The Saints Go Marching In” led a progression of up-tempo blues numbers that fully justified three exclamation points. Less convincing was the third movement from William Levi Davidson’s 1934 “Negro Folk Symphony,” obscured by the ballroom’s synthetic, selective miking.
Reprising his role as conductor, Schram tended to be hyperkinetic both on the podium and in his spoken comments, though one never doubted his sincerity.
Most modest of all, and in their own way quite endearing, were the members of the fledgling West Louisville Girls Choir. Founded last year by McDaniel Bluitt as the counterpart to his established boys’ chorus, and directed Monday night by La Von Fisher, the ensemble showed plenty of heart.