The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons

by Christian McBride

Overview

Drawing upon the words of legendary civil rights leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Muhammad Ali, Christian McBride offers a heartfelt large-ensemble tribute to the civil rights movement of the 1960s with 2020's The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons. The album is his third big-band recording, following his two Grammy-winning albums, 2011's The Good Feeling and 2017's Bringin' It. However, where those albums were robust and lively productions of post-bop jazz, The Movement Revisited is a more reverent and theatrical recording. Which isn't to say it's not harmonically rich with plenty of swinging improvisational intensity. The five-part work, which he first began performing in 1998 and has subsequently updated, spotlights McBride's multifaceted skills as a composer, arranger, and lyricist as he frames the uplifting words of these four heroes with his soulful arrangements. The recording culminates in the final movement "Apotheosis," celebrating the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States; an historic event that McBride beautifully ties directly to the civil rights and black power movements of the preceding decades. Helping bring the words of the civil rights leaders to life are narrators Wendell Pierce as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Vondie Curtis-Hall as Malcolm X, Sonia Sanchez as Rosa Parks, and Dion Graham as Muhammad Ali. Also showcased throughout are McBride's bandmates, including vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Geoffrey Keezer, and drummer Terreon Gully, among others. While the album is orchestral in nature, all of the introductory prologues are stripped down, with McBride underlining the speaker's words with his dusky, bluesy basslines. "Sister Rosa - Prologue" also features Steve Wilson's wry flute accents. Conversely, on "Ali Speaks," McBride smartly hands the musical accompaniment over to drummer Gully, who offers a pugnacious counterpoint to Ali's swaggering vocal wit. Many of the tracks feature bright choral and gospel sections arranged with a modernist bent by J.D. Steele, a dynamic approach that evokes the edgy tonalities of '60s jazz and chamber albums like Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice and Max Roach's It's Time. As McBride points out in his liner notes, this is a personal work filtered through the prism of his own life and his feelings about these four individuals. In that sense, it's not meant to be taken as a complete representation of the civil rights movement as a whole. It is however, a powerful and deeply considered work that invokes not just the words, but also the ebullient spirit of the civil rights movement. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	02/07/2020
Label:	Mack Avenue
UPC:	0673203108226

Tracks

1. Overture/The Movement Revisited
2. Sister Rosa - Prologue
3. Sister Rosa
4. Rosa Introduces Malcolm
5. Brother Malcolm ¿¿¿ Prologue
6. Brother Malcolm
7. Malcolm Introduces Ali
8. Ali Speaks
9. Rumble In the Jungle
10. Rosa Introduces MLK
11. Soldiers (I Have a Dream)
12. A View From the Mountaintop
13. Apotheosis: November 4th, 2008

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Christian McBride   Primary Artist,Bass
Trevor Smith   Voices
Steve Wilson   Flute,Sax (Alto)
Lew Soloff   Trumpet
Loren Schoenberg   Sax (Tenor)
Melissa Walker   Voices
Warren Wolf   Timpani,Tambourine,Vibraphone
Freddie Hendrix   Trumpet
Todd Bashore   Sax (Alto)
Frank Greene   Trumpet
Michael Dease   Trombone
Ron Blake   Sax (Tenor),Sax (Soprano)
Ron Tooley   Trumpet
Eunice Newkirk   Voices
Carl Maraghi   Sax (Baritone)
Alicia Olatuja   Vocals
J.D. Steele   Vocals,Choir/Chorus
Marvel Allen   Voices
Darryl Shawl   Trumpet
Geoffrey Keezer   Piano
Doug Purviance   Trombone (Bass)
James Burton   Trombone
Claudine Rucker   Voices
Deborah Newallo   Voices
Jeff Hamer   Voices
Jeffrey S. Bolding   Voices
Shani P. Baker   Voices
Susann Miles   Voices
Terreon Gully   Drums
Steve Davis   Trombone

Technical Credits

Christian McBride   Arranger,Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Liner Notes
Mark Wilder   Mastering Engineer
Will Wakefield   Production Manager
Al Pryor   A&R
Todd Whitelock   Engineer,Mixing Engineer
J.D. Steele   Choir Arrangement,Vocal Arrangement
Raj Naik   Design,Art Direction
Maria Ehrenreich   Producer,Creative Services Coordinator
Sharon Green   Product Manager
Tyler Hartman   Engineer
Akihiro Nishimura   Engineer
Fred Sladkey   Assistant Engineer
Gretchen Valade   Executive Producer
Trevor Fedele   Engineer
Anna Webber   Photography
Rob Bynder   Cover Art Concept