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Article: Pianist Roberts, ensemble deliver Jazz players bring vibrance to Gershwin's`Rhapsody in Blue'
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- October 10, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Wednesday night, jazz pianist Marcus Roberts' musical imagination
stormed through Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" like a tornado through
a Kansas trailer park.
Themes spun off it every direction as if driven by forces of
nature. In the middle of the whirlwind, all seemed chaos. But then
a long vista would open. Perspective! Epiphany!
Ah! That main theme the one in that airline commercial is a
heckuva lot like "Take the A-Train!" Ah! That puzzling, five-minute
episode has been about Gershwin's third theme all along!
What exhilaration came out of this effort, and what inspiration
and skill went into it. Roberts and his ensemble of 22 (a dozen
jazz players, 10 classical types from the ...