Marcus Roberts Trio

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Just a quick post about MRT. They performed their arrangement of the Gershwin Concerto in F tonight for opening night of UM’s Festival Miami and brought it firmly into the present day. It was incredibly alive and vibrant and of course the audience just loved it. It was the synergy and the creative tensions of melding improvised jazz with composed jazz that made the whole thing so electric. This is something we can do and in some ways, something we must do. What I mean is that we need to find some way to dust off the old and make it relevant again. I’ve never seen the orchestra happier, and as I mentioned earlier, the audience were just thrilled. Everybody won tonight - Gershwin, the MRT, we as musicians and serious music in general.

Some items of business:
Thinking of delaying the concert until January. Hard finding the players we need and also, I just want this to be great. So, little delay, but still plugging along. The next few days are going to be packed. Meetings with the Dean of the School of Music, Chair of the Composition Department, Executive Director of the Coral Gables Congregational Church Community Art program and anybody else we can find who will listen to us. Also got to get that business plan out. So. Deep breath tomorrow in between a concert for me and meetings in the evening and headlong into the big things. Wish us luck.