UNCOVERED

Voices raised

Friday night got the NCO's weekend of Thankgiving Celebration shows off to a rollicking start, with huge choral moments, dynamic new classical works and a bunch of Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key of Life." There was a lot of star power in the room, with guest vocalists Odessa Settles, Todd Suttles, Jonell Mosser, Scat Springs, Abby Burke and Nathan Young, plus guest musicians John Jorgenson, Tracy Silverman, Jeff Coffin, and Alexander Fedoriouk. John, Alexander and the NCO's own David Davidson were in total synch on the Jorgenson/Carl Marsh piece Istiqbal Gathering. Silverman's difficult Overture for Strings came off with precision and energy. And the vocalists seemed to encourage each other to take each song to a new level. Were you there? Are you going to Saturday's show? We'd love to hear your feedback. Please just click the COMMENTS link here and leave your impressions.

Concert tonight!

Now that everyone has digested their Thanksgiving dinner, the musicians and guests of the NCO are focused on making tonight's Thanksgiving Celebration concert a grand feast of music. Rehearsals have been interesting to watch. The Steve Wonder songs, while not easy, blossomed quickly once the chorus, orchstra and soloists got together. The rehearsal performances felt confined in even the large practice room, so songs like As and Sir Duke should explode in the expansiveness of the Laura Turner Concert Hall. It's also been interesting watching the Overture for Strings by electric violinist and fellow ArtistShare artist Tracy Silverman come together. The first run throughs were, by everyone's admission, pretty rough. The piece is built on a structure of complex rhythms that are passed around among the strings. But now it's locked in, and it's an awesome piece. We've videotaped all the rehearsals so far. We'll be posting highlights of each to Uncovered so you can see how Paul and Tracy and the musicians struggled to master this beautiful, difficult work. Please join us tonight or tomorrow for what will be an inspiring and boundary-less nights of music.

We're all Marxists now

No, not the improbably influential 19th century political philosopher but the bespectacled music critic at the Tennessean Jonathan Marx who graciously previewed this weekend's NCO concerts in yesterday's newspaper. The money quote:

To stay true to his own cross-pollinating sensibilities, [Music Director Paul] Gambill came up with a diverse program to flesh out the evening. In addition to songs by [Stevie] Wonder, the chamber orchestra will play several gospel selections, gypsy jazz numbers featuring artist-in-residence John Jorgenson, excerpts from an original work by frequent collaborator Don Hart and a world premiere by Nashville-based electric violinist Tracy Silverman — a skillful musician who knows all about breaking down musical boundaries.

Read the full story HERE.

New Content Up, from Acoustic All Stars to Thanksgiving Celebration

The NCO is truly running on all cylinders now, with concerts coming one after the other. Scarcely two weeks after the Acoustic All Stars show at Grace Chapel, rehearsals began for next week's Thanksgiving Celebration concert, themed around the great Stevie Wonder and his classic album "Songs In The Key of Life." This is the largest concert in terms of musicians and guests the NCO has all year, with vocal standouts from across the Nashville community, including Odessa Settles, Jonell Mosser and Scat Springs, plus many more. So last night it was quite a large version of the NCO that packed into the Brentwood Academy music room for the first rehearsal.

We have just uploaded Paul's Audio Journal from last night, previewing the concert and taking stock of what remains to be done after the first take. Much of last night was devoted to refining the recently commissioned work Istiqbal Gathering by Carl Marsh and John Jorgenson, which features guitar, violin and cymbalom. You may recall this piece was performed at the June Gypsy Nights concert. It was great, but as Paul says in his commentary, when you leave a piece for a while and return to it, it can be a case of "two steps forward, one step back." The piece is not only being prepared for Friday and Saturday nights, it's going to be recorded for Jorgenson's album in progress as part of his Uncovered project. We'll be there at Ocean Way Studio here in Nashville for what should be an amazing session.

Also newly up on the NCO Uncovered site, a three-part look at how the NCO and arranger Don Hart adapted a very electronic and jazz-inflected piece by Viktor Krauss for the NCO String Quartet and the Acoustic All-Stars. We've got audio and video showing the piece come together from CD to concert hall.

More Music of the Spirit

We received the latest submission to our ongoing conversation entitled "Music of the Spirit," which launched last month and which is intended to help develop the program for the NCO's concert of the same name next spring. This entry comes from Malcolm Glass, a poet, musician and professor of English in Clarksville, TN. Find our other Music of the Spirit essays HERE, and contribute by adding a comment to an essay or mailng a fresh submission to us HERE. Mr. Glass writes:

An aesthetic experience involving the intellect, emotions, viscera, and psyche is memorable, unforgettable.  The most enduring art engages one's entire being -- mind, body, heart, and spirit; and to do that it must emanate from the artist's entire being. 

Starry Night

Patrons and musicians alike seemed extremely happy with Friday night’s Acoustic Café season opener at Grace Chapel. It was nearly a fail-safe lineup, with guest artists who have known each other for many years and who have that gift of telepathy that keeps the train on the rails even when it’s careening along at high speed.

Darrell Scott, wielding acoustic and electric guitars, not to mention his powerful voice, was more or less the front guy, and several of his hit songs like “Long Time Gone” and “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” came off as they’ve never sounded before with the NCO String Quartet adding nuanced parts and nicely flexible tempos. Most fun however were the instrumental pieces brought in by the various band members.