Imani Winds inspires with recital celebrating composers of color at … – EarRelevant

CONCERT REVIEW:

Imani Winds September 29, 2023 Bailey Performance Center, Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA USA Macl and Brown II: A Celebration of Composers of Color Brandon Patrick George, flute; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Mark Dover, clarinet; Kevin Newton, horn; Monica Ellis, bassoon. Damian GETER: I Said What I Said Carlos SIMON: Giants Paquito DRIVERA/trans. Valerie Coleman: Kites Wayne SHORTER: Terra Incognita Andy AKIHO: BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging Billy TAYLOR/arr. Mark Dover: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

Mark Gresham | 03 OCT 2023

Kennesaw State Universitys Bailey Performance Center hosted a recital by the eminent wind quintet Imani Winds last Friday evening, featuring their ethnically diverse touring program of music for woodwind quintet, Black and Brown II: A Celebration of Composers of Color, all commissioned by or written for the group.

Celebrating over a quarter-century of music making, Imani Winds has been at the forefront of transforming and advancing the wind quintet repertoire with their unwavering dedication to broadening the genres musical canon through commissioning new works by emerging composers, drawing inspiration from historical contexts and the contemporary zeitgeist.

Friday evenings concert opened with Damian Geters I Said What I Said (2022), a work of frenzied, jazz-propelled rhythms inspired by a phrase coined by TV personality NeNe Leakes, who became the breakout star on Bravos reality television series The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Next on the program came the musical biopic Giants (2023) by DC-born and Atlanta-raised composer Carlos Simon, who drew inspiration from five influential Black Americans who have significantly impacted his identity as a composer: Bessie Smith, Maya Angelou, Ronald E. McNair, Cornel West, and Herbie Hancock. Each movement within the composition strived to encapsulate their respective work and personalities through music, paying homage to them.

The original version of Kites (2005), by Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Paquito DRivera, was written for a septet of flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano. Imani Winds premiered and recorded it with DRivera as clarinetist and pianist Alex Brown. But in this concert, the group closed the programs first half with a transcription for wind quintet only by American composer and flutist Valerie Coleman, who founded Imani Winds in 1997.

Legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who passed away in March of this year, crafted his debut chamber composition, Terra Incognita (2006), for the Imani Winds with the same audaciousness and eloquence that characterized his improvisational prowess. The 15-minute piece is suitably episodic: motifs ebb, flow, and reappear in innovative variations, blending playfulness and melancholy, edginess and lyricism, and a fusion of earthiness and urban sophistication that often coexist.

For his BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging, composer Andy Akiho drew inspiration from the resonant sounds of protesting immigrant detainees in 2019 at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, and born from the idea of uniting detainees and facility staff through the positive shared experience of music. The piece is an emotionally fueled tribute to the protesters that sheds some light on the shared humanity of everyone involved, detained or detainer. Akiho workshopped the piece with a group of incarcerated young men at Rikers Island. Imani Winds, who commissioned it, premiered BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center in New York City on October 26, 2022.

The group closed their program with the 1960s Billy Taylor song, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, in an inventive, wide-ranging arrangement by Imanis clarinetist, Mark Dover.

Imani Winds gave the enthusiastic, appreciative audience an engaging and insightful performance of these six works.

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Imani Winds inspires with recital celebrating composers of color at ... - EarRelevant