All Rise. Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra and the SSO

The stage of the Concert Hall is filled with sixteen members of New York’s  Lincoln Center Orchestra, their brass instruments shining, surrounded by the splendid Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Above them 170 members of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs almost fill the balcony under the towering pipe organ.

Conductor Benjamin Northey stands before them, baton in hand. There is an extended expectant hush … and then the men sing “Ah Zum” …

So begins All Rise, a jazz composition of a very special kind. Written in 1999, at the turn of the “century of communication’ and what composer Wynton Marsalis hoped to be the “century of integration”, All Rise is a call to “translate our differences into a collective creativity”. The way to do this, he believes, is through the call and response of ‘the blues’, which Marsalis describes as “an attitude towards life, celebrating transcendence through acceptance of what is”.

If, as Marsalis writes, that first “Ah Zum” signifies “the beginning to the end”, then from the A of “Ah” to the Z of “Zum”, the audience is treated to a swell of instruments and voices that takes them on a journey through life, from the joy of creation, play and love to the suffering of making mistakes and “messing up”, until we wake up to ourselves, seek redemption, are forgiven and find joy again.

It's oft told story but telling it in jazz – in the blues – gives it a more optimistic, different rhythm, a rhythm based on music and instruments from different countries, a conflation of styles and traditions, coming together in a musical celebration of the integration Marsalis hoped for at the turn of the century.

That hope echoes throughout the performance and shines from the faces of all the musicians as they follow the pace that Marsalis and his orchestra set. From brass to percussion, from strings to woodwinds, from washboard to voices, the message is strong and fast, optimistic

and inspiring.

“With the blues”, Marsalis writes, “you got to give some to get some” – and that’s certainly what occurs in this stunning, pulsing, invigorating performance.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Craig Abercrombie