Jessye Norman sings Ellington at UM
The prospect of hearing Jessye Norman, the sensationally gifted soprano, sing the music of jazz great Duke Ellington Friday night at the Clarice Smith Center was too enticing to pass up. The concert produced some really magical moments, along with others that were, well, deliciously awful. Norman, who turns 63 on Monday, came to attention nearly four decades ago with the unusually wide range and sheer richness of her voice. Judging by Friday's results, a lot of that quality still shines. (Most of the time, Norman used mild amplification, but she also moved the mike away now and then, and there was still plenty of vocal presence unaided.)
I've never been able to warm up to Ellington's religious music; it always seems just a few degrees shy of the melodic inspiration that makes his jazz tunes so indelible. Norman devoted the first half of the concert to items from the sacred repertoire of Ellington, and certainly delivered plenty of expressive commitment, as did her top-notch instrumental quartet: pianist Mark Markham, saxophinist Bill Easley, bassist Ira Coleman, drummer Lewis Nash. But things got really interesting after the long, long intermission ...
