Marsalis, Wynton: Swing Symphony "Symphony No.3" (2010) 55'
for jazz orchestra and symphonic orchestra (Please inquire with Promotion Department)

Scoring
Symphonic Orchestra: 3.3(III=corA).3(III=bcl).3-4.3(=flgn).3.1-perc(5).timp-strings
Jazz Orchestra: 0.0.0.2asax.2tsax.barisax.0-0.4.3.0-dr-pft-strings:(0.0.0.0.1)

World Premiere
6/9/2010
Philharmonie, Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker / Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle


Programme Note  
Marsalis’s Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) is a symphonic meditation on the evolution of swing, one that employs a symphony orchestra and a jazz orchestra as equal partners. One of Marsalis’s central concerns for Jazz at Lincoln Center has been to honor the ongoing vitality of historic jazz traditions, and in this work he draws inspiration from some of the most essential moments of the art form’s history. These include a paean to ragtime, to early jazz dance, to Kansas City swing, to bebop, and to the intersection of jazz with African American worship. 

Although this Swing Symphony is at heart an homage to the living inspiration that older forms of jazz can still provide today, it is also a salute to some of the specific musicians who stand as icons of the art form. So it is that in the second movement Marsalis marks a trombone solo “a la Tommy Dorsey”; in the third he instructs that a section is to be rendered “a la Coleman Hawkins”; and in the fourth he underscores that a portion is to be played “a la Hot Club of France.” Such indications provide precise clues to the interpreters, as do the composer’s markings elsewhere, such as when he directs (in the New Orleans Parade March section of the first movement) that a passage is to be rendered “joyous and bouncing like a chicken.”

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