The New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, under the imaginative
directorship of Jay Weigel, has established a 3-year residency for
the composer and jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe, writer of, among
other things, African Portraits, recorded by Barenboim and the Chicago.
They've already done a concert of Lokumbe's powerful string quartet,
"Fannie Lou Hamer."

This concert marked the first collaboration between Lokumbe and the New
Orleans Unity Baptist Church.  It was part service, part jazz set, part
dance.  It involved members of the church, the church choir, vocal wonder
Leah Chase (who can sing anything and was called upon to do gospel and hard
bop), and a jazz quintet.

A good deal of the concert consisted of African drumming and dancing.
all the performers wore white.  Members of the audience were also requested
to wear white, but most of us found that out only at the door.  I wondered
why and soon got my answer, when the onstage performers went out into the
audience to bring ticket holders into the dance.  It was a way to symbolize
unity, to erase the audience/stage boundary.  If everyone wears white, you
make no distinction between performers and audience (at least on the basis
of color).

This being New Orleans, audience members got out of their seats and danced
in the aisles, and you might have been able to stay in your chair if you
were dead.  The drumming was unbelievable, with a basic 6/8-3/4 rhythm
overlaid with a cornucopia of cross rhythms.  If it weren't an anachronism,
I'd say it reminded me of Reich's "phase shift" pieces.  *Kids* - like
under 12 - were putting on moves that had my jaw in my lap.  The jazz
quintet was superb and cooking.  Every single member took a breathtaking
solo.  Even the choir director started off with an inspired blues-based
gospel piano solo.  Leah Chase, who doesn't consider herself a gospel
singer, soared and had even the choir divas (and everybody else)
enthralled.  One of the great singers - of anything - in my time.

Steve Schwartz