Why it was a Sacred Concert to remember
Scores of people of various ages and hues braved Harare’s sweltering heat on Saturday, 8 November 2008, to join the celebrations to mark 200 years of the abolishment of slavery with a performance of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts by the 50 strong Zimbabwe College of Music (ZCM) Choir and the Trio Arctic Band. The versatile and awe-inspiring Zimbabwean diva, Prudence Katomeni- Mbofana held the solo soprano reins.
The performance was a unique collaboration between the ZCM and their Norwegian counterparts courtesy of The Culture School of Fredrikstad as well as FK Norway. Each year three lecturers from ZCM go to Norway to guest lecture in an exchange programme that sees three Norwegian lecturers making the trek to Zimbabwe. This year’s trio, Tone Jordhus Søvik (saxaphone), Brith Løkken (trumpet) and Klæboe Eyvind Helseth were at the forefront of organising the concert. Linda Gjersoe Helseth (trombone) flew all the way from Norway to be part of this groundbreaking performance.
Grounbreaking because performing one of Duke Ellington’s labours of love, the Sacred Concerts, is no mean task, calling as it does on a great number of musicians. But the ZCM and the Norwegians pulled it off swimmingly as The Arctic Trio became The Trio Arctic Big Band , echoing the swing era of big bands during which the Duke was one of the indisputable kings. On piano was the rising young jazz maestro, Filbert Marova. The others were Carlton Muparutsa (drums), Elisha Herema (bass), Timothy Kazembe (guitar) and Addington Mutandadzi (trombone).
In the wake of Barak Obama’s historic presidential win in America, the fact that Zimbabweans and Norwegians had come together to celebrate the abolishment of slavery was testimony of how far the world has come. The performance lived up to the occassion, swinging into action with “It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing)”. Some of the elderly female members of the choir, matronly, were a bit restrained but the young ones really got into the swing of things.
Prudence Katomeni- Mbofana was phenomenal. In the typical jazz tradition in those parts where the repertoire, including, Praise God and Almighty God called for her to be part of the first soprano in the choir, she blended in with the group, and when she stepped out to do a solo rendition of T.G.T.T.,for example, she was outstanding. Her stage presence was charismatic, willing the audience to focus on her, and listen to her marvellous voice control with its myriad of vocal textures. She has truly become a world class performer.
All in all the entire entire ensemble did justice to the great Duke Ellington’s work. Incidentally, the first performance of the Sacred Concert was given at Grace (Episcopal) Cathedral in San Francisco on September 16, 1965. As his friend and biographer Derek Jewell was to note in A Portrait of Duke Ellington: “The first [Sacred] concert was to be repeated many times thereafter–including English performances at Coventry Cathedral and at Cambridge–in churches of many denominations until, later in the decade, Duke produced an entirely new set of works for further Sacred Concerts. The seriousness with which he viewed these occasions was unmistakable. I remember him standing admiringly before that stunning altar tapestry of Graham Sutherland’s when he came to Coventry in the following year first to perform a Sacred Concert in England. “This music,” he said, very simply, “is the most important thing I’ve ever done or am ever likely to do. This is personal, not career. Now I can say out loud to all the world what I’ve been saying to myself for years on my knees.”
The rest of the ZCM and Trio Arctic Band’s repertoire included “The Shepherd”,
“Freedom Suite” (6 songs), “Majesty of God”, “Praise God and Dance” (finale).The performance was a unique Zimbabwean- Norwegian interpretation of what was so dear to Ellington, and took on a new resonance in the bicentenary of the abolishment of slavery and the election of the first African- American to the White House. Ellington himself might very well have been speaking of this remarkable performance when he said:
“Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty–trying to communicate themselves, understood or not–miracles have happened.
As I travel from place to place by car, bus, train, plane . . . taking rhythm to the dancers, harmony to the romantic, melody to the nostalgic, gratitude to the listener . . . receiving praise, applause and handshakes, and at the same time, doing the thing I like to do, I feel that I am most fortunate because I know that God has blessed my timing, without which no thing could have happened–the right time or place or with the right people. The four must converge. Thank God . . . .”
The ZCM Choir and Trio Arctic band were able to throw away fear, rehearsal tensions and conflict (always unavoidable in any production, particularly one that throws together people from different cultures) and come up with a performance that had the multi- racial and age audience in ruptures, even if some of them might not have been familiar with the jazz genre let alone Duke Ellington. They wanted an encore, but Prudence Katomeni Mbofana promised that for the second performance that was held later on in the evening at the Mannernberg.
But the hugely satisfied audience- which included Bob Nyabinde, Comfort Mbofana (the ever supportive spouse) and Tsitsi Dangarembga, along with some Norwegian dignitaries- was unanimous in its verdict- this was one of the best performances to be held in Harare, and the ZCM should hold more recitals.
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