National Youth Jazz Orchestra present The Fire Next Time! A Tribute To James Baldwin
For NYJO’s ‘The Fire Next Time! A Tribute To James Baldwin’, guest MD Peter Edwards; curator Lucy-Anne Daniels leading vocals with Akin Soul and two gospel singers and the next generation of NYJO jazz musicians come together to commemorate the life and legacy of one of the twentieth century’s most uniquely significant English-language writers, James Baldwin.
The programme consists of new compositions that Peter and Lucy-Anne have created with NYJO Emerging Professional musicians, inspired by Baldwin’s life. The performance draws from Baldwin‘s work, to explore the emotional and intellectual motifs that run through it, and how music – and jazz in particular – can capture the same themes he helped propel into the important conversations around race, gender, and power dynamics in the last century.
It is a touching musical journey through Baldwin’s influences from the Harlem Renaissance, through to his response to the civil rights movement and identity. Showcasing special arrangements of the soundtrack to Baldwin’s life, his love of jazz and the interweaving of improvised music with his words performed as lyrics. This performance directly responds to a timeline of James Baldwin’s influence from the civil rights era and LGBTQ+ liberation movements, through to his enduring and powerful legacy today.
