Review: “Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience”

The blues are the foundation for rock and roll, and much of what has followed in popular music. The world of what is termed classical music has also benefited from ideas from musicians from the Delta. Gershwin (“Rhapsody in Blue”) Copland (“Piano Concerto”) from America, and Ravel and Stravinsky from beyond, were also beguiled, and they in turn fascinated us with their works. Artists fluent and proficient in the language of jazz and the blues may have combined their studies with a formal “Classical” training, which may have been the only form of musical higher education available, particularly in the first half of the 20th Century. W.C. Handy, The Father of the Blues, could teach classical music, and many artists have been exceptionally proficient in both art forms, up to Wynton Marsalis today.

What there has not been is many experiences where the blues and classical orchestra forms have been directly combined. Different audiences, different venues, different approaches to dancing in the aisles.

Morgan Freeman has made it one of his missions to change this. Starting with some concerts and tours, the Oscar-winning actor has worked to bring the form to audiences in the US, and he has now curated an album combining stars of the world of blues with a leading classical orchestra. Fittingly, as the blues has sometimes crossed the Atlantic more readily than the Mason-Dixon line, he has teamed up with leading British classical exponents, The Chineke! Orchestra.

The tone is set early, as Freeman sonorously intones his love of the blues in a spoken introduction, the sound of a single French horn rises like a great blue heron from the Delta. What follows is a glorious, riotous celebration. From the works of Robert Johnson, The Staples Singers, and contemporary blues artist Anthony “Big A” Sherrod through to a track from the magnificent movie Sinners, the history and the present of the blues is captured by a stunning assemblage.

Freeman has assembled a leading ensemble, The Morgan Freeman Symphonic Blues Experience Band, enhanced it with The Stax Musical Academy and adorned that confection with leading exponents of blues such as Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Tiernii Jackson. That alone would be worth the price of admission. The addition of the orchestra is a beautiful added bonus. You can understand that a horn section is an adornment to the blues, but a full brass section from an orchestra is something beyond that. Yes, a single double bassist can get the tone into the Delta, but how about an entire lower string ensemble? Classical orchestras can be augmented by many keyboards, but not often by an amazing Hammond B-3. The big combinations are great, but sometimes the little vignettes are even greater. A harp bringing a few light notes, or someone quoting musically from The Beatles. The small details really elevate the overall work, and reward repeat listening.

What we cannot get from a piece of this sort, as glorious as it is, is a dynamic interplay between the two groups of exceptional musicians. Blues musicians interact with each other as part of the performance, and classical musicians choose their style and sometimes their instruments to ensure that their work blends appropriately with those around them, making dozens of in-performance adjustments to deliver the visions of the composer and conductor. The blues bits of this record were recorded in Memphis, and the Classical ones at Abbey Road, London. Classical artists thrive in mastering parts of the broad canon on a regular basis, rather than creating something unique on a nightly basis, like their Blues contemporaries. We have not, and might never get, a 100-night tour to see how that would sound. But in the creation of a new art form, the first steps have to be taken. The steps Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience takes are strong ones, and bring us hope for the future.

Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience tracklist:

1. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground – Morgan Freeman ft. Keith Johnson
2. Crossroads – Super Chikan
3. Death Letter Blues – Taj Mahal
4. Dust My Broom – Lady Adrena
5. The Thrill Is Gone – Alvin Youngblood Hart
6. Cadillac Assembly Line – Keb’ Mo’
7. Somebody’s Knockin’ – Anthony Big A Sherrod
8. Traveling Riverside Blues – Shemekia Copeland
9. I’ll Take You There – Tiernii Jackson ft. Stax Music Academy Choir
10. Love Me Or Leave Me – Anthony “Big A” Sherrod
11. Someday – Anthony Big A Sherrod
12. I Lied To You – Keith Johnson