Jazz hits high notes in symphony collaboration

Led by legendary jazz trumpet player and composer Wynton Marsalis of the United States, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra collaborated with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to present Marsalis' fourth jazz symphony The Jungle in Shanghai on Oct 26.

Under the baton of Yu Long, artistic director of the Shanghai orchestra, the two orchestras "presented the humanistic, historical and artistic perspectives of this brilliant masterpiece with excellent control", according to music critic Hu Jiaowei.

The Jungle is the fourth jazz symphony composed by Marsalis, an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader and educator as well as the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, a nonprofit arts organization that presents and preserves jazz music through live performances, education and recordings.

"The interweaving of composition and improvisation, the blending of genres and elements, the overlapping of harmony and color, the connection of compound rhythms and beats, the overwhelming onomatopoeia, impressionistic processing and transitions. … All of this makes The Jungle undoubtedly a masterpiece of large-scale contemporary symphony," Shanghai-based Hu wrote after the concert.

The Jungle was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 2016. In 2017 the New York Philharmonic premiered the piece in Shanghai at the Music in the Summer Air Festival.

For SSO and Yu, playing The Jungle with Marsalis and JLCO was like "stepping into a brand-new world of jazz". During rehearsal, Yu found himself uncontrollably tearful when Marsalis played his improvised trumpet solo near the end of the piece. "I simply couldn't help my tears … completely different from my usual ways. Such is the power of his music. It's beyond words," Yu says.