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| Bound for the Promised
Land: Harriet Tubman |
Collaborating with Yerba Buena Arts & Events and the Museum
of the African Diaspora, bass player and jazz composer Marcus
Shelby will create Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet
Tubman,
an original secular oratorio for jazz orchestra. The piece
will be based on a book of the same title by Kate
Clifford Larson. The
oratorio and supporting outreach and education materials will be
developed in partnership with the Museum of the African Diaspora,
members of the Choir of Glide Memorial Church, guest vocalists, the
Stanford Committee on Black Performing Arts, and Oasis
for Girls.
Harriet Tubman rose out of humble beginnings, escaped slavery, and
directed her life to challenging the injustices of her day. Working
on the Underground Railway, Tubman personally led 70 slaves out of
bondage at great risk to her own life, and helped dozens more to
freedom. During the Civil War, she led raids for the Union
and served as a nurse. After Emancipation, Tubman turned her
great energy toward the woman’s suffrage movement. Throughout
her life, she worked to unite American women and men of all colors
and classes into a common struggle for liberty. Tubman’s
story is an appropriate one for incorporating music.
While Marcus Shelby has composed for works used in many contexts,
he has never written an oratorio—a musical composition for
voice and instruments based on religious or secular themes of historic
significance. Bound for the Promised Land will
be an extended secular composition, drawing upon Tubman’s improvised
spirituals, which she used to communicate coded messages. Composer
Shelby writes, “Her blues inflected spirituals sung in call
and response with other slaves make jazz composition an excellent
medium of telling her story with music.”
Yerba Buena Arts & Events will manage the project from its initial
development through its world premiere. Bound for the Promised
Land will develop through stages of historical research by Shelby,
conferring with author Kate Clifford Larson, and assistance from
other partners, all leading to several work-in-progress presentations.
Shelby’s musical partners will be the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra,
guest vocalists, and members of the choir of Glide Memorial Church.
The Museum of the African Diaspora will develop outreach and educational
activities. The collaborators also will work with Oasis for Girls
to conduct artist and author talks, field trips to the museum, attendance
at the works-in-progress, and to train the girls to be ushers and
interpreters at the premiere performance. The African American
Museum and Library in Oakland will host a work-in-progress concert
for East Bay audiences.
Marcus Shelby is an award-winning composer, arranger, educator,
and bassist who is nationally known for his innovative, collaborative
approach to composing and arranging for text, visual arts, dance,
and theater. He currently has a teaching and research fellowship
from Stanford University’s Committee on Black Performing Arts.
Yerba Buena Arts & Events is a presenting arts organization
dedicated to enhancing the vitality and the quality of life in the
parks and open spaces of Yerba Buena Gardens through the curated
presentation of free artistic, community, and cultural programs. It
presents more than 100 free, outdoor performing arts programs annually,
featuring world-class artists who reflect the rich cultural diversity
of the San Francisco Bay Area. By presenting the finished jazz oratorio
at the Gardens, the artists will be able to reach audiences who may
not be able to attend a ticketed or evening performance.
The Museum of the African Diaspora seeks to connect all people through
the culture and history of the African Diaspora in the Bay Area region
and the world through four universal themes that celebrate the strength
of humanity: Origins, Movement, Adaptation, and Transformation. Technology
is a valued part of the Museum’s exhibit design and it will
work with Yerba Buena Arts & Events so that both web sites present
program and exhibition content, encourage responses, and support
dialogue.
Marcus Anthony Shelby
Born in February 1966, Marcus Shelby has been playing the acoustic
bass for 23 years. In this time, he has built a diverse and
accomplished biography. Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records
and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently the
Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra,
The Marcus Shelby Septet, and the Marcus Shelby Trio. In addition,
Shelby holds instructor positions at the Berkeley Young Musicians
Program, San Francisco State University, and the Stanford Jazz Camp. As
the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby’s
studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton
and legendary bassist Charlie Haden.
Awards and Honors
- Fellowship, Committee on Black Performing Arts, Stanford University,
Stanford, California (2005-6)
- Dean Goodman Choice Awards for Excellence in Bay Area Theater
for Theatrical Score for Trail of Her Inner Thigh (2000)
- Theater Circle Critics Award for Best Musical Score for Hellhound
on My Trail (2000)
- Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Best Music, Savage Jazz Dance
Company (2000)
- San Francisco Weekly Wammie Award for Best Jazz Musician
(1999)
- Bay Guardian Award for Best Jazz Band (1999)
- California Music Award Nomination for Best Jazz Artist (1998)
- ASCAP Popular Award for Songwriters and Composers (1998)
- Image Award Nomination for theatrical stage score from Emmitt
Till/by Bryan Burrell (1997)
- Charles Mingus Scholarship to the California Institute for the
Arts (1991)
- John Coltrane Young Artists Competition (with Black/Note) (1991)
Grants and Awards
- Theater Communications Group Resident Artist Grant (2002)
- Meet the Composer “New Residency” Program (2001)
- Creative Work Fund Grant for Collaboration with Intersection
for the Arts (2000)
Private Commissions
- San Francisco Performances Commission, “Midtown Sunset” (2004)
- Equal Justice Society Commission, “Port Chicago” Jazz
Ballet (2002)
Discography
- “Port Chicago,” Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, NOIR
Records (2005)
- “The Lights Suite,” Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra,
NOIR Records (2002)
- “The Sophisticate,” The Marcus Shelby Trio, NOIR
Records (1999)
- “Intimate Strangers,” The Marcus Shelby Trio with
Marcus Conrad Poston, NOIR Records (1998)
- “Midtown Sunset,” Jazz Antiqua Ensemble, NOIR Records
(1998)
- “Un Faux Pas,” The Marcus Shelby Trio, NOIR Records
(1997)
- “Nothin’ but the Swing,” Black/Note, Uni/Impulse
(1995)
- “LA Underground,” Black/Note, Red (1994)
- “Jungle Music,” Black/Note, Sony Music (1993)
- “43rd and Degnan,” Black/Note, World Stage (1991)
Theatrical Scoring
- “Wheel of Fortune,” by John Steppling, Campo Santo
Theater Company, San Francisco, California (2003)
- “The Lights,” by Howard Korder, original live score,
Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Intersection for the Arts/ODC Theater,
San Francisco, California (2002)
- “Hellhound on my Trail,” by Denis Johnson, Campo
Santa Theater Company, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco,
California (2000)
- “The Years,” by Cindy Lou Johnson, Signal Theater
Company, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California (2000)
- “Simpatico,” by Sam Shepard, Campo Santo Theater
Company, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California (1999)
- “Trail of Her Inner Thigh,” Erin Cressida Wilson,
Campo Santo Theater Company, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco,
California (1998)
- “Suicide in B Flat,” by Sam Shepard, 3ˆrd Set,
Slim’s, San Francisco, CA (1998)
- “King Lear,” William Shakespeare, 3ˆrd Set,
Justice League, San Francisco, California (1997)
- “Emmitt Till,” by Brian Burrell (1993)
Film Scoring
- “Ralph Ellison, An American Hero,” Avon Kirkland
Production, PBS (2002)
- “King of the Bingo Game,” Elise Robertson, adaptation
of Ralph Ellison short story, PBS (2001)
- “Poetic License,” directed by Dave Yanofsky, Production,
PBS (2000)
- “Park Day,” directed by Sterling Macer, Jr., Blockbuster
Pictures (1998)
- “Our Father, Toni Ann Johnson, independent short (1997)
- “Higher Learning,” directed by John Singleton, Columbia
Pictures (1995)
- “White Man’s Burden,” directed by Desmond Nakano,
Savoy Pictures (1995)
Ballet and Dance
- “Un Faux Pas,” Oakland Ballet commission (2001)
- Musical director, Savage Jazz Dance Company (1998-present)
- The Culling,” “The Sophisticate,” and “The
Light’s” (ballet suite), original dance suites.
- Musical director, Jazz Antiqua Music and Dance Ensemble, (1993-present)
- “Midtown Sunset,” “Canticles,” “Ballad
of Josh Gipson,” “In the Beginning,” “Odysseus’s
Suite,” original full-length ballets
- “Collaboration 2000,” Robert Moses’ Kin Dance
Company, Robert Henry Johnson, Sara Shelton Mann
Performances
San Francisco Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Kuumbwa Jazz
Center, Yoshi’s Jazz Club, Bruno’s Jazz Club, Yerba
Buena Gardens Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, Paramount Theater, The Jazz School, Intersection
for the Arts, Stanford Jazz Festival.
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