This week on the MCG Jazz Spotlight Show, the debut of a new MCGJazz release - “Bernstein Reimagined” by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.
Marty Ashby and Renée Govanucci are joined by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra’s executive director, Ken Kimery and artistic director Charlie Young to discuss the creation of the album. Also joining in will be Flavio Chamis to discuss his personal connection to the maestro.
The MCG Jazz Spotlight show airs on Friday and Sunday at 6pm and Saturday at 1pm on The Pittsburgh Jazz Channel WZUM.
Leonard Bernstein once called jazz “the ultimate common denominator of the American musical style.” The music made a profound impact on Bernstein, not only in the more explicit “jazziness” of his work in musical theater, but throughout his “serious” orchestral music as well. With this stunning new album, Bernstein Reimagined, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra mines the composer’s vast repertoire for a vibrantly diverse new set of music that is rarely, if ever, performed in a jazz context.
