Sierra’s Caribbean Rhapsody, Featuring James Carter on Saxophone, Receives Rave Reviews!
Named Jazz Station’s Instrumental CD of the month, Caribbean Rhapsody is the decade-long collaboration and first recording together of jazz virtuoso James Carter and Subito composer Roberto Sierra. Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra, originally composed for Carter and premiered in Detroit in 2002, is the centerpiece of the new Emarcy CD. "Caribbean Rhapsody," a new Sierra composition, is a gorgeous companion piece, and also features Carter’s musical cousin Regina Carter on violin, along with string quintet. Two solo interludes on tenor and soprano saxophones were composed by Carter, who was inspired by the themes and elements woven through the two Sierra works.
"What immediately struck me was that he played with total command and mastery of the instrument," comments Roberto Sierra, who also serves as a professor of composition at Cornell University. "James is the Paganini of the saxophone. He and the instrument are one. To me that was amazing, right from the start."
The concerto was recorded in Warsaw with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, and was conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero (music director of the Nashville Symphony.) Carter was joined by violinist Regina Carter, along with cellist Akua Dixon’s string quintet for the recording of "Caribbean Rhapsody" in New York. The new album was produced by Michael Cuscuna, along with executive producers Wulf Müller and Cynthia B. Herbst.
The Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra was commissioned for James Carter by the saxophonist’s hometown Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It was premiered by the DSO and its music director, Neeme Jarvi in October 2002 and reprised by them the following year. For Carter, the premiere was just the beginning of an ongoing process exploring the emotional and melodic contours of Sierra’s breathtakingly intricate work.
“It proves to be a very delicate yet strong balance of written music, improvisation, and the cadenzas,” explains Carter. “They’re strategically placed, especially the one that always challenges me as to which way to go as far as improv is concerned — the end of the third movement segueing into the fourth and the finale. It’s like an atonal boogie-woogie. Blues is always a place you have to come home to, so it was a very fitting ending.”
For “Caribbean Rhapsody,” Sierra draws on memories of his growing up in Puerto Rico and the music he heard on jukeboxes in cafetines — from the sensuous opening bolero to the Latin riffs reminiscent of son montuno. He was “curious to see the combination of James and Regina improvising together and also on two different instruments — the sax, basically from the jazz tradition, and the violin, the quintessential orchestral instrument. And of course I had the ideal players.” The CD’s producer Michael Cuscuna calls it “contemporary classical music of the highest order.”
Caribbean Rhapsody is Carter’s 13th album and his second for Emarcy Records. Roberto Sierra’s Music can also be heard on CD’s by Naxos, EMI, New World Records, Albany Records, Koch, New Albion, Koss Classics, BMG, Fleur de Son and other labels. 2011 also featured the Naxos release of Sierra’s Piano Trios Nos. 1-3 / Fanfarria, aria y movimiento perpetuo, which was named recording of the month by Music Web International (April 2011), and featured the Trio Arbós playing his complete works for piano trio.