Photo:(BILL DOUTHART)
David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2014, 3:01 AMJazz pianist/composer Uri Caine's many years gone from his native Philadelphia are melting away, into a kind of music he wasn't taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and in places his colleagues don't typically navigate.
His The Passion of Octavius Catto, a jazz/gospel oratorio about the martyred Philadelphia civil rights leader, will have its world premiere Saturday at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. It is being rehearsed at the historic St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in what's called in hip-hop circles "the O-Zone" (Olney), with a chorus that chants his name when he arrives. "U-ri Caine! U-ri Caine!"
Such colloquial familiarity isn't likely to be found in the modern-music festivals of Europe that Caine has been sandwiching between local rehearsals. No wonder he pops down from New York whenever possible - 15 rehearsals so far - to accompany and sing with the Freedom Festival Community Choir, made up of area church singers and professionals.
"It's good to do that. It's the communal aspect of making music," he says. "Whether somebody is from Poland or Cuba . . . we come together and play and talk about differences and nuances. You tell me what you're about . . . and it really becomes richer."
That's the ultimate point of the Mann Center's months-long Philadelphia Freedom Festival, climaxed by the free, fully subscribed Gospel Meets Symphony concert Saturday with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann. The headliner may be gospel singer Marvin Sapp, but Caine's piece, commissioned by the Mann, dominates the first half.
The Civil War-era Catto (1839-71) is the central figure, spurred by Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America (2010) by Inquirer editor Daniel Biddle and his retired colleague Murray Dubin. The book, in fact, was what pushed Caine to take the commission. "The book talks about places I really know here," he says. "The racial story here . . . is such a deep thing."
The piece touches on such key events as the 1838 burning of Pennsylvania Hall, built for abolitionist meetings and destroyed days after it was finished. It quotes from Catto's speeches about racial equality, and deals with the era's forced integration of streetcars. "You can't ride, you can't ride" sings the chorus emphatically, "in Phil-a-del-phia."
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20140715_Composer_Uri_Caine_finding_new_Philadelphia_roots.html#FCumz2lEdrjiJ2To.99
