Feature: Pops: Music of the People

First up, on Sept. 10–11, we’ll hear the orchestra performing the Academy Award-winning score to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. A week later (Sept. 16–18), John Morris Russell will lead a rousing tribute called “Hear Me Roar: A Celebration of Women in Aubrey Logan backstage with John Morris Russell at the 2021 Song.” (See sidebar Holiday Pops concert. Credit: JP Leong on page 18.) Finally, on October 25, the internationally renowned rapper/producer/ actor/activist Common will join Pops Principal Guest Conductor Damon Gupton in an evening of hip-hop, poetry and jazz.

“Is this not what American music is all about?!” says JMR, with such gusto that you might think he was trying to be heard in the back row of Music Hall instead of speaking into a mobile phone. To someone not familiar with JMR, that might sound like a wild exaggeration. But to those of us who have come to know him during more than two decades of service to the Pops and the Cincinnati Symphony, it rings completely true. Above: Common at the 2016 Classical Roots concert. Credit: Mark Lyons. Right: Damon Gupton. Credit: Charlie Balcom JMR is the quintessential proselytizer for music for the people. “You know what I love about the variety of music that we’ll be performing?” he asks. “OK, there are lots of things. But I love that it demonstrates the great sense of pride that our musicians have in being able to play it all. Jazz. Classical. Hip-hop. A Hollywood score. Whatever it is, they play the living daylights out of it.” Part of the Pops mission is to entertain— to present music that is popular. But in his eyes, an even greater part of the mission is to create performances that appeal to everyone—POPS is about music of and for the people. It is also about dispelling preconceptions that folks might have about so many different musical genres. There is no better example of that than the Pops’ concert with Common, the Chicago-born artist who made his name as a rapper, but has expanded his career to become so much more than that. Within a decade after his first album in 1994, Common started popping up in guest acting gigs on television shows. That led to movies. In time, he created his own production company and, in 2016, he made his debut with a live orchestra when he appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as part of the Classical Roots series, with JMR conducting. At the time, JMR admitted he wasn’t very familiar with Common’s work beyond the release of the musician’s Academy Awardwinning song “Glory,” co-written by John Legend for the movie Selma. Far from feeling slighted, Common was thrilled that JMR didn’t know him. “That’s one of my favorite things about the position I’m in now,” Common said in 2016. “I love it when new ears and new people have a chance to hear my songs. Who knows where this will take me?” Now, six years later, we know the answer to that question. Common was so

enthused by that initial experience with the CSO, he started scheduling performances with other orchestras. Now, he does 10 or more a year.

“These performances are an excursion through the soul of music,” says Common. “There’s hip-hop and soul and jazz. And it’s all tied together with that beautiful sound of the orchestra. It adds so much depth to the sounds. And it convinces some people in the audience that it’s OK to listen, you know?”

He’s been emboldened by a particular scene in the 2021 film Summer of Soul, which chronicles the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. It took place at exactly the same time as Woodstock. But despite having a roster that was every bit as star-filled as Woodstock, the Harlem event was relatively unknown until the documentary was released.

Common was wowed by the film. But he was particularly struck by Nina Simone’s performance.

“She stood on that stage and read a poem,” he remembers. “She had so much soul and passion. There were thousands of people there, but she made it feel intimate, like a little jazz club. Usually, when you’re at a festival, you have to make the audience excited and give them the songs that they know. But she gave them what they needed. To me, that was impressive. I’m not Nina Simone, but if I can get up there in front of an audience and present a new thing, if I can help them experience something different…well, that’s what I want to do.”

SIDEBAR

Celebrating Women in Song

by DAVID LYMAN “This is music that really resonates with me,” says conductor John Morris Russell. Now, JMR loves LOTS of music. But when he talks about these concerts—“Hear Me Roar: A Celebration of Women in Song”—he sounds more pensive than usual. “This is music that meant a lot to me growing up.” As he starts to describe the concert, it is clear that he feels a very personal connection to this music. “I grew up among strong women,” he says, recounting how his father died when he was just 15 and his mother was left to raise John and his four siblings alone. “It was a remarkable burden that she took on. And, by God, she did it. So when we talk about celebrating women with music, my mother is the first person who comes to mind.” It’s no coincidence that much of the music in this program, which was originated by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston and others, is the music that dominated the airwaves during the mid’70s, the time that JMR is so poignantly recalling.

From left: Soprano Erica Gabriel at Red, White & Boom!, July 2022. Credit: Charlie Balcom. Vocalist and trombonist Aubrey Logan during the 2021 Holiday Pops concert. Credit: JP Leong 18 | 2022–23 SEASON “There was a great awakening during that time,” he says. “Remember, this was during the women’s power movement that began in the ’60s. So, was it political? You bet. But it was wrapped up in some of the most powerful and memorable music we’ve ever heard.” For these concerts, JMR will again be surrounded by some very strong women. “We have these three fantastic artists joining us,” he says. “There’s Mandy Gonzalez, who is one of the great Latina stars of her generation. She originated the role of Nina in Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. She was also in Hamilton on Broadway. She’s the real deal.” So are the other two performers. “Aubrey Logan is an incredible jazz singer. You probably remember her from last year’s Holiday Pops. And did I say that she is a great trombonist, too? And then there’s Erica Gabriel, who sings gospel as easily as she does opera and who recently joined us for our July Fourth concert and blew us away with her vocals. We have these three singers from very different lines of musical work. But for three nights in Music Hall, they’ll all be singing from the same hymnal.”