Music Reviews : Master Chorale, Jubilee Singers

The Los Angeles Master Chorale had plenty of company Sunday evening when it presented a sprawling, sometimes exultant survey of black choral music at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

For one thing, there was the soulful touch of the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, the spiritual-grounded group that took over more than half of the evening. For another, the orchestra level of the hall was unusually packed, and it came alive with amens and numerous standing ovations as the Jubilee Singers did their turns.

Thus, we heard two polished choral groups; one in its element and the other paying tribute as enlightened yet unmistakable outsiders.

Working without the Sinfonia Orchestra, and at times even without a piano, a delegation from the Chorale spent the first half of the program purveying fragments, miniatures and spiritual arrangements from a variety of black composers. From Ulysses Kay’s urgent “Alleluia” to James Furman’s syncopated “Hehlehlooyuh,” the Chorale continued to play to its strengths of precision and breathtaking dynamic control.

Music director Paul Salamunovich took some time to read the Langston Hughes poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the words of which seemed far more noble than Margaret Bonds’ musical setting. And it would be interesting someday to hear Carlos Alberto Pinto Fonseca’s entire “Missa Afro-Brasileira,” from which the Chorale performed the Kyrie with an uneasy approximation of Brazilian rhythms.

When the Jubilee Singers took over after intermission, the contrast was striking. Where the more formal Chorale approach could only go so far in their spirituals, the Jubilee Singers added languid Southern accents and easy-riding rhythms--less precision perhaps but infinitely more soul. In short, this was more like it.

Unwilling to be confined to their base, the Jubilee Singers reached to South Africa for a lively Caiphus Semenya/Larry Farrow arrangement of “Hareje,” one that cried out for a rhythm section. Displaying a yen for theatricality, they also did a slick medley of Duke Ellington standards in a Broadwayesque mini-revue.

Of the Jubilee Singers’ numerous star soloists, the spectacularly expressive, note-bending soprano of Lisa Gray-Ashley in “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “World Goin’ Down” made the biggest impression. And prior to a rather anti-climactic union of the two choirs at the close, Jester Hairston, a veteran of the film-music scene and now a spry 90 years old, led the Jubilee Singers in a rocking rendition of “Great Gettin’ Up Morning.”