Music Reviews : Spiritual Outing by Jubilee Singers

Was it a concert or a three-hour, high-energy revival meeting? Sometimes the boundaries blurred at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, but one thing remained clear--impressive voices continue to abound in this fine group.

Though dedicated to disseminating a broad body of African American music to international audiences, Sunday night, as guests of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the singers appeared most moved by spirituals--the genre that first incited their assemblage under McNeil. Here, working mostly a cappella at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, fervor and improvisatory talent shone--particularly through Muriel Bennett’s soulful and immaculate soprano for “I Wanna Be Ready” and the gutsy and fluid, admirably controlled voice of another soprano--Victoria Burnett, in “I Been in the Storm So Long.”

Among the men, the clear tenor of Thomas Young, a former member returning as guest soloist, soared over an enthusiastic choral backdrop in “Sinner Man,” and Carver Cossey’s baritone emerged rich and evocative during “John the Revelator.”

Other styles did not always receive convincing treatment. Soprano Lisa Gray-Ashley could not meet the vocal demands of excerpts from “Carmen Jones”--Oscar Hammerstein’s re-texting of Bizet’s “Carmen”--though she vamped her way through Yvonne Farrow’s alternately steamy and humorous choreography well enough. Many of the lively arrangements came from within the chorus; Larry Farrow claimed the most, but Dianne and Michael Wright, Richard Jackson, Byron Smith--the rousing, foot-stomping piano accompanist--and McNeil himself all contributed.

The founder and his assistant Paul Smith took time to pay tribute to all who had aided and inspired during the ensemble’s three decades, most notably in a guest-conducting spot for 92-year-old Jester Hairston, who directed his adaptation of “In That Great Gettin’ Up Mornin.” The Rev. John Nix-McReynolds--minister of the Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana--belted out the tenor solo.