Kendrick Scott Drums Up Moments of Harmony and History on New Album, Plans Big Concert for May
Mar. 27, 2023
Kendrick Scott (photo by Justin Bettman)
POST-PANDEMIC, HOUSTON-born drummer Kendrick Scott is keeping busy. On March 3, Scott released Corridors, his third album for the iconic jazz label Blue Note Records, with fellow Houstonian Walter Smith III on tenor saxophone and Reuben Rogers on upright bass. Historically, the piano-less trio has inspired several groundbreaking albums in the jazz canon, and Corridors is indeed experimental, though pensive in its mood.
Originally commissioned in 2020 for The Jazz Gallery’s 2020 Artist Fellowship Series, many of the album’s titles (“What Day Is It?” “A Voice Through The Door”) evoke the intense emotional states we experienced collectively during the months of Covid-19. But by the end of the album’s swinging final track “Threshold,” there is a feeling the musicians and you, the listener, have come through a tunnel and stepped back into the light.
As both a drummer and composer, one of Scott’s many strengths is creating a “harmonic space” for his groups, and with no piano or guitar to be heard on Corridors, there is an abundance of space for Scott to explore the music.
“Harmonic motion is one of the secrets of really great drummers,” says Scott, who delights in following the rise and fall and tension and release of chords as they unfurl within a tune. “Once you understand the different types of chord qualities, you can play into that.”
So are the drums a harmonic instrument?
“Absolutely,” says Scott. “I think the drums have everything in there.” He points out that the drum, the second instrument to come into existence (the voice being the first), was played by groups or “tribes” of musicians.
“You have to consider, what is the resonance of drums being played by groups of people?” says Scott. “To me, that’s what harmony is, it’s finding those resonances between more than one thing.”
Speaking of the voice, Scott, who grew up singing in the Baptist church, can be heard singing along with Smith’s tenor on the track, “One Door Closes, Another Opens.”
“I did that to give people a window into my world of how I’m hearing and I write the music,” says Scott. “I’m always singing, whether the mic is there or not.”
On May 12, at the Cullen Theater, Scott gives voice to the Sugar Land 95 — convicts leased and forced into fatal labor just after the Civil War in the fields of Sugar Land, Texas, and whose remains were discovered in 2018 in several unmarked graves — with his multimedia performance, Unearthed. Commissioned by DACAMERA, Unearthed features Smith, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Joe Sanders, the Harlem String Quartet, poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, and projections by visual artist Robert Hodge. While Hodge and Scott have known each other since high school (Hodge’s art is heavily inspired by the history of hip-hop, jazz and R&B music), Mouton is new to his creative circle, and she is a crucial component to Unearthed.
“She’s just a force of nature,” says Scott of Mouton’s writing and skill as a performer. “This is a big story to tell. There are so many parts to it, and the way she weaves things together and makes you visualize and internalize them is very unique.”
Scott, like many artists, is highly aware of the escalating drive to white-wash, if not completely erase, the more painful and complex moments of our nation’s history.
“There’s hurt inside of there,” says Scott of that history, and Unearthed provides the audience and participating artists an opportunity to be still and feel that hurt together. “I feel like we should be able to sit with it, and not say anything. If we can just sit with it, we can consider where we can go from here.”
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Alley’s New Season Boasts a Housemade Broadway Hit, a World Premiere Based on Ella Fitzgerald, and More
Mar. 24, 2023
Alley resident actors (photo by Lynn Lane)
OKAY, THAT COUCH is comfy, and streaming is convenient, but nothing compares to the experience of live, in-the-flesh theater, especially as it is staged and performed at Houston’s Alley Theatre and its resident company of supremely talented actors.
For Alley Theatre Artistic Director Rob Melrose, who just announced the Alley’s 2023-24 season, there’s never been a better time for folks to take a collective break from the screen and get out of the house. “We are missing out on the human interactions that you only get in a theatre with other people,” says Melrose. “Our 2023-24 is designed to welcome people to the theatre.”
With that in mind, the Alley kicks off its 77th season on July 21 with the world premiere of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, adapted for the stage and directed by Mark Shanahan, featuring members of Alley’s resident company and special guest David Sinaiko as the refined, though somewhat obsessive-compulsive Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.
Sept. 22 begins the run of José Cruz González’s American Mariachi, which tells the story of two girls growing up in the 1970s who aspire to form a mariachi band and features plenty of live mariachi music.
Little Comedies, a collection of five one-act comedies by Anton Chekov directed by Tony® Award-winning playwright and legendary director Richard Nelson, runs Oct. 6-29. And come November, it’s the return of the audience-favorite, A Christmas Carol, a Victorian-styled production with plenty of special effects and David Rainey reprising his role as Scrooge.
The year 2024 begins with Sharr White’s Pictures From Home, an intimate family portrait that was part of the 2020 Alley All New Festival and is currently a hit running on Broadway.
On Feb. 23, 2024, the Alley’s resident company gets to show off its formidable ensemble and comedic acting chops in Larry Shue’s The Nerd. The World Is Not Silent, written by Don X. Nguyen and directed by Marya Mazor, has its world premiere on March 22, 2024. The play tells the moving story of a son trying to reestablish a relationship with his father who has suffered a hearing loss. On April 12, 2024, the company brings Charlotte Brontë’s groundbreaking novel Jane Eyre to life with a stage adaptation by Elizabeth Williamson. Melissa Molano takes on the role of one of Brontë’s most enduring characters.
Finally, Thornton Wilder’s unfinished, full-length play The Emporium has its world premiere at the Alley on May 10, and the season closes with the world premiere of Ella, a musical by Anna Deavere Smith celebrating the life, legacy, and songs of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. “To say Ella had humble beginnings is a profound understatement,” says Smith. “She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.” Ella runs May 31-June 23, 2024.
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