6'
4,3,2+bass,1 - timp, perc(3)
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Orchestra of St. Luke's
These threads [of the Black experience] — and the emotions entwined with them — come through vividly in Coleman’s six-minute piece [Fanfare for Uncommon Times]. It begins not with a typical fanfare salute, but a quizzical, searching line for solo trombone that soon is cushioned by pungent, soft-spoken brass chords. Unrest amid determination stirs as the music shifts into agitated episodes for percussion. The mood seems at once reflective and restless, uplifting and ominous. The elements of the Black experience during a challenging time that Coleman described come through during a passage alive with riffs for mallet percussion instruments, hints of dance and bursts of anxious frenzy. By the end, with spurts of four-note brass motifs, echoes of Coplandesque affirmation arise, but also a breathless flurry that feels bracing yet challenging.