Marc Reift - Kumbaya

Topic: Jazz - Early
Jazz spread in the United States after World War I with radio and phonograph records. Bands grew larger and Fletcher Henderson’s in New York became the most influential, according to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. White musicians tried to assimilate it into their academic western forms and swing bands, with detailed arrangements, became the norm in the 1930s. [1]

Like Dixieland, swing became an internationally popular music style, as suggested by the allusion to Glen Miller in the brass-band version mentioned in the post for 17 September 2017. Marc Reift publishes band music from his headquarters in southwestern Switzerland. On 5 February 2018 he offered five different arrangements of "Kumbaya" in 232 different combinations. [2] The one by Norman Tailor and Marcel Saurer used big band techniques, textures, and rhythms, and was only marketed for bands.

The recording of the Tailor-Saurer version by the Philharmonic Wind Orchestra syncopated the waltz tempo of the original version. Instead of the opening kumbaya being .5 .5 1.75 (with 1 a quarter note), it became .75 .25 1. One iteration was slowed, which made the rhythm more obvious.

The ensemble was divided between brass and woodwinds, with one or the other playing the melody. When the clarinets were dominant, the trumpets and other brass instruments either played rhythm or flourishes. When the trumpets had the melody, the clarinets used scales as the basis for their counterpart. The Monk Institute said Henderson introduced this "pattern of brass against reeds." [3]

The rhythm was handled by melodic instruments. A cymbal kept time in back, and sometimes a tuba was used. Drums only were heard at the very end. These patterns were borrowed from the bebop styles, which followed swing. Samuel Floyd noted:

"Since bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it could use faster tempos. Drumming shifted to a more elusive and explosive style, in which the ride cymbal was used to keep time while the snare and bass drum were used for accents. This led to a highly syncopated music with a linear rhythmic complexity." [4]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: Philharmonic Wind Orchestra
Rhythm Accompaniment: cymbal, tuba
Instrumental Director: Marc Reift

Credits
© copyright by Editions Marc Reift
Arr: Norman Tailor/Marcel Saurer

Notes on Lyrics
There were none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 2/2
Tempo: quarter note = 100 beats per minute

Basic Structure: iterations of the melody distinguished by instrumentation rather than by variations in the tune. There was little repetition in the orchestral interplay of parts.

Notes on Performers
Marcel Saurer was born in Zürich in 1969. He began playing trumpet as a boy, and added piano as he became more serious about music. He studied composition at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, and continued composing and arranging for the Zürich Jazz Orchestra. [5]

Hardy Schneiders used the name Norman Tailor. He played trombone for the Basle Radio Orchestra, before working as an arranger and rehearsal pianist for opera companies. He later toured with Josephine Baker. [6]

Reift’s parents were Swiss Salvation Army ministers, and his instrument of choice was the trombone. While he was working with the Tonhalle Opera Orchestra in Zürich, he established his music publishing business in 1983. [7]

Reift began making his own CDs with musicians from the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998. [8] Under Soviet rule, those musicians were the house orchestra for the Barrandov Film Studios. They worked everyday, playing whatever was required, and continued to do so after the privatization that occurred in 1992. [9]

Availability
Sheet music: Crans-Montana, Switzerland: Editions Marc Reift.

CD: Philharmonic Wind Orchestra. Show Time. 7058. 4 August 2008. Not on YouTube.

CD: Philharmonic Wind Orchestra. Festival Concert 2. 7076. 29 July 2008. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 19 January 2015.

CD: Philharmonic Wind Orchestra. 83 Greatest Hits for Concert Band. 21 January 2014. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 18 July 2014.

End Notes
1. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "The Swing Era." Jazz in America website.

2. The reason for the large number of variants of five arrangements was some were scored for a number of different instrument combinations. The arranger’s name did not always appear with listings of "Kumbaya." The way to distinguished the recorded versions was by their length. The sheet music versions had different band difficulty codes. The arrangements of "Kumbaya" offered by Reift were:

Norman Tailor-Marcel Saurer. 2.38 minutes. Recorded. Level 3+. For different sorts of bands.

Ted Parson. 2.48 minutes. Recorded. Level 3+. For different sorts of bands. One record was made with the Prague Chamber Choir.

John Glenesk Mortimer. Not recorded. Level 2-3. For bands and ensembles.

Jérôme Naulais. Not recorded. Level 2+. For various combinations of instruments.

Ted Barclay. Not recorded. Level 1-2. Came with an instructional CD for various combinations of instruments.

3. Monk Institute.

4. Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. The Power of Black Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Paraphrased by Wikipedia, "Jazz."

5. "Marcel Saurer." Editions Marc Reift website.
6. "Hardy Schneiders." Editions Marc Reift website.
7. "Marc Reift." Editions Marc Reift website.
8. "Orchestra Philharmonic Wind." Editions Marc Reift website.
9. City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra website.