DSO celebrates first album in nearly a decade with Third Man bash — and vinyl records
The Detroit Symphony's big return to the album game got a triumphant hometown celebration Tuesday night.
Ahead of the March 14 release of Wynton Marsalis' 'Blues Symphony' — the DSO's first new recording project in nearly a decade — a crowd of orchestra officials, musicians and guests gathered for a party at Detroit's Third Man Pressing as vinyl copies rolled hot off off the line.
For those in the thick of the project since its conception, the sight of glistening new records emerging inside Third Man's colorful plant was a satisfying, tangible moment.
'To come here now and see them pressed in the back, seeing the final cover, seeing that shrink wrap on it — there's no better feeling,' said DSO President and CEO Erik Rönmark. 'It's been a long work in progress, and I'm so happy and so proud of the whole team.'
The evening included a video message from jazz great Marsalis, who composed the evocative, history-sweeping piece and worked closely with DSO music director Jader Bignamini to finesse the performances, which were captured at Orchestra Hall in December 2023.
'I truly believe it's possible for an orchestra to do all the things that jazz and American vernacular music has done to excite people all over the world for so long — play the music with authenticity and feeling,' Marsalis said. 'And after hearing this recording, I truly believe this more firmly than ever.'
More: Detroit Symphony Orchestra cuts jazz groove on Wynton Marsalis 'Blues Symphony' album
As previously reported by the Free Press, 'Blues Symphony' is part of a renewed effort by the DSO to reclaim its storied recording legacy, a history that stretches back nearly a century. Bignamini and the orchestra have already captured recent performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and more recording sessions are planned for the soon-to-be-announced 2025-26 season.
Bignamini was among those on hand for Tuesday's festivities at Third Man, the retail and manufacturing complex founded by Detroit musician Jack White just down the road from Orchestra Hall in Midtown.
Also attending were producer Blanton Alspaugh and engineer Mark Donahue, the multi-Grammy-winning team from the Boston firm Soundmirror, which oversaw the 'Blues Symphony' recording with 50-plus microphones and a makeshift control room.
Artist Judy Bowman manned a table to sign copies of the LP, featuring her bright, Detroit-inspired cover design.
Tuesday's event also served as a launch party for the Gold Record Collective, a DSO subscription service aimed at supporting the institution's ongoing album projects. The club will offer special-edition versions of Detroit Symphony releases — such as the new $25,000 framed copy of 'Blues Symphony,' pressed on gold vinyl and signed by Bignamini and Marsalis.
'Blues Symphony,' which will be submitted for Grammy Awards consideration, marks a proud moment for the DSO team and supporters — a chance to show off the orchestra's chops while paying tribute to the institution's prominent history in the world of jazz.
DSO concertmaster Robyn Bollinger described Marsalis' symphony as a challenging though ultimately rewarding work.
'This piece is so virtuosic for the orchestra, and it's so dense as a musician. There are just pages and pages of black dots,' she said with a laugh.
But more than anything, Bollinger said, the 'Blues Symphony' sessions were a chance for the Detroit Symphony to rise to the moment.
'It's heightened excitement,' she said of the recording. 'Everyone wants to give it their all.'
"Blues Symphony" will be released by Pentatone on March 14. Along with the vinyl edition, the album will be available on CD, surround formats and digital services.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: DSO celebrates first album in nearly a decade at Third Man
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All unhappy families of addicts are unhappy in their own way. Unless, of course, you're a stage family, overrun with 'characters' who don't so much speak as deliver laugh lines and dispense nuggets of moral wisdom. Those families tend to be all alike, regardless of the superficial differences among them. Grandparents play a larger role than usual in Jake Brasch's 'The Reservoir,' which opened Thursday at the Geffen Playhouse under the direction of Shelley Butler. But the theater's ability to turn family dysfunction, be it alcoholism, Alzheimer's or just garden-variety existential agony, into entertainment and instant illumination, has long been a staple of the American stage. My tolerance for the artificiality of the genre may be lower than most theatergoers. Some take comfort in hoary comic patterns, souped-up eccentricity and reassuring pieties. Overexposed to this species of drama, I slump in my seat. 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Apparently, drinking has so scrambled Josh's brain that alphabetizing books takes every ounce of his strength. I didn't quite feel as indulgent toward Josh, but not because I didn't sympathize with his struggles. My beef was that he sounded like an anxious playwright determined to string an audience along without forced exuberance and sitcom-level repartee. (Compare, say, one of Josh's rants with those of a character in a Terrence McNally, Richard Greenberg or Jon Robin Baitz comedy, and the drop off in verbal acuity and original wit will become crystal clear.) What gives 'The Reservoir' a claim to uniqueness is the way Josh's four grandparents are conscripted not just into the story but into the staging. Seated in a row onstage, they serve as chorus to their grandson's travails, chiming in with their own opinions and acting out his description of the way his thoughts compulsively take over his mind, like an unstoppable train or a raging river. 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How easily these characters fall into a punch-line rhythm. Larsen has the most consequential role and she imparts just the right note of astringency. But the staginess of the writing makes it difficult for any of the actors to transcend the shtick that's been assigned to them. Hinkle brings a depth of realism to her portrayal of Patricia, but the character isn't fully developed. Whole dimensions of Patricia's life are veiled to us. Both Hinkle and Gonazález gamely play other characters, but these sketched presences compound the general impression of a comic world drawn without much nuance. The staging is frolicsome but visually monotonous — a problem for a play that is much longer than it needs to be. More than two hours of looking at the fey-preppy outfit costume designer Sara Ryung Clement prepared for Horowitz's Josh becomes a kind of fashion purgatory for audience and protagonist alike. I'm not sure why a production that doesn't take a literal approach to settings has to repeatedly trot out the front seat of a car. The spry assistance of stagehands, who not only move set pieces but help flesh out the world of the play, is a jaunty touch. But the sound and lighting effects get rather heavy-handed during Josh's hallucinatory meltdowns. Blame for the inexcusably clunky dream scenes, a writing fail, can't be pinned on the designers. Horowitz had the Geffen Playhouse's opening-night audience in the palm of his hand, but I heard an actor playing his comic lines more than his character. Horowitz, however, is only following the direction of a playwright, who has a harrowing story to tell and needs you to enjoy every tricked-up minute of the zany-schmaltzy telling.
