After premiering to standing ovations in Berlin, Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony will make its American debut Wednesday on WUFT, performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Though the work showcased was composed by Marsalis, the work of a UF professor brought the symphony from simple piano sketches to large-scale orchestra arrangements.
James Oliverio, who heads the Digital World Institute at UF, worked as a collaborator on the project, serving as Marsalis’ orchestral consultant.
Oliverio said his job was essentially to serve as Marsalis’ translator from the original jazzy piano sketches to the full orchestra.
“It was a meeting of those two kinds of musical aesthetics,” Oliverio said. “I served as an interpreter for Wynton into the world of European classical music.”
According to Oliverio’s program notes, the concert itself is a five-movement, hour-and 45-minute musical journey through the different eras of swing – the ragtime era, the genre-defining roaring ‘20s swing era, the Kansas City swing era and the bebop era.
His job was not easy, Oliverio said. Marsalis gave him the daunting task of completing the work in five weeks.
In order to complete the piece, Oliverio worked tirelessly, often spending nights and weekends in his studio, forgoing sleep in the name of putting the notes onto paper.
“It was definitely not a trivial undertaking,” he said.
“If it had taken six months, it would’ve been quite an achievement.”
Though the work was difficult for him, he credited his already-established relationship with Marsalis as something that helped him get it done.
Oliverio had previously worked with Marsalis at the turn of the century on the composer’s first symphony, titled “All Rise.” The piece was commissioned for the beginning of the new millennium.
During the creation of that symphony, Oliverio practically lived in Marsalis’ New York apartment working on the piece, he said.
“We were familiar with each other’s working styles,” he said.
“We developed a rapport, and that made it possible to pull this off in such a short period of time.”
Oliverio also said that opportunity was something he felt he couldn’t pass up.
“The opportunity to work with Wynton again and the Berlin Philharmonic, who many people think is the finest orchestra in the world, is not something that comes along every day.”
