Marcus Shelby Orchestra: “Blues and the Pursuit of Freedom” at YBG Festival

Internationally acclaimed bassist/composer Marcus Shelby occupies his own niche in the Bay Area’s jazz eco-system. As the leader of a powerfully swinging 15-piece big band and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival’s resident composer, he’s used the ensemble as a vehicle for developing epic works exploring the abiding ties between jazz and blues and African-American social and political movements. For this concert, Shelby has gathered pieces from four previous YBG Festival commissions inspired by Harriet Tubman, Black baseball, the Ohlone tribelets and the recent pandemic. Featuring guest artists such as vocalist Tiffany Austin, flutist John Calloway, harpist Destiny Muhammad and vibraphonist Dillon Vado, Blues and the Pursuit of Freedom deploys the power of the blues to speak to the present moment. A cultural force that embodies the tension and release of the pursuit of freedom, the blues provide a communal language that transcends the boundaries of instruments, solos and rhythms. In Shelby’s hands, the blues courses through extended musical suites inspired by freedom movements and important moments in the history of Black Americans that are under threat of elimination by the current administration.

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