Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010348
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SYMPHONY HOPES RAY CHARLES WILL RETURN, RECORD
Symphony WHEN RAY CHARLES performed Qunicy Jones' `Black Requiem' with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in 1988, it was a big deal for the Roanoke Valley. Now there may be an encore - on tape.
Ray Charles says he wants to record Quincy Jones' "Black Requiem" with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra wants to record with Ray too. Conductor Victoria Bond calls it a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
It's OK with the composer, too.
In fact, everybody says the project is a go.
What they don't say is when it will happen. That's because they don't know. Late spring or early summer is the current estimate.
Until this week, Feb. 22 and 23 were supposed to be the recording dates. The orchestra's musicians had been alerted. The large chorus had been assembled and was starting to practice. The Roanoke Civic Center coliseum had been booked for rehearsals and the two recording sessions, which would be closed to the public.
That has all changed now. Composer Quincy Jones wants to rewrite portions of the work and will not be finished before Monday. That would not allow enough time to get everything ready by George Washington's birthday.
The musicians have been taken off Requiem alert, and rehearsals of the chorus, which is called the Voices of Roanoke, have been suspended.
It's probably just as well. There was no contract with Ray Charles, the lack of which was making orchestra officials nervous.
Someone has to pay for the orchestra, the coliseum and preparation of the chorus - an estimated $100,000 - and it is not in the already stretched Roanoke Symphony budget.
Orchestra officials say they fully expect the project to go through, whatever the eventual date or dates. They also say they will not put any music on tape until the deal is signed and sealed.
Their insistence is based on past experience with the Ray Charles organization. There was no contract when the orchestra performed "Black Requiem" with the pianist in 1988.
"I think that's their style," said Judy Hodges, the orchestra's development and public relations director.
It was not supposed to be that way, at least from the orchestra officials' point of view. They tried their best to get an official pact with Ray's manager, Joe Adams. By the time they realized it wasn't going to happen, things had gone too far to turn around.
The concert went ahead and was a big success, but orchestra staffers were throughly frazzled by the experience. They knew they had gotten away with something dangerous, and they determined then and there not to be put into the same position again.
Thus the insistence on a contract for the recording session. It is being worked out between Adams and the orchestra's lawyer, John Rocovich.
The 1988 "Black Requiem" performance, featuring Charles, the orchestra and the community chorus, was a milestone both musically and culturally.
The piece had been performed once before, but Jones had made revisions that were being heard for the first time at the sold-out Salem Civic Center performance. It was a huge hit with the audience. Attendance from the black community was higher that night than in more than 30 years of Roanoke Symphony concerts.
In that way, the concert made a connection with part of the orchestra's constituency that both the orchestra and Roanoke's black community have continued to nurture.
Charles said at the time that he would like to record the piece with the orchestra. Nothing came of it until December, when Bond went to hear the performer at a New York club called The Blue Note. During a backstage conversation, he repeated his desire to get the "Black Requiem" onto tape.
His people and the orchestra's went to work on it again, and for a while it looked like it would happen on the February dates. Arthur Deane and Jimmy Cook, who rehearsed the Voices of Roanoke for the 1988 performance, were rehired. They got in two rehearsals before things were called to a halt pending further developments.
"They are by no means dismissing the project, and their desire to record here is ever-present," Bond said in a letter to members of the chorus. "Hopefully, the dates can be rescheduled soon, and we will have at least six to eight weeks to prepare."
Not to mention negotiate that all-important contract.
"It's such a major financial risk that there's no way a non-profit could do it" without a contract, Judy Hodges said. "In this day of you-sue-me, I-sue-you, we can't take the chance."