Glenn Close, Deepak Chopra & More Transform Political Speeches on Ted Nash Big Band's New Album

On September 9, 2016, GRAMMY-nominated composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and longtime Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member Ted Nash will release Presidential Suite: Eight Variations On Freedom, his debut on Motéma Music.

Featuring the Ted Nash Big Band, influential figures, and special guest Wynton Marsalis, the eight movement project is an ambitious, culturally trenchant album transforming eight iconic political speeches of the 20th century from world leaders John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, Jawaharlal Nehru, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Nelson Mandela.

Important figures from the worlds of politics and the arts introduce each movement with a reading of the speech that inspired it, featuring readings by Douglas Brinkley (historian/author), Deepak Chopra, Joe Lieberman, David Miliband, Sam Waterston, William vanden Heuveland Andrew Young.

To create the music, originally commissioned by Jazz At Lincoln Center premiering in 2014, Nash transcribed the actual pitches and rhythms of the Presidential speeches as they were spoken and then transformed them into original motifs, riffs and grooves, placing each into musical contexts that embrace the character, location and era of that President/leader via contemporary jazz.

"Great political speeches inspire us to believe we are capable of achieving great things together," says Nash. "When people listen to Presidential Suite, I want them to be reminded how far we have come but also how much we still have to do with regard to tolerance and freedom. I can't think of a better time to release Presidential Suite than during this election season."

Each figure invited by Nash and Executive Producer Kabir Sehgal has a special connection to the political leader they are reading: actors Glenn Close and Sam Waterston bring to the project their humanitarian convictions and special skills for interpreting historic figures; civil rights leader and politician Andrew Young was a close friend and admirer of Nelson Mandela; former Senator Joe Lieberman was inspired by JFK to run for public office; author and wellness expert Deepak Chopra met Nehru when he was a boy in India; CNN history commentator and author Douglas Brinkley edited Reagan's diaries; diplomat William vanden Heuvel, directed the Roosevelt Institute and founded the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy in New York City; David Miliband, former Secretary of State for Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs for the United Kingdom, was deeply influenced by Churchill's speeches.

A two-disc set, the musical and historical contexts of each speech and musical movement of Presidential Suite are revealed in the extensive liner notes by The New York Times best-selling authors Sehgal and Brinkley.

"It's the genius of Ted Nash to realize that a stirring speech also has inherent musical qualities: lyrics, cadence, rhythm, and melody," as written in the liner notes by Kabir Sehgal and Douglas Brinkley. "Through this album we are given a chance to consider again the greatness and meaning of these speeches. And by reinterpreting these familiar speeches into music, Nash allows us to hear them afresh, in all the vigor and spontaneity with which they were first delivered."

Watch a preview for the album below!

---

PRESIDENTIAL SUITE TRACK LISTING:

1. Overture

2. Joe Lieberman reads John F. Kennedy

3. Ask Not (Inspired by Kennedy)

4. Deepak Chopra reads Jawaharlal Nehru

5. Spoke At Midnight (Inspired by Nehru)

6. William vanden Heuvel reads Franklin D. Roosevelt

7. The Four Freedoms (Inspired by Roosevelt)

8. Douglas Brinkley reads Ronald Reagan

9. Tear Down This Wall (Inspired by Reagan)

10. David Miliband reads Winston Churchill

11. This Deliverance (Inspired by Churchill)

12. Glenn Close reads Aung San Suu Kyi

13. Water Cupped In Hands (Inspired by Suu Kyi)

14. Sam Waterston reads Lyndon B. Johnson

15. The American Promise (Inspired by Johnson)

16. Andrew Young reads Nelson Mandela

17. The Time For The Healing Of The Wounds (Inspired by Mandela)

About Ted Nash Big Band: A two-time GRAMMY nominee and member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1998, Ted Nash is regarded as one of the most significant jazz composers of the 21st century. Presidential Suite features the Ted Nash Big Band comprised of Dan Nimmer, Carlos Henriquez, Ali Jackson, Sherman Irby, Charles Pillow, Victor Goines, Walter Blanding, Paul Nedzela, Ryan Kisor, Kenny Rampton, Marcus Printup, Greg Gisbert, Vincent Gardner, Chris Crenshaw and Elliot Mason. Special musical guests include: Wynton Marsalis, Joe Temperley, Zach Adleman and Ansel Scholl. A co-founder of the Jazz Composers Collective, Nash has released 13 critically acclaimed recording.

About Douglas Brinkley: The CNN presidential historian is a professor of history at Rice University and author of more than twenty books. With Johnny Depp, he wrote the liner notes toGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, which were nominated for a GRAMMY.

About Kabir Sehgal: His musical productions have won two GRAMMY awards. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of several books including Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology.

For more, visit TedNash.com, Presidential-Suite.net and Motema.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.