Jazz musicians, like their colleagues in the other performing arts, are not exactly known for being politically conservative. Hear of a jazz project with political overtones, and you can be forgiven for expecting that it will have a stridently left-wing “message.”
How refreshing—astonishing, even—is the new recording, then, by saxophonist and composer Ted Nash, a work for big band called “The Presidential Suite.” Originally written for a performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the suite is a musical interpretation of eight famous political speeches. On the new disc, an actor or politico reads a section of a speech and then Nash’s big band performs the music inspired by that oratory. What’s astonishing about the project is the selection of speeches.
