Salvant to debut newly arranged jazz ballads

French vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant will perform newly arranged jazz ballads May 28 at Spoleto Festival USA this year in ways not done before.

With the arranging work by Darcy James Argue and backed by the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, jazz critics and musicians agree that 35-year-old Salvant’s take on these ballads is worth seeing.

Conductor Clark Rundell said a lot goes into creating a new arrangement for a performer like Salvant — though not as much as one might think.

“We aren’t starting with a blank piece of paper like a composer,” he said. “We start with something that already exists. And then Darcy does what I would call ‘composed arranging.’”

Rundell added that some arrangers, like himself, make works more “glossy” by filling out the pieces to sound great within the orchestra or other performance group. Argue, on the other hand, has a slightly more complex approach.

Glossy is fine, but this goes deeper

“He finds through his creativity a really different side, a different meaning to the text and the lyrics. And in my experience, the composers absolutely love that,” Rundell said. “Sometimes people say ‘Wow, I never realized that was in there,’ but a good arranger can find that.”

Larry Blumenfeld, a culture reporter and music critic at The Wall Street Journal, said the show is a departure from Salvant’s usual repertoire.

“The arrangement and the interpretations of these songs are very different from what she usually does, but Argue did a great job reimagining these jazz standards,” Blumenfeld said.

Keeping the band in sync

Part of Rundell’s job is to make sure the “orchestra and jazz musicians are interpreting the music the same way” because “there are a million ways to play these notes,” and to make sure Salvant is comfortable.

“Performing with an orchestra is very different from playing with a pianist and a drummer, which is her usual accompaniment,” Rundell said. “She has to feel that her environment is really comfortable and secure.”

Part of the reason for the emphasis on making sure Salvant feels supported is that jazz bands and orchestras tend to function very differently onstage.

“I can signal a beat and the jazz drums come in and hit it immediately, but the orchestra is usually a beat or two behind, depending,” Rundell said. “This is why we also meet before the show to go over everything.”

A voice that defies categories

Ultimately, it’s Rundell’s job to make sure it all presents cohesively.

Aside from the musicality of the performance, Salvant herself is something to see. She has a style many don’t and creates pieces that are out of the norm — even for jazz, which already doesn’t have much of one.

“She breaks down the walls between genres and categories,” Blumenfeld said. “She is this generation’s greatest jazz singer.”

IF YOU WANT TO GO: Salvant performs at 8 p.m. on May 28 at the Charleston Gaillard Center.

Madey Lynch is is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.