Memory in the Center

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = All About Jazz

| rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/memory-in-the-center-an-afro-opera-homage-to-nelson-mandela-ernest-dawkins-dawk-music-review-by-hrayr-attarian |title=Ernest Dawkins' Live In The Spirit Residency Big Band: Memory In The Center, An Afro Opera: Homage To Nelson Mandela |first=Hrayr |last=Attarian |date=October 31, 2015 |website=All About Jazz |access-date=January 29, 2023}}

| rev2 = All About Jazz

| rev2Score = {{rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/memory-in-the-center-an-afro-opera-homage-to-nelson-mandela-ernest-dawkins-dawk-music-review-by-enrico-bettinello |title=Ernest Dawkins' Live In The Spirit Residency Big Band: Memory In The Center, An Afro Opera: Homage To Nelson Mandela |first=Enrico |last=Bettinello |date=July 10, 2015 |website=All About Jazz |access-date=January 29, 2023}}

}}

In a review for All About Jazz, Hrayr Attarian stated that the album is "a vibrant and apt memorial to a truly inspirational man that is both timely and timeless. This intriguing and singular disc promotes social consciousness without sacrificing musical innovation and is sublimely complex while remaining accessible. It is testament of Dawkins' exquisitely creative acumen and courageous sense of morality."

David Whiteis of JazzTimes called the album a "fusion of postbop melodic and rhythmic thrust, jubilant swing, freedom-bound improvisation and militancy leavened by compassion and spiked with acerbic wit," and commented: "Once again, Ernest Dawkins has given us a work that exemplifies the inseparability of struggle and celebration, both in music and in life."{{cite web |url=https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/ernest-dawkins-live-in-the-spirit-residency-big-band-memory-in-the-center-an-afro-opera-homage-to-nelson-mandela |title=Ernest Dawkins' Live in the Spirit Residency Big Band: Memory in the Center, An Afro Opera: Homage to Nelson Mandela |first=David |last=Whiteis |date=June 29, 2015 |website=JazzTimes |access-date=January 29, 2023}}

Point of Departure's Jason Bivins described the album as a "truly fine recording," and remarked: "The lines, the rhythmic shapes, the idiomatic blend, all partake of Dawkins' vision, realized here by a wide range of sympathetic musicians... It's also a bit of a love song commemorating the many connections between musical idioms across and through the many phases of the twentieth-century African diaspora... ultimately what comes through is Dawkins' own distinctive musical vocabulary."{{cite web |url=https://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD51/PoD51MoreMoments3.html |title=Moment's Notice: Reviews of Recent Recordings |first=Jason |last=Bivins |website=Point of Departure |access-date=January 29, 2023}}

In a review of the work's premiere, Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune called the piece "musically gripping" and noted that it "held some of Dawkins' most ingenious writing" with orchestral passages that "startled the ear."

Composed by Ernest Dawkins.

1. "The Sacrament" – 4:20
2. "Movement 1: Mandela, Madiba, We Honor You!" – 6:43
3. "Movement 1: Homage to the Man" – 9:18
4. "Movement 1: Sap's" – 5:41
5. "Movement 1: Subterfuge" – 6:30
6. "Movement 2: Mandela's Blues" – 7:33
7. "Movement 2: Savior of the Nation" – 10:50
8. "Movement 2: Unjust into Right" – 4:20
9. "Movement 3: Song Bird" – 8:53
10. "Movement 3: Migration" – 9:06

• Ernest Dawkins – conductor
• Rajiv Halim – alto sax
• Brent Griffin – alto sax
• Irving Pierce – tenor sax
• Aaron Getsug – baritone sax
• Marquis Hill – trumpet
• Maurice Brown – trumpet
• Corey Wilkes – trumpet
• Phillips Perkins – trumpet
• Steve Berry – trombone
• Norman Palm – trombone
• Neil Gonzalves – piano
• Junius Paul – bass
• Isaiah Spencer – drums
• Khari B – spoken word
• Dee Alexander – vocals

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Category:2014 live albums

Category:Ernest Dawkins live albums