Shango Memory (1995)

Shango Memory, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1997, reveals both his passion for ethnomusicology and his aversion to genre constraints. In interviews he cited influences ranging from Luciano Berio to Charlie Parker, from Edgard Varèse to Miles Davis. Although it’s difficult to generalize about his eclectic catalogue—which includes everything from free jazz improvisation and electroacoustic provocation to conventionally notated large-scale projects for organ and symphony orchestra—the impulse behind all his work is syncretic, filtering a choice blend of cultural traditions through a singular imagination. Shango Memory translates Stravinskyan dissonance and syncopation to a post-bop jazz idiom, transforming field research into felt experience. In his own program notes, Wilson discussed how his source materials help connect the cultures of the African diaspora: 

“Shango Memory is inspired by the Yoruban deity Shango, the god of thunder and lightning, who holds a prominent position in the pantheon of deities of not only the Yoruba people of West Africa but also in many places of the African diaspora, particularly the Caribbean and South America. In this composition I attempted to use Shango as a metaphor for West African musical concepts that were reinterpreted in the American context and became the basis for African-American music.”

—René Spencer Saller

Copyright 2023 by René Spencer Saller