The Life of Malcolm X through Jazz

Will Liverman sings the title role in the Met premiere of Anthony Davis's "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X." Photo: Zenith Richards / Met Opera

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is streaming live this Saturday (2/3/24) at 1pm EST on WSMR Classical 89.1 FM for its network premiere. The Opera, which first premiered 37 years ago and follows Malcolm X's life, features a score influenced by the music of his time, namely jazz music from Louis Jordan, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane.

"You could basically tell a story through the development of music from the Forties to the Sixties — let's say Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five and bebop to the avant-garde jazz of the Sixties — John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner," Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis who wrote the music for Malcolm X says. "So that gave a kind of musical trajectory that I could draw on in creating the score. But I also had to have musical material that travels, that moves from one section to another, and that ties the music together and can build a drama. And so I use cells of rhythmic structures the way Wagner uses leitmotifs, to build a larger form that carries that drama."

Stream live this Saturday (1/03/24) at 1pm EST

This performance is part of the Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. Learn more: https://www.metopera.org/season/radio/saturday-matinee-broadcasts/

Jazz on Arts Axis Florida has curated a playlist companion piece that follows the life of Malcolm X throughout his short life.

A musical biography starting with music he liked in the early part of his life, moving to the music of his time in the public eye, and then jazz inspired by his life after his death.