November 2, 2006 Issue                                       

Click Here

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mt. Airyite’s opera is great; and that is the Gospel truth
by RICHARD S. LEE
and MARY PRICE LEE

Music is never far from Waverly Alston’s mind — or ears. He is a great fan of the Grammy Award-winning singer, Al Jarreau, whose CD kept him company before his interview with the Local. (Photographed by Richard S. Lee in the garden at InFusion, 7133 Germantown Ave.)

Before we interviewed Waverly Alston Jr. at Mount Airy’s InFusion Coffee & Tea, we had heard from our editor that he was instrumental in the creation of a Gospel opera. We knew of Ragtime composer Scott Joplin’s only venture into opera, his seldom-performed Treemonisha, and of Duke Ellington’s religious jazz suites such as Come Sunday, so we figured this would be interesting!

We first “met” Waverly Alston via his Web site, www.jazz4him.com. It says of him, in part: “Waverly Alston, Jr. is the founder of a sacred music group called Waverly Alston in the Company of Friends. Waverly is a native Philadelphian whose earliest musical influences came from hip-hop music, which led him to appreciate the sounds of jazz and Gospel. During his college years, Waverly focused on combining jazz and Gospel music to produce sacred jazz, a wondrous blend of these two musical genres.”

The site goes on to describe the group’s focus beginning in 2000 on “innovative musical arrangements while ministering the word of God...” and tells us that the group “...has given musical performances throughout the greater Philadelphia area to clients such as ABC Television, Clear Channel Broadcasting, The National Constitution Center, and The Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

“This musical group consists of a six-piece instrumental band along with a six-member choral ensemble.” On a soaring note, the commentary ends with “Fasten your seat belts and prepare to fly. There is no telling how high your spirit will soar as you listen to Waverly Alston and (his talented) Company of Friends.”

Waverly Alston Jr., of Mt. Airy, is an affable 34-year-old whose size tells you he was destined to be the baritone he is. And although he has of necessity pursued other careers, music is clearly his life. “I was a hospitality management major in college, and worked in it at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel for years as I pursued music, but it eventually burned me out,” he says. He later worked as an accountant.

Unlike many people who make music, Waverly did not come from a musical family. “My sister used to harmonize with the radio, and I learned harmony from her. I was also exposed to music in church, but ours was sort of a quiet congregation musically. I felt it lacked excitement.”

His first real interest in music began with enrollment at Cheyney State University in Chester. He joined the Gospel Choir as a baritone his first year, “...and I was named director my second year!” he says, his voice still registering surprise. “That same year, I also joined the University Choir, and that’s where I was taught how to shoot for excellence by the director at the time, Mr. Donald Dumpson. Later, he became director of music at Bright Hope Baptist Church and Professor of Music at Westminster Choir College (a part of Ryder University’s Princeton campus). He was — and is — a real inspiration.” Mr. Dumpson, his mentor, urged Waverly to broaden his musical horizons. At that time, Waverly also attended Geneva College’s Center for Urban Theological Studies, part of the Beaver Falls institution’s Philadelphia extension program.

The late jazz organist, Shirley Scott, a Philadelphia icon, was also a music professor at Cheyney. Waverly took classes with her. She encouraged him to combine Gospel with jazz. When she heard him sing, she said, “You don’t need me; you already know this stuff.” Can praise come in a better form? Not likely!

His interest in mixing Gospel and jazz led to his creation of the Gospel opera, In Due Season. The title and theme are based on a Biblical reference that, according to Alston, means “Don’t think that God has forgotten you — your season will come.” He continues, “About a year ago, I went to a West Philadelphia church and reconnected with a choirmaster named Martin Palmer, who had played a Gospel concert at Cheyney when I was there. I offered to help him, and last year we did a Christmas concert at St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germantown (6671 Germantown Ave.). He had an idea of doing a showcase of Gospel artists. As we talked, we decided to turn their individual performances into an opera. We added a script writer, and went to work.”

Alston and Palmer used the Gospel soloists, and a chorus, for the first act. Each soloist performed an original Gospel song he or she had written, and Alston connected the individual numbers with a story line to create the opera. For his part of Act I, he wrote and sang “Greatly to be Praised” based on Psalm 97, which begins “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad, let the distant shores rejoice.” The second act of In Due Season was a selection of Gospel standards with soloists and choir performing as a group.

“We contracted with the Harold Prince Theater at Penn, which was perfect for its size and acoustics. We presented it three times, once on July 27 and two performances on September 9. We made a promotional DVD of it, and we are trying to get financing to perform it more.

“It was never reviewed,” he adds with a note of sadness. Who knows what might have happened if it had been?

Does Waverly Alston Jr. compose music? “I play enough piano to pick out tunes and compose the melody, but I use a trusted musician friend to give my tunes the proper chord progressions and arrangements.” He may write another detailed work, this time focusing more on sacred music in jazz style.

This is one busy man. The day after our interview, he was flying to Los Angeles to work for several days as vocal coach for the background singers in a TV show, The Gospel According to Jeff Majors, but he does not know when it will air. He has also been a consultant to the Harold Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center for its Gospel and Blues Series. He and his Company of Friends performed as part of Norristown’s Black History Month event this past February. He worked to stage this summer’s West Oak Lane Jazzfest, a three-day concert series along Ogontz Avenue. He has served as the outreach coordinator of the Sedgwick Cultural Center (7137 Germantown Ave.), and on December 16 he will stage a Christmas concert with jazz violinist John Blake, either at the Sedgwick or at St. Michael’s Church — venue not yet determined.=

Stay tuned! No doubt you’ll be hearing more from Mt. Airy’s Man-About-Music.

Waverly Alston Jr. can be reached at 215-843-1111. On the Web: www.jazz4him.com - especially good for sound-streaming computers.