Mardi Gras celebration on New Year’s Eve? Lexington Philharmonic has that chord ready to go

Among the many qualities that has long fascinated Byron Stripling about New Orleans music is its sense of celebration. It affirms everything that surrounds life – even death.

“New Orleans is all about celebration, even when somebody has died,” said the conductor and trumpeter who will lead the Lexington Philharmonic in a New Orleans themed concert at the Opera House on New Year’s Eve. “Once everyone exits the funeral area, they parade throughout the streets. It becomes a celebration of that person’s life. Pretty soon, other people who didn’t even know the person who died and were not part of the funeral get to join in. That’s what they call the second line. Those people begin to celebrate with everybody else and it becomes a huge party.”

That’s the spirit Stripling is aiming for with the Philharmonic’s New Year’s Eve concert without incorporating that whole dying element. Any second lines won’t result from someone’s passing. What the Columbus-based artist will be working from will be a program rooted in jazz – more specifically, a mix of gospel and blues that blurs the boundaries surrounding each genre.

“There was all this music coming out of bordellos ages ago in New Orleans,” Stripling said, “This is where jazz was born. This is how jazz was named the ‘Devil’s Music.’ The music travels around all of that, so when we play it, we’re playing the sound of America. All of that that was in New Orleans. What we do is shake that up, go back and put it together again. We come up with a great thing called American jazz.

“Back then, if gospel sounded good to musicians, they would play it nightclubs. ‘Just a Closer Walk with Thee’ was constantly played at Preservation Hall. ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ is another spiritual, so the New Orleans tradition never had this prejudice of where you could play only one type of music in a concert hall and another only in a church.”

Stripling isn’t new to the Philharmonic. He also served as guest conductor for its 2017 New Year’s Eve concert with a program that shifted north to the vintage jazz and swing of the Cotton Club’s golden era. He brought a vocalist and tap dancer along for that performance. Similarly, he will be aided by a jazz rhythm section at Tuesday’s concert that includes an artist that Lexington audiences may recognize. Among Stripling’s recruits will be pianist and Hammond B3 organist Bobby Floyd, who headlined his own local show in November 2018 for the Origins Jazz Series.

“When Bobby walks onstage,” Stripling said, “everything gets better.”

Though the regional inspirations and time parameters differ in the 2017 and 2019 concerts Stripling has organized for the Philharmonic, there remains a shared challenge – to find a way for classical musicians accustomed to playing exact compositions to ease into a looser form of music that regularly draws on improvisation.

“Usually, in the way that you play an instrument, you communicate your enthusiasm in what you’re trying to do. As a conductor, you really shape how you want something played. This is very important when you’re crossing over genres, as in from classical to jazz. Of course, just having the jazz rhythm section changes the dynamic right away. But for me, it’s exciting because not only do I get to communicate and hopefully give something to the audience through the trumpet as I play. I also get to sculpt and mold the orchestration in such a way that all these things are communicated.”

There’s a reflective aspect to New Orleans music, as well. For Stripling, it provides a chance to honor his greatest influence, Louis Armstrong – an artist he has devoted entire tribute programs to. But the music’s appeal extends beyond a single spirit, which is why he feels it is a highly appropriate component of a New Year’s Eve celebration.

“I think it’s the perfect way to ring in the new year. The music lets you celebrate all the great things that have happened in the past year and allows you to look forward to all the great things that will happen in the next one. We want to be reflective on both of those things. That’s the goal of our little Mardi Gras celebration.”

Best of all, death won’t have to be a catalyst for this New Orleans party to get rolling. Then again, the Opera House sits next door to the Milward Funeral Home, so…

Lexington Philharmonic with Byron Stripling

When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 31

Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short

Tickets: $35-$100

Call: 859-233-4226

Online: lexphil.org, byronstripling.com