E4 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR
what looked like a 1960s Bay
Area antiwar demon-
stration. The program had a
tribute to the noted radical
feminist activist, philoso-
phy professor and onetime
fugitive Angela Davis, who
was in the audience and who
will give a talk as part of the
festival on March 18.
However, next to that
selfie station was a voting
registration table run by the
nonpartisan Power Califor-
nia, which works to engage
young people in political ac-
tivity. Most of all, change the
optics, and the patriotic
sentiment expressed in
everything that was said
and played all evening could
be just as welcome at a Re-
publican or Libertarian con-
vention as at a Democratic
or Socialist party one. Not a
note, not a word proved pro-
vocative. Sure, fists were
raised by some in the crowd,
but those were fist bumps in
lieu of handshakes, the new
COVID-19 etiquette.
“Our responsibility is to
work to keep the ideas of
freedom alive.” “We can
make the world better.”
“Listen to people who don’t
agree with you.”
Who’s got a problem with
that?
If anything, the festival —
which looks to maybe get a
little more rabble-rousing
once Patti Smith and the
rapper Residente have their
say — here bent over back-
ward to promote political
unity. A nonsubscriber con-
cert attracted what ap-
peared to be an admirably
diverse crowd, including a
lively contingent of old for-
mer hippies and young hip-
sters, as well as schoolchild-
ren, political activists and
jazz aficionados.
For the first half, Du-
damel conducted three
short, recent and compel-
ling orchestral works by Af-
rican American composers
who have been active in edu-
cation and social justice
programs.
Jessie Montgomery’s
“Banner” marvelously tied
Dudamel’s Ives symphony
survey of the previous two
weeks with the present.
As if taking her permis-
sion from Ives, Montgomery
deconstructs “The Star
Spangled Banner,” contex-
tualizing it with “Lift Every
Voice and Sing” (often called
the black national anthem)
into a lavish and loving new
thing.
Courtney Bryan’s “White
Gleam of Our Bright Star”
evokes our spacious skies
with a vast cinematic cloud
of orchestral chords that ex-
plodes and leaves bits and
traces of fallout, iridescent
sonic dust, in its wake.
“Aurora” by WayneShorter, jazz saxophonist
and longtime colleague of
Hancock (back to their days
playing in Miles Davis’
famed second quintet in the
1960s), is a setting of the last
stanza of Maya Angelou’s
poem “On the Pulse of Morn-
ing,” which she read at Bill
Clinton’s 1993 inauguration.
The score is seven min-
utes of soaring optimism
written for Renée Fleming.This time an elated young
soprano, Mikaela Bennett,
sailed above the orchestra
with a confidence and stellar
high notes that made it
sound written for her.
Hancock, the L.A. Phil’s
longtime creative chairman
for jazz, created orchestral
versions for his quintet and
the L.A. Phil of two charac-
teristic numbers he record-
ed in the late 1960s and early1970s. “Ostinato: Suite for
Angela” was dedicated to
Davis. A bass line repeats in-
cessantly and obstinately for
a dozen minutes. The meters
are unpredictably upended,
as is the instrumental land-
scape, as if to say ideals must
be maintained but times
change.
In “I Have a Dream,” writ-
ten shortly after the assassi-
nation of Martin Luther
King Jr., Hancock struggles
to hang onto hope. Blown up
to orchestral dimensions — a
solo jazz flute becomes three
mighty orchestral ones —the struggle for hope gets in-
spirationally blown up as
well.
Both arrangements fea-
tured Hancock’s incisive so-
los (near Bartók-ian in
“Ostinato”) and those of his
sensational band, although
they seldom dominated.
Categories — jazz, sym-
phonic music, improvisa-
tion, composition — became
irrelevant. Hancock, in-
stead, treats his orchestral
scores as an ingratiating ex-
ercise in here-comes-every-
body.
The last 45 minutes of
what became a long concert
were turned over to the quin-
tet. Hancock moved effort-
lessly between his three key-
boards — space-agey on his
synthesizer, masterful on his
Fazioli grand piano and a
wild man on his portable
keyboard, especially in dia-
logues with Terrace Martin’s
sax and Lionel Loueke’s gui-
tar. In fact, communication
was clearly the key, no mat-
ter how blazing Vinnie Co-
laiuta’s drumming or James
Genus’ electric.
Hancock introduced his
set by telling the audience
that the more he thinks
about it, the more he be-
lieves the power is fromthe
people. And so it was for a lit-
tle while, anyway, Thursday
night.Herbie
brings
jazz
Power
CO-CURATORSHancock, left, and Dudamel performed two Hancock works that revolve around Angela Davis and Martin Luther King Jr.Photographs by Robert GauthierLos Angeles TimesTHE ACTION HALLdisplays at Disney Hall drew attendees such as Kephren
Palmer, left, and Amuro Kanda to take selfies and perhaps register to vote.[Hancock,from E1]
‘Power to
the People!’
What:The Disney Hall
lineup includes Residente
on Saturday, Yolanda
Adams on Sunday, Conrad
Tao on Tuesday, Terence
Blanchard and Ben Harper
on March 14, Cecile
McLorin Salvant on March
15 and Ted Hearne’s
“Place” on March 24.
Other programming is
scheduled for the
California African
American Museum in L.A.
and A Noise Within in
Pasadena.
Info:laphil.comThe only two programs in
prime time last week that av-
eraged more than 9 million
viewers were the Demo-
cratic presidential debate
and “60 Minutes,” both on
CBS.
The Feb. 25 debate from
Charleston, S.C., averaged
15.34 million viewers, the
most among prime-time
broadcast and cable pro-
grams airing between Feb.
24 and Sunday, according to
live-plus-same-day figures
released Tuesday by
Nielsen.
Viewership was 22.4%
less than the combined view-
ership of 19.78 million aver-
age for the Feb. 19 debate
which aired on NBC and ca-
ble’s MSNBC, which was the
most for a Democratic presi-
dential debate.
Live programs, mainly
NFL games, have topped the
weekly ratings for all but one
week of the 23-week-old 2019-
20 season.
The CBS News magazine
“60 Minutes” was second for
the week, averaging 9.18 mil-
lion viewers, after finishing
sixth and seventh the previ-
ous two weeks. Sunday’s
broadcast included an inter-
view with former New York
City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
The debate prompted pre-
emption of the CBS action
drama “NCIS,” and its crime
drama, “FBI,” the season’s
two most-watched enter-
tainment series.
With CBS’ schedule al-
tered by the debate, NBC
had each of the week’s five
most-watched entertain-
ment programs, topped by
the two-hour Feb. 24 season
premiere of the singing com-
petition “The Voice” which
averaged 8.99 million view-
ers, third overall.
NBC’s “Chicago” fran-
chise accounted for each of
the three most-watched
scripted programs. “Chi-
cago Fire” was fourth for the
week, averaging 8.66 million
viewers. “Chicago Med,”
which preceded “Chicago
Fire,” was fifth, averaging
8.61 million viewers. “Chi-
cago PD,” which followed
“Chicago Fire,” was seventh,
averaging 8.12 million view-
ers, most among the week’s
10 p.m. dramas.
CBS also opted to air a re-
run of “Young Sheldon,” the
season’s most-watched
comedy, which was the
week’s most-watched come-
dy, averaging 6.03 million
viewers, 16th overall.CBS finished first in the
network race for the third
consecutive week and eighth
time in the season, averag-
ing 6.07 million viewers. It
also had time-slot victories
from its new Los Angeles-set
crime drama “Tommy” and
all three of its Friday series,
“MacGyver,” “Hawaii Five-0"
and a “Blue Bloods” rerun.
NBC was second for the
second consecutive week,
averaging 4.72 million, fol-
lowed by ABC, which aver-
aged 4.22 million.
Fox News Channel was
third, averaging 3.03 million
viewers. Fox averaged 2.56
million viewers for its 15
hours, 37 minutes of pro-
gramming, its fourth con-
secutive fourth-place finish
among the broadcast net-
works following Super Bowl
LIV.
CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox
News Channel each aired 22
hours of prime-time pro-
gramming.
“American Idol” wasABC’s most-watched pro-
gram for the third time in the
three weeks it has aired this
season, averaging 6.99 mil-
lion viewers, 6.8% less than
the 7.5 million-average a
week earlier. The singing
competition was ninth for
the week, the same as the
previous week.
Fox’s highest-rated pro-
gram was “The Masked
Singer,” 13th for the week,
averaging 6.74 million view-
ers.
Fox News Channel had
each of the 14 most-watched
prime-time cable programs
to finish first among cable
networks for the sixth con-
secutive week, averaging
3.03 million viewers. The
Wednesday edition of
“Tucker Carlson Tonight”
was the first among cable
programs, averaging 4.19
million viewers, 36th overall.
MSNBC was second, av-
eraging 1.8 million viewers,
and CNN third, averaging
1.16 million.PRIME-TIME TELEVISION RATINGS
Democratic debate is a talker
The South Carolina
event draws 15 million
viewers; ‘60 Minutes’
is a distant second.
city news service
PRESIDENTIALhopefuls Bernie Sanders, left, and Joe Biden at Feb. 25 debate.Jim WatsonAFP via Getty ImagesIn the first wave of nego-
tiations over pay in Holly-
wood, the Directors Guild of
America said Thursday that
it had struck a tentative
agreement on a new three-
year deal with the Alliance of
Motion Picture and Televi-
sion Producers.
The DGA, the first union
to kick off negotiations with
studios in what is expected
to be a fraught year of talks
over pay, took about three
weeks to reach an agree-
ment, according to a state-
ment from the union.
Terms of the agreement
covering film and TV work
were not disclosed and will
be released after the pro-
posed contract is approved
by the union’s national
board at a meeting Sat-
urday. The DGA’s current
contract expires on June 30.
The agreement could po-
tentially establish a bargain-
ing framework for two other
unions, SAG-AFTRA and
the Writers Guild of Ameri-
ca, whose contracts expire in
June and May, respectively.
The WGA is scheduled to be-
gin talks March 23, said two
people familiar with the
matter.
Studios and networks
have begun preparing for
the possibility of a strike by
writers, who have been in a
months-long conflict with
agencies over packaging
and other industry practices
deemed harmful to writers.The union, which previously
struck in 2007 for 100 days,
has been particularly con-
cerned that some of its
members haven't profited
from the streaming revolu-
tion that has changed how
writers, actors and directors
are compensated.
The DGA, which has
more than 18,000 members,
often begins negotiations
well in advance of when its
contracts expire to avoid
creating instability in the in-
dustry.
The proposed contract
includes improvements in
minimum salaries and
streaming residuals. It
would narrow the pay gap
between shows aired on pre-
mium pay TV channels and
those distributed on such
digital platforms as Netflix,
Amazon Prime and Apple
TV+, said a person familiar
with the matter who was not
authorized to comment.
Talks were led by negoti-
ating committee chairs Jon
Avnet and Todd Holland,
and Russell Hollander, the
union’s national executive
director.
The AMPTP, which rep-
resents the major studios,
declined to comment.Directors Guild,
studios have deal
The union moved to
lock in its contract
terms before potential
Writers Guild strike.
By Anousha SakouiTHE GUILD, which
presents the DGA award,
has a tentative contract.Dan SteinbergAssociated Press