Glide Magazine
Jim Hynes
April 3, 2020
Maybe it’s the impact of the movie Harriet; maybe
it’s all the fine work of artists such as Mavis Staples and Rhiannon
Giddens and others who have brought more awareness of old spirituals
sung in the fields by slaves, some of which later became rallying songs
for the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights era. Whatever the catalyst,
this music seems more present than ever. Pianist Lara Downes delivers
these mostly well-known spirituals and freedom songs, some alone on the
piano, and others with a diverse cast of guests on Some of These Days.
The
mission of the album is stated in these words “All of God’s children
gonna sit together, some of these days” – From the African American
spiritual “Welcome Table.” Downes says, “The conviction in these words –
the hope and faith in them – is why I’m even here at all. I was born
because my parents believed them. …They met at a sit-in, my mom and dad,
San Francisco, in the late 1960s. He was a Black man from Harlem, and
she was a Jewish girl from Akron. They fell in love and got married and
had three golden-brown babies, all in the hope and faith that their
daughters, and all the children, of all shades of black, brown and
beige, would sit together in freedom and fairness—some of these
days….This is music that is sweet and rich, and strong with grit, dark
with history,” says Lara. “Music that can’t exist without the
contradictions that define American history and American life. “
Downes’ magnificent piano graces tunes that originated in camp meetings and plantation fields (like those you heard in the film Harriet)
and traveled the Underground Railroad. They are “Steal Away,” “Let My
People Go” and “Welcome Table.” And, of course, the long-tenured
spirituals such as “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” “Troubled
Water,” “Hold On,” “Deep River” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve
Seen.” Freedom songs such as “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be
Free,” “Down by the Riverside” and “We Shall Overcome” are here as well.
Yes, you’ve heard most of the songs before but not with the elegant,
gospel/classical piano that Downes delivers here, whether alone or in
esteemed company. This could be one of the year’s most important
recordings.
***
Lara Downes: About SOME OF THESE DAYS
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