Saturday, April 4, 2020

GlideMagazine.com: Pianist Lara Downes Presents Spirituals and Freedom Songs of Pre-Civil War and Civil Rights Eras with Various Guests on “Some of These Days”


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

No comments:

Post a Comment