Friday, August 27, 2021

African American Composer Initiative: Good News - That's the name of our new CD!

                 
African American Composer Initiative


Live concert CD featuring tenor Othello Jefferson.

Our musical journey together since 2010 has been rooted in the joyous experience of sharing the vibrant music of African American composers in live concert. Because of COVID, we were unable to perform our concerts in 2021. So, we made a way where there seemingly was no way, by producing a CD titled, “Good News.”

Taken from our live concerts, 2017 to 2020, it features Othello Jefferson, a gifted tenor brilliantly singing traditional and contemporary settings of spirituals, freedom songs, art songs, and opera arias. Also performing are all singers and instrumentalists of AACI and guest artists Valerie Capers and John Robinson.

Composers on the CD include the early master arrangers and preservers of spirituals: Roland Hayes, Hall Johnson, Harry Burleigh, Zenobia Powell Perry; and accomplished composers of today – Regina Baiocchi, Valerie Capers, Charles Lloyd Jr, Shawn Okpebholo, and Dolores White.

“Good News,” is available September 3, 2021, in streaming and CD formats; and you can pre-order it now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

It is our hope to return to live performance in early 2022, if national, state, and county health mandates will allow us to do so. Thank you for your ongoing support as AACI looks forward to welcoming you back to the concert hall before long. In the meantime, may the glorious music of “Good News” unite us in spirit by bringing hope and sustenance in these challenging times.

Sincerely,
LaDoris Cordell, Jodi Gandolfi, and Deanne Tucker,
co-founders, African American Composer Initiative

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