Cedille Records: African Heritage Symphonic Series, Volume II, "Epitaph For A Man Who Dreamed: In Memoriam Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," Adolphus Hailstork

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“10/10 — It’s hard to imagine more committed or more ideally suited advocates for this exceptional and compelling music.”

—Classics Today

Not since the LP era of the 1970s has there been anything like Cedille Records’ African Heritage Symphonic Series.

Volume II features compositions by exceptional Black composers from the 1940s to the 1980s, performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta led by its founder and music director, Dr. Paul Freeman,” one of the finest conductors our nation has produced.” (Fanfare)

Ulysses Kay’s ebullient Overture to Theater Set (1968) exudes a broad and good-natured energy. George Walker’s intensely romantic Lyric for Strings (1941) is one of the great gems of the string orchestra repertoire. With his acclaimed Eight Miniatures for Small Orchestra (1948), Panama’s Roque Cordero succeeded in synthesizing the avant-garde techniques he learned in the U.S. with the Latin and Afro-Caribbean music of his homeland. Accented with archetypal African drumming patterns, Hale Smith’s Ritual and Incantations (1974), radiates an aura of mystery and suspense. Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call (1985) takes the listener on a lush, fanciful, and jazzy excursion. Ten years in the making, Hailstork’s Epitaph for a Man who Dreamed (1979) pays tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King with passages of exquisite tenderness and noble power.