Performer: Reginald Mobley, Baptiste Trotignon
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA936
Release: 2023
Size: 986 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. anon.: Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
02. trad.: Were you there?
03. trad.: I Got a Robe
04. Trotignon: Why
05. Price: Because
06. trad.: Steal away
07. trad.: Save Me Lord, Save Me
08. trad.: Bright Sparkles in the Churchyard
09. trad.: Nobody knows the trouble I seen
10. Price: Resignation
11. anon.: A Great Campmeetin’
12. Price: Sunset
13. trad.: My Lord, What a Mornin’
14. Burleigh: Jean
15. anon.: By an’ by / There is a Balm in Gilead (Arr. for Countertenor and Piano by Baptiste Trotignon and Harry Burleigh)
16. Strong, Whitfield: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
17. anon.: Deep river
During the long era when Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were creating the musical canon of Western Europe, the songs of African slaves resounded in the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, expressing pain and longing, but also joy and the desire for freedom. As the origin of many musical forms associated with the United States of America, including jazz, gospel, blues, soul, funk, indeed all Afro-American music, the repertoire of ‘Spirituals’ are true hymns to resilience, whose beauty and strength of both lyrics and music symbolise hope and faith in humanity. This project’s aim is to do justice to this musical heritage and to honour its past performers.
The American countertenor Reginald Mobley, a rising figure in baroque music, notably under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner, and the French pianist Baptiste Trotignon, winner of numerous awards (Victoires du Jazz, Django d’Or) have combined their talents and sensibilities to celebrate these spirituals and the
music of Black composers and poets in a programme entitled “Because”. A gathering of songs arranged or written by composers including H.T. Burleigh and Florence Price, most often re-composed with great freedom by the two performers. Very evocative traditional melodies (such as “Sometimes I feel like a
motherless child”, “Deep river” and other anonymous “gospel songs”) are mixed with the improvised piano, in an interactive and organic way.