Lokumbe: Dear Mrs. Parks

$9.99
$6.74 (COMPACT DISC)

Link to this COMPACT DISC

Dear Mrs. Parks (more info)
Performed by: Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by: Thomas Wilkins
Jevetta Steele, mezzo-soprano
Taylor Lee Gardner, soprano
Janice Chandler-Eteme, soprano
Kevin Deas, bass-baritone
Hannibal Lokumbe, trumpet
Recording date: 6-8 March 2009


1.   A Prayer for the World (Audience) - The Over Soul Sends to Us (Chorus) - 00:02:06
2.   A Prayer for the World (Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Bass, Chorus) - 00:04:34
3.   For We Have Walked the Streets of Babylon, Forty Thousand Strong (Chorus) - 00:08:31
4.   In Sacrifice (Chorus) - 00:06:43
5.   For the Future (Chorus) - 00:01:06
6.   Seeds of the World (Bass, Chorus) - 00:05:52
7.   Songs from Heaven Falling (Soprano, Chorus) - 00:09:26
8.   Like Luminous Rain Upon the Daughters of Isis (Mezzo-soprano, Chorus) - 00:13:08
9.   Giving Their Children the Will to Continue (Child Soprano, Chorus) - 00:02:52
10.   Singing a Prayer for the Souls of the World (All) - 00:04:45

Reviews

An American (Feb 15, 2010)
Reviewer:Tym
"Dear Mrs. Parks, this is a letter of love to you..."

50 years ago "Missa Luba" combined the Latin Mass with traditional Congolese spirituals. The transformation from solemnity to celebratory was a revelation.

Hannible Lokumbe's "Dear Mrs. Parks" is a very American parallel to it; American in both its musics and its historical struggle of conscience. Like "Missa... "Dear Mrs. Parks, this is a letter of love to you..."

50 years ago "Missa Luba" combined the Latin Mass with traditional Congolese spirituals. The transformation from solemnity to celebratory was a revelation.

Hannible Lokumbe's "Dear Mrs. Parks" is a very American parallel to it; American in both its musics and its historical struggle of conscience. Like "Missa Luba" it merges classical formality with African dynamics, but extends them into jazz, gospel, and blues. The Civil Rights Movement was fueled by spirituals and biblical poetry, unifying every beaten loner into a redemptive revolution. Lokumbe's tribute oratorio mirrors this in psalmic letters and choral chants which reflect the one and everyone. 'The personal is political' and, as ever, very powerful.

"A Prayer" is a march of faith one step at a time. Its deliberate tonal steps, repeated with pause and concentration, suggest struggle but unwavering discipline. This almost martial formality in chordal and choral structure is unity in action, literally. "For We Have Walked..." takes this marching tension and releases it with a swinging polyrhythmic interlude that builds into stacked chorals so powerful that the audience leaps to cheer at its end! "In Sacrifice" reinforces chant as a rhythm, a kindred confession and resolution, that backbones the work, before the rhythm multiples into intensely propulsive drums and ecstatic horns. Often there is a blur between Catholic chorals and the sway of Southern gospel. For me the truest strengths of the work came when the harmonies and melodies locked together into fevered forward motion, such as the exhilerating "Like Luminous Rains..." The oratorio is bracketed by a poem where each line is a concentrated step, building to a final lifing release. This is a liberating work, in every sense. Rosa would be honored.

Beyond modern classical admirers, this might also thrill fans of Paul Robeson, the Gershwins, Leonard Bernstein, Gil Evans, James Brown, Fela, John Coltrane, P-Funk, Stevie Wonder, Talking Heads, The Slits, Joe Strummer, Public Enemy, and Peter Gabriel. (read more)