I couldn't think of an apropriate title for this...i tried to encompass all the different reasons people should read...but i couldn't....
the following is a very well written, very insightful essay about variosu topics of importance and it's message is eloquated so well...and the poitns are so powerful and important that i felt it needed to be shared...
It's a review for what i feel is one of the most brilliant cds ever made...and one of my favorites..if not my absolute favorite of all time...
just read...
Unlike other Americans, the Black American does not have another native soil to call “home.” Were it not for their long history in the United States, they would likely be nomadic, with no African port of call to welcome them. By default and not by their own design, they have made America their home in their traditions, creating a home in their culture, away from their erstwhile “home,” of unknown origins. Still considered a social “foreigner,” excluded by a majority of immigrants to a land they’ve inhabited and on which they have toiled for centuries, the one area where the Black has been considered truly and distinctly American, is in the Arts. Their participation in creating novel musical sounds is a driving force in American culture.
As much as it can be commercialized and imitated by the Backstreet Boys and the N’Sync kids, and the 911’s, the Britney Spears and Cristina Aguilera’s of the world – when it’s all said and done, your heart will feel Aretha, Whitney, and even Ms. Blige, when you hear true “soul.” It is first a Black thing, then an American thing. And the phenomenon really is hard to understand.
Black American singing and dancing is born of a deep suffering, a pain, an ancestral cry that is incomprehensible, even to themselves, unless it is somehow deciphered and explained. Mervyn Warren, composer and arranger, executive produced and co-produced with Quincy Jones, one of the most revolutionary adaptations of a classical piece ever and not likely possible of imitation, that attempts to explain the black music phonomenon. In true fashion, the composer re-arranged “Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration” to produce a definitive anthology of black music, while at the same time, carrying a European and Western tradition that is antithetical to the very African origins of Black American music.
The black life of “adaptation” is certainly evident in their majority and united belief in Christianity, a belief that they succumbed to after their own modes of worship were eviscerated once transplanted to American soil. Separated from the family social fabric that creates traditional forms of worship, the black American has had to find religion on his own, and Christianity won out, as it did with most initial waves of our country’s immigrant transplants.
Music and history are combined in this compact disc that celebrates G.F. Handel’s original “Messiah, an Oratorio for Four-Part Chorus of Mixed Voices, Soprano, Alto Tenor and Bass Soli and Piano.” Mr. Warren combines the black R & B tradition, heavily steeped in gospel and “making a joyful noise” -- gospel based religious overtones – and foists them on a European musical masterpiece. He called it Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration.”
How is Handel’s “Messiah” the pretext through which to understand black music? This statement exposes an inherent paradox. Whereas there have been claims that Beethoven was a mulatto of mixed African ancestry, I have heard no claims that Handel was anything but a German who transplanted himself to England where he was welcome as a composer for the Royal family. This German music could hardly have an African undercurrent to it. So, how can Mervyn Warren and Quincy Jones actually translate Handel for black or other R & B music lovers?
To speak of Handel is to think of rarified settings of choirs and orchestras, somberly participating in a song-fest, usually in a Church or Music Hall, during Christmas time, rejoicing in “the Messiah,” otherwise known as “Jesus Christ.” According to Schirmer’s Editions of Oratorio’s and Cantata’s, the original composition reflected the limited talents of the musicians and choirs who were to perform the oratorio. In 1741, Handel was in Dublin Ireland, when he composed the masterpiece in twenty-four days. The Schirmer introduction to the oratorio cites that: “in his choruses [Handel] did not go beyond four-part writing, and kept his orchestra within the most modest limits, so that no instrument except violin and trumpet plays a solo part, and oboe and bassoon do not appear at all in the score…”
Messieurs Warren and Jones eschew the supposed “limitations’ of Handel’s original work, bringing synthesized music, marimbas, tambourines, the music of rhythm and blues, to lift Handel’s Messiah to “funkdom” so supremely reverential, yet staying in keeping with the original music.
Handel’s Messiah is a boastful yet contemplative piece of masterful proportions -- one of the great musical wonders of the world. Mr. Warren takes a great piece and “funkdafies” it for you. He takes a European sensibility and takes it to levels so strat-o-spheric that you spontaneously want to “rock hard” -- to Handel? It is very hard to sit still while listening to his CD. In fact, if you have any soul in you (and you should, if you’re an American, black or white, yellow brown, or any other [stupidly-named] persuasion, because chances are, even if you weren’t born with it, you inherited some of it over the years listening to American commercials) you will be moved by the music. And if you’re religious, you’ll feel it even deeper because it will affirm everything you take on faith. But if you’re like me, a wandering doubter looking for a spiritual resting place, you’ll begin to think that maybe Jesus has something going for him, after all. At least while you’re listening to the music.
For me it works because I have a decided classical sensibility (more romantic, than classical, actually) and I also like to groove to R & B, hip-hop and even rap (with a large dose of shame and humility). To find an album that uses the classical notes of a great tradition, and then funks it up is to describe the impossible. The closest I can come to doing so is to use the analogy of falling from the sky and finding out that -- you can stay afloat. It is a glorious feeling. When I listen to Rachmaninoff, Elgar, Stravinsky, Mahler, composers who are to me, the equivalent of Hard Rock classical composers, I usually can’t stay still. I tend to conduct, bop my head up and down and sing back to them. But rarely do I get a chance to hear them funked up five notches, with a bass rhythm, percussion, and soulful voices as I do here -- well, you just have to groove and actually dance to it.
The songs of the contemporary version sequentially correspond, more or less, to the original oratorio, which is in Three Parts. The majority of the songs are in Part I of George F. Handel’s piece and the titles remain truthful to the original. Overall, Mr. Warren and Jones put 16 songs on their compact disc, packing it with fervor that will whip you into a religious fever (whether you’re a believer or not). Here’s a sampling of some of the songs in Handel’s piece that appear in the “sequel.”
Part I
1. Overture
2. Comfort ye my people
3. And the glory of the Lord
4. Thus saith the Lord
5. But who may abide the day of His coming
6. And He shall purify
7. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
8. O thou that tallest good tidings to Zion
9. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth
10. For unto us a Child is born
The feat of putting classical sounds to R & B is spectacularly achieved. The album's purpose is made known in the Overture, which is aptly titled: “Overture: A Partial History of Black Music.” To hear it is to hear the genesis of the black American historical experience – put to music. The Overture begins with a tribal drum echoing at night, and the rattle of a snake, alerting Africans that an enemy has arrived to take them from their sacred shores. You can see running through brush, as the Africans try to outrun their eventual captors. Next, you feel the moan of the slaves on the ships, in the fields, in the whole diaspora, crying and feeling the pain of separation from their land, their families, and their African heritage, all accompanied by the wail of a mother’s voice humming a melody of pain. From that we segue to Ragtime and Scott Joplin to the blend of horns and piano, that herald the eventual big band sound providing the basis for American Jazz. The brief overture manages to compact several other musical genres in its mix, still staying true to the melody of the original Overture, adding gospel music, with tambourines, with a slow groove taking us to R & B music, funky sounds, garage music… it is absolutely wild.
The music matches the lyrics of Handel’s original music, word for word, and mixes in “ad lib” where necessary, usually in the form of Rap. The compact disc boasts some of the most celebrated R & B and gospel names: Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Patti Austin, Stevie Wonder, Take 6, The Sounds of Blackness, The Richard Smallwood Singers, The Yellow Jackets, Al Jarreau, the Harlem Boys Choir and Tevin Campbell. Each accomplishes their solo with dexterity, perfect pitch and restraint, and bombast, as is needed and there is a lot of it, so you’ve been forewarned. The music will yell at you, scream at you, until you start to believe in its Word.
Mr. Warren’s talents were recently showcased at a 25th Gala Celebration at the nation’s music hall, the Kennedy Center. I don’t know anything about this man to do justice to his biography or musical background, so I’ve taken the liberty of quoting verbatim, the bio of this truly gifted man, printed in the Kennedy Center Honors program. I give due props to Mr. Jones (of whom I will speak more below), but it appears that Mr. Warren’s genius inspired and marshaled this production. I also believe that, as a lesser known composer, he should be given his due credit for a masterful work worthy of wholesale flattery and unadulterated adulation:
"Conductor Mervyn Warren's multiple roles as a record producer, arranger, film composer, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist, have brought him five Grammy Awards, six Dove Awards, and two Gospel Music Workshop of America Awards. He has written songs and arrangements for artists including Quincy Jones, Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Dianne Reeves, and Johnny Mathis, and contributed and scored sound track music for Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, the movies Dick Tracy, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (Whoopi Goldberg), I'll Do Anything (Nick Nolte), Renaissance Man (Danny DeVito), and Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration, an all-star African-American version of the classic work, for Mr. Warren also served as executive producer and producer. He is working on music for the upcoming film The Preacher's Wife (Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington). His classical pieces have been performed by orchestras including the Nashville Symphony, which he has conducted, and he has arranged music for and conducted many orchestral and choral recording sessions."
Written and produced in 1992, it “A Soulful Celebration” was revolutionary. To hear religious themes championed in musical rap-pentameter was a novelty back then. In most of the songs, Mervyn Warren, throughout the album, takes a traditional first couple notes of George F. Handel’s oratorio, and then turns the remaining notes on their axis, wheeling and spinning them around to make a variation on the melody’s theme. My absolute favorite song is “He Shall Purify,” a chorus-dominated song that is so inspirational that you’re likely to start flying by virtue of crescendo. If you can listen to this song and still stand still, I’ll nail your coffin shut for you – because you must be dead. “He Shall Purify,” sung by Tramaine Williams, is one of the most moving songs on the album. For anyone who is a believer, this should send you to heaven. A clear soulful soprano sings a beautiful solo, backed by a choir, that crescendos to louder tones, with male voices giving strength to add volume to the religious them of purification and cleansing (although I can’t say what it means to be “purified” – who cares, I wanted it just by listening to the song. Throw me some bubble bath this way!).
Patrice Rushen’s lovely dulcet tones sing, “But Who Shall Abide the Day of His Coming,” a song which starts simply enough, but becomes a very poignant song of growing momentum that makes you feel you’ve discovered Him. Another beautiful rendition is Tevin Campbell’s melodious tenor singing, “My Redeemer, I know he liveth.”
Although I have purposefully highlighted Mr. Mervyn Warren’s genius, it almost goes without saying that Quincy Jones’s name carried much weight in making this the seminal masterpiece that it is. This man is a living legend. I have taken him much for granted, even as a film enthusiast, unaware of the breadth of his role as a contemporary film composer. I have listed the number of film’s he’s scored, to allow you to witness his epic role in the film industry. This film list is compliments of http://www.spaceagepop.com/jones.htm.
Soundtracks
o In Cold Blood, Colgems COS-107
o Enter Laughing, Liberty LOS-17004
o Walk Don't Run, Mainstream MDCD-605
o Mirage, Mercury SR-61025
o The Slender Thread, Mercury SR-61070
o The Pawnbroker, Verve 31233-2
o The Deadly Affair, Verve 31233-2
o In the Heat of the Night, United Artists UAS-5160
o They Call Me Mister Tibbs, United Artists UAS-5214
o The Lost Man, United Artists 73060
o John and Mary, A&M SP-3040
o Roots, A&M SP-4626
o For the Love of Ivy, ABC ABCS-OC-7
o Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Bell 1200
o The Cactus Flower, Bell 1201
o The Italian Job, Paramount PAS-5007
o Dollars, Reprise MS-2051
o The Color Purple, Qwest 25389-2
o The Hot Rock, Prophesy SD-6055
o MacKenna's Gold, RCA Victor LSP-4096
I have generally stayed far from writing in depth music reviews because it’s too hard to describe “a note.” I’ve also read better writers out there in Epinions and elsewhere, who know how to discuss music because they are musicians in their own right (hey, congratulate me, though. I can almost play “Jingle Bells” with two hands on the piano now!”). I encourage other writers to put a better spin on this compact disc than I have because it deserves every bit of scrutiny. Hopefully, I’ve whetted your appetite to discover Handel on your own. For true music aficionados, it’s worth hearing a compact disc of Handel’s original Messiah, and alternating between that and the Quincy Jones version. If your mother is a pianist, as mine is, it’s even more daunting to hear the music live and draw comparisons. You’ll discover that as much as the most recent version is a parody of the “grossest’ nature, it is actually very faithful to Handel’s intent: you will become a believer, if not in religion, then of religious music.
Happy Holidays… every day. I listen to this CD every month of the year, Christmas or not. Celebrate America’s black history which is all of America’s history -- and rejoice in the life beginnings of all our collective existence on this Earth…. Rejoice in a life of soulfulness. Listen. And believe.
You can order it on any music website but by coping and pasting the link below, you can listen to excerpts. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...158563-9303102
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Originally Posted by Sublime D
