Spirituals

When Bach, Mozart and Beethoven constituted the musical canon of Western Europe, the songs of slaves from Africa echoed in the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, expressing with force the pain and the nostalgia, but also joy and the desire for freedom. At the origin of many musical forms associated with the United States of America, such as ragtime, jazz, gospel, blues, rock, techno and other forms of electronic music, the 'Spirituals' are a real anthem to resilience whose beauty and strength of lyrics and music symbolize hope and faith in humanity. It was time to do justice to this musical heritage and honor its former performers. This is the mission of American countertenor Reginald Mobley, associated with French jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon, whose exemplary backgrounds in their respective fields have created a unique collaboration to interpret these gems of black music, to be released on the label ' Alpha Classics' in spring 2023. The program offered here is a collection of songs arranged or written for voice and piano by composers such as HT Burleigh, Florence Price and J Rosamond Johnson, or simply articulated and improvised by the performers from the original songs and texts.