Black Music Sunday is a weekly collection highlighting all issues Black music, with over 240 tales protecting performers, genres, historical past, and extra, every that includes its personal vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll discover some acquainted tunes and maybe an introduction to one thing new.
Epiphany, which comes from the Greek phrase “epiphaneia” which means “reveal,” is well known by many Christians 12 days after Christmas on Jan. 6. The vacation honors the three biblical sensible males, or Magi, who adopted a star to go to the new child child Jesus. In Spanish, Three Kings Day known as Dia de los Reyes Magos, which is well known not solely in Spain, however all through the Spanish-speaking world. This holy day, the star, the sensible males, and their journey has been immortalized musically in a number of genres.
Calypsonian singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte first recorded “A Star in the East” in 1958 which opens with these lyrics:
There is a star within the east on Christmas morn
Stand up shepherd and observe
It will result in the place the place the Savior born
Stand up shepherd and observeDepart your ewes and depart your lambs
Stand up shepherd and observe
Depart your sheep and depart your rams
Stand up shepherd and observe
Most individuals are extra conversant in “We Three Kings,“ written by John H. Hopkins round 1857, based mostly on the narrative of the journey of the magi in Matthew 2:1-12. It has been fantastically interpreted by a number of singers and instrumentalists since then. Two of my favourite vocal variations are from Ella Fitzgerald and Roberta Flack.
Fitzgerald recorded “Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas” in 1967, which included her traditional model of “We Three Kings”:
In 1997 Roberta Flack launched “The Christmas Album” which included “We Three Kings” with a model I’ve hardly ever heard performed. Give it a hear.
In a special vein—Miles Davis joined forces with Larry Carlton, David Sanborn, and Paul Shaffer to document this model, which was within the 1988 film “Scrooged” starring Invoice Murray. YouTuber Manolis notes Miles’ “smooth electro-jazz version of ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ which sounds very much ‘of its day,’ while still managing to present a fresh take on an old classic.”
Soul saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. recorded “The Magi’s Song /A Child is Born” in 1997 on his album “Breath Of Heaven – A Holiday Collection.” It was his final launch earlier than he died in December 1999.
It’s actually onerous to pin a label on the kind of music Trans-Siberian Orchestra makes. The group continues to be touring with its Christmas extravaganza.
I admit I really like the lyrics of “The Three Kings And I (What Really Happened)”:
Now you all heard the story about Bethlehem
How the kid was born and the three sensible males
Heard the preacher inform it just like the preacher does
However let me inform you, kids,
That is not the way it was
Now you would possibly ask me what I am speaking about
However I do know the half that all of them overlooked
Sure, I do
Now do you hear what I stated
That Herod needed these sensible males useless
However on that blessed night
My nice nice nice nice nice nice granddad
He saved these kings
Now granddad made his dwelling
Enjoying jazz you see
However jazz wasn’t large round one A.D.
So he received himself a job within the palace band
The place he heard about three kings
Within the desert sand
(You possibly can learn the remainder right here.)
Sony Photos launched an animated movie for household viewing, “The Star”, in November 2017, which included songs from Mariah Carey and the Reverend Kirk Franklin.
Additionally from the world of gospel, Donald Lawrence and the Tri-Metropolis Singers recorded his tune, “In the Presence of a King.” The soloist is Arnetta Murrill-Crooms.
Not simply coping with the Magi is that this magnificent symphony from Duke Ellington, in three elements. Half one is for Balthazar, the Black king of the Magi. Half two is King Solomon and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the third king, who we shall be celebrating later this month. Violinist Timothy Judd wrote for The Listeners Membership:
Three Black Kings (Les Trois Rois Noirs) was Duke Ellington’s final composition. The orchestral triptych was left unfinished on the time of Ellington’s demise in 1974. True to the spontaneous spirit of jazz and guided by superstition, the American composer, pianist, and band chief incessantly left items incomplete till the day of the primary efficiency. Ellington’s son, Mercer, pulled the items collectively, and Luther Henderson organized and orchestrated the rating. Alvin Ailey choreographed a ballet to accompany the music, which was carried out in 1976.
The American Composers Orchestra performs your entire symphony right here:
Learn right here for a style of Three Kings and the way they’re celebrated in Latino cultures.
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