Negro Spirituals: “Just the Black Notes”
April 20, 2008
Wintley Phipps, the president of the US Dream Academy, offers a rendition of Amazing Grace that simply overwhelms the imagination. It’s unforgettable.
The US Dream Academy is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help and inspire children whose misfortune is to have family members in prison.
Watch this inspiring video:
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Thanks for your post — with great singing!
You’re welcome Henry.
The medley is “unknown” because nobody knows who composed the Celtic song it was based on. Celtic music is also known for using “just the black notes.”
BEAUTIFUL! BEAUTIFUL!
Gerald,
I just got back from voter canvassing in Pittsburgh’s Homestead district, an old steel town and now with a predominantly African American demographic–severely left behind by the mechanisms of our late capitalist economy.
This suffering is still very much palpable.
Thank you for this hauntingly beautiful link.
Mark,
This performance invites each one to affirm in thought and deed their deepest human integrity. Just imagine the transformative potential for the nation flowing out of such a collective response.
This reminds me of a story I read a few years ago, where a gospel choir gave a concert in a church in Milan(?) in Italy.
The audience was absolutely floored by the music – they had never heard sacred music sound anything like that. They were especially struck by the joy that pervaded the singing.