concert program
People Get Ready
Curtis Mayfield, arr. Mitchell W. Owens III,
CCC alumnus and Composer In Residence
Phillip Armstrong, Soloist
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
Strange Fruit
Civil Rights Movement Song,
arr. Mollie Stone
Abel Meeropol, arr. Kristina Boerger
Birmingham Sunday
Richard Farina, arr. Ted Hearne, Choir Alumnus
The Battle of Jericho
Traditional Spiritual, arr. Moses Hogan
Civil Rights Medley
Traditional/Bob Dylan and Dick Holler,
We Shall Overcome/Blowin’ in the Wind/Abraham, Martin and John
arr. Greg Jasperse
Audience members are invited to sing along. See program insert for lyrics.
Sleep
MLK
music by Eric Whitacre, lyrics by Charles Silvestri
Phillip Armstrong, Soloist
U2, arr. Bob Chilcott
Shed a Little Light
James Taylor, arr. Greg Jasperse
Lukas Talaga, John Williams & Devonte Winfree, Soloists
On Broadway
Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller,
arr. Laurence Hobgood
Lonely Avenue
Doc Pomus, arr. Kurt Elling
Nature Boy
eden ahbez, arr. Laurence Hobgood
God Bless the Child
Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.,
arr. Mitchell W. Owens III, CCC alumnus and Composer In Residence
Kurt Elling & Daniella Pruitt, Soloists
INTERMISSION
Freedom Train
Rollo Dilworth
Commissioned by Chicago Children’s Choir in honor of its 50th Anniversary
Shosholoza
South African Xhosa Song
Translation:
The train comes from the mountains,
Stimela pushes the train of freedom to South Africa!
Run to the train!
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concert program
As’ kwaz’ Ukuhamba
South African Xhosa anti-apartheid song
Translation:
We will not leave this land of our ancestors get on in the early morning
We will not leave on this earth
get on the train
We’re killed by the monster
Mom, it’s leaving me behind!
(a cry), the monster
get on, get on the train
We’re killed by the monster
get on the train in the early morning
(a cry), the monster
(the sound of a train)
the monster, the monster, on this earth
Shosholoza, Chief (Mandela)
(the sound of a train)
(the sound of a train)
Mom, it’s leaving me behind!
on this earth
get on the train
(a cry) it comes from the mountain
Somlandela
Translation:
We follow Jesus
We’ll follow wherever he goes
We will follow Luthuli (anti-apartheid leader)
We’ll follow wherever he goes
uMandela
Translation:
Mandela brings us peace
Mandela, you are the man,
Mandela, you are the crocodile!
Asimbonanga
Translation: We have not seen Mandela,
We do not know the places he stayed,
or where he was kept.
Hey you, and you also,
When will we reach our destination?
South African Zulu Song
South African Xhosa Song
South African Zulu song, Johnny Clegg,
arr. Soweto Gospel Choir
Selections from The Lion King
Circle of Life/One By One/He Lives in You
Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M,
Mark Mancina & Jay Rifkin,
arr. Greg Jasperse
Ferran Yagcier-Rodriguez, Eve Robinson & Daniella Pruitt, Soloists
Under African Skies - from Graceland
The Waking
Golden Lady
Paul Simon, arr. Greg Jasperse
music by Kurt Elling, poem by Theodore Roethke
Stevie Wonder, arr. Laurence Hobgood
Motown Medley
Smokey Robinson, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier,
Get Ready/Stop in the Name of Love/
Eddie Holland, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong,
Baby Love/ Second That Emotion/
Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell,
Can’t Get Next to You/ I Want You Back/
Deke Richards, William “Mickey” Stevenson,
Signed, Sealed, Delivered/ Dancing in the Street
Ivy Jo Hunter, Marvin Gaye, arr. Greg Jasperse
Soloists: Phillip Armstrong, Alex Kzeski, Devonte Winfree, Alex Villaseñor,
Reever Julian, Patrick Graney-Dolan, Lukas Talaga, Nathan Calaranan, Sophia Byrd,
Alex Du Buclet & Christina Estes-Wynne
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program notes
People Get Ready
Written by Chicago native Curtis Mayfield, People Get Ready was a big hit for his
group The Impressions in 1965. Mayfield was one of the first African-American R&B
songwriters to insert social themes and political commentary into his music, and
People Get Ready was regularly sung by marchers during the Civil Rights Movement.
Mayfield said, “That was taken from my church or from the upbringing of messages
from the church. Like ‘there’s no hiding place’ and ‘get on board’, and images of that
sort. I must have been in a very deep mood of that type of religious inspiration when
I wrote that song.”
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
A traditional song adapted for use in the Civil Rights Movement, Ain’t Gonna Let
Nobody Turn Me ‘Round is a perfect encapsulation of the call and response, improvisation,
and rhythmic drive used to unify the movement. Freedom songs such as this provided
an outlet of protest for those who might normally have been intimidated by racist
mobs or authority, and allowed those outside the struggle to become directly engaged.
Strange Fruit
The Poem “Strange Fruit” was written by Abel Meeropol as a reaction to Lawrence
Beitler’s photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930.
After it was first published in 1937, Meeropol asked many songwriters to set it to
music, but he ultimately wrote the music himself, performing it with his wife in and
around New York City. It 1939, the song was introduced to Billie Holiday, who saw in
the stark lyrics a reminder of her father’s death. From then on, Strange Fruit
became a staple of Holiday’s live performances. After bringing the song to several
record labels, which all refused to record it, she eventually took it to Commodore, an
alternative jazz label, and in time it became her biggest selling record.
Birmingham Sunday
While the tune is a traditional folk song, the words to Birmingham Sunday were
written by folk musician and activist Richard Farina in 1964. Farina was married to
Joan Baez’s sister, and was one of the few writers of contemporary songs to use the
Appalachian dulcimer as his instrument of choice. On September 15, 1963, a bomb
deliberately placed near the basement of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama, exploded, killing four African-American girls. One was 11
years old; the other three were 14. About 20 other people were injured. The church
had been a rallying point for marches against local police, whose tactic of using police
dogs and fire hoses on marchers was eventually shown on television to a worldwide
audience, turning the tide of the Civil Rights movement. Local members of the
Ku Klux Klan were later convicted of the bombing, but the case took years to come to justice.
The Battle of Jericho
Moses Hogan, born in 1957, has more than 70 published choral arrangements and original
works, which are performed by choirs of all ages and levels worldwide. Before his
untimely death in 2003, Hogan was one of the most respected artists in contemporary
choral writing and a good friend of Chicago Children’s Choir. The Battle of Jericho is
one of his most powerful arrangements and a staple of the CCC core repertoire.
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program notes
We Shall Overcome
It is difficult to determine the origins of We Shall Overcome. It was probably adapted
from a few old hymns, but its place in the Civil Rights Movement began when singer
Zilphia Horton heard black tobacco workers singing it on a picket line in 1946.
Horton added some verses, and taught it to folk legend Pete Seeger, who added more
verses. Another folk singer, Guy Carawan, sang it to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) in 1960, and it quickly spread throughout the movement. Pete
Seeger said in 1972, “This song undoubtedly has many meanings to many people...the
very best verse was made up in Montgomery, Alabama: ‘We are not afraid...Today!’...
without this verse, none of the the others could come true.” With Joan Baez leading
the singing, it opened and closed the March on Washington in August, 1963.
Blowin’ in the Wind / Abraham, Martin and John
Bob Dylan wrote of his masterpiece in 1962, “There ain’t too much I can say about
this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain’t in no book or movie
or TV show or discussion group. Man, it’s in the wind—and it’s blowing in the wind.
Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe
that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper, it’s got to come
down sometime. The only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes
down so not too many people get to see and know it...and then it flies away again...I
still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when
they see wrong and know it’s wrong.”
Abraham, Martin and John was written in 1968 by Dick Holler and first recorded
by pop star Dion. It is a tribute to four assassinated Americans, each icons of social
change: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and John and Bobby Kennedy. It
was a major hit at the time, a catharsis to the events of that year that many people
needed and welcomed. It has been recorded by many other artists since, including
Andy Williams (a good friend of Bobby Kennedy’s) in 1969, Harry Belafonte, Moms
Mabley, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Bon Jovi and Bob Dylan.
Sleep
Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular and performed composers of our time, a
distinguished conductor, broadcaster and public speaker. In 1999, he was commissioned
to set Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” to music. The
a cappella choral setting was premiered in October 2000 to great acclaim. The only
problem was that Whitacre neglected to secure the permission to use the poem. After
a legal battle, the Robert Frost Estate ultimately forbade Whitacre from setting that
poem to music until 2037, when it would become Public Domain. He was crushed,
but was able to save the piece by commissioning his friend and poet Charles Anthony
Silvestri to set new words to fit the music already written. It had to have the same
cadence and structure as Frost’s poem, retaining key elements like “evening” and
“sleep”. What resulted was a totally unique piece which evokes a singular world of
sound.
MLK
MLK is the final track of U2’s 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire. The album also
contains another, perhaps more well known song honoring Martin Luther King, Pride
(In the Name of Love). For these two songs, U2 frontman and political activist Bono
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program notes
was honored in 2004 on what would have been King’s 75th birthday with a ceremony
at King’s graveside by his widow, Coretta Scott King. MLK is in its way a lullaby or
an elegy to King, and in this arrangement written for the British a cappella supergroup
The King’s Singers by former member Bob Chilcott, the dreamlike quality is heightened
by the mixture of droning, sustained voices and the solo line which is enveloped by
them.
Shed a Little Light
Shed a Little Light is from James Taylor’s 1991 album New Moon Shine. It is an
homage to Martin Luther King, Jr., appealing to us to turn our thoughts to his ideals,
his life and his legacy. The powerful message of the song has made it a very popular
and important addition to Taylor’s live concerts over the years. Taylor says, “The
song is a recognition of the things we hold in common. Despite our differences, we are
all basically brothers and sisters. It is also a prayer, asking God to open our eyes, to
make it clear to us the things we all share. The line ‘we are bound and we are bound’
has a double meaning: not only are we bound on a journey together, we are also tied
together.”
On Broadway
On Broadway was first recorded by The Drifters in 1963 and reached number 9 on
the Billboard Top 100 that year. It was subsequently recorded by nearly every major
recording artist of the era. The most well-known version is by guitarist and singer
George Benson in 1978, winning a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal performance and
cementing Benson’s stardom.
Lonely Avenue
Doc Pomus wrote Lonely Avenue, a blues-inspired lament that was famously recorded
by Ray Charles in 1956. The son of Jewish immigrants, Pomus (real name Jerome
Felder) used crutches for much of his life as a result of childhood polio. He started
singing in blues clubs as a teenager, eventually evolving into a lyricist and songwriter,
when he found there was more money in songwriting royalties than what he was
making in clubs and in the recording studio. He continued to write songs for Lieber
and Stoller, B.B. King, Dr. John and others before his death in 1991 at the age of 65.
He once said that he wrote songs for “those people stumbling around in the night out
there....uncertain of where they fit in...”
Nature Boy
Nature Boy was written in 1947 by songwriter George Alexander Aberle, who went by
the name eden ahbez (he chose to spell his name with lower-case letters). ahbez slept
outdoors, had long flowing hair and beard, wore sandals and white robes, ate only raw
fruits and vegetables and was a big and early influence on the hippie movement in
California. He brought the song Nature Boy to Nat King Cole’s manager and Cole
began playing the song in concerts, but needed the author’s permission to record it.
They found ahbez living under the Hollywood sign, and got the permission. Cole’s
recording was number one on the Billboard charts for eight weeks. The song has since
been covered by hundreds of artists and has become a jazz standard.
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program notes
God Bless the Child
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), for all of her musical genius and influence, lived arguably
one of the saddest life stories in jazz. Born to a single teen mother, in and out of jails
and brothels, and never having anything close to a stable home life, she started singing
in clubs at an early age, eventually gaining recognition with her decidedly personal
approach to music. The songs she chose to sing always seemed to resonate on a deeper,
more personal level with her audience, as with the dark Strange Fruit and what some
consider her masterpiece, God Bless the Child. Written in 1939 with her frequent
collaborator, Arthur Herzog, Jr., it has since been covered by literally hundreds of
artists across all genres of music.
Freedom Train
Freedom Train was commissioned by Chicago Children’s Choir for its 50th Anniversary
season. CCC’s Artistic Director, Josephine Lee, chose to premiere the work as part of
the choir’s 2007 Freedom Tour. In the African American vocal tradition, the image or
metaphor of a train has often been employed as a symbol to represent freedom. It is
widely known that during the era of slavery, there existed a complex set of escape
routes from the South to the North—a system know as the Underground Railroad.
The slaves would often make references to trains as they labored in the field or as they
participated in secret ceremonial gatherings. This “code language” enabled them to
plan an escape without being discovered. The most popular African-American spiritual to
use the train metaphor is probably “De Gospel Train,” also known as “Get on Board,
Little Children.” I hope that you enjoy riding the “Freedom Train!”
-Notes by Rollo Dilworth
Shosholoza
The word “Shosholoza” imitates the sound of a train, and the song is about “the
train of freedom” coming to South Africa. Shosholoza was originally sung by migrant
laborers across Southern Africa, and then by freedom-fighters, as the song traveled
from one nation to another during the struggle to throw off the yolk of colonialism
and gain independence. After the fall of apartheid, Shosholoza was sung by all South
Africans, regardless of race, to unify the new Rainbow Nation. Most famously, it was
sung at the 1995 World Rugby Cup, in which the South African Springboks won their
first victory in the name of a united, equal South Africa. To hear the audience sing
this song as an expression of nationalism—especially the majority of the whites in
the audience—truly signaled a new era in South Africa.
As’ kwaz’ ukuhamba
Like many anti-apartheid songs, As’ kwaz’ ukuhamba is a fusion of Western hymnody and
traditional black South African polyphony. The song’s message responds to the forced
removals that took place across South Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, as thriving mix-raced
communities were razed to create new neighborhoods for whites, and non-whites were
relocated to faraway barren townships. Many people recalled standing in front of
bulldozers as they came to destroy their homes, holding hands and singing “we will
not leave.” This song is heart-breaking, and yet, like all South African songs, it is also
filled with determination and hope for the future. Even when singing about the most
devastating aspects of oppression, black South Africans sang to inspire each other to
keep fighting.
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program notes
Somlandela /uMandela
In this fusion of two anti-apartheid songs that celebrate great South African leaders,
we begin with the beautiful religious song Somlandela. We sing the traditional first
verse, which states “we will follow Jesus,” and then sing the second verse, which was
adapted for the struggle as “we will follow Luthuli.” Chief Albert Luthuli (1898-1967)
was an important leader who served as president of the African National Congress, and
was jailed for burning his passbook in protest after the Sharpville Massacre of 1960.
He was the first African to win the Nobel Peace Price in 1960 for his dedication to
non-violence in the struggle against apartheid.
The song uMandela was famously sung across the country after Nelson Mandela won
South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. The song celebrates Mandela’s leadership,
his ability to bring peace, and likens his strength to that of a crocodile.
Asimbonanga
Asimbonanga is a Zulu anti-apartheid song composed by Johnny Clegg (known as “the
white Zulu”) during the apartheid era, which talks about the absence of Mandela while
he was locked away in prison. The song laments the fact that people did not know
where political prisoners were kept or what happened to them when they were arrested
during apartheid. This arrangement of Asimbonanga, made famous by the Soweto
Gospel Choir, ends with a section of Peter Gabriel’s song Biko, about the famous
freedom-fighter Steve Biko, who was murdered in 1977 while being held by the South
African police. When Mandela passed away on December 5th, 2013, the Soweto Gospel
Choir performed this moving rendition of Asimbonanga as a flashmob in a Woolworths
grocery store in Johannesburg, and handed out roses to the customers. It was a beautiful
tribute, and as always, South Africa continues to use its powerful choral tradition to
provide healing in the face of great loss, as well as inspiration to keep striving for the
ideals envisioned by leaders like Mandela.
Selections from The Lion King
20 years ago, in April 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections in which
all races were allowed to vote. Two months later, Disney released its 32nd animated
feature film, The Lion King, bringing the sights and sounds of Africa to a new generation.
The Broadway adaptation of The Lion King opened in 1997 and is still running to
critical acclaim. In fact, even after 16 years, it was the highest grossing Broadway
show of 2013, a very impressive feat for a long-running musical. The show boasts
groundbreaking puppetry, costumes and scenery to tell the story of the young lion
Simba, who, after heartbreak and exile, finally triumphs as King of the Pride Lands.
For the show, several plot elements were expanded and many songs and musical numbers
were added, including One By One and He Lives in You, which incorporate more
uniquely African sounds and rhythms.
Under African Skies
Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland was a milestone in the world of popular music.
Simon was once handed a cassette tape of the music of the South African instrumental
group The Boyoyo Boys, and he was so moved by this music that he traveled to South
Africa during the height of apartheid to find, record and make music with South
African musicians. The trip was controversial, but according to Simon, the resulting
album “made a very powerful point—gently. It wasn’t an album that said, ‘there is
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program notes
terrible evil here’. It said, ‘there is incredible beauty here’”. Joe Berlinger, the producer
of a 2011 documentary chronicling Simon’s journey back to South Africa for a 25th
anniversary concert, says, “what is remarkable is that apartheid now lies in the past,
yet the music lives on as a great achievement. The power of the music is that it is still
bringing people together.”
The Waking
The title poem of Theodore Roetkhe‘s 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “The
Waking” is arguably one of the greatest poems of the 20th-Century. In it, the poet
explores the middle ground between sleeping and waking, full of paradoxes and
ambiguities, (“I wake to sleep”, “we think by feeling”, “shaking keeps me steady”)
all wrapped up in the form of an Italian Villanelle (five stanzas of three lines each,
ending with a four-line stanza) in iambic pentameter.
Golden Lady
Stevie Wonder is the only artist from Motown Records’ heyday to still be recording
with that label. Golden Lady comes from his 1973 landmark album Innervisions. When
it was listed as number 23 of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time, the magazine
said, “Stevie Wonder may be blind, but he reads the national landscape, particularly
regarding black America, with penetrating insight on Innervisions”. Kurt Elling puts
his own unique spin on Golden Lady by setting the verses in 7/8 time instead of the usual 4/4.
Motown Medley
Motown was never just about the music. It was about bringing people together
through music. Berry Gordy, a 30-year-old songwriter and record producer from
Detroit, Michigan, founded the Motown record company in 1959. By espousing the
ideals and objectives of the Civil Rights Movement, Motown sought to bring racial
integration to popular music. Through the label’s Artist Development Department,
the performers were meticulously groomed and choreographed, constantly working
against the prevailing negative image (at that time) of black musicians. The artists
under Gordy’s tutelage, such as The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson
& The Miracles, The Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder, achieved unprecedented success,
gaining the crossover appeal that Motown was constantly striving for, and making the
Motown Sound one of the most distinctively original styles of music in the world. The
songs in our Motown Medley date from 1964-1970 and may seem like innocent party
tunes, but they speak to a higher calling, bridging diverse ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.
According to Smokey Robinson, “the Motown sound to me is not an audible sound.
It’s spiritual, and it comes from the people that make it happen.”
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