Music for Black History Month

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 14, 2023. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: To help us honor Black History Month, we have a review of a new album featuring spirituals.

The album received a Grammy nomination, and while it’s not easy listening, WORLD’s Emily Whitten says Christians will find plenty to enjoy.

MUSIC: [SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER]

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: You’ve likely already heard the slave spirituals and hymns on Shawn Okpebholo’s album, Lord, How Come Me Here? But probably not like this. The album earned a Grammy nomination last year, in part because of world-class musicians and singers, like Will Liverman in this clip of the first track.

MUSIC: [SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER]

Another characteristic–the songs are sparse, usually featuring only a vocalist and one other instrument. On the album’s second track, pianist Paul Sanchez plays alongside opera singer J'Nai Bridges.

MUSIC: [HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS]

Throughout the album, Okpebholo combines different genres of music. He covers classical, blues, jazz, and more, which means it can be hard to get into. But music lovers willing to sit down, study the words, and really listen, may start to see the album’s rare beauty.

Okpebholo spoke in 2018 on A Theology of Hustle podcast about his own musical journey. He’s studied in various university settings, but he often looks to his family history for inspiration. He even studied for a time in his father’s home country of Nigeria.

OKPEBHOLO: Let me take what I’ve learned–Western Classical music–and try to incorporate the music that resonates with my father, with me and my family. I’ve also done music of my mother, she’s a black American, Negro spirituals. A lot of my musical output has been reimagining these Negro spirituals, Negro slave songs.

Thomas Russell is Adjunct Instructor of Organ at the University of South Carolina and assistant music director at his church. He says he likes Okpebholo’s eclectic approach.

RUSSELL: I would say they're all, they're all really fresh of his settings of the existing songs, existing tunes, you know, there's not anything on there that you think, okay, we've heard that before done that way.

For example, Russell points to the title track, “Lord, How Come Me Here?”

RUSSELL: He's both kind of going back into the African American tradition, but also the classical music tradition. The cello comes in with a little quote from the Bach’s E Minor Cello Suite…

MUSIC: [LORD, HOW COME ME HERE?]

RUSSELL: …and then enters kind of improvisatory section with the voice, and she's just singing kind of a vocal piece with no words. And occasionally they match up and they're moving in unison…

MUSIC: [LORD, HOW COME ME HERE?]

RUSSELL: I thought that to be really beautiful, but a fresh take on that…

One song on the album isn’t a remake of a traditional song. It’s an “art song” with the title “Two Black Churches” and in it, Okpebholo sets two poems to music. The first centers on the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.

MUSIC: [No. 1, BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM]

The second engages another racially motivated killing–this time a shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. These aren’t graphic in any way, but they use metaphors and stories to help us understand the tragedies.

MUSIC: [No. 2, THE RAIN]

RUSSELL: It's really kind of a devastating feeling after you listen to those and spending several minutes reflecting on what happened. And I was thinking, okay, where's he gonna go from here?

The final song answers that question–and it points listeners where we should always go after a tragedy. It’s titled “God is a God.”

MUSIC: [GOD IS A GOD]

Not everyone will love these kinds of sparse, intellectual settings. At times, the music feels more like an abstract painting than a musical album. Maybe that’s one reason why it didn’t bring home a Grammy last week. But with such rich theological and musical content, the album stands out as especially worthy of Christians’ time and attention.

MUSIC: [GOD IS A GOD]

I’m Emily Whitten.

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