LARGE PRINT PROGRAM ThE ALLEN ROOM JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER’S fREdERICk P. ROSE hALL LincoLn center presents AmericAn songbook JAnuAry 22 – June 12, 2014 sponsored by prudential investment management Wednesday Evening, January 29, 2014, at 8:30 LAwRENCE BROwNLEE: SPIRITuAL SkETChES Lawrence brownlee, Tenor Damien sneed, Piano This evening’s program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed without intermission. PLEASE TuRN PAGES quIETLy (program continued) 2 major support for Lincoln center’s American songbook is provided by Fisher brothers, in memory of richard L. Fisher; and Amy & Joseph perella. Wine generously donated by William Hill estate Winery, official Wine of Lincoln center. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. steinway piano please make certain your cellular phone, pager, or watch alarm is switched off. Lincoln Center’s Large Print and Braille programs are made possible thanks to a generous endowment established by frederick P. Rose, daniel Rose, and Elihu Rose in honor of their mother, Belle B. Rose. Additional support for Lincoln center’s American songbook is provided by the brown Foundation, inc., of Houston, the Dubose and Dorothy Heyward memorial Fund, the shubert Foundation, Jill and irwin cohen, the g & A Foundation, inc., great performers circle, chairman’s council, and Friends of Lincoln center. 3 endowment support is provided by bank of America. public support is provided by the new york state council on the Arts. Artist catering is provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com. metLife is the national sponsor of Lincoln center. movado is an official sponsor of Lincoln center. united Airlines is the official Airline of Lincoln center. WAbc-tV is the official broadcast partner of Lincoln center. William Hill estate Winery is the official Wine of Lincoln center. upcoming American Songbook Events in The Allen Room : Thursday Evening, January 30, at 8:30 Jason Isbell* (limited availability) Friday Evening, January 31, at 7:30 and 9:30 Patina Miller* 4 Saturday Evening, February 1, at 8:30 heartbreak Country: Michael John LaChiusa’s Stories of America with kate Baldwin, Sherry d. Boone, Marc kudisch, Bryce Ryness, Andrew Samonsky, Emily Skinner, & Mary Testa Wednesday Evening, February 12, at 8:30 Sarah Jarosz & The Milk Carton kids Thursday Evening, February 13, at 8:30 The Songs of henry krieger with Andy Einhorn, Erin davie, & Emily Padgett Friday Evening, February 14, at 8:30 Beth Orton Saturday Evening, February 15, at 7:30 and 9:30 Jonathan Groff Wednesday Evening, February 19, at 8:30 Marty Stuart & Connie Smith Thursday Evening, February 20, at 7:30 and 9:30 Portraits of Joni: Jessica Molaskey Sings Joni Mitchell 5 *this program will be recorded by Live From Lincoln Center for future broadcast. cameras will be present. the Allen room is located in Jazz at Lincoln center’s Frederick p. rose Hall. For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit Americansongbook.org. call the Lincoln center info request Line at (212) 875-5766 or visit Americansongbook.org for complete program information. Join the conversation: #Lcsongbook We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. in consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. the taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 6 from Camp Meeting to Concert hall By RoSaLyn SToRy oh black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel’s lyre? Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes? Who first from out the still watch, lone and long, Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song? When poet James Weldon Johnson wrote these words in 1925 to preface The Books of the american negro Spirituals , he set to poetry the question that has loomed since the first enslaved African sang the first spiritual: given the dark reality of American slavery, how did this miracle of music come about? And given its humble history, how did this offering of “black and unknown bards of long ago” arrive at the 21st-century concert hall, achieving the distinction of America’s purest and most original art form? slave songs. sorrow songs. songs of despair and songs of hope. From plantation camp meeting to european concert stage, the journey of the negro spiritual has been long and arduous, with intriguing stops along the way. its seeds were planted in the soil of the West African plains, where tribespeople, not yet departed for American shores, celebrated 7 birth, death, and the harvest with a stomp, a cry, a rhythm grounded in the African soul. it drifted westward across the Atlantic and took root on southern plantations, where plaintive melodies assuaged pain and offered balm for the sting of the master’s whip. At its most ambitious, it proved the power of music could make shattered lives whole, if only for the duration of a song. then came freedom, and reconstruction. by the time the negro spiritual reached the pews of the southern black country churches, and finally the northern cities and towns of the black diaspora, it was on its way to becoming America’s most honest and enduring music. the Fisk Jubilee singers first elevated the “slave song” to art song status. Fisk university in nashville, tennessee, one of the first colleges for freed negroes, was in dire straits in the fall of 1871. george White, director of the university choir, had the idea of taking a group of students, mostly former slaves, on tour to raise money for the university’s empty coffers. traveling northward to cities such as oberlin, ohio, the Jubilee singers sang the melodies passed down from generations of ancestors—songs like “go Down, moses,” and “steal Away”—to the delight of audiences who dug deep to help the struggling university. but while the group raised enough money to save the school, another result proved even more momentous: a simple, elegant 8 art form stamped with the ethos of the black American struggle was introduced to the world. the spiritual, while simple in its construction, enjoyed complex meanings and uses. some were innocent proclamations of devotion to a christian faith foisted on slaves by their masters, while others rang out against slavery, and even were encoded with instructions for escape. For the African American, the spiritual provided at least two-fold comfort: for those resigned to bondage, it offered a better day, through faith, on that “great getting up morning” in the “sweet by and by.” And for those who could not endure enslavement, songs narrated a plan of escape. the river Jordan in “swing Low, sweet chariot” became the ohio or the mississippi, rivers to be crossed for freedom, and by “wading in the water” one could dissolve human scent to evade the captors’ dogs. “steal Away,” with the line “i ain’t got long to stay here,” is perhaps the most obvious of all. still other spirituals, like “there is a balm in gilead,” brimmed with political fire and stood as statements against the institution of slavery itself. taken from the book of Jeremiah (22:6, 13), the words of scripture are unmistakable in meaning: “though you are like gilead to me…woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, makes his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.” 9 that the spiritual has survived wars, migrations, a civil rights movement, and the assimilation of African American art into American culture (leading to jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and even rock and roll) is testimony to the genius of Johnson’s “black bards of long ago.” tenor roland Hayes, a former Fiskite himself, first sang spirituals in concert, followed by marian Anderson and paul robeson. With each passing generation, another layer of craft is added to the form. but never has the synthesis of the spiritual with various American and even european musics been more fully realized than with the artistry of tenor Lawrence brownlee. imagine the note-bending of blues, gospel, and jazz— the soulful notation of mahalia Jackson or ray charles—melded with the complex melismas of bel canto and the precision of rossini. black church raised and conservatory trained, Lawrence brownlee, one of America’s most exciting young artists, is the embodiment of that synthesis. the evolution of an art form is the full proof of its endurance. Like African American culture itself, the spiritual has not only survived but thrived since its inception. With a new generation of African American artists, led by the likes of brownlee, the spiritual finds itself in more than capable hands. —Copyright © 2014 by Lincoln Center for the Performing arts, Inc. 10 Meet the Artists the most in-demand American tenor in the world in the bel canto repertoire, Lawrence Brownlee continues to astonish audiences with the power and agility of his instrument. He has been featured in nearly every major opera house and enjoys a relationship with many premier conductors and symphony orchestras. Among his memorable engagements are appearances in milan, Houston, philadelphia, Dresden, boston, seattle, Washington, rome, berlin, and Vienna, as well as at the metropolitan opera and the royal opera House–covent garden. in the orchestral arena, he has been heard in cincinnati, Houston, san Francisco, Detroit, baltimore, cleveland, chicago, and indianapolis.