Shawn E. Okpebholo
's
Songs in Flight
are exactly what the title implies; the songs in flight are not abstract images but depictions of African Americans who fled their enslavement. The texts come from a Cornell University collection of advertisements placed by slave owners trying to recapture those in flights.
Okpebholo
thus faces the problem of converting textual material into music in addition to handling material that, as he points out in his own note (the physical album is recommended here), had crushing emotional impact. His solutions are inventive and are unlike any other set of songs based on written prose texts.
deploys his material in various ways. He calls for some of it to be read in speech. He features four of the advertisements boiled down into poems by
Crystal Simone Smith
and also uses other poems that admit layers of emotional reaction susceptible to musical setting; these add references to the slain teen Trayvon Martin and other contemporary resonances. The settings make use of an impressive variety of musical genres, many but not all from African American folk traditions; "Asko or Glasgow" is a fusion of the spiritual and the Baroque chaconne. All this is distributed among soloists that, by themselves, would be reason enough to seek this album out. Classical listeners may be less familiar with
Rhiannon Giddens
; she is active in folk and bluegrass, but her initial training was in opera, and one should hear her voice wherever one can. Countertenor
Reginald Mobley
, soprano
Karen Slack
, and baritone
Will Liverman
all have records of individual accomplishment, and there is a satisfying feeling of seeing them collaborate on a project of great power. Beyond its gripping subject matter, this is a composition of considerable sophistication. The album ends with four other songs by
that cover more recent situations and suggest new paths for development. An impressive release from the
Cedille
label. ~ James Manheim