GRIOTS REPUBLIC - AN URBAN BLACK TRAVEL MAG - JULY 2016
ISSUE #7: GLOBAL MUSIC In this issue we've covered global black music all around the world. Black Travel Profiles Include: Jazz Vocalist, Andromeda Turre; Conductor from Orchestra Noir, Jason Rodgers; Reggae Legend, Tony Rebel; & Miami Band, Batuke Samba Funk! For more black travel profiles and stories, visit us at www.GRIOTSREPUBLIC.com.
ISSUE #7: GLOBAL MUSIC
In this issue we've covered global black music all around the world. Black Travel Profiles Include: Jazz Vocalist, Andromeda Turre; Conductor from Orchestra Noir, Jason Rodgers; Reggae Legend, Tony Rebel; & Miami Band, Batuke Samba Funk!
For more black travel profiles and stories, visit us at www.GRIOTSREPUBLIC.com.
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HARLEM GOSPEL<br />
CHOIR<br />
© Tiphany Overzat<br />
OSLO GOSPEL<br />
CHOIR<br />
© Tiphany Overzat<br />
Wade in the Water<br />
Wade in the Water,<br />
Children<br />
Wade in the Water<br />
God’s gonna<br />
trouble the water.<br />
~19th century Negro spiritual<br />
The lyrics above are known all<br />
around the world. They’ve been<br />
recorded by everyone from the<br />
Fisk Jubilee Singers, who were the first<br />
known singing group to record Wade in<br />
the Water, to Blues Legend Big Momma<br />
Thorton, the noted multi-genre<br />
singer, Bob Dylan and the jazz great<br />
Ramsey Lewis and the Ramsey Lewis<br />
Trio. This Negro spiritual and several<br />
other songs like it, including City Called<br />
Heaven, Steal Away to Jesus and Soon<br />
Ah Will be Done, are all the beginnings<br />
of the legacy of gospel music.<br />
Gospel music is born out of the spiritual<br />
and blues tradition. The impact<br />
of the traditional Negro spiritual cannot<br />
be understated considering many<br />
of the songs mentioned above have<br />
been recorded by various artists from<br />
various genres under the guise of the<br />
gospel tradition. It is the essence of<br />
the African American oral tradition.<br />
For the Negro spiritual is not simply<br />
about the praise, reverence and worship<br />
to Jesus or God; it is also about<br />
a longing to be free and the journey<br />
it takes to get there. For example,<br />
‘Wade in the Water’ is advising slaves<br />
who are escaping bondage how to trek<br />
through the water to make their way to<br />
freedom.<br />
These songs were sung a capella or<br />
without music; just the syncopated<br />
rhythm provided by the voices and<br />
hand claps (in church or during celebrations)<br />
by the slaves themselves.<br />
The musical presentation is probably<br />
the biggest distinction between the<br />
Negro spiritual and gospel music. For<br />
just as the spirituals provided hope<br />
and guidance, so does gospel music.<br />
Like the traditional Negro hymns, gospel<br />
lyrics are born out of the Christian<br />
context and further communicate not<br />
just messages of spiritual hope but<br />
also perseverance. Gospel music is<br />
born out of the blues and jazz tradition.<br />
Probably the most famous blues<br />
musician and writer to define early<br />
gospel is Thomas A. Dorsey.<br />
Dorsey’s genius was in combining elements<br />
of his musical education, the<br />
Chicago sound and lyric writing ability<br />
to produce songs that not only spoke<br />
to the soul lyrically but also rhythmically.<br />
His most famous song is Take<br />
my Hand, Precious Lord and was writ-
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