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Performance At The White House: Civil Rights Music [Post a Comment]
I only just stumbled onto seeing this literally at the last minute on the cable guide or I would have mentioned it earlier. However, I’m happy to be able to catch President Obama hosting this Civil Rights music event at the White House with a who’s who of performers, aired on PBS.
After the introductory speech from President Obama, Yolanda Adams opened up with Sam Cooke’s classic A Change Is Gonna Come and she ended it by singing that “a change has come”, citing the fact that we have a Black president in the White House.
Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson followed, doing the Curtis Mayfield classic People Get Ready.
Natalie Cole followed and did not sing (yet). Instead, she told a tale about Civil Rights activist Alice Wine and introduced John Mellencamp, who told a humorous story about hearing the song I’m Your Puppet back in the sixties before launching into a rendition of the Civil Rights hymn Keep Your Eyes On The Prize (Hold On), penned by the aforementioned Alice Wine.
Natalie Cole, who incidentally had her right arm in a sling, then talked about Marvin Gaye and proceeded to launch into a rendition of What’s Going On, giving the song her jazzy flair.
She was followed by folk singer Joan Baez who, after declaring her admiration to President and First Lady Obama, performed We Shall Overcome.
Morgan Freeman followed and delivered a tale of Civil Rights figure Kenneth Lyons. He then introduced Jennifer Hudson back, who performed the Donny Hathaway song Someday We’ll All Be Free, sounding great as always.
Morgan Freeman returned and talked about West African music and introduced Yolanda Adams back on the stage to perform the gospel classic How Great Thou Art. Yolanda Adams is truly a gifted singer. through and through.
Afterwards, Bernice Johnson and the Freedom Singers came up. Ms. Johnson told a tale of one of her experiences during the Movement, then she and her choir launched into a very soulful song before stopping the performance midway to invite the audience to sing along. Then she and her Freedom Singers and the audience sang. A very soulful, minimalistic performance a la early gospel Staple Singers or Mahalia Jackson — just her, the singers, and an acoustic guitar. Very nice.
Freeman then talked about Diane Carolyn and her music before introducing Bob Dylan, who performed in his recognizable style doing one of his own classic compositions, The Times They Are A-Changin’. His voice was a little raw but still classic Bob Dylan.
Smokey Robinson then strolled up on the stage who told the tale of an old song that he and The Miracles recorded a version of, which is not a typical Miracles Motown song. The song was Abraham, Martin and John, and Smokey went on to do a nice performance of it. All the haters out there who say Smokey Robinson is past his prime need to listen to him do some of these live performances to see that he still has it. He still has the voice, the style, the charisma, the class, and the whole package of a true entertainer.
The special then followed with a clip of the classic “Free At Last” speech from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which served to introduce the Blind Boys Of Alabama. They performed a song for Free At Last and they have not lost a step with their harmonizing.
A little humor here: I can’t help but call when my wife and I saw them in the Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles movie The Fighting Temptations and my wife thought they were a joke group created just for the movie because of their name and the way they came to the stage in the movie, each with a hand on another’s shoulder. I had to explain to her that they were in fact a real group and that they are called that because they all in fact really are blind or, at the very least, legally blind.
President Obama then came to give his closing statements and had Morgan Freeman come back, before leading everyone into a rendition of the Black National Anthem (Lift Every Voice And Sing) to close the special out.
The full show and additional features are available on PBS’ website. All in all, it was a very nice show.
I only just stumbled onto seeing this literally at the last minute on the cable guide or I would have mentioned it earlier. However, I’m happy to be able to catch President Obama hosting this Civil Rights music event at the White House with a who’s who of performers, aired on PBS.
After the introductory speech from President Obama, Yolanda Adams opened up with Sam Cooke’s classic A Change Is Gonna Come and she ended it by singing that “a change has come”, citing the fact that we have a Black president in the White House.
Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson followed, doing the Curtis Mayfield classic People Get Ready.
Natalie Cole followed and did not sing (yet). Instead, she told a tale about Civil Rights activist Alice Wine and introduced John Mellencamp, who told a humorous story about hearing the song I’m Your Puppet back in the sixties before launching into a rendition of the Civil Rights hymn Keep Your Eyes On The Prize (Hold On), penned by the aforementioned Alice Wine.
Natalie Cole, who incidentally had her right arm in a sling, then talked about Marvin Gaye and proceeded to launch into a rendition of What’s Going On, giving the song her jazzy flair.
She was followed by folk singer Joan Baez who, after declaring her admiration to President and First Lady Obama, performed We Shall Overcome.
Morgan Freeman followed and delivered a tale of Civil Rights figure Kenneth Lyons. He then introduced Jennifer Hudson back, who performed the Donny Hathaway song Someday We’ll All Be Free, sounding great as always.
Morgan Freeman returned and talked about West African music and introduced Yolanda Adams back on the stage to perform the gospel classic How Great Thou Art. Yolanda Adams is truly a gifted singer. through and through.
Afterwards, Bernice Johnson and the Freedom Singers came up. Ms. Johnson told a tale of one of her experiences during the Movement, then she and her choir launched into a very soulful song before stopping the performance midway to invite the audience to sing along. Then she and her Freedom Singers and the audience sang. A very soulful, minimalistic performance a la early gospel Staple Singers or Mahalia Jackson — just her, the singers, and an acoustic guitar. Very nice.
Freeman then talked about Diane Carolyn and her music before introducing Bob Dylan, who performed in his recognizable style doing one of his own classic compositions, The Times They Are A-Changin’. His voice was a little raw but still classic Bob Dylan.
Smokey Robinson then strolled up on the stage who told the tale of an old song that he and The Miracles recorded a version of, which is not a typical Miracles Motown song. The song was Abraham, Martin and John, and Smokey went on to do a nice performance of it. All the haters out there who say Smokey Robinson is past his prime need to listen to him do some of these live performances to see that he still has it. He still has the voice, the style, the charisma, the class, and the whole package of a true entertainer.
The special then followed with a clip of the classic “Free At Last” speech from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which served to introduce the Blind Boys Of Alabama. They performed a song for Free At Last and they have not lost a step with their harmonizing.
A little humor here: I can’t help but call when my wife and I saw them in the Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles movie The Fighting Temptations and my wife thought they were a joke group created just for the movie because of their name and the way they came to the stage in the movie, each with a hand on another’s shoulder. I had to explain to her that they were in fact a real group and that they are called that because they all in fact really are blind or, at the very least, legally blind.
President Obama then came to give his closing statements and had Morgan Freeman come back, before leading everyone into a rendition of the Black National Anthem (Lift Every Voice And Sing) to close the special out.
The full show and additional features are available on PBS’ website. All in all, it was a very nice show.
Posted by T-Mad on 02/11/2010 at 7:56 PM
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