Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Elysium, Saluting the Colors

J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954)
Li'l Gal

Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
Song to the Dark Virgin

Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
On the Dusty Road!
David

Traditionnel
Lit'l Girl (arr. R. Hayes)
O Le' Me Shine (arr. R. Hayes)

Howard Swanson (1907-1978)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Pierrot, Night Song, A Death Song

Dorothy Rudd More (1940-2022)
Harlem Sweeties

W.C. Handy (1873-1958)
Harlem Blues

Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
The Way We Dance (in Harlem), To a Brown Girl Dead

William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Grief

Anthony Davis (1951-)
Bells

H. Leslie Adams (1932-)
Prayer

Robert Owens (1925-2017)
Three Songs for Baritone, op. 41
The Lynching, If We Must Die, To the White Friends

James Martin, baryton
Lynn Raley, piano

This collection of songs represents one hundred years of music produced by American composers and poets of color—the best of us. Some identify(ied) as Negro, some African-American, some Black, some men, some women, and some insisted they were beyond classification, adamant that their work speak for itself. Unfortunately, too many of these voices have been stifled from inclusion in our American story thus far. But the time is right, and the fruit is ripe for the picking. The harvest has come in, and the first fruits of the fields yield a bounty of beauty so remarkable that silence is no longer an option. In fact, it is annihilated. Where once the famed halls of old lived on solely in black and white, they are now alive and brimming in technicolor, vividly representative of truth and creative vision—Heaven. The songs collected here are a mere sampling of the finest of those neglected voices. Most are from our published archives. Some have been recorded from transcriptions of sound recordings. Are they “art” songs? Are they popular songs? Is it jazz, Bebop, or blues? Is it “classical” music? It is music, in all cases. Music to be enjoyed and reflected upon. Performed with integrity and informed enthusiasm by all who would approach it. Resist the urge to classify and segregate. Enjoy the creativity and savor the sounds of words and music dancing together as one in each singular work of art.