The African-American spiritual has probably been performed as many ways as there are people who have experienced their message, but this is a performance in the classic mold of the composers and arrangers who have treated the spiritual as an art song. With versions that experiment with later layers of African-American rhythm and with the harmonies of the gospel choral tradition, it is refreshing to hear these restrained, straightforward readings, and it is even better to experience their considerable power. Bass-baritone
Oral Moses, a professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, is an extraordinary interpreter of the spirituals, both familiar ones like "Deep River" and the less common ones, such as the crushing "Death Is Gwinter Lay His Cold Icy Hands on Me." In that piece, the traditional diction of the spirituals is retained, as it had to be in order to keep the awesome simplicity of the melodic line. But elsewhere
Moses strikes a balance with standard English ("the crucified Christ never says a mumblin' word, not a mumberlin' word"), and great care is taken in finding natural diction that is neither outmoded nor standardized. This is typical of
Moses' approach, which is both precise and extremely committed emotionally. He deemphasizes conventional beauty of tone in favor of intense engagement with the words, stretching out the tempo in order to focus on specific ideas. Nothing in his interpretation is new, and indeed the arrangements he uses, dating back as far as William Grant Still, are mostly classics of the genre (the chief representative of the newer school is the late Moses Hogan). But accompanist Rosalyn Floyd keeps the piano in the background, and though the arrangements are artfully sequenced, it's not about the arrangements in the end, but rather about a direct encounter with the spirit that brought these melodies to international prominence in the first place. An extraordinary recording. ~ James Manheim