Barbara Hendricks – Barbara Hendricks & her Blues Band: The Road to Freedom (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Barbara Hendricks – Barbara Hendricks & her Blues Band: The Road to Freedom (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:05 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Arte Verum

One of the most celebrated singers in the world, Barbara Hendricks was invited by Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Festival, to take her first steps in the world of jazz in 1994. In fact, what could have been more natural? This music has lived in her forever, it is part of her roots, of someone who first started singing with the Negro spirituals in the church of her father, a pastor in Arkansas. After having for many years explored the repertories of the great jazz instrumentalists and singers of the 20th century, she has for the past decade delved into the roots of jazz: the blues. This was first of all the case with the programme Blues Everywhere I Go that took us into the heart of the Mississippi Delta; today she offers us a new project: The Road to Freedom. The songs of blues and gospel have played a highly important role in accompanying and inspiring the courageous activists who have struggled for civil rights in the USA, a struggle led by Martin Luther King in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The emotional power of these songs, and the example of the activists’ conviction are more than ever necessary to help us confront the complexities and contradictions of today’s world, one too often based on division and hatred, and not enough on love and that solidarity to which Dr. King was always referring. Barbara Hendricks places her universally recognizable voice at the service of this music: a full-flavored voice with varied tone-colors and a wealth of color that make this repertory so fascinating and bewitching.

For some years now, Barbara Hendricks has had the blues. The great soprano has sung Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and many others onstage in the world’s greatest opera houses. Despite all of this, she still loves coming back to this genre which has its roots in the songs of slaves and reflects their suffering and their hopes. On The Road to Freedom, Hendricks revisits traditional blues, soul and gospel songs that served as the soundtrack for civil rights struggles in America in the fifties and sixties, as well as gems written by Ry Cooder, Curtis Mayfield, J.B. Lenoir, Thomas A. Dorsey and many others. Paired with the soprano’s angelic voice, these classics are presented in a new light whilst all the while maintaining their natural charm. Intense.  – Clotilde Maréchal

Tracklist:

1. Barbara Hendricks – Improvisation on Feeling Bad Blues & People Get Ready (08:20)
2. Barbara Hendricks – We Shall Not Be Moved (04:29)
3. Barbara Hendricks – Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus) (05:16)
4. Barbara Hendricks – Amazing Grace (02:38)
5. Barbara Hendricks – Keep Your Eyes On The Prize (05:52)
6. Barbara Hendricks – Take My Hand, Precious Lord (03:16)
7. Barbara Hendricks – Another Man Done Gone (03:39)
8. Barbara Hendricks – Down in Mississippi (06:06)
9. Barbara Hendricks – Improvisation (03:01)
10. Barbara Hendricks – Strange Fruit (02:55)
11. Barbara Hendricks – Medley for Refugee Children (06:46)
12. Barbara Hendricks – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (05:21)
13. Barbara Hendricks – Oh Freedom, We Shall Overcome (05:21)

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