When the film For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots
premiered on PBS stations in February of this year as the linchpin of
the network’s Black History Month programming, it won praise for its
comprehensive depiction of the heroic actions of black men and women in
the nation’s armed services. The documentary, hosted by Halle Berry and narrated by Avery Brooks, includes an introduction by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. It
also turned heads for the impressive music that accompanied its visual
storytelling, a combination of songs and original underscoring for
voiceover readings by a veritable who’s who of entertainment figures,
among them Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Alan Rickman, Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Donald Sutherland and Louis Gossett, Jr.
On
September 28, independent Blix Street Records, best known for its
catalogues of recordings by singers Eva Cassidy and Mary Black, will
issue the award-winning original soundtrack to Frank Martin’s acclaimed
documentary, FOR LOVE OF LIBERTY: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S BLACK PATRIOTS. The
soundtrack, winner of the 2010 Gold Medal for Excellence in Film Music
at the Park City Music and Film Festival, presents 17 musical pieces
taken from the score, deftly combining instrumental passages with
vintage and contemporary vocal performances.
Among
the soundtrack’s highlights are the opener, “The Minstrel Boy,” on
which Santana vocalist Alex Ligertwood and the Andrae Crouch Choir
transform the classic Celtic ballad into a powerful ensemble piece;
Billie Holiday’s original “Strange Fruit”; rising opera star Amber
Mercomes’ “Pie Jesu” (from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Requiem”) and Oren
Waters’ (of the famed singing Waters family) striking update of the
classic “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Assembling
the album from a four-hour documentary was something of a labor of love
for all parties involved, especially Blix Street Records founder Bill
Straw, who shares production credits with Martin, score composer
Lawrence Brown and song-producer Steve Goldstein. Straw
first learned of the project from Martin three years ago when the film
was far from complete (it was10 years in the making), and says he was
“immediately attracted the subject matter, something that had to be done.”
“The
first challenge in creating a soundtrack album was to avoid being
overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of musical ingredients from the
largest array of brilliant singers, composers, arrangers, musicians and
producers I have ever encountered on a single project,” says Straw. His
stated goal for the album was to “create and sustain a mood that worked
as a stand-alone listening experience that people would listen to over
and over.” To that end, he compiled a program
that both bears repeat plays and sequentially recounts the story of the
Black soldiers’ experiences through the various wars-from the Revolution
through Vietnam and Iraq-just as the full-length documentary does. While
Lawrence Brown’s emotional score can be heard throughout the entire
film, it is his “Give Me Liberty,” symbolizing the Revolutionary War,
“Buffalo Soldiers” and “Desperate Times” pieces that are highlighted on
the soundtrack. All three pieces feature vocals
by the Waters family-Julia Waters, Maxine Waters, Luther Waters and Oren
Waters-whose father, First Lieutenant Luther N. Waters, is missing in
action in Korea. Brown also collaborated with guitarist Tom Bocci in creating the Viet Nam era piece, “Mo Nam Blues.”
Bookending
Billie Holiday’s classic “Strange Fruit” with Lawrence Brown’s mournful
“Desperate Times” score material emotionally broadens the song’s stark
“lynching” images to include the countless lesser human rights
violations Black patriots overcame For Love of Liberty. Layering
a reprise of the poignant WWI segment score piece “Bella Wood” under
the ending of Oren Waters’ “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” under-scores a
hopeful WWII moment with the grim reality of history repeating itself. “Bella
Wood” was composed and arranged by Alan Lindgren, who also contributed
the “Battle Hymn,” “Chappie’s Flight” and the closing “For Love of
Liberty” score pieces, the latter two further showcasing vocals by The
Waters. Composer John William Doryk is
represented by the sorrowful “Vale of Slavery” (punctuated dramatically
by the vocal laments of Big Jim Adams) and the World War II themed “Sea
Duty.”
FOR LOVE OF LIBERTY
is driven by African-American artists singing songs more often
identified with white artists because, as Frank Martin observes, “Songs
about predominantly white peoples’ wars were generally written by white
people. Adding Black consciousness to those
familiar songs illustrates the plight of the Black people who made the
same sacrifices in the face of the way they were being treated.” Examples are: Carol
Dennis-Dylan’s stunning performance of ‘Was My Brother in the Battle,’ a
Stephen Foster song from the Civil War, and Crouch Choir member Ricky
Nelson’s transformative remake of “We’ll Meet Again,” a song written in
the 1930’s and made famous during World War II by British vocalist Vera
Lynn.
Steve
Goldstein’s production of “O Holy Night” (Andrae Crouch and Linda
McCrary are featured vocalists with the Andrae Crouch Choir) likewise
updates the traditional. “Everyone’s heard it
many times,” explains Straw of the Christmas anthem used in the Korean
War segment of the film, “and I, for one, always focused on the melody. But
this time the Andrae Crouch Choir harmonies in the choruses give it
fresh perspective.” Goldstein, who arranged and produced five of the
songs on the soundtrack, has extensive music credits, including the
arrangement of Kim Carnes’ Grammy®-winning “Bette Davis Eyes” and arrangements for artists as diverse as Dolly Parton, Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman and Ann-Margret.
Tracing
the historical sequence presented in the film, the music conveys the
full range of emotions evoked by these previously untold stories of
unprecedented heroism. Straw reflects that, “It was a rare privilege to
have been entrusted with the creative output of so many talented people
who gave passionately to help tell this important story.”
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