Amiri Baraka has said [T]he music and the people is the same. If this is true then the myriad of music expressions that have evolved out of the African American experience provides a mirror to the people themselves. In this musical mirror we see both the pathos, worldview, and spirit of a people who have struggled to survive and dared to dream of new possibilities. The music speaks of a people teeming with life, resilience, and creativity. The music of the people also contains all of the deep contradictions and subtle continuities inherent in the African American experience The spirituals and the blues, hip-hop and jazz, African American art song, and avante garde traditions, all represent vital yet, distinct resoundings to the same experience.

Jazz has always contained a spiritual dimension, even though its creators as well as its listeners have not always acknowledged it. Our perspective about jazz as sacred music is as complicated as the music itself It is a perspective that was forged when jazz was just beginning. Here race, class, gender, and the power and polity of the church converged to frame our schizophrenia about jazz. For example, it is ironic that the church has, at times, shunned this music a music that has its roots in religion The early New Orleans funeral traditions were based on improvising the old hymns and many a great jazz musician received his or her early training in the church. Yet stigmas about jazz and its innovators continue to persist today. This recording is a response to those who would deny or artificially delimit the spiritual dimension of jazz Ellington recognized it's potential and power in works like Come Sunday and his Sacred Concerts. And words never seem adequate in describing the transcendent potency of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme or Spiritual. This recording seeks to build on the foundation of those who sought to express their spirituality through their music, It represents an affirmation of both jazz and the spirit and challenges people in every generation to give their spirits expression through the creative arts.

ELIJAH ROCK

PENTECOSTAL FEELING