Let Our Rejoicing Rise (LP)


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Format: LP 
Label: Corbett vs. Dempsey 
Year: 2022 

Media Condition: New 
Sleeve/Cover Condition: New 

TRACKS:
A1. Alone Together
A2. Nation Time
A3. Juneteenth (Part 1)
B1. Juneteenth (Part 2)

Joe McPhee: vocals, saxophone
Tomeka Reid: Violoncello

In the year that Juneteenth was finally declared a national US holiday, 2021, Joe McPhee and Tomeka Reid united for a live concert in celebration.

Multi-instrumentalist McPhee was deeply moved by the historical nature of the circumstances, the incredible freight of that history of oppression and liberation represented in the legislation, both the insanity of its overdue-ness and the joy of its institutionalization.

As a preamble to the music, McPhee led off with two poems, read with trembling, vehement intensity: "Alone Together" and "Nation Time For Real This Time." Then, without a pause, they launched into a 33-minute duet for tenor saxophone and cello that gutted everyone in the packed audience, alighting for a brief segment on the late-19th century hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing".

Let Our Rejoicing Rise is a kind of apotheosis, an outpouring of two sensitive souls at the dawn of a new day in an epoch of damnation. With a jubilant cover image by Gee's Bend quilter Mary Lee Bendolph, recorded and mastered by Alex Inglizian, it's a once-in-a-lifetime record.

Tomeka Reid was born in Washington DC and grew up in the area, earning a music degree from UMD before relocating to Chicago where she really began to apply her classical training to jazz composition and performance. Over two decades she has become a rising star and mainstay of Chicago's venerable jazz, arts, and academic communities. In 2022, Reid was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellowship.

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