Were You There, by Jon Ailabouni

Were You There

by Jon Ailabouni

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releases April 30, 2024

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Were You There 02:52

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Were You There is an instrumental meditation and improvisational fantasy based on the Negro spiritual "Were You There", the text of which centers on Jesus' crucifixion . Sung by enslaved Africans and their descendants, the spirituals took the Biblical stories that enslavers used to justify slavery and recast those Biblical messages as a subversive tool of communal protest and survival and an undeniable expression of personhood.

This arrangement was developed for use in a Good Friday liturgy I co-created with Pastor Amy Zalk Larson at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (ELCA); a predominantly white church in rural Iowa. Using the Stations of the Cross, the liturgy centers the intersection of Jesus' crucifixion story with the history of lynching in America using reflections from James Cone's "The Cross and the Lynching Tree".

In this Good Friday liturgy, as American Christians consider the paradox of the cross as both a symbol of terror and liberation, the congregation is immersed in the paradox of Black American music - spirituals, New Orleans second line, and contemporary jazz - with its simultaneous expressions of lament for injustice and joy as a means of resistance.

This piece is performed after a sustained silence following the reading from Luke which concludes: "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'; and when he said this he breathed his last".

-Jon Ailabouni

credits

releases April 30, 2024

Jon Ailabouni - flugelhorn
Luke Thering - piano
Karyn Quinn - bass
Nick Zielinski - drums

Arrangement by Jon Ailabouni. Music published by Jon Ailabouni Music, ASCAP

Brett Huus – recording, mixing, mastering engineer

Recorded at Sound Strations Audio Productions Inc., La Crosse, WI, January 8, 2024

Blake Nellis - photography and graphic design.
www.blakenellis.org
@BlakeNellisPhoto

(p) & © 2024
All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

www.JonAilabouniMusic.com

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Jon Ailabouni La Crosse, Wisconsin

Jon Ailabouni is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, liturgist, and educator. Using the jazz tradition as a vehicle for storytelling without words, Ailabouni's work speaks to the challenges of our times, offering hope and solace through musical catharsis. ... more

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