6/5/2025, TAAM Opening Concert by Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

MUSIC AT EMORY

Theorizing African American Music

June 5–7, 2025

Opening Concert

Thursday, June 5, 2025, 7:30 p.m.

Performing Arts Studio

Department of Music

1804 N. Decatur Rd.

Atlanta, GA 30322

Program

Went To Heaven George T. Walker (1922–2018)

The Heart of a Woman Florence Price (1887–1953)

Lullaby for a Black Mother Price

Lydia Bangura, soprano Laura Gordy, piano

Sons of Abraham James Lee III (b. 1975)

Sonata for Solo Cello David Baker III. Fast and Rhythmic (1913–2016)

Khari Joyner, cello

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Always Tell The Truth

Traditional

Nkeiru Okoye from Harriet Tubman (b. 1972)

Prayer H. Leslie Adams from Nightsongs (1932–2024)

Ain’t-a That Good News! Uzee Brown, Jr. (b. 1950)

Cornelius Johnson, tenor

Laura Gordy, piano ~ Intermission ~

The Gary Motley Quintet presents: Harlem Nights: A Jazz Portrait

This carefully curated program explores the lesser-known masterpieces from Harlem’s jazz legacy, highlighting compositions that deserve wider recognition. Each selection represents a different facet of Harlem’s musical innovation, from the swing era through the Pan-African consciousness movement.

The performance demonstrates how Harlem’s composers pushed musical boundaries while maintaining connections to their cultural heritage. Through these rarely performed works, we aim to expand the traditional jazz canon and contribute to the conference’s mission of highlighting overlooked African American musical perspectives.

These selections showcase both the depth of Harlem’s jazz tradition and its continuing relevance to contemporary musical discourse, while bringing deserved attention to compositions that have been historically underrepresented in jazz performance.

Drop Me O in Harlem (Duke Ellington/Nick Kenny) – 1933

A lesser-known Ellington gem from 1933, reimagined with modern harmonies while preserving its swinging essence. The arrangement highlights the conversational interplay between piano and horns that characterized the early Harlem style.

U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group) (Billy Strayhorn) - 1956

This sophisticated Strayhorn composition, originally featuring prominent piano passages, has been arranged to showcase the instrument’s full range while maintaining the piece’s intricate harmonic structure. Our interpretation emphasizes the work’s subtle complexities and swing feel.

Zodiac Suite: Cancer (Mary Lou Williams) - 1945

From Williams’ ground breaking 1945 extended work, this movement showcases her innovative piano composition style that bridged classical and jazz traditions. The piece demonstrates Williams’ masterful command of harmony and her influence on modern jazz piano.

Fire Waltz (Mal Waldron) - 1956

A haunting composition by Billie Holiday’s last accompanist, reimagined to highlight the evolution of Harlem’s harmonic language from swing to hard bop. The piece showcases the modal innovations that emerged from uptown jam sessions.

Congolese Children (Randy Weston) - 1960

This powerful work from Weston’s “Uhuru Afrika” suite connects Harlem’s jazz tradition to its African roots. Our arrangement emphasizes the piece’s rhythmic complexity while maintaining its melodic accessibility.

The Gary Motley Quintet

Gary Motley, piano

Derrick White, trombone

Mike Walton, saxophone

Joel Powell, double bass

Robert Boone, drums

Special guest: Lavahi, vocal

Song Text

I Went to Heaven

(George Walker / poem by Emily Dickinson)

I went to heaven, ‘Twas a small town, Lit with a ruby, Lathed with down.

Stiller than the fields At the full dew, Beautiful as pictures No man drew. People like the moth, Of mechlin, frames, Duties of gossamer, And eider names. Almost contented I could be ‘Mong such unique Society.

The Heart of A Woman

(Florence Price / poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson) The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, Afar on life’s turrets and vales does it roam In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.

The heart of a woman falls back with the night, And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

Lullaby (For A Black Mother)

(Florence Price / poem by Langston Hughes)

My little dark baby, My little earth-thing, My little love-one, What shall I sing for your lullaby?

Stars, stars, A necklace of stars Winding the night.

My little black baby, My dark body’s baby, What shall I sing for your lullaby?

Moon, moon, Great diamond moon, Kissing the night.

My little dark baby, Night black baby, Stars, stars, Moon, Night stars, moon, For your sleep-song lullaby!

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Traditional / text by Wallace Willis) Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan and what did I see? Coming for to carry me home? A band of angels coming after me, Coming for to carry me home. If you get there before I do, Coming for to carry me home. Tell all my friends I’m coming too, Coming for to carry me home.

Always Tell the Truth (music and libretto by Nkeiru Okoye) Well now I tell you the truth! Always tell the truth. I always tell the truth. I come to you in this blindfold because I always tell the truth. Never once in my life have I told a lie. Lying’s a sin written in the Lord’s book.

And if I was not a-feared of the Good Lord’s wrath, I was sho’ scared on my Mama’s stern look. She said always tell the truth, Son. Always tell the truth.

As long as you live on God’s green earth, You must always tell the truth. When the boys are gone in the morning, Around the time when the pigs are to be slaughtered. Their master will come to me and ask, “Ben did you see your boys or that daughter?” I can say, “No sir I have not seen them.”

As long as this cloth shades my eyes.

And no one will ask the question again, Since everybody know old Ben don’t lie.

Prayer

(H. Leslie Adams / text by Langston Hughes) I ask you this: Which way to go? I ask you this: Which sin to bear? Which crown to put Upon my hair? I do not know, Lord God, I do not know.

Ain’t-a That Good News!

(Spiritual/text by J. W. Work)

I got a crown up in-a that Kingdom, ain’t-a that good news! I got a crown up in-a that Kingdom, ain’t-a that good news! I’m-a gonna lay down this worl’, gonna shoulder up-a my cross.

Gonna take it home-a to my Jesus, ain’t-a that good news!

I got a robe up in-a that Kingdom, ain’t-a that good news!

Gotta a robe up in-a that Kingdom, ain’t-a that good news!

Yes, I’m-a gonna lay down this worl’, gonna shoulder up-a my cross.

Gonna take it home-a to my Jesus, ain’t-a that good news!

I got news to tell you, I got good news!

Yes, He woke me up this morning an’ He started me on my way.

I got news to tell you, I got good news! I got a Savior in-a that kingdom, ain’t-a that good news! I got a Savior in-a that kingdom, ain’t-a that good news!

O I’m gonna lay down this worl’, gonna shoulder up-a my cross Gonna take it home-a to my Jesus, ain’t-a that good news! Good news! Good news, my Lord, a-ain’t-a that good news!

Performer Biographies

Lydia Bangura

Lydia Bangura (she/her) is a singer and a doctoral student in music theory at the University of Michigan. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University and a master’s degree from Roosevelt University, both in vocal performance. Bangura was selected in 2022 as an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where she had the honor of studying with mentor artist Dr. Philip Ewell. She is the founder and host of the music research podcast series, Her Music Academia, and serves as the student representative on the Society for Music Theory’s Standing Committee on Race and Ethnicity. Bangura also serves on the graduate student committee for Project Spectrum. Her research interests include the intersection of performance and analysis, theory pedagogy, Black feminism/womanism in Black women’s music, and the instrumental works of Florence Price. Also a lifelong music performer, Bangura has experience studying violin, viola, and voice. She was recently the recipient of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Dillard Scholar Award. Her recent operatic roles include Pamina and Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Alcina in Handel’s Alcina, Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and the solo soprano in Judith Weir’s one woman show, King Harald’s Saga.

Laura Gordy

Dr. Laura Gordy is a pianist widely known as a champion of new music and a masterful teacher. Her playing has been reviewed as “gamechanging, exquisite, and boldly expressive”. Her students have included notable pianist-composers Sarah Gibson and Joel Morrison.

Recent projects include performing Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetry, recording Alvin Singleton’s piano solo In My Own Skin and premiering T.J. Anderson’s Cairo Songbook with Laura English Robinson. A former music faculty member of GSU and Emory, Dr. Gordy continues to mentor pianists and composers and performs regularly with contemporary ensemble Chamber Cartel.

She co-directed the award-winning new music ensemble Thamyris, collaborating with Spivey Hall, Emory University, Goethe-Institut Atlanta and the National Black Arts Festival on residencies, commissions, recordings, concerts, and international projects. Selected recordings include A City Called Heaven: Anderson, Logan, Leon, Singleton, Wilson; De Toda La Eternidad: Songs of American Women Composers; Dorothy Hindman’s fin de cycle, Singleton’s Extension of a Dream and Sing to the Sun.

Dr. Gordy earned degrees in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati, Rice University, and the University of Alabama.

Cornelius Johnson

Tenor Cornelius Johnson’s voice has been described as “expressive and soaring” (The Post Standard, Syracuse, NY). Johnson’s repertoire encompasses classical, musical theatre, opera, and sacred music. He has performed in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and throughout the United States. His operatic appearances include roles in Carmen, Don Pasquale, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, The Magic Flute, and Porgy and Bess. A proponent of new works and works by African American composers, Johnson has performed with the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, by Nkeiru Okoye, The Poet by Steven Allen, and Troubled Island by William Grant Still. He has performed in several world premieres such as Freedom Ride, by Dan Shore, with Chicago Opera Theater and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network in Renee Baker’s Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble, and A Sovereign Pout: A Tribute to Josephine Baker. Companies with which he has performed include Houston Grand Opera, La Scala in Milan, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Bastille in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera, and Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. His concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, DuBois’ Seven Last Words, Handel’s Messiah, Adolphus

Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem and Missa Brevis, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass.

In addition to his performance career, Johnson is an associate professor of music and chair of the Humanities Department at Olive-Harvey College. He is also an artist faculty of voice in the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University. Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Morehouse College, a Master of Music in Voice and Opera from Northwestern University and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign.

Khari Joyner

Described by the New York Times as “eloquently plangent, making a powerful impact,” cellist Khari Joyner has a following both nationally and abroad as a versatile concert cellist, chamber musician, and ambassador for the arts. He has made numerous guest appearances with orchestras and ensembles across the world, including a recent performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which received rave reviews. In addition, he has given many cello masterclasses and lectures at notable institutions, including the University of Tennessee, University of Georgia, Furman University, Duke University, and the International Cello Institute among others.

Joyner serves on the faculty at Baldwin Wallace University as Assistant Professor of Cello and head of the strings area. In 2017, Joyner received a career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, which nominates and endows a select number of gifted artists with generous funding to further their careers. Joyner has also performed for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the latter for which he gave a private performance in the Oval Office. A passionate advocate for the music of the 21st century, Joyner has collaborated with and given performances of works by major composers such as Tyshawn Sorey, Kaija Saariaho, Lowell Liebermann, Keith Fitch, Carman Moore, and Jessie Cox among several others.

An active chamber musician and one of the founding members of the Altezza Piano Trio, Joyner has given performances as a guest at the Ritz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Highlands-

Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Fontainbleau Music Festival, and recently as a guest with PinkNoise contemporary ensemble performing Gerard Grisey’s monumental Vortex Temporum. Joyner also regularly performs as a substitute cellist with The Cleveland Orchestra. A graduate of Juilliard’s prestigious Doctor of Musical Arts program, he has had other teaching affiliations with Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Mannes Prep. Joyner also pursued a mathematics concentration in an exchange program with Columbia University, while studying in Juilliard’s Accelerated BM/MM program. Joyner enjoys interdisciplinary collaborations, especially with dance—in 2022 he performed his original composition, Intransigence, for solo cello, set to dance in a world premiere with the Atlanta Ballet.

Gary Motley

Gary Motley is an award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and educator celebrated for his elegant touch, inventive improvisation, and deeprooted commitment to jazz. Drawing on a wide range of influences from the Great American Songbook to modern jazz, Gary has performed with legends including Dave Brubeck, Kenny Barron, and Regina Carter, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, and on NPR’s Piano Jazz.

As Director of Jazz Studies at Emory University, he has shaped the next generation of jazz musicians, and his recordings are praised for their lyrical clarity and rhythmic energy including his latest, “Muse and the Flame.” Gary has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including recognition from the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. His quintet brings together top-tier musicians to present both timeless standards and original compositions, delivering an experience that is both rooted in tradition and alive with creative spirit.