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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0094639153220
Label: Blue Note Records
Manufacturer: Blue Note Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Blue Note Records
Release Date: August 14, 2007
Studio: Blue Note Records
Sales Rank: 5472
MPN: 91532
Disc 1:- Ghost of Congo Square
- Levees
- Wading Through
- Ashe'
- In Time of Need
- Ghost of Betsy
- The Water
- Mantra Intro
- Mantra
- Over There
- Ghost of 1927
- Funeral Dirge
- Dear Mom
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Editorial Review:
Album Description: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans native son Terence Blanchard has created an impassioned song cycle, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), as his third album for Blue Note Records. (Since signing with the label in 2003, Blanchard has released two other critically-acclaimed albums, Bounce and Flow, the latter of which received two Grammy nominations in 2006. This 13-track emotional tour-de-force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy, and beauty features Blanchard's quintet- pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott- as well as a 40-member string orchestra.
An important jumpstart for A Tale of God's Will was director Spike Lee's decision to document the aftermath of Katrina on film, in what turned out to be the four-hour award-winning HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke, which aired last year. Lee, who has enlisted Blanchard on numerous occasions to score his films, such as Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, and Inside Man, tapped him once again for his documentary. Four of the tracks from the documentary were given new arrangements and expanded rounding out an album of nine new tracks inspired by New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Amazon.com: For all the anger and devastation trumpeter Terence Blanchard has felt in the months since Hurricane Katrina ravaged his hometown of New Orleans--and the federal government failed it so shamefully--this elegiac orchestral work is remarkably clear-eyed, restrained, and, in the end, hopeful. That isn't to say pieces like "Funeral Dirge" and "Levees" don't impart deep and dark emotion. But even with strings at their back, Blanchard and the members of his first-rate working quintet (all of whom contribute compositions) never indulge in sentimentality. Blanchard's debt to Miles Davis is pronounced in his pinched lyricism and the economy of his virtuosic effects. The richly hued work washes over the listener, revealing more with each playing. --Lloyd Sachs
Average Rating: 
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What an experience!!! I finally got this CD yesterday. I'm speechless. I couldn't stop listening to it. The "Funeral Dirge" (Track 12) brought tears to my eyes. I'll buy at least a dozen copies for friends.
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Beautifully powerful and personal musical triumph. I keep on buying this CD for friends. Should won over Hanckock's Joni's Letters for the Grammy.
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Terence Blanchard was born in New Orleans. You can hear it in his tone when he plays. All the influences of the former sons (Louis Armstrong, King Oliver) as well as all the Big Easy's rich cultures and heritage can be heard whenever his lips hit metal. "A Tale of God's Will" is not just another of TB's jazz albums but his own soundtrack to the horror that was Hurricane Katrina. He creates the calm before the storm, the tension, hurricane and the aftermath from one song to the next. You can almost hear the pleading and the supplications of the testimonials of Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke" (also scored by Blanchard and also featuring interviews from him). Definitely to be heard as a whole concept album ... Read More:
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This CD speaks to the tragedy we know of as "Katrina". The music is beautiful and poignant and reminds us how far we have yet to go in this rich but most imperfect country.
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It is beautiful, sad, haunting and ultimately hopeful. Just an exceptional piece of music.
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