Episode 260. Robert McFerrin Revisited
SOCIAL SHARE
SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
As a companion to my Lawrence Winters episode last week, I present today his contemporary and fellow African American baritone, Robert McFerrin (19 March 1921 – 24 November 2006). McFerrin was the first African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, making his debut there as Amonasro in Aida on Thursday January 27, 1955, twenty days after Marian Anderson’s legendary debut there. McFerrin sang only ten performances of three roles under the banner of the Met, eight of them in the house, and two on tour. His final performance there, also as Amonasro, took place almost exactly two years after his debut there. Five months later in June 1957, McFerrin went into the studios of Riverside Records, and, accompanied by the pianist Norman Johnson, and over the course of two days, recorded this legendary album of spirituals, his only solo album, which is heard in its entirety in this episode. I am not alone in considering this a classic of the genre. My presentation of all fourteen tracks of this album is supplemented by three recordings that McFerrin made in 1946 for the short-lived Sunbeam Records label, the brainchild of composer and arranger Marl Henderson Young, who provides the accompaniments. At the other end of the spectrum is a guest appearance that McFerrin, Sr. made on a 1990 recording by his son, superstar singer, composer, and arranger Bobby McFerrin. I also feature a recently unearthed live recording of McFerrin singing Amonasro live in Napoli in 1956, as well as a moving recording of McFerrin performing live in Washington DC in 1995, after having suffered a debilitating stroke that left him virtually unable to speak. Nevertheless, the song, however compromised, was still in his heart.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All recordings feature Robert McFerrin. Unless otherwise noted, all recordings of spirituals are from Robert McFerrin’s 1957 Riverside Records release Deep River and Other Negro Spirituals, in which the baritone is accompanied by Norman Johnson and the arrangements are by Hall Johnson.
- Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit
Traditional, arr. Avery Robinson: Water Boy. Marl Young [1946]
Alfred Hay Malotte: The Lord’s Prayer. Marl Young [1946]
- Fix Me, Jesus
- His Name So Sweet
- I’m Gonna Tell God All o’ My Troubles
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- A City Called Heaven
- Ain’t Got Time to Die
Marl Young: Fascinating Lady. McFerrin is here credited as “Bob McFerrin,” and is accompanied by Marl Young’s Orchestra [1946]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni: Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate (Aida). Robert McFerrin, Anna Maria Rovere, Vincenzo Bellezza, Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli [live Napoli 15.VII.1956]
- Here’s One [arr. William Grant Still]
- Let Us Break Bread Together [arr. William Lawrence (1895 – 1981)]
- Deep River [arr. Harry T. Burleigh]
- I Got to Lie Down
- Oh, Glory
- Witness
Bobby McFerrin: Discpline. Bobby McFerrin, Robert McFerrin, Voicestra [1990]
Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit. Robert McFerrin, here in a post-stroke performance, is accompanied by the iconic Sylvia Olden Lee [live Washington DC 09.IV.95]
- Ride On, King Jesus
