Stanley Black - Music Of A People / Spirit Of A People (CD)

All Music Guide

In 1965, Stanley Black put together two albums devoted to the music and culture of the Jewish people. Opening himself up to the public like never before, he wrote intelligent, insightful liner notes describing the songs and the culture from which they grew. Having devoted numerous albums to classical, jazz, pop, folk and other traditional music from England, Europe and the Americas, Stanley Black obviously relished the opportunity to honor his own ancestors. Born Solomon Schwartz on June 14, 1913 in Whitechapel within London's Jewish East End, he was directly descended from Polish and Rumanian Jews. A child prodigy, 12yearold Black had one of his original compositions broadcast by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Stanley Black's discography begins in the '30s when he was a precocious young pianist and arranger known for his skill and an apparently photographic memory. He recorded with Coleman Hawkins in 1934 and was active in the British dance band scene for many years. Black's maturity was... spent composing film scores and recording a sizable number of theme albums ranging from tangos and chachas to light classical, bigband jazz and orchestral pop. Originally issued as two Hi Fidelity LPs, Spirit of a People and Music of a People form one panoramic celebration of Judaic history and culture, from a powerfully moving Kol Nidre to an imaginative orchestral arrangement of "And the Angels Sing," Ziggy Elman's jazz adaptation of a traditional Freilich, the "whirling Hassidic dance." "I have tried," says Schwartz/Black in his written introduction, "to echo the love of traditional ceremony, both sacred and secular; the love of music, the love of dancing, the love of living." - arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide Read more Less