World Premiere • Live Concert Recording
Brian Blade is “the most imaginatively supple drummer in jazz” (New York Times). He learned his trade hitting rhythm at Shreveport’s Zion Baptist, where his father — the spine-shaking Pastor Brady Blade, Sr. — presides. In New Orleans, Brian partnered with Lanois (producer of U2 & Bob Dylan) to devise a gospel project that culminates here.
In this once-in-a-lifetime event, the drummer, the producer, and the drummer’s father convene in Durham to cut a live album driven by Pastor Blade. They’re joined by bus-fulls of churchgoers from Shreveport and the sharpest sidemen in the business.
On Saturday night there’s a live recording; on Sunday morning a sermon by Pastor Blade; and on Sunday evening, another live performance. All of it unfolds at Hayti, once an A.M.E church and now a deconsecrated chapel whose Jim Crow-era walls create acoustics better than any studio’s.
Organized by Duke to happen in Durham, this landmark event in music unearths the rapture at the core of modern art, two days of hands-in-the-air music that, on wax, will never die.
Worship Service with Pastor Brady Blade, Sr.
Sunday, October 11, 2009 • 10 am
Hayti Heritage Center
Hallelujah Train Residency Schedule
with Brian Blade & University of Chicago Ethnomusicologist Melvin Butler
Monday, October 12
12:30- 1:30 pm: Brown bag lunch conversation between Brian Blade & Melvin Butler
• In the Alumni Memorial Commons Room (AMCR) in the Duke Divinity School
• Music & Faith in the African American Community
4:25-5:40 pm: Visit to Prof. John Brown’s Intro to Jazz course & Prof. Philip Rupprecht’s Music 65 course
• In White 107 on Duke’s East campus
• Gospel & Jazz: Cultural and Musical Connections
6:30-8:00 pm: Listening session and conversation with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler
• At The Pinhook bar, 117 W. Main Street, Durham
• Moderated by Jeremy Smith, Duke University Library Jazz Archivist
Tuesday, October 13
1:15-2:30 pm: Visit to Prof. Charles Piot’s Religion in African Diaspora course
• In Friedl 240 (between Aycock and Wilson on East campus)
• Music in African & African-American Religion
4:00-5:30 pm: Conversation & demonstration with Brian Blade & Melvin Butler
• North Carolina Central University Music Building
• Gospel in Making Jazz
The Hallelujah Train Residency Schedule (.jpg)
The Hallelujah Train Residency Schedule (.pdf)
The Hallelujah Train is co-sponsored by The Hub at Duke University.