Black composer and musical director Edward Osmund Bland composed "One On One" for bassoon and clarinet. As David Schwartz recounts in his liner notes for the album Legacy: Black Composers on which the work appears, the work "display[s] a style of…
Black composer Margaret Bonds composed "The Ballad of the Brown King" in the early 1950s. A Cantata, it is one of her most frequently composed works. The Ballad was written in honor of the African king Balthazar, to text by Langston Hughes. It was…
Black composer Margaret Bonds composed "Troubled Water" for piano. As Joel Fan describes in the comments on recorded performance on YouTube, "The poet Maya Angelou described "Troubled Water" as one of Margaret Bonds masterpieces. Based on the…
Black composer Freddie Bryant's "Fantasia on a Theme by Charlie Haden": 'For Turiya' was originally recorded in 1996. As indicated in linernotes on the composer's website, "It is a through-composed piece using the theme from Charlie Haden’s beautiful…
Black composer Freddie Bryant's Anthem for "Unity" is a 12-minute multi-movement piece for guitar and clarinet. The work was commissioned by Darryl Harper.
Leslie Savoy Burrs has captivated audiences across the United States and Europe with his exciting, distinctive sound -- an inspired combination of classical virtuosity and dazzling improvisation. He has appeared as guest soloist and composer with the…
