Composition for saxophone sextet, originally written for the dance piece, “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.” Some versions of the score in the Julius Hemphill Papers include a dedication to the choreographer Bill T. Jones. It was recorded by the Julius Hemphill Sextet on the posthumous albums At Dr. King’s Table (1997) and The Hard Blues: Live in Lisbon (2004).
Found on: At Dr. King’s Table, The Hard Blues: Live in Lisbon.
From Marty Ehrlich: One of the most beautiful gospel pieces in Hemphill’s oeuvre. In the Last Supper performance, there was a row of chairs on stage on a diagonal, with different symbols representing world religions. The dancers would do short solos and then return to the chairs. Bill T. Jones would give an improvised sermon from the stage over the vamp at the end. The Sextet played this work at all our live performances, both with Julius and in the years after he passed. It was amazing to hear Julius solo on this piece night after night, and an honor to take on the solo in the Sextet later on, along with Andrew White.