Composition for saxophone sextet. Originally part of the dance performance “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land,” the piece was recorded on the posthumous album At Dr. King’s Table (1997). [Score?]
Found on: At Dr. King’s Table.
Bill T. Jones
Children’s Song
Composition originally written for the World Saxophone Quartet, with woodwind doubling (two flutes, clarinet, and tenor saxophone), found in Music Manuscript Notebook 1 (MMN1). The archive includes parts in Hemphill’s hand, as well as a transposition of the clarinet part for alto clarinet, apparently made by Hamiet Bluiett. This arrangement of the piece was recorded by Marty Ehrlich as “Children’s Song: First Version” on the album At Dr. King’s Table (1997).
Hemphill arranged the piece for saxophone sextet for his collaboration with choreographer Bill T. Jones, “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.” The Julius Hemphill Sextet also recorded this version on At Dr. King’s Table. The archive includes the complete score of “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land” as well as a sextet version of “Children’s Song” prepared by Marty Ehrlich.
Found on: At Dr. King’s Table.
From Marty Ehrlich: By its placement in MMN1, I believe this piece was composed c. 1975-1978. (Bill T. Jones speaks about this work in the film Jazz Dancing, present in the archive.)
At Dr. King’s Table
Composition for saxophone sextet (soprano, 2 alto, 2 tenor, baritone), originally written for the dance piece “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.” There are professionally copied parts in the dedicated archive folder; the full score is included with “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.”
From Marty Ehrlich: This work was used during a dance segment of “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin” that started and ended with the tableau of the Last Supper, i.e., Dr. King’s Table.
Found on: At Dr. King’s Table.
Ascension
Composition for saxophone sextet (2 soprano, alto, 2 tenor, baritone), composed for “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.” There are professionally copied parts in manuscript in the dedicated archive folder; the full score in holograph is included with “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.”
Found on: At Dr. King’s Table.
Anchorman
Hemphill used the title “Anchorman” for more than one piece over the course of his career. Portions of the different versions may be found in the archival folders for “Anchorman,” “Bordertown,” “Drunk on God,”and “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land.”
(1) One piece associated with this title is a slow six-bar blues, with a two-bar introduction, for saxophone sextet (2 soprano, 2 alto, tenor, and baritone). The Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet recorded this work as “Anchorman” on Fat Man and the Hard Blues (1991). In its first appearance on a studio recording, Julius Hemphill Big Band (1988), the piece was titled “Radiant Number” and was included in “Drunk on God,” Hemphill’s setting of poems by K. Curtis Lyle. Subsequently, Hemphill incorporated this piece into “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin / The Promised Land,” his work for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
(2) The archive also includes a ten-page, five-line score in holograph, with VOX indicated on the top line, for a different piece titled “Anchorman.” This piece, orchestrated for trumpet, 2 tenor saxophones, and bass clarinet, is a re-orchestration of the composition “Bordertown.” Pages 4 and 5 of this score are in the archival folder for “Drunk on God.”
From Marty Ehrlich: The second piece described above is associated with Anchorman, a theatrical work in two acts by Paul Carter Harrison; a script is included in the Julius Hemphill Papers. According to Harrison (from a phone conversation in 2019), Anchorman was given a first performance with Hemphill’s score in 1982 at Columbia College in Chicago, with members of the AACM performing. In 1988, the American Folk Theatre mounted a performance of the play in New York City, using a portion of Hemphill’s score arranged for solo piano. There is no known recording of the orchestration with trumpet, two tenor saxophones, and bass clarinet.
Found on: Fat Man and the Hard Blues, Julius Hemphill Big Band