The Afro-Semitic Experience has already received universal critical praise for its wide ranging explorations and interpretations of the diasporic music that comes out of the Jewish-American and African-American traditions. On this, their debut album, they perform a program of twelve pieces that encompass a wide range of sounds and styles--original
The Afro-Semitic Experience has already received universal critical praise for its wide ranging explorations and interpretations of the diasporic music that comes out of the Jewish-American and African-American traditions. On this, their debut album, they perform a program of twelve pieces that encompass a wide range of sounds and styles--original compositions along with their distinctive arrangements of synagogue songs, gospel songs, hymns, West African, Cuban and Puerto Rican drum beats, jazz songs and cantorial music. This is a band that is proud of its religious and political message. Plea for Peace is a politically charged and spiritually centered cry for peace, world wide spiritual unity and communication. The title track, Plea for Peace, was composed by band co-founder Warren Byrd and is an expression of his sincere desire for the world to find a way to work things out. In fact, the composition is more of a prayer than a plea. Other pieces on the album include an arrangement by Will Bartlett of Almighty God, a composition from Duke Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert, and a group arrangement--Descarga Ocho Kandelikas, an Afro-Cuban jam on the classic Hannukah song. The group merges West African drumming and gospel on their interpretation of Dottie People’s On Time God and they add just a touch of Puerto Rican Bomba to David Chevan’s arrangement of A Song for When the Temple is Rebuilt–an updated version of Yisroel Schorr’s cantorial composition, Sheh Yiboneh Beis Hamikdash.
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0:00/7:47
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0:00/4:36
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0:00/5:27
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Almighty God 4:400:00/4:40
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0:00/4:08
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0:00/8:15
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Thy Will Be Done 3:200:00/3:20
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0:00/4:13
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0:00/6:35
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Plea for Peace 9:010:00/9:01
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0:00/3:29
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Reb Dovidl's Nigun 8:560:00/8:56