Oh, here’s a story. Â The most important part of any film is what you hear. Â And music really helps move a film along. Â So, when I envisioned the film at first I was thinking about all the great jazz that’s come from Detroit. Â But Naomi’s tastes were otherwise. Â Oh, sure she likes jazz and even wrote a poem about Duke Ellington, but the music that was closest to her heart was that of Charles A. Tindley…something you’ll know if you watched the little piece above. Â So, I reasoned that it would make all the sense in the world to use The Reverend Tindley’s music for the soundtrack. Â Enter Lamar Willis, the Minister of Music at Naomi’s home church. Â Here is a young man of amazing talent. Â And he was willing to drive from Detroit to Grand Haven to lay down this music. Â Most of the tunes for the film needed to be just piano, but he asked if I didn’t also want to record him singing, too. Â Why, sure! Â And why didn’t we make a CD out of the complete hymns, not just the piano tracks that were going to be used in the film? Â Oh, my. Â Here’s a taste:
Here are the liner notes for the CD (click on each one to enlarge it). Â And, sure, I’d like to make sure a copy of the CD winds up in your hands. Â Contact me.
Oh, and 150 or so of The Reverend Tindley’s hymns are newly available through Cokesbury in Beams of Heaven Songbook: Hymns of Charles Albert Tindley. Â Inexpensive (not to say cheap) at twice the price.