(jazz music) (gentle music) - Welcome to music for social justice.

I'm your host Damien Sneed.

When you have a strong teacher in your life, you feel like you can accomplish anything.

In this episode, both of our performers were inspired by one of the greatest teachers, the world has ever seen Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr.

This song written about Dr. King is composed by the great Lena McLin who has been a longtime teacher of baritone, Mark Rucker.

This is a tale about a football player who never saw himself as a singer and how he was inspired to reach new heights, and become a highly respected and accomplished artist in his field.

Here is mark and his beautiful wife and accompanist Sadie Rucker to tell the story and what they've learned from Doctors King, and McLin (gentle piano) - My father was a conductor and a singer.

My mother was a singer and an organist.

Therefore I wanted to be a football player.

So we never, he never let us forget that we were special.

He never let us forget that we had to be ready.

We had to be prepared.

That's one of the things that I think I tell my students is that there's always gonna be an opportunity.

You just have to be ready for it.

I chose to perform.

'He Came To Alabama' written by Lena McLin, primarily because Lena McLin was my high school voice teacher, but she was much more than that.

I met her when I was playing football And she played for my father who was a conductor and a singer.

And so when I was in Kenwood High School, where she was I also played the saxophone.

She asked me to play for her choir.

I said, sure, why not?

So they were singing a piece called 'Close To You' by The Carpenters.

And I was off on the side humming and all of a sudden in a room filled with people.

She said, stop, come here.

So I go to her and she says, sing.

I said, I think you're nuts.

No, thank you very much.

And she said, we're not leaving here until you sing.

I said, okay, fine.

I sang, they laughed.

I left.

I was dejected.

I went home and told my father.

I said, I'm never going back there again.

I went to sign up to play football again.

And they said, I'm sorry, you can't sign up.

You failed music.

I said, I beg your pardon?

I have great grades in music, that's not possible.

He said, well, you have to go talk to the music teacher.

I don't have to tell you who that was.

I said, there's been a mistake.

They got a failing grade for me.

She said, that's true.

You have, you failed.

You can save that by joining the choir.

I said, this is ridiculous.

I went home, told my father she's blackmailing me.

He said, you've got a choice.

Join the choir, play football.

Don't join the choir, don't play football.

I wanted to be a football player.

So I said, yes.

She has been a blessing to every student that she's ever had.

Not all of them came out singers.

Some of them are politicians.

Some of them are doctors, some of them lawyers but they all came from that same area where you weren't even supposed to be alive by a certain time.

And they were all alive and still doing well.

- This is also the South Side of Chicago.

- South Side of Chicago.

Yeah.

So I sing everything from her that I can possibly sing.

She knew Dr. King very well.

And ironically enough, when he was killed, the next day she finished the work.

She had actually started it before he died.

And she wrote this aria for me.

And the piece means a lot to me because it covers almost the entirety of the civil rights movement.

- This piece of music is perfect for displaying the emotion the whole atmosphere that that was in the sixties.

It hasn't stopped.

But in this piece, Dr. McLin captured the perseverance of Dr. King and all of those who were committed to making civil rights, an important part of the American life.

People have been denied votes.

People had been denied jobs.

People had been denied every part of what an American citizen should have as a citizen.

And it was, enough was enough.

- [Mark Rucker] During the piece, you see, he's pushing people to do things to get them, to fight for what they want, to get them to participate.

He led thousands of them, he says, in Alabama, which was not the best place to be at the time, you hear people suffering in the music.

- [Sadie Rucker] And you can hear the Billy clubs, you can hear how people were brutally beaten with the dissonance in the music.

And I think that through the music people can experience the pain, the frustration, the struggle, but also the hope.

The piece ends on a major chord, and because it ends hopefully.

And I think that Dr. McLin wanted to do that because there was hope that others would join, and of course, the struggle continues.

- [Mark Rucker] For people of color.

It's been a scary time.

So doing this kind of concert, is not only to please the general public, but it's to give the feeling to people, that we all need to stand up.

We all need to participate.

One of the things that Martin said was the most frustrating to him were not the bigots.

They were the people who didn't say anything.

So we use this music to say something, and I really hope that everybody listening takes that with them (gentle music) (piano begins) ♪ He came to Alabama one strong, to right a wrong.

♪ ♪ He came to Alabama one strong, to right a wrong.

♪ ♪ One Strong ♪ ♪ He lead in Alabama, thousands strong to right a wrong.

♪ ♪ They prayed in Alabama, thousands strong to right a wrong.

♪ ♪ Marching and hoping ♪ ♪ for freedom and justice for all.

♪ ♪ He came to Alabama one strong, and lead thousands strong.

♪ ♪ They prayed who'll right our wrong.

♪ ♪ As they knelt inclined in single thought.

♪ ♪ They cried holy, holy, oh god hear our prayer.

♪ ♪ Then came silent guard, cloth and justice hard.

♪ ♪ Get them!

Bash their heads and strike them as they kneel!

♪ ♪ Turn on the fire hose!

Use the billy club!

♪ ♪ Let the gun butts pound!

Fill their chests to the brim!

♪ ♪ But they stood, with heads unbowed.

♪ ♪ Led by a man unafraid, and said.

♪ ♪ We shall not be moved.

♪ ♪ We shall not be moved.

♪ ♪ Chains cannot hold us, liberty involves us ♪ ♪ We shall not be moved!

♪ ♪ With prayer we will go on.

♪ ♪ With prayer we will go on.

♪ ♪ Chains cannot hold us, freedom involves us, ♪ ♪ We shall not be moved!

♪ (piano solo) ♪ The lord is on our side.

♪ ♪ The lord is on our side.

♪ ♪ Standing in silence, we fear no violence.

♪ ♪ We shall not be moved!

♪ ♪ He came to Alabama, one strong to right a wrong ♪ ♪ He lead from Alabama, the nation strong to right a wrong.

♪ ♪ Marching and hoping for freedom and justice for all.

♪ ♪ He lead from Alabama, the nation strong to right a wrong.

♪ (gentle music) - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech is one of the most memorable in American history.

It was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on August 28th, 1963, where nearly 250,000 people gathered for a March for jobs and freedom.

And to urge Congress and president John F. Kennedy to pass a national civil rights bill.

Our next featured performer was on tour in New York at the time the speech was made.

The great jazz drummer Randy Gelispie, known to most folks as Uncle G reflects on that time with help from one of his proteges bassist, Brandon Rose.

(jazz music) - Okay, What you gonna hear is I Have A Dream with Brandon Rose and myself.

The drum part is influenced by Max Roach.

If you listen to him playing that in the original one you can hear some of the things.

And I tried to highlight the drum, the emotional part of it along with what Brandon was saying.

- I just listened to the piece over and over again, and I wanted to really not just do the piece.

But, find meaning in the piece as well.

Not do it the same way that that MLK did it because I think that as the speech, you know just continues to progress through, you know, time I think it takes on just new, you know, new meaning to different people in different situations.

It's been years since the speech was given but we're kind of still, we're back at a place where it's so relevant.

I'm looking forward to it because I know Uncle G comes from you know, a time where the speech was actually given.

- [Randy Gelispie] I was on the road when that, when he made that speech and I was watching on TV.

His speech kind of meant what we've been living all our lives as black people.

So the speech highlighted, what was inside of a lot of black people.

But, Martin Luther King just brought it out in the open, if you will.

It just made us realize that maybe now more people will feel the way that we've been feeling all these years.

Dr. King said it for us, what we've been trying to say all these years and he just brought it to the table.

- [Brandon Rose] In the speech, you know, he says.

all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning my country tears of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

And I think that's something that for so long, all of God's children, haven't really been able to sing that from an honest, you know, place.

And I think there's been a select few people that can sing that you know, they really believe that this land is the land of Liberty, but there's a lot of us that are still fighting for our freedom.

And I'm still dreaming for that day where we can actually sing that from an honest place.

You know, this is land of liberty and we just reach a place where we all feel welcome.

- Treating human beings as human beings no matter what color you are, when we get to that point.

Then we can make all this happen.

It is easy to do that, if you've got the mindset, if you got the mindset.

Listen there's only one race and that's the human race, you know?

So once we can get to that, then we got something.

And I think that's what Martin Luther King was trying to say.

And as soon as people realize that, the better off we'll be.

(gentle music) (drum rhythm) - I still have a dream.

It is a dream that's deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of his creed.

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the tangling discourse of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

This will be the day when all God's children will be able to sing with new meaning my country tears of thee, sweet land of Liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride From every mountain side, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

So let freedom ring.

When we let it ring, from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city.

We will be able to speed up that day when all God's children black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual.

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty.

We are free at last.

(gentle music) - I hope you enjoyed that performance as much as I did.

Come with me into my world of creative expression.

I've penned this Impressions On We Shall Overcome (gentle music) (melodic piano) (gentle music) (jazz music) I'm Damien Sneed, it's my honor to have the title of host of this special series, Music For Social Justice.

We'll hear some moving performances from excellent musicians.

Most importantly, we're going to hear from the musicians themselves, as they put into words what social justice means to them, and how the power of music transcends all.

(bright music)