deeanndmathews 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Listen and watch the latest videos from deeanndmathews. Hosted by 3Speak.tv. The free speech video platform on the HIVE blockchain.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/ixatrupv
I read the week's theme and the song came to me:
Let's go for a coffee,
Right after a walk,
The espresso is frothy
As we sit down and talk.
It's a beautiful morning
And a beautiful day,
Another great dawning
To love you always!
Had it been "Let's Go for Gelato," I would have been able to make it a perfect match to the years I spent walking with the love of my life ... but I got the meaning across in this way anyhow!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/itxiyraq
I want to thank @justclickindiva for letting me know about the Creative Sparks Community, and I'd like to let @tegoshei and @bleujay know about it!
Life has been lifing since 2022, and something happened to me in the past few years that I thought never would: I am a composer and pianist who has never lost the ability to compose and arrange at need, but just for the joy of music and the joy of sharing it ... not so much.
But this weekend, I sang for a mentor's 83rd birthday ... he and his wife had a Zoom celebration, and I was able to bless across the country because the allergies just ended the night before -- I literally noticed the night before that I was getting better.
My mentor said to me, "I felt like I was in Heaven!" and no one seemed unhappy!
Afterward, I cried ... that reminded me of why I am a musician ... I was gifted by God to gift others, and when all the trials and pains and struggles are stripped away, I still have the gift, and it is still available to bless, all around.
That unlocked the joy I had lost, and that unlocked me ... it was like suddenly turning the clock back to before the pandemic ... the joy of music came back.
I recorded a quick demo at the piano of a song I am offering a singer I know -- I'm reconnecting with other musicians I know, calling the studio -- it all came back and there was enough to move forward on all the things I have been slowly working on by sheer force of will, knowing I was called and thinking "If I can just keep going ... I know this is what I am supposed to be doing, and I am built for it, even though right now I can't feel it." There have been flashes of that "joy power" during these projects to keep me going, to let me know I was on the right track and should just keep going
But there was still one last thing to see ... could I improvise again at the piano, just compose on the spot for no reason except that @justclickindiva told me about this?
Let's find out together!
(Spoiler alert: YES! Thank God!)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/pjhwfnhi
This is a random, hilarious moment of me getting ready for a church concert, with a lot of history attached ...
African music in North America is a long story of triumph over great oppression ... beginning with my enslaved ancestors taking the music they brought with them and keeping it although blending it with new ideas from English-language hymns and folk songs. This is the origin of the Negro Spiritual, the sweetest music out of the greatest human oppression of the modern age. Chattel slavery sought to destroy the humanity of the enslaved down to the soul. The Negro Spiritual is the first evidence of the failure, the deepest body of music produced in the Americas, and one of the parents of jazz, blues, and gospel music.
But the other parent, the work song, is very much neglected, and although the Negro Spiritual and its more elevated themes and souns made it to the concert hall and the admiration of Europeans and their idea of a Christianity that allowed for a Sunday to be holy and peaceful and calm and devoid of any reminder of the suffering their choice of enacting colonialism and slavery , the work song and its closer connection to the African chant and drums was not embraced as readily ... and thus, as Black people embraced Christianity and at last began to hope to be accepted into Eurocentric Christian circles, Black Christians began to be afraid of both jazz and blues ... as if Africa itself and all its contributions that could not be pigeonholed as chattel were unholy.
It is 2025. I am 44 years old, and still having conversations with frustrated people who get scared when younger musicians use jazz chords and blues scales in church ... churchiness does not include five-note chords and flat fifths and progressions of that sort ... although both Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk played for church groups, and if you really listen, the only major difference between traditional gospel and traditional blues is really the lyrics...
I am free of the old prejudices because I am studied enough as a musician and a Christian to know that God loves every sound in music that Africans in America brought here, and that all of it can be used for His glory ... so I tickle myself sometimes doing traditional gospel progressions and listening to the great jazz musicians I have studied coming right on out in a harmonious blend. This was such a moment!
"Trouble In My Way" is a big-time traditional gospel song, and as an arranger I have been looking at the chant section in it on the phrase "Jesus, He Will Fix It" ... as both arranger and composer i look at repetitive phrases from the bass side for variety ... I always start out traditional but things can get interesting in a hurry when one has Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk under one's hands too... and because I am not afraid of my full musical heritage, what happens is what happens!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/opxlkgnm
I've been thinking about "Autumn Leaves" for months, but then I thought about my actual feelings ... I ran into an old love on the second Sunday of the autumn ... the love is still there although the time has past for it to be what we wanted it to be ... but the love is still there ... I choose to remember ... and that is how this song came to mind, on a day in which my allergies were saying, "You can't even sing!" But that gave me time to work this out, for a Hive world premiere in Hive Open Mic!
Lyrics:
When summer's brightest hopes and dreams and gone and passed away,
And darkness seems to creep up more and more on every day,
I remember the love!
I remember the love!
(The photo is from a walk I took on Sept. 23, 2024 ... that flaming beauty in the middle of all that green stood out to me ... like a vivid memory)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/etqzntzq
I did not know Hive had its own Hive Onboarding Committee until I sat down with @bitcoinman to tell him my Hive story -- and did I ever learn from him! I'm looking forward to future collaboration, and I'm also going to be adding the HOC templates and onboarding guide to the next edition of Things Ms. Dee Likes, my Hive newsletter!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/tgnbaaej
One of my favorite hymns ... one of the favorite hymns of all time ... full of more meaning for me now because literally, through many dangers, toils, and snares I had to come this year ... but the grace of God never has failed me!
The two verses of thirteen available (1) I chose to sing:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come
'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/hnbhajoo
So often as I am writing I hear music ... and sometimes music around the music ... Strauss's song took me through 31 years of emotions and realizations, and the tune is absolutely fabulous ... so, as bonus material to my longer writing coming up, I went on and recorded myself singing the added verses in the appropriate keys, singing both ends of my range to do it.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/eglgdhrs
This song has a bit of complicated history ... the original was written by Jeremiah Rankin in 1882, but it looks like Mahalia Jackson did her own version which is still a bit different than the version I learned ... such is the nature of gospel music, given 141 years for people to work on a song ... here is my contribution to the work, and, because I am not sure of the copyright issues around this, I am also declining rewards, so, SAVE YOUR VOTES PLEASE, and just enjoy -- God be with you, and just enjoy the blessing!
God be with you, God be with you,
God be with you until we meet again!
God be with you, God be with you,
God be with you until we meet again!
If we never more shall meet you,
If we never more shall greet you,
God be with you until we meet again!
Keep on trusting in the Master --
He'll be with you, here and after!
God be with you until we meet again!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/ylfkcrbd
Sometimes I get flashes of music while working on fiction, or remember musical flashes for the past ... this cliimax for a gospel song is beyond the scope of anyone I am working with now (including ME, really, most days as a contralto) has been rolling in and out of my head, and it fit the freewrite I am about to finish in Freewriters Community on Hive today -- so I will share this snippet on Hive, and at the right time, come back, get it, finish the song, and, when the Lord grants me the singers and choir, put this all the way out!
The context of this in the freewrite is Capt. R.E. Ludlow, a military veteran, recalling all the things he has been through in his life, and realizing that he would not have made it unless the Lord had kept him ... so, when he hears Sallie Stone singing this bridge, he connects spiritually and emotionally to it in a way that gets through his emotional scar tissue at last:
Lyrics:
It could have been me, sleeping in my grave,
But You made old Death get back and behave –
There's no kind of lost that I could not be
Except You, my Lord, keep on keeping me!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/vjakaput
As much as I have needed to take refuge in the classical side of my musical life, and specifically the deep, dark voice of Kurt Möll and also a few of his sweet-voiced bass colleagues in the pain of this last few weeks, I also have had to maintain my responsibilities toward the community and younger musicians I serve. One might say that I did have to take the lesson from last week and get onto applying it -- by the weekend! Move on and compose on the fly!
Two years is a long time to not be singing even an adapted version of the "Hallelujah" chorus ... keeping the voice up through two years of no choir was a challenge for me (complete with a bout with Covid-19), so I could hardly expect children, dealing with all the other changes that came with the lockdown, to keep that up. It's my job to get everyone working with me back up to snuff -- so, given that we have been scheduled by our church to reprise our holiday performances at long last, I have 2.5 months to help everyone to get their vocal strength, vowels, and stamina back up.
I do love classical music, but my wheelhouse of work is the music of my African American ancestors, and I mix jazz and gospel on the regular in my daily and weekly work while still thinking like a classical composer because that is the approach that I studied in terms of how to build pieces up. The end goal here was to have a working warmup that could be performed as well as used at every rehearsal ... so, a simple scale became a walking bass with key changes and jazz chords to make for an interesting musical texture... simple words to get all those vowel sounds back in place -- "O Hallelujah! O, thank You, Lord!" -- up and down an octave and back again.
The first performance of it at my church this last Sunday went well -- like I said, I had to get it together by last Sunday -- but, no videographer! I'll work on that for Christmas so you all can see this fully realized, but for today, enjoy the building of the instrumental side of this piece of music, and the story of how I built it all out!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/lxkfyumy
This little tune came to my mind as I was working on a story INSIDE a science fiction story I'm doing over in the Alien Art Hive Community ... a people that does not yet know their planet rotates on its axis and so their sun does not rise is set upon by a wizard who wishes to be a dictator ... but a kite-maker who also happens to be a scientist challenges him on behalf of the people, and says his kites in the morning wind will pull the sun up in the sky on time. Who will win? Listen and find out!
I will have the link to the full story up here as soon as it is done and out in a few hours -- the story about the kites is told by two fleet officers who are great scientists and making enemies among those that care more about power and money than the people ... and, just like Gnari'el stood up for the people, Admiral Benjamin Banneker has something up his sleeve for the haters, with the help of Commander Helmut Allemande!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/njitwzsw
This is the nearest piano in the park nearest to my home, and it works ... fortunately or unfortunately I started out as a pianist on one which had tuning like this ... but the action ... I had to cut this short because the stiffness was hurting my hands... but this is just the beginning ... there are more pianos in the park... we'll get there ... it also served a purpose for an essay I'm doing in Q-Inspired By Music Community here on Hive today ... talk about Beethoven, find a piano that has been painted but not maintained since (at least one-tenth of) the time that he was born ... PERFECT!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/ryynlrwf
The actual evening or still time call of doves and pigeons suggests D sharp/E flat minor, but I chose to go into B major instead ... a different kind of look on that...
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/hjfehpek
Even though it is week 165, I wanted to vibe to week 163's theme...
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/rwnewheo
An original piano improvisation on the theme of hopefulness in dark times ...
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/ndcwyzmc
No other hymn encapsulates the glories of the God we worship than this one, to me... the poem was written by Reginald Heber in 1826, and I have chosen the first three stanzas...
1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/pagfdmbg
When I thought of virtue, I thought of the main thing for the Christian: our righteousness and virtue comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who paid for our salvation with His precious blood on the cross, and rose again to dress us in His righteousness forever! Thus the hymn "The Solid Rock" by Edward Mote and William B. Bradbury came back to my mind. I have chosen to sing the first and fourth verses of the hymn.
Lyrics:
1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/tdqyervx
Sometimes when I am creating for Hive, all three aspects of my artistry -- story, song, and fractal art -- come together. This is such a case, but, the music piece needs to go up first, and NOW, STORY ADDED! https://peakd.com/hive-152524/@deeanndmathews/the-sinking-of-the-oceanica
Lyrics:
For the lack of filling a coffee cup,
The ship went down and the cry went up,
For alas, the world will not go 'round
Without our morning brew.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/utmbxldc
This Christmas song has a long and beloved history, especially in the African American church which has adopted it, but it all began when songwriter George D. Elderkin was listening one day to a song by his peer Fanny Crosby with the repeated line, "Jesus, the Light of the World," and then heard Charles Wesley's much older "Hark the Herald Angels Sang" and thought, "Gee -- those two ideas actually go well together!" And, here we are, extending the history to Hive Open Mic!
Hark the herald angels sing,
Jesus, the Light of the World!
Glory to the newborn King,
Jesus, the Light of the World!
We will walk in the Light, beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright!
Shine all around us by day and by night --
Jesus, the Light of the World!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/yizeiywb
An improv at the piano ... Hive exclusive composition and performance ON SITE!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/sjbkmxcb
A simple song of praise and gratitude, recognizing from Whom our blessings flow...
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Amen! Amen! Amen!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/zfudgyid
A traditional song of my African American ancestors and elders, who had to not only have their personal battles with the problems common to all humanity within themselves, but also labored under cruel bondage from 1619 to 1865 and then from 1877 to 1965 under the oppression of Jim Crow laws. FINALLY, full freedom came ... this song indicates the joy and to Whom the glory belongs for being able to lay the burdens of sin and oppression down and find freedom and peace! This song dates from roughly the same time period as "Take Me To the Water" from last week, somewhere between 1880 and 1920.
Lyrics:
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Since I laid my burdens down!
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Since I laid my burdens down!
Friends don't treat me like they used to
Since I laid my burdens down!
Friends don't treat me like they used to
Since I laid my burdens down!
I feel better -- so much better
Since I laid my burdens down!
I feel better -- so much better
Since I laid my burdens down!
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Since I laid my burdens down!
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Since I laid my burdens down!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/upxwzlok
So, there was a time, from about 1619 to 1865, when the rivers and the streams were just about the only things free to Africans in America that were in reach … the land they worked on without pay and all the things that grew around them were considered the property of those who dared to say they owned even human bodies and souls.
But water runs free, everywhere … a river can of course be dammed, but not all can be or too much will die … so water ran free for Africans in America, and crossing certain rivers was both a way toward freedom because dogs could no longer track scent once feet passed through water, and a sign of freedom … get across the Ohio River, and that for a long time was far enough.
Even before that, the history of African peoples, in Egypt and Ethiopia, has many headwaters around the great Nile River … the civilizations of Cush and Kemet held water as sacred, and that idea has passed to all human civilizations that have followed these pioneers.
So, to be taken to the water … that was a big deal even before a virgin girl named Mary brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world … in ancient Jewish life, being ceremonially washed was a prerequisite for worship, and John the Baptist was baptizing when the Lord came along because those being baptized were signifying that they had sinned and identified with those who believed the Messiah would cleanse them from their sin (per Isaiah 63).
“Let righteousness run down like water, and justice roll down like a mighty stream” – so wrote the prophet Amos, and generations of Black preachers, when they were free to say so after slavery, echoed it – for there was much justice needed from the days when the enslaved sometimes had to secretly baptized those who had come to Christ to identify them as such. Sometimes, the enslaved were even denied the right to marry, bury, or be identified as Christians.
As the 19th century dawned, many enslavers considered Christianity a way to pacify the enslaved, but quietly, references to crossing rivers and going to the water in Negro Spirituals still had a double meaning. However, baptism retained the same meaning it did when John the Baptist had been at work and when in Acts 8, an Ethiopian official asked the deacon Phillip, “There is water – what hinders me from being baptized?” and Phillip answered him, “If you believe [on Christ as Savior], you can.”
The enslaved who chose to become Christians made their way to the water to identify with Christ – they were not crossing to escape, but identifying with Christ as their “Good Master,” the One they believed would free them in many ways. A listen to the Negro Spirituals show the sorrow of the enslaved, but also that Christ brought to them what He promises everyone: love, joy, peace, faith, and hope for the day, and for eternity. The Negro Spiritual also shows that human dignity also was retained … the enslaved used this music to feel all of their feelings and achieve the things they needed in this life … including guiding each other to escape!
Only 12 years separate the end of slavery and the imposition of Black Codes (commonly known as “Jim Crow” laws) to place the surviving enslaved and their descendants as close to back into slavery as the Southern states who had participated in the Confederate sedition against the United States could bring them. The northern and western states that had been in the Union had discriminatory laws, but not to the same extent … so Black people began to move, and as they did, their music began to move with them.
By the 1880s, the blues had developed out of the Negro Spiritual, and also Black people had begun in Louisiana to perform classical music as well in large groups. Hymns were also filtering through from European Christians as they had been through the slavery period, and this combination was soon to produce the “gospel song” as Ira Sankey would phrase it and Charles Tindley would write them. The stage was set, and we think “Take Me to the Water” developed between here and about 1920.
In this recording, I sing the song somewhere between the way my elders have sung it (back to my grandmother in El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church of San Francisco, CA and down to the present day) and the famous recording of this song by Nina Simone in 1966 … both my grandmother and Ms. Simone were singing this song during the civil rights period when Black people were on the move in the United States, obtaining and making the most of their long, long, LONG-delayed civil rights.
One of the great leaders of the civil rights movement was of course Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born on this day in 1934, coming out of the powerful Black church tradition that sprang up after emancipation. Churches were bombed for a reason by white supremacist domestic terrorists, the oldest of which groups is the KKK (despite their non-profit status today): these churches were where Black people came together, encouraged themselves in retaining their human dignity, organized necessary day-to-day survival resources, and planned resistance and offensive actions against their oppressors.
The tragedy: the people bombing churches thought of themselves as Christians, as did their enslaving ancestors … and so, down to the civil rights period, there was a risk for Black people to identify themselves with Christ and the church … and yet, my grandmother and others kept coming, and kept coming, kept coming to Christ, kept coming for the human rights that belonged to them – and got it ALL!
Today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday, Grandmother and her generation have gone on, and the struggle has nearly been forgotten in the mainstream of the United States … but not quite, since on January 6, 2021, the Confederate flag was carried through the U.S. Capitol, and voting rights are again a source of struggle. The Black church is growing again, and so are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), growth noted since the beginning of the administration of former president Donald J. Trump.
I belong to the new generation that notes the resurgence of racism in the United States, and I live in a city that had the KKK actually rally for members in 2016. I know, as an African American woman, that the struggle to retain freedom will continue from generation to generation because there are some racists who think African Americans stole something from their ancestors and them by merely being free, and not free labor in perpetuity for others to live on.
And yet and still … getting baptized is something separate from the racial struggles of this world .. it is about identifying as a human who has put faith in Christ as Savior from sin and taking Him as their Leader through the rest of life … identifying as a member of the family of God in Christ. That baptism, spiritually and physically, does not necessarily change one’s earthly state immediately; the march of time and progress (and regress, as the case may be) is an unavoidable earthly process for human beings. However, those who are still singing “Take Me to the Water” sing it because of the value they see in coming to Christ that is greater than the attainment of things and status in the world … and that is why I sing it.
There is one traditional verse I am not including in my performance of this song: “I know I got religion … I been baptized.” In the days in which this song was written, not too long after slavery, there was only ONE religion to even be considered in the United States: Christianity. This is no longer the case, and specificity is important.
Water baptism is not synonymous and never was with coming to Christ; it is common now to say that there are a lot of “wet sinners” who have no evidence of any love, joy, peace, faith, love, gentleness, goodness, self-control in their life. Water baptism is properly an outward expression of an INWARD change toward Christ … but it cannot be assumed, and so I have chosen to omit one verse that is not specific enough for today’s times.
Lyrics:
- Take me to the water, [3x] to be baptized!
- None but the righteous [3x] shall see God!
- I love Jesus [3x], yes, I do!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/ubdrqevg
The prompt inspired a whole new piece of instrumental music ... it was fun to get back to the piano to compose for the first time in a long time ... enjoy!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=deeanndmathews/fxfpqhnd
"Higher Ground" is one of my grandmother's favorite hymns ... and mine ...
This is also my very first Threespeak video!