Inspirational across the generations
‘Captured in Western and Central Africa, countries now known as Senegal, Gambia, Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Ghana, slavers – who tended to be the Portuguese, the Spanish, the English, French and the Dutch – chained and manacled Africans by neck, hands and legs, and marched them to the coast where they were forced onto ships for a harrowing and horrific journey to the new world. The Americas.’
Producer, Spotlight Live, captivated a capacity audience at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club in South London with The Amazing Grace Show – An Inspirational Journey Through the Birth of Gospel Music – which runs through Black History Month.
Narrated by voice/voices off, the starkly lit stage provides a perfect platform for singers who have worked with the likes of Jamiroquai, Lionel Richie, The London Gospel Community Choir, Luther Vandross and Neneh Cherry, to deliver an inspiring message through song.
Slaves in America communicated through singing spirituals in the plantations – a means of raising spirits, sharing news, praising God and, ultimately, fostering the drive for emancipation.
Backed by simple piano chops, Samantha Antoinette, Jenny Ingram-Brown, Naana Agyei-Ampadu and Colin Vassell colour the storyline with impassioned takes on tunes which have become staples in the Gospel songbook.
From Amazing Grace, written by slave ship captain John Newton, who was motivated by the cries from his ‘cargo’ chained in the hold, to the closing take on Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, this show is every bit as much about strength and resistance as it is about suppression and repression. How brutalism, inhumanity, bore spirituals as a means of communicating and coping.
Encompassing Harriet Tubman right through to Rosa Parks, The Amazing Grace Show paints an unforgettable picture across its two hours.
Incidentally, the story tells us Newton, every bit the ‘wretch’ his lyrics describe, part of the machine that sold human beings as if they were cattle, found faith and turned slavery abolitionist.
Winsome interpretations of songs like Motherless Child and Mary Don’t You Weep through to Oh Freedom, Take Me To The River and Strange Fruit, think Mica Paris, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Billy Holiday respectively, amplify their original message and wring emotion from us all.
‘…belief in a higher power and faith that freedom would come inspired the work-songs, the spirituals, and the blues – which eventually led to Gospel,’ the narrator says in conclusion.
There’s a powerful split-second pause when the curtain drops – recognising the enormity of that performance – before an explosion of whoops and applause.
Getting a train home afterwards, the strength, purpose, conviction and community expressed by The Amazing Grace Show made the journey with me.
Inspirational across the generations, the perfect mix of history, indominable human spirit and song, performances like this should be stapled onto every school curriculum.
The Amazing Grace Show residency at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club, Kennington continues on Sunday 29th Oct and Sunday 10th Dec.