Terence Blanchard - Ashé
The truth is that I wasn’t familiar with Terence Blanchard’s work until I saw him live in a quintet format at Vijazz Festival in 2011. At that time I was more attentive to other genres, so I didn’t expect at all to experience what is for now the most deep and intense connection I’ve ever felt with music I had never heard before.
The entire quintet’s performance was brilliant but I was so moved by one particular song that tears literally started rolling down my eyes. I know that may sound cliché, not saying that there’s nothing extraordinary in that fact. That wasn’t the first nor the last time that music has moved me to tears, what really was a novelty for me was that, unlike other occasions, I wasn’t feeling particularly soft or emotional for any reason that day, and the song didn’t evoke any painful or sad episode in my life. I cried just because of the sublimeness of the main theme, the emotion behind the musicians’ performance and especially how overwhelming the climax of the piece is.
So after the show I had one new mission in life: to find the name of that track. I had a hint, as I think he said that it was composed by the piano player. Luckily, after some research I managed to find it. The song is called “Ashé”, the title comes from a Yoruba word meaning “amen”, and it wasn’t composed by Fabian Almazán, the amazing piano player in that show, but by another pianist the trumpeter had worked with before: Aaron Parks, you may have heard of him. The track is included in the album “A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)”, a soundtrack that Spike Lee commissioned to Blanchard for his documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The album is more symphonic, as it features the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra, but despite being a studio version I think that it really captures what I felt that day.
It’s a 8 minute piece, so I recommend you to find the right moment where you can dedicate yourself only to listening to this in a quiet environment to fully savor how the song builds and grows in intensity and ferocity until the waters calm down, as if evoking the hurricane itself.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT:
Spotify : Track Link , Nu-Funk Alt R&B Indie Soul Picks Playlist , Discover Radio , Vibey Curator Blog Entries Playlist
Apple Music : Track Link , Nu-Funk Alt R&B Indie Soul Picks Playlist
Youtube : Track Link , Nu-Funk Alt R&B Indie Soul Picks Playlist
Socials : Artist and individual musicians social links on the song’s post on Instagram and Twitter
PS: You might wanna check Aaron Parks’ solo piano version too.
PPS: As you may know, the income that artists receive for streams from the main platforms is ridiculous. So please consider contributing to your favorite artists using their Bandcamp or any other meaningful way available.