Beacon Liner Notes
Beacon Liner Notes
1.Boom Boom Bap: Composed by Okorie ‘OkCello” Johnson. Cellos and Cello-percussion by OkCello. Initial Mix by Julian Tillery. Final Mix by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS Mastering.
“Um Boom Boom Bap” is an onomatopoeia for one of the rhythms in the cello percussion for this song. While the name itself has no other meaning, the song’s origin story is a special one. Upon being invited to participate in the Fall 2020 Dead Artists Lounge festival by originator Nicollette Emanuelle, I was paired with Nicole Mermeans and Fareedah, accomplished Aerieal Artists in the Atlanta area to create new work that celebrated any deceased artist from any medium or genre. After an initial planning conversation the three of us landed on creating work to celebrate artist Emma Amos, who died earlier that year in May of 2020. The piece that inspired their new work was Amos’ painting Twined Flowers, which artistically illustrated Amos’ biraciality and the intersectionality and harmony of identity she experienced. This image spoke to Nicole and Fareedah particularly because of the fact that they have very different personal and cultural backgrounds but experience a kind of oneness when they perform together - an alternative but complimentary read of Amos’ image. It also resonated with me because of my interest in creating work that celebrates the stories, experiences, and art of women and particularly women of color. The piece we created, Twined Flowers, is a 13 minute, three movement aerial artistry video, set to three pieces that I composed - the first of which was “Um Boom Boom Bap” an upbeat introduction to the beauty, artistry, and athleticism of Nicole and Fareedah’s aerial work. The other two are also on this release, Beacon: “These are the Days” and ‘Click.’”
2. Interlude - Like to Sing to Music: Composed by Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Cello and Cello-percussion by OkCello. Ad libs by Okorie Johnson. Conversation between Zora and Okorie Johnson. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
A fun bit of banter between me and my daughter about music and singing.
3. These Are the Days: Composed by Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Cello and Voice by OkCello. Initial Mix by Julian Tillery. Final Mix by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
I have a confession to make. It’s a difficult one. I am not quite sure what to make of it. I am in love. I am in love with the theme from All In the Family. Yeah, I know. It’s such a weird thing. I’m not necessarily in love with the sound of Archie and Edith singing the theme, but I do love its beautiful, simple, pentatonic melody. It’s also an amazing piece of art to compliment an even more amazing television show. All In the Family was a brilliant piece of satire and social commentary that directly addressed racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism in the way it used its bigoted, unreliable, and largely unlikeable protagonist as the American everyman that was being left behind by the changing times. The show was so thorough that the satire started in the opening theme with Archie and Edith singing about a glorious time gone by when White people like them had it made - a time not at all like the present time of the show and a time that their son wanted no parts of.
While the theme is a beautiful and effective piece of satirical poetry and music, it is problematic for a conscious and informed Black man like me to be singing in 2021, especially when any passerby would not have the benefit of knowing that I understand the satire. Even so, I love the melody so much that I decided to repurpose it, to kidnap it essentially and give it a new home in an afro-cuban harmonic music musical world.
So much of the Great American Songbook is essentially Jazz, music made or inspired by Africans in America, translating cultural, artistic instincts and customs into new art using European tools and sensibilities. “Those Were the Days” was written in the style of the Great American Songbook which through its use of the pentatonic scale illustrates this phenomenon. For that reason, I feel comfortable recontextualizing the melody in a new/old harmonic home.
“These Are The Days” is that new home, with a new melodic sibling whose lyrics assert just that. In addition to this new affirming melody and lyric, listen to the introduction of the old melody on the cello towards the end in its new home, happy and repurposed.
4. Interlude - Unlearning Everything: Voice Memo by Okorie Johnson. Improvised Score by OkCello. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
2020 seems like one long year that still hasn’t ended - even nearly 21 months later. In addition to surviving a Pandemic and an emotionally difficult Racial Reckoning like we all did, my family and I also went through quite a few difficult challenges and a divorce. While I am grateful that it seems that we have not only survived the craziness but are actually thriving in it, I am also aware that everything seems so new and that the knowledge that I thought was foundational and ever useful seems to be less so. Perhaps it's the feeling of uncertainty and instability that overwhelms rather than the inability to pivot and adjust - especially the feeling that what you knew to be true - about yourself, the world, and life - is no longer true in the way you expected it to be.
5. Elder Roots and Tree: Composed by Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Quoted melody, “Trees,” Paul Robeson. Initial Mix by Julian Tillery. Final Mix by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
“Elder Roots and Tree” was commissioned by the Freedom Park Conservancy and the National Black Arts Festival to accompany a public art piece - a felled tree fused with casts of gesturing hands - created by Masud Olufani. The work lived temporarily in Freedom Park in Old Fourth Ward Atlanta. His piece brought attention to the rich and hallowed past of the David T. Howard school, which was one of a handful of schools that Black Atlantans could attend during the city’s era of segregation, and which at the time of his commissioning was being brought online after significant renovation as one Old Fourth Ward neighborhood’s middle school options. This article describes the project in detail. I was commissioned to write music that accompanied Olufani’s piece and that would be performed at it’s opening ceremony. This piece contains a quoted melody from Paul Robeson’s song “Trees,” which I selected with the help of feedback from alumni of the original David T. Howard school.
6. Interlude - Your Hand: Poetry by Okorie Johnson. Improvised Score by OkCello. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
A poetic meditation on the precious support and nurturing offered me by a gentle and caring soul, as I negotiated the complications of a difficult personal transition and beyond.
7. Conjure: Composed by Okorie “Okcello” Johnson. Cellos and Cello-percussion by OkCello. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
This song was originally written as a soundtrack to an individual conjuring up the soul they wanted to love. That’s the story that immediately jumped to mind when I heard what I wrote. And then, some time passed and I forgot that I had named this song. I tried to rename it “Lock,” indicating a connection that a couple that had been dancing with each other for years had with each other. Interestingly, the “Lock” title never stuck and the song never really seemed like the energy of establishment, but the energy of generation. So, the title and context of Conjure reemerged as the true essence of this song. After I recorded the song, some words came to mind for the chorus, and the connection to Conjure was really locked:
I conjured a soul to heal my heart.
I conjured of old a brand new start.
I conjured up joy and love and you sweetheart.
One day when I do this song with a full band, these are the words that will be sung. I hope you are able to use this song to conjure up the soul you’ve been dying to love. I have.
8. Thumbs Up: Piano by Beli. Cello by OkCello. Conversation between Beli and Okorie Johnson. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
A typical evening between father and daughter where the father asks daughter to record something with him for his album. She agrees, but only if she gets to be her complete and authentic self and give him a bit of a hard time along the way. This, I think, is what love sounds like.
9. Click: Composed by Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Cellos and Cello-percussion by OkCello. Initial Mix by Julian Tilery. Final Mix by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
“This is the story of a dance that becomes an invitation. Two people are on a crowded dance floor, dancing by themselves. And suddenly, their eyes meet and click. And, immediately the dance they were doing is now an invitation to a new life that they endeavor to live together. This song is the soundtrack to their eyes and their lives clicking together.”
10. Dissolve: Improvisation Meditation by OkCello. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and Sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
“The cello speaks of the unsettling and sudden moment when that which dissolves is simply no longer there.”
11. Beacon: Composed by Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Cellos and Cello Percussion by OkCello. Mixed by Martin Kearns. Mastered and sequenced by Martin Kearns and Larry Anthony/COS mastering.
“Beacon, as a song and an album, is an attempt - a very personal, earnest attempt - to bring into fruition the life I desire to live. This song is a sacred and musical expression of the “me” I want to be, the art I want to create, the audiences I want to reach, the work I want to do, the loved ones I want to share all this with, and the impact I want to leave upon the world. The song is also an experiment in creating something - a piece of art, a concept vessel, an emotion spaceship - that can travel between times, worlds, dimensions, and universes to make connections with the “us’s” we know exist somewhere out there. It attempts to enhance the likelihood that we become those people - those better versions of ourselves that we plaster on vision boards and bury deep within our 5 year plans. It is also a love letter to ourselves and the world we want to live in, inviting it to want us, too.
May this Beacon light our way to the lives we yearn to live.