WEST INDIAN SPIRITUALS AND FOLK SONGS

Te Ao Hou, July 1973, Page 59

WEST INDIAN SPIRITUALS AND FOLK SONGS Inia Te Wiata (bass) and Maurice Till (piano) Kiwi SLC-70 Stereo-Mono 12in LP 33⅓ rpm This is the last record made by Inia Te Wiata before his death. It is a selection of West Indian spirituals and folk tunes from the collection of the famous West Indian singer Edric Connor, Inia's friend for many years. Inia learned the songs from Connor and featured them in many of his concerts and broadcasts during which he came to understand them intimately. With their mixture of tripping gaiety and crushing sadness the songs give tremendous scope for the range of Inia Te Wiata's voice and his talent for acting and the dramatic. He is also admirably served in his accompanist, Maurice Till. ‘Ogoun Belele’, a chant with religious connotations, allows Inia to demonstrate the richness and power of his voice at the lower end of its range. ‘Murder in de Market’ is a song from Barbados. It shows a strong Elizabethan influence in its melody which seems strange when one considers the origin of the song. ‘Death, O me Lawd!’ is a West Indian Negro spiritual. It is sombre and powerful to

begin with and is then transformed into tripping vivacity as dark thoughts of death give way to exultation at the idea of resurrection. In this it reflects the mercurial character of the community from which it comes. ‘Lord's Prayer’ is yet another setting of this most universal of prayers. It is full of the pathos and tenderness of a people who really live their religion. Worth special mention on Side Two is a West Indian carol ‘The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy’. It is a beautiful hymn of faith to which Inia Te Wiata does full justice. The record concludes with four American negro spirituals: ‘Didn't it Rain’, ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’, ‘I Got a Robe’, and ‘Deep River’. These are in contrast to the West Indian songs which reflect their African origins and retain strong themes of gaiety and insousiance. Such ideas are almost totally absent from the American spirituals which are adaptations of European tunes heard during the dark days of slavery and are generally redolent of their sufferings. The final spiritual ‘Deep River’ is a poignant epitaph to Inia Te Wiata himself in its expression of the longing of a man who seeks entry to a promised land ‘where all is peace’.