Presented by Follow the Drinking Gourd. Featuring pianist Diane Goldsmith and singers Ivan Woods and Beverly Owens

Time-honored African American musical forms and traditions continue to stir the creativity of composers and arrangers.  In this intriguing program for voices and piano, the musical group Follow the Drinking Gourd will sample the abundance that’s grown from these amazing roots. They will perform spirituals in all kinds of inventive arrangements, from jazz and tango settings to adaptation as anthems of the civil rights marches of the 1960s. Then, the group will show how the blues inspired composers like Harold Arlen and George Gershwin to write in this style. They’ll follow up with recent takes on ragtime and conjure the virtuosity of bebop jazz. Along the way, there will be such crowd-pleasers as “Basin Street Blues,” “Route 66,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing.” This program is performed with commentary to enrich the musical experience.