Crooked Shanks by Shawn E. Okpebholo, performed by pianist Aldo López-Gavilán

Описание: "Crooked Shanks" is a work for solo piano commissioned by the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island. The commissioner wanted a piece that reflected the region. Not familiar with Rhode Island, I began researching various aspects of the state's and the city of Newport's history and came across a fascinating historical figure called Occramer Marycoo, an enslaved African who was ultimately sold to Caleb Garder in Newport, RI. Marycoo's was given the name Newport Gardner, after his involuntary home and his enslaver—a name he would keep. Gardner was remarkable because he became quite educated, spoke multiple languages, and became a trained classical musician and composer despite his enslavement. He is credited with being the first African American person to have a composition published in the Western-style. The work was called Crooked Shanks, a whistle-worthy happy tune. After decades of enslavement, he won the lottery, bought his freedom, and became a prosperous man. A beautiful bookend to his life, Gardner did something that relatively few enslaved Africans did: re-cross the Atlantic and return home to Africa, where, soon after, he would leave this Earth. This work is composed for Cuban pianist Aldo López-Gavilán and inspired by Gardner's tune, Crooked Shanks. This composition is also loosely influenced by African and Latin sensibilities, reflecting Garder's and my, and López-Gavilán's cultural heritage, respectively. In getting to know Gardener's journey, I kept gravitating to the notion of traveling, which, along with the perils of the enslaved, the hope of freedom, and the return home, is the extra-musical core of this work.