Sunday Playlist - 3/28/2021

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1PZkWDlNj-dnSdvvA-wstmp

We have come full circle. It's Palm Sunday, more than a year into the pandemic, and we cannot gather to sing "All Glory Laud and Honor." Instead we'll listen to it performed by King's College. That may not be a disadvantage, just a difference. Listening surely connects us across time and space, and it can open our imaginations and hearts to something greater than the brokenness we've witnessed too often over the past year. That, at least, has been the rationale of these playlists, now over a year old.

Palm Sunday expresses joy before the inevitable darkness, and I sense that joy in the second piece, a traditional Klezmer tune played by the Andy Statman Trio.

This is followed by a gospel number, "We Need You Right Now, Lord." Donny Hathaway sang with Roberta Flack and had a few hits in the 70s. He suffered from mental illness, and I imagine that he must have sung that lyric in earnest.

The fourth piece is from Bach's cantata for Palm Sunday. It features another version of woodwind virtuosity to echo the Statman Trio. The lyrics invite listeners to lay themselves and their hearts before Jesus like the palm leaves.

Finally, Statman returns to introduce a Bill Monroe tune played by Ricky Skaggs. It's a love song, but also a kind of prayer, as you'll notice, and the Statman solo is mesmerizing.