Claflin University Choir in Denver

interview with Dr. Isaiah McGee, music from Concert Choir of Claflin University

Down in the roots of jazz, you’ll probably find the blues.  In the soil around those roots, you’re sure enough going to find the spirituals.  Singing those songs of the ancestors is the Concert Choir of Claflin University, the first historically black college in South Carolina.  The choir director and chair of the music department at Claflin University, Dr. Isaiah McGee visited “First Take with Lando and Chavis.”

For many of his students, the summer concert tour is their first trip outside South Carolina.  ”I see the students realize, ‘Oh my God, they’re moved by my music!’  I have to tell them, it’s not just your music.  It’s a people’s music,” McGee explains.

The free concert is Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at Park Hill United Methodist Church, 5209 Montview (at Glencoe), Denver.

The website for more details is www.SecondTuesdayRaceForum.org.

Music on this feature is from the  YouTube posting from their concert at St. Paul United Methodist Church, Saluda, SC, and the title track from Johnny Griffin’s CD The Congregation.