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06/23/2026
“My Brother’s Keeper”
Traditional: Come Unto Me (arr. Take 6)
Margaret Bonds: Three Dream Portraits: “Minstrel Man” [1] – “Dream Variation” [2] – “I, Too, Am America” [3]
Jorell Williams: Americana [4] – Hold Fast to Dreams
Steve Lutvak: Beware the Anger of Soft‑Spoken Men
H. Leslie Adams: Sence You Went Away [5]
William Grant Still: A Black Pierrot [6]
Johannes Brahms: 4 Duets, opus 61: 1.“Die Schwestern” [7]
Harry Revel: Guiding Me Back Home [8]
“Lead Belly” Huddie Ledbetter: Sylvie
Rachel J. Peters: Santa Ain’t Black [9]
Richard Rodgers: South Pacific: “Some Enchanted Evening” (arr. W. Liverman) [10]
Bobby Scott and Bob Russell: He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (arr. C. Williams‑Ali)
Joshua Blue [5] (tenor), Chaz’men Williams‑Ali [7, 8] (tenor, piano), Will Liverman [1, 10], Joseph Parrish [1, 7‑9] (baritone, piano), Jorell Williams [3, 4, 9] (baritone, piano), Alan Williams [7] (bass‑baritone, guitar), Steven Blier [1‑8] (piano)
Live recording: Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, New York City, New York (November 19‑20, 2024) – 55’30
NYFOS Records 854649 – Booklet in English
“My Brother’s Keeper” concert at the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) was inspired by baritone Justin Austin’s dream he had one night about being on stage with five other Black classical singers, a la the 80s a cappella gospel/jazz/soul sextet, Take 6. Austin texted pianist Steven Blier, co‑founder of the non‑profit organization, the NYFOS, to tell him about his dream, and they conceived the event.
Austin co-produced the concert and invited Joshua Blue, Will Liverman, Joseph Parrish, Jorell Williams, Chaz’men Williams‑Ali to join him on stage. But when the Hall was available for the concert, Austin could not be there because he was in heavy rehearsals for an opera and the company wouldn’t give him the night off. He asked bass Alan Williams to replace him for the concert.
In the album’s notes, Austin called the concert “a gathering of 6 remarkable Black men who inspire me daily, and presented by NYFOS, an organization that has nurtured me since my student days.” Pianist Steven Blier writes in the notes that “Justin remained part of the planning process, flying across the country twice in six days to be at rehearsals.” Blier and Austin wanted ideas for songs from the singers, which resulted in a repertoire of gospel, soul, jazz, musical theatre and songs reflective of the African American diaspora and brotherhood.
The ensemble opens the set with the gospel classic Come Unto Me followed by Three Dream Portraits by composer Margaret Bonds, set to Langston Hughes’ poems. Bonds’ fluent piano arrangements don’t diminish the power of Hughes’ poetic voice.
Will Liverman’s towering baritone on “Minstrel Man” brings Hughes’ portrait of Black men of his era in full focus where one is expected to entertain, but is an invisible man because “you do not hear my inner cry, ‘You do not know my life...’”
Joseph Parrish gives a stirring performance on the similarly themed “Dream Variation” while Jorell Williams expresses all of Hughes’ bitterness of racism inside “I, Too, Am America” with the words, “I, too sing America/I am the darker brother.”
Jorell Williams’ instrumental, Americana, is a somber dual piano study performed with Steven Blier. Its wending harmonies give way to discordant pianism that’s laced with whispery, discordant anthemic phrases extolling this ‘Land of Liberty.’
Steve Lutvak’s vampy Beware the Anger of Soft-Spoken Men realizes the full ensemble’s floating vocalese in this pastiche tune about the slimy sincerity of conmen.
Understated but no less expressive, the impressive tenor, Joshua Blue, sings the ballad Sence You Went Away about lost love by composer H. Leslie Adams with lyrics by lawyer, activist and songwriter James W. Johnson.
Within William Grant Still’s A Black Pierrot, the captivating actor-singer Alan Williams sings of an anguished man featuring Langston Hughes’ lyrics. Williams has a well‑matched bass‑baritone tragedian voice that’s perfectly suited for this brokenhearted aria.
“Die Schwestern” features a composite with tenor Chaz’men Williams‑Ali, bass‑baritone Alan Williams and Steven Blier and Joseph Parrish on piano. This ‘light as a feather’ German bar song by Johannes Brahms is an operatic buddy tune, met with lusty applause in Merkin Hall. Following is composer Harry Revel and lyricist Noble Sissle in Guiding Me Back Home, another brotherly duet sung by Jorell Williams and Joseph Parrish showcasing their breezy harmonies that glide to a bravura finish.
The full ensemble is back for Sylvie, composed by “Lead Belly” Huddie Ledbetter, in a tobacco road/jailhouse blues vibe. Jorell William’s is the wry baritone who tells a sardonic tale of Sylvie who (he suspects) is deceiving him and letting him rot in jail. Equally comical we hear Santa Ain’t Black by composer Rachel Peters’ send up of ‘Black Friday’ whereby shopping hysteria reveals lasting racial divides within holiday traditions that flies in the face of ‘holiday spirit.’ Jorell Williams ‘lets loose’ his mighty baritone register for this snarly yuletide carol.
Will Liverman accompanies himself on piano as he melts the hall with a knockout performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s free form arrangement of “Some Enchanted Evening” from the musical, South Pacific.
Jorell Williams’ bonus track, Hold Fast to Dreams, features the Langston Hughes lyrics which echo his most famous poem, Harlem (A Dream Deferred): the reveal is how intolerably shameful Hughes’ pronounced scorching indictments of systemic racism is, still so, relevant, a century after writing these poems.
The ensemble’s recordings of the 1960s Vietnam War era song, He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, here features Chaz’men Williams‑Ali’s gospel arrangement which breaks into Richard Smallwood’s gospel classic, You Are My Strength.
Lewis J. Whittington
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