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Mama, I Can't Breathe Chorale #3

from Protest by Gene Pritsker & Friends

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Mama, I Can’t Breathe Chorale #3
By Gene Pritsker
featuring the poem 'Somebody Holler!' by Jim Kempner
For 4 electric guitars & narrator

performed by
Jim Kempner - Narrator 
Gene Pritsker - guitars


'Mama, I Can’t Breathe Chorale #3' is from a set of 3 chorales I wrote for four electric guitars inspired by my reflections on the events of the George Floyd murder. The title comes from a poem by Robert C. Ford, 'Don’t Pass Go’, where he quotes Mr. Floyd's last words. The music is bitonal, reflecting the dichotomy of a man being murdered while calling for his mother.


'Somebody Holler!'
by Jim Kempner

I saw the black lives 
of my generation 
destroyed 
by hysterical 
trigger happy madness
  
Blue Lives taking Black Lives
taking Black Lives
taking Black lives
Selling loosies on the side
A crime
Sentence?
Death
We can’t breathe
We can’t breathe here

Fathers of our nation’s
Exalted words
Freedom 
Truth
Justice
Freedom (Whose?)
Truth (Whose?)
Justice (Whose?)
White Lives taking Black Lives 
Taking Black Lives 
Taking Black Lives


The history 
of
the United States
Is a history filled
with a 
lot of hate

Plantations
provocation
Emancipation 
Proclamation
Segregation
Degradation
Somebody holler
Somebody Scream
Somebody listen
to the Reverend’s Dream

The American Dream
The American Dream
is nothing
but a nightmare

this country is
an atonal
discordant 
jazz staccato
Out of sync
Out of time
Out of love
Out of its mind

Why do Black Lives Matter
because they do
because they do
because they do

credits

from Protest, released June 23, 2020

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Gene Pritsker New York, New York

Composer/guitarist/rapper/Di.J./producer Gene Pritsker has written over eight hundred compositions, all of his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation; an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble and co-director of Composers' Concordance and Eclectic Music eXtravaganza ... more

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