The Baroque Duet that Defied Incessant Discrimination

Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis’s album “Baroque Duet'' captures the true essence of the word “baroque,” derived from the Portugeuse word barocco, or “oddly shaped pearl.” I wasn’t alive nearly thirty years ago when the album was released, but ever since I stumbled on their epic recording of “Let the Bright Seraphim” in the summer of fourth grade, I’ve been marveling at its wondrous peculiarities. This pearl of the album, smooth to the ears and yet irregular for its time, amazed me in every way possible: from how Marsalis’ brilliant trumpet spun gold with Battle’s silvery voice, to the valiant act of two Black Americans releasing the most victorious music I’ve ever heard.

I imagine this while listening in my reclining chair: The album was released in April of 1992, not too long before the acquittal of four police officers charged with beating Rodney King, an unarmed black man caught speeding on California highway 210. They beat him until his cheeks were bruised blue, his skull fractured, his teeth shattered, and blood leaked from his left eye. Despite video evidence of the police officer’s unjustified and savage beating, they were acquitted by a predominantly white jury, a decision that sparked a blazing riot. Waves of protestors flooded the streets, fuming from the racial brutality that had plagued them for over three centuries. For five days, arson and looting ravaged the city. A volley of stones smashed the windows of shops and convenient stores, banks and police cars, and businesses suspected of belittling blacks. Sixty-three people were killed, ten of whom were shot by police officers, and thousands were arrested under the bloody protest banner, “No justice, no peace.”

“No justice,

No peace!”

Across space and time,

These words echo in our memories

But something else still echoes. Wynton Marsalis’s resounding trumpet and Kathleen Battle’s undulating vibrato were majestic pearls born from struggle, ascendance, and triumph. These musicians defied an oppressive history of back-breaking slavery, lynchings, and police brutality to dazzle audiences with other-worldly technicality and musical sensitivity. After Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” call, their duet sang, “We are the dream!” The album was a victorious testament of faith in an arc bending toward justice.

The best albums give new meaning with every listen. Now that I’m older, when I listen to “Let the Bright Seraphim”, I can see Rodney King as Samson in Handel’s oratorio “Samson.” Just as Rodney King bled under the force of police batons in 1991, in the Hebrew Bible, the Philistines imprisoned Samson, gouged out his eyes, and forced him to work as a draft animal. The torture eroded Samson’s strength and he passed away not long after. In a funeral march, a chorus of mourning Israelite children followed his dead body. Handel could have ended this tragic oratorio with Samson’s death, but instead, he composed a note of thanksgiving for the divine, in the form of an enchanting (surprisingly major) trumpet and voice duet.

Extending her palm to the sun, a singing Israelitish woman in rags summoned celestial angels seraphim and cherubim to honor the dead hero:

Let the bright seraphim

In burning row!

A similar sentiment was probably uttered under the ash LA sky in 1992.

There is no “happily ever after” at the end of Rodney King’s or Samson’s stories. Samson died and his people remained enslaved. Rodney suffered from permanent brain damage, as well as from emotional and physical scars. Almost thirty years later, police brutality and anti-semitism still haunt our neighborhoods...and yet there is victory in the noble sacrifice made for change and the accompanying duet that foretold a dream society.

__________________________________

Support the Black Lives Matter movement:

Campaign Zero- an organization dedicated to ending police brutality in the US by using research-based policy solutions.

The Bail Project - an organization dedicated to combatting racial disparities in the criminal justice system. 100% of online donations are used to bring innocent people home.

National Bail Out - "Black people are over two times more likely to be arrested and, once arrested, are twice as likely to be caged before trial." - NBO website. The National Bail Out collective works to end the mass incarceration of black populations and to eliminate pretrial detention.