“A time comes when silence is betrayal”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
April 4, 1967
"So you have a moral obligation, a mission and a mandate, to speak up, speak out, and get in good trouble. You can do it. You must do it. Not just for yourselves but for generations yet unborn."
- John Lewis
Lawrence University, June 2015
David Sancious’ new album Eyes Wide Open evokes Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Gil Scott Heron's Winter in America, Herbie Hancock's The Prisoner, Steely Dan's Kid Charlemagne, and Terence Blanchard's music for Spike Lee's films. Sancious describes the album as “a movie for your ears.” Sancious' vocals, keyboards, and guitar are combined with spoken word passages, chants from protest marches, and news clips that form a cinematic soundscape which ventures into the urgent concerns of our time. Racial injustice, police violence against black folks, and the environmental destruction of our burning planet all come into view as we traverse Sancious' musical journey. Four powerful lyrical explorations open the album.
Marvin Gaye's What's Going On begins with the sounds of a party for a Vietnam veteran who has returned home. Underneath the celebration though is existential dread. In a similar fashion David Sancious' Eyes Wide Open opens with the muffled voices of a crowd marching. We hear the voices of protesters calling for change. Then Sancious sings "Hey it's not OK!"
Sancious critiques the Trumpian disdain for reason and science while at the same time grooving with the message of the streets. "Keep your eyes wide open, so you can really see", Sancious sings before warning us that "Shoot you in the back is the name of the town, somewhere in America."
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Gregg Chadwick 1619 22"x30" gouache on paper 2020 |
The album's second song, In the Middle of the Night describes the mental cost of systemic racism and a presidency gone crazy. A gentle Sakamoto-like piano opens the song.
Sancious speaks hushed lines of woe:
"Five o'clock in the morning man ... Can't sleep, Can't believe I'm in this situation
These mathematics ... can't make it work
Brother needs a job!"
Then with a hint of David Bowie's Black Star voice Sancious sings:
"Oh ... Woe is We
Such a strange society
I bow my head and bend my knee
In the middle of the night, I don't sleep so well"
The recent Medium post by Emily Joyner and Caroline Joyner comes to mind.
They write:
"Like so many Black people in this country, we struggled to sleep, eat, or function in any way.White people, consider this moment your call to action. This is your violence, your history, and your responsibility. Racism is not a “cause” to consider donating to or learning about — it is the original sin of this nation, and your safety is predicated on its strength....Your white inaction is violence...The scars of these environments are deep and long-lasting for Black people. It is not our responsibility to educate you. You must realize your complicit behavior and do something about it, right now. Your indifference to a system you actively participate in is appalling. Your silence not only disgusts us — it endangers our lives."
"The basic thing about a man is not his specificity, but his fundamentals, not the texture of his hair or the color of his skin, but his eternal dignity and worth."
"May I walk the streets alone, free from suspicion?" Sancious sings.
"When you look at me is it me that you see? Not something that you saw last night on TV. Because that's not me."
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| Personal injury lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey threaten to commit personal injury against peaceful, unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters walking on the street in St. Louis, Missouri on June 28, 2020 |
Listening to the song brought to mind the absurdly frightened, wealthy couple in St Louis, Missouri brandishing weapons at a group of peaceful protesters marching by their home on the way to a protest in front of the mayor's house. The protesters chant:
“We are here, we’ve been here, we ain’t leaving. We are love.”
The fourth song If confronts disasters due to climate change, environmental unrest, and racial strife.
Sancious asks us:
"Can you see this world? So bright and shiny."The piano, drums, sax lines, and guitar are bright and open - imploring us to see the beauty in our world. And to do something to preserve our endangered earth.
“If the tears won’t leave your eyes
If the sun fell from the sky
If you could choose the color of your skin.”
Four instrumental pieces create the second half of Sancious' auditory film.
Flip It combines Sancious propulsive Gary Clark Jr.- like guitar lines with keyboard arranged horn parts which echo Herbie Hancock's civil rights movement inspired album The Prisoner. Hancock used instrumental jazz to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Sancious also acknowledges the vision of MLK in his jazz inflected Eyes Wide Open.
The Treehouse, the second instrumental track on Eyes Wide Open, brings to mind Bruce Hornsby's The Way It Is and 2Pac's riff on that song in his masterpiece Changes.
December mixes Spanish guitar with Terence Blanchard-like keyboards. We are in a Spanish movie that director Almodovar would relish. The soundscape is broad and healing. We are globally connected in a pandemic and a shared future.
The album's final song War in Heaven harkens back to Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock with its swirl of sax parts and hushed vocals. A love supreme indeed!
As Terence Blanchard wrote recently on NPR:
"We need a song with a melody that allows us all to say our piece, and lyrics that urge us to be our best selves. We need a future where we can rely on our own beliefs and not depend on those who have none. It's a precious moment in time when many hearts, ears, and minds are now open to listening, so let's take advantage of it and make our mark on the world. Let's all listen to each other, and write a song to sing together that will give us some peace. We are well overdue."David Sancious gives us the music to see with eyes wide open which implores us not to remain silent about the systemic racism in America, but instead to embrace John Lewis' "good trouble" as we create a more equitable society.
Sancious describes Eyes Wide Open as, “The best work I've ever done.” I have to agree.
Buy David Sancious' Eyes Wide Open here.
Track Listing
Eyes Wide Open; In The Middle Of The Night; Urban Psalm #3; If; Flip It; The Tree House; December; War In Heaven.
Personnel
David Sancious: piano; Will Calhoun: drums; Michael Bland: drums; Vinnie Colaiuta: drums; Joe Bonadio: drums.
David Sancious: synth, guitar, vocals, organ.
*All Images from David Sancious Eyes Wide Open Lyric Video by John McCracken unless otherwise noted.
1. "Some Things We Must Do," Address Delivered at the Second Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change at Holt Street Baptist Church
Author:
King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date:
December 5, 1957
Location:
Montgomery, Ala.
Genre:
Speech
More on David Sancious:
David joined Bruce Springsteen’s band at 17 as one of the founding members of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band whose name came from the street that David’s mom lived on in Belmar, New Jersey. It can be said that without David Sancious, there would be no E Street Band.
In 1974, David left the E Street Band and formed his own jazz-fusion ensemble Tone with drummer Boom Carter.
“I felt at the time I wanted to give my songwriting the same kind of focus and attention that Bruce was giving his”, said David.
David Sancious has created 7 gold albums and toured with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Santana, and Seal among others.
DAVID SANCIOUS: EYES WIDE OPEN LYRIC VIDEO from John McCracken on Vimeo.
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