Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman will release Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience on August 7 through Decca Records. The album’s first preview is “Death Letter Blues” . The recording features American blues legend Taj Mahal on lead vocals and guitar. The song was originally recorded by Son House in 1965 following the blues pioneer’s rediscovery in New York and remains one of the genre’s most acclaimed recordings.
The new version brings together performances captured at Royal Studios with orchestral arrangements recorded in London by Chineke! Orchestra. Eric Meier, Producer, Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience shared: “‘Death Letter Blues’ is one of the rawest, most honest pieces in the American songbook, and hearing Taj Mahal inhabit it with a full symphony behind him — recorded between the hallowed walls of Royal Studios and Abbey Road — is something that is groundbreaking and unique. We’re incredibly proud to introduce our album with this track.”
“I heard the blues for the first time on my grandmother’s porch in the Mississippi Delta, and it has never left me. Having Taj Mahal kick off this album with a cover of Son House’s classic “Death Letter Blues” strikes the perfect tone for the introduction of this album. Releasing this on Juneteenth is not just symbolic — it is the truth of where this music comes from and who made it. I hope people listen and remember,” said Morgan Freeman, Producer & Narrator.
Martin Gellner, Music Director, Conductor, Arranger & Producer added: “Arranging Son House for a symphony orchestra is not a task you approach without humility. The challenge — and the joy — was to let the orchestra amplify the grief and the beauty without softening it. The Chineke! Orchestra brought something extraordinary to Abbey Road: a shared cultural understanding of what this music means that you simply cannot manufacture. I believe we found something real.”
Author: World Music Central News Room
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