Bayard Rustin – The Singer (Spirituals, Lute Songs and More) – Digital Download PARNASSUS

Bayard Rustin was one of the most important figures in America’s civil rights movement – activism alongside A. Philip Randolph fighting discriminatory practices surrounding hiring for World War II, an organizer with Randolph of the first March on Washington in 1941, a key planner of the Freedom Rides, and an advocate of nonviolence whose ideas and strategies had a major impact on Martin Luther King Jr. Through the 1970s and 80s Rustin server on high-profile humanitarian missions, including aid for Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. Rustin was also openly gay, and became active in the gay rights movement in the 1980s. At the time of his death in 1987, Rustin was on a humanitarian mission in Haiti.

What is less well-known about Rustin is that he was a gifted actor and musician. He put his talents to the service of civil rights, releasing two very early LPs for the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The repertoire was an unusual mix: spirituals and traditional songs of African-Americans released with late Renaissance lute songs and an early Baroque aria, among the earliest “historically informed” recordings made in the United States.

“Bayard Rustin – The Singer” is being released in advance of a forthcoming Rustin biopic coming to Netflix created by Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground production company.

1 Henry Purcell – I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly
2 John Dowland – Flow, My Tears
3 Alessandro Scarlatti – Cara E Dolce
4 Traditional (Arr. Arnold Dolmetsch) – Have You Seen But a Whyte Lillie Grow
5 Michael Arne – the Lass with the Delicate Air
6 Bayard Rustin – I Saw Her As I Came and Went
7 Traditional (Arr. Bayard Rustin) – Ah! the Sighs That Came from My Heart
8 William Lawes – Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
9 Traditional – Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
10 Traditional – Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen
11 Traditional – Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
12 Traditional – There Is a Balm in Gilead
13 Traditional – Careless Love
14 Traditional (Lyrics: Bayard Rustin and George Houser) – You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!
15 Traditional – Go Tell It on the Mountain
16 Traditional – Mary, What You Gonna Name Your Pretty Little Baby?
17 Traditional – Wasn’t That a Mighty Day?
18 Traditional – I Know the Lord Laid His Hands on Me
19 Traditional – Shepherd, Where’d You Lose Your Sheep?
20 Traditional – Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
21 Traditional – Lonesome Valley
22 Traditional – Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
23 Traditional – He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word
24 Traditional – Lord, I Don’t Care Where You Bury My Body
25 Traditional – He Arose
26 Traditional – He Is King of Kings