Freedom Song

Composer: Sweet Honey In The Rock and James Horner
Lable (Release Year): Sony Classical (2000)
Availability: ****
Rating: **

Hmm...This review should be very short.
TNT, a US cable TV company, has made a number of TV movies each year. Freedom Song, starring Danny Glover, is one of them. Some of them are quite good and sometimes have big name film composers involved. However, unlike those NBC mini series, they virtually never have soundtrack releases. I think the only exception is Joel McNeely's Buffalo Soldiers, which was released only in Europe anyway. This time, they have James Horner. May be because of him, Freedom Song becomes (probably) the first soundtrack of a TNT movie released in the US. I wrote "may be" because, to my surprise, James Horner is not the selling point of the album.

James Horner is involved with only about 20 minutes of the music presented. Also, few minutes of those have dialogues over! Besides, I am sure James Horner is not the sole composer of those tracks. In other words, you don't hear James Horner's music at all. His (limited) music is similar to his early score Bopha!, starring also Danny Glover. It is pointless to review his score here because it is so little. So what are the rest of the music? Gospel music written and performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock. I have not seen the movie and I don't know how much more music Horner has composed for the film. I have nothing against gospel music but I just want more of Horner's music. Oh well, quite disappointing indeed. Unless you have to own every single minute of James Horner's music or love gospel music, I won't recommend this CD at all.



    Track Listing:
  1. Born Angry* (1:33)
    Narration by Vicellous Reon Shannon
  2. Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed On Freedom** (3:31)
  3. Eyes On The Prize ("Hold On")** (3:36)
  4. "Welcome to S.N.C.C." * (1:39)
  5. This Little Light Of Mine** (3:21)
  6. Making Progress is Rough,…and Slow* (2:03)
  7. Ain' Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round** (4:05)
  8. Hungry For Courage, The Movement Grows* (2:33)
    Narration by Vicellous Reon Shannon & Danny Nelson
  9. Jonah's Last Day* (2:50)
  10. Road of Memories* (1:34)
  11. We'll Never Turn Back (3:35)
    Composed by Bertha Gober, 1962; performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock
  12. I'm On My Way To Freedom Land** (3:37)
  13. Po' Pilgrim Of Sorrow** (3:24)
  14. The Students Of Quindan* (4:01)
  15. This May Be The Last Time** (5:32)
  16. Oh Freedom** (3:30)
  17. …From One Generation To The Next* (1:56)
    Narration by Vicellous Reon Shannon
  18. Song Of Freedom (4:08)
    Performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock with Carole King

    *Produced by James Horner, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Simon Rhodes
    **Produced by Bernice Johnson Reagon and performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock

    Total Time: 56:18
Review Date: 4/17/00

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