Spiritual-Swing
FATS WALLER playing ‘Deep River" on the organ. Here the two poles of Negro music life méet, the religious and the hectic swift orchestration which the Negro film Cabin in the Sky showed contending as spirit against flesh. What sort of performance was it? The way in which Fats Waller here used’ the organ resembled figure-skating on thin ice over untold depths. At any moment Leviathan may raise his head and shatter the whole picture, Waller kept him well down, and yet his playing was not superficial; I doubt if any Negro could touch the religious music of his people without a knowledge born of sincerity. But nevertheless the word that came inte my head to describe the number was "sweet," used in its more technical sense-the sort .of slow lushness usually reserved to evoke emotions other than those connected with "Deep River." Waller, unsurpassed at a sort of wild, faintly macabre hilarity which in its way spoke for much that seems potent in the Negro mind, could not attack the deep waters without falling back on technique, not devoid of slickness; but withal worth having.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460705.2.26.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 367, 5 July 1946, Page 10
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187Spiritual-Swing New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 367, 5 July 1946, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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