SOON-A WILL BE DONE

CREDITS

SOON-A WILL BE DONE INKHORN MUSIC™, ASCAP (5:01) Traditional spiritual arranged and adapted by Rosephanye Powell
Solo vocals performed by Rosephanye Powell
Additional adlibs by Stephanie Jones
Background Vocals performed by the Motherless Child Ensemble
Organ overdub by Anthony Walker
Vocals arranged by Rosephanye Powell
Instrumentals arranged by Rosephanye Powell and Byron Thomas
Instrumentals performed and produced by Rosephanye Powell

MOTHERLESS CHILD ENSEMBLE

Dr. William C. Powell, director, baritone
Rosephanye Powell, soprano
Stephanie Jones, soprano
Danielle Warren, soprano
Jennifer Evins, alto
Joanna Evins, alto
Gregory Cooper, tenor
Charles Mason tenor
Cornelious Warren, bass-baritone

From the Artist-Producer:

Soon-A Will Be Done grew out of an arrangement that I did for the Auburn University Gospel Choir (AUGC), which is directed by my husband Dr. William Powell. As Assistant Director of the choir, one of my duties is to develop a program of songs for our concerts which revolve around a theme. In 2004, our spring concert focused on the history of gospel music. After programming African sacred songs and traditional concert spirituals, a couple of spirituals, Soon-A Will Be Done and Hold On were performed with a gospel flavor to reflect the “spiritual” that is found within gospel music and to develop a bridge from the spiritual to gospel music for the concert audience.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT

Q. What made you arrange the song in the traditional gospel style rather than contemporary gospel?

A. Well, I remember watching reruns of the movie “Imitation of Life” as a kid. The church funeral scene where Mahalia Jackson sang Soon-A Will Be Done was the highlight of the movie for me. I remember being moved with great emotion. As well, I grew up listening to old Mahalia Jackson recordings that my relatives had. When Ms. Jackson's recordings were re-mastered for audio cassette, I bought a number of them and listened repeatedly for pleasure, as well as part of my research on spirituals and gospel music. Thus, when I began my arrangement, Ms. Jackson’s rendition of Soon-A Will Be Done was key to the harmonic and stylistic choices that I made.

Q. Can you tell me a little bit about Stephanie Jones who performed with you? You all seemed to be so well-matched vocally. How did you meet?

A. Stephanie is a former student at Auburn University who obtained a Master's Degree in Special Education. I think she may have joined AUGC in 2004. She was with the choir only two years but during that time we developed a bond. As I began working on Soon-A Will Be Done for the project, Stephanie came to mind immediately. She, along with Ayesha Pugh, sang my original arrangement of the song for the 2004 AUGC spring concert to which the audience responded with great affirmation, so I felt that Stephanie had special insight into the spirit of the song. Vocally, Stephanie and I share some of the same qualities in timbre which I believed would allow us to blend well. As well, she has good vocal facility, singing comfortably in both the upper and lower tessituras of the voice. Finally, Stephanie is a gentle, kind, and humble person so I felt assured that we would have the chemistry necessary to make the duet work in a studio setting where there is no audience. As a producer, I found her easy to work-- one who responded well to direction and trusted my vision for the song. Since there was no audience and each voice had to be recorded separately, what one hears on the recording is not what actually occurred in realtime in the studio. Generally, duets can be difficult to bring off successfully in a studio session, especially when the two singers rehearsed together only once. Presently, Stephanie is a Special Education teacher at Veteran’s Memorial Middle School in Columbus GA.

Q. It appears that your cast of players are people that you have met in professional settings. So, how did you come to know and work with Byron Thomas?

A. I appreciate your question for your assessment is correct. I believe that there is a divinely ordered purpose for everyone with whom I have an encounter on life’s journey. If I am wise enough to look, listen, learn and apply what I have learned, I grow from every experience regardless of the length of time and energy expended, and regardless of any negative circumstances that may be experienced. To answer your question, I was fortunate to work with jazz pianist and instrumental arranger Byron Thomas from Montgomery, Alabama for a short period of time. When we met at a benefit concert in Auburn, Byron was the piano accompanist for Ensley High School Choir, directed by the late Brenda Banks-Smith, from Birmingham. I was impressed with the advanced skill and musicality with which Byron played, as well as his sensitivity to the director. Like Anthony Walker who arranged the instrumentals for Motherless Child (see Motherless Child page), Byron is a classically-trained jazz pianist who is equally at home with gospel and other black styles of music. Originally, Byron was supposed to arrange, perform and produce the instrumentals of the tracks; however, due to other professional commitments, our collaboration stopped short of full fruition. This left me in a position to arrange, perform and produce the instrumentals. And, believe me, having no experience in creating instrumental tracks, it was a true labor of love with labor being the operative word. (She smiles.) I am grateful though because I learned a lot through the process. Completing this track gave me the confidence to arrange and produce the instrumentals for other tracks when I was unable to find arrangers because of budget and time constraints. It’s amazing what one can accomplish when one has to. (Again, she smiles.)

Q. So what do you want people to bring away from Soon-a Will Be Done?

A. Ooh…that’s an easy one. I want their hearts to be touched deeply, moved to tears and overwhelmed with thanksgiving, joy and hope. As I used to hear in church as a kid, “trouble don’t last always.” Jesus said that “in this life you will have trouble” and he was right. This life is full of trouble but this life is not all there is. Back in the day, black folks could have church for at least an hour on that thought. (She smiles.) So, I want listeners to “have church” on this song, “ol’ school” kind of church, that pat yo’ feet, and wave yo’ hands in the air kind of church. Yeah…that’s what I want.