Acclaimed composer and jazz trombonist Craig Harris brought his band to Great Barrington on December 21, to play segments of his work God’s Trombones. The performance, held at Monument Mountain Regional High School, was part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Educational Series.
God’s Trombones is Harris’ musical interpretation of James Weldon Johnson’s 1927 classic, God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, which was based on the inspirational sermons of Negro preachers. Johnson, an attorney, NAACP leader, author and poet known for authoring Lift Ev’ry Voice, wrote much of the piece at his writing cabin in Great Barrington.