Take Me To The Water Ashley Jackson

• Alice Coltrane (1937 - 2007):
• 1 Coltrane: Radhe-Shyam 05:38
• Ashley Jackson (b. 1986)
• 2 Jackson: River Jordan 03:35
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912):
• 3 Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River I 04:47
• 4 Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River II 02:18
• Brandee Younger (b. 1983):
• 5 Younger: Unrest 04:47
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918):
• 6 Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane, L. 103 04:57
• João Luiz Rezende (b. 1979):
• 7 Rezende: Yemaya 01:41
• Jeromy Thomas (b. 1949):
• 8 Thomas: Yemaya II 01:21
• Margaret Bonds (1913 - 1972):
• 9 Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water 06:36
• Traditional:
• 10 Traditional: Amen 01:23
• 11 Traditional: Take Me To The Water 02:55
• 12 Traditional: Take Me To The Water II 02:44
• Total Runtime 42:42

Info zu Take Me To The Water

Multifaceted harpist Ashley Jackson fuses music and storytelling in Take Me To The Water, a soulful exploration of spirituals, iconic works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Alice Coltrane, and an exhilarating interpretation of Debussy’s “Danse Sacrée.” Take Me To The Water celebrates the transportive nature of water, and of the rivers that unite us.

Water is celebrated in lots of different cultures, but, despite that, you find recurring themes in those celebrations,” Jackson shares. “So I wanted to hone in on those ideas—ideals—such as love and rebirth and hope.”

In “Deep River,” originally adapted by composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1905 - through her harp’s fluid, celestial tones, Jackson breathes new life into this iconic spiritual. “In playing ‘Deep River,’ I’m transported to a place where I can access that kind of cultural memory,” Jackson explains. “Just imagining my ancestors singing that, and what the words would have meant. So as to tell their oppressors that they're singing about one thing, but really, they're communicating something else. Tapping into that ingenuity is so humbling.”

Take Me to the Water not only celebrates music’s ability to connect cultures and histories but also raises awareness of global water inequities, with 2.2 billion people still lacking access to safe water today. This dual focus amplifies Jackson’s belief in music’s power to inspire and heal.

With Take Me to the Water, Ashley Jackson establishes herself as a bold and visionary voice in and beyond classical music, elevating the harp as an instrument of deep emotional resonance and limitless possibilities. The album promises to be a replenishing and immersive experience, creating a sonic experience that is both grounded in history and forward-looking.

Ashley Jackson, harp

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Ashley Jackson
Praised for her “soulful” and “eloquent” playing (Musical America), harpist Ashley Jackson enjoys a multifaceted career as a highly sought-after musician and collaborator in New York and beyond.

As a soloist, she has performed at Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn! and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolis Ensemble, the Qatar Philharmonic, and is the principal harpist of NOVUS NY, the contemporary music orchestra of Trinity Wall Street led by Grammy-nominated conductor Julian Wachner. She is a member of the Harlem Chamber Players, with whom she has developed a number of projects, including her first film, In Song and Spirit and the Harlem Walking Tour Series.

Throughout her academic and professional careers, Ashley has demonstrated a commitment to diversity and inclusion within higher education and the performing arts, firmly believing that a deeper understanding of cultural and ethnic diversity is critical to intellectual and artistic development. As a recipient of the Theodore Presser Award, she pursued her doctoral research on black female composer Margaret Bonds and her collaboration with Langston Hughes, and presented her findings in lectures at the Studio Museum of Harlem, WMP Concert Hall, and the University of North Carolina. Her research culminated in the release of the album, The Ballad of the Brown King and Selected Songs (Avie Records) on which she is a featured performer, as well as the author of the liner notes. Her speaking engagements have included “1960: Margaret Bonds and a Message for Civil Rights” (Juilliard), “Affinities: Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes,” (Studio Museum of Harlem) and “Representation as Resistance: How an Activist Orchestra Redresses the Push-out of Black Practitioners from Classical Music” (Harvard University). As a writer, her works have appeared on NewMusicBox (“The Cultural Citizen: How Classical Music Got Me Woke") as well as in the International Journal of Women in Music (“Margaret Bonds and The Ballad of the Brown King: A Historical Overview”). She is currently an Assistant Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Music Department at Hunter College, where she teaches chamber music, harp, and courses such as the Arts in New York City.

Ashley holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School, a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University.

Booklet für Take Me To The Water