On an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in Chicago, Angel Bat Dawid took us to church. On October 4 at Constellation, USA presented Blk Metropolis Apocalypse, Dawid’s work in progress. The work was performed with D-Composed, a Chicago-based Black chamber music collective that uplifts the music of Black composers, including members Anya Brumfield (violin), Wilfred Farquharson (viola), Lindsey Sharpe (cello), and Khelsey Zarraga (violin and, incidentally, USA’s newest staff member. Welcome, Khelsey!).  

Grounded in the geography of Black Chicago, Blk Metropolis Apocalypse celebrates Black musical heritage. Based on Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, a 1945 book by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, the piece’s four movements reference the South, West, East, and North sides of the city, in that order.

Seated at the piano, Angel opened by riffing over some ceremonial opening chords: “I want to remember we were together, even if it’s uncomfortable sometimes,” she sang. “It’s okay to be uncomfortable together because that’s a form of unity.” Having prepared us for a bit of discomfort, she moved into a call and response that required we raise our voices together, effectively transforming us, for the moment, into a congregation. Afterward, Angel joined the string quartet on her clarinet, sometimes playing in unison with the strings, sometimes soaring over them with expressive dissonance, evoking a city in constant movement.  

Ivy Wilson, a professor and Director of the Black Arts Consortium at Northwestern University, led Angel and the members of D-Composed in conversation following the performance. Angel reminded us that “jazz” was considered a derogatory word, and rejected by many of the greats — Yusef Lateef, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone among them — who used their own language to describe their music. Finally, the group contemplated the differences between Black classical and western classical music, if there is a difference. As Zarraga put it, “I would say classical music is whatever I decide it to be.”

We were grateful to share time and space together in Chicago. We hope to see you at the next one!