Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris Perry. It's time for the final installment of our series, Music in Their Own Words. This series was the brainchild of producer Mary Stephan Hagan. We're going to hear now from a musician who highlights black history and culture and pays homage to black composers with her arrangements for the classical

harp.

The first movement is a knot to West African rhythms and improvisation.

The second movement for me is a spiritual.

And the third sounds like it's coming from 1920s, 1930s, Harlem, and all in the name of what we call classical music.

My name is Ashley Jackson. I'm a professional harpist. I'm also the assistant professor

of music at Hunter College, where I'm also the director of undergraduate studies.

My upcoming album is titled Ananga, and it will be released on June 16th,

2003.

Ashley recently performed at Lincoln Center in New York City, with an original program

titled, Take Me to the Water.

She joined the takeaway to talk about This Performance and her upcoming album.

The title of my album, In Nanga, comes from a piece that William Grant Steele, the American composer.

It comes from one of his pieces that he wrote for harp, string, quintet, and piano.

Music string quintet and piano. The word anonga is a type of Ugandan harp.

Harp is one of the oldest instruments in the world, and many cultures have their versions of it,

including West African music.

What I had a lot of fun with in Ananga, especially the first movement, is investigating those polyrhythms

that is such a prominent feature in so many different genres

and subgenres of African music,

but also the sense of improvisation.

Very light texture, fast-moving notes.

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