Truth is Fallen

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Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
Released on LP: Yes
Released on CD: Yes

Tracks

1. Prelude
2. Merciful Men Are Taken Away
3. Truth Is Fallen
4. Oh, That My Head Were Waters
5. Speak out (Duet), I Called and No One Answered
6. Yea Truth Faileth
7. Truth (Planets Are Spinning)
8. Is the Lord's Hand Shortened
9. Arise!

Personnel

Dave Brubeck (piano, oscillator)
Lowell Thompson (bongos)
Chris Brubeck (bass trombone, keyboard, vocals)
Stephen Dudash (vocal, violin, guitar)
Peter Bonisteel (percussion)
Chris Brown (electric bass, bass, vocal)
Jim Cathcart (trumpet, organ, vocal)
David Mason (guitar, viola, vocal)
Peter “Madcath” Ruth (harmonica, flute, vocal)
Charlene Peterson (Soprano)
St. John’s Assembly (chorus)
Gordon Franklin (director)
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (orchestra)
Eric Kunzel (conductor)

Notes

1. Recorded at the Corbett Auditorium, University of Cincinnati Conservatory Of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio on 30 and 31st August 1971.

2. Recorded with New Heavenly Blue which included:

Chris Brubeck
Steve Dudash
Peter Bonisteel
Chris Brown
Jim Cathcart
Dave Mason
Peter “Madcath” Ruth

3. Released as a double CD with " Brother,The Great Spirit Made Us All " by Collectable Jazz Classics label.

Reviews

All Music Guide – Review – copyright

As the '60s became the '70s and the Nixon/Agnew repression set in, Dave Brubeck threw himself entirely into sympathy with youth; hence this often-vehement choral cantata, written as a reaction to the Kent State and Mississipi State killings. The danger here is that such a work might quickly become dated, although Brubeck, like Benjamin Britten before him in the War Requiem and Leonard Bernstein concurrently in his Mass, tried to alleviate that by juxtaposing protest with religious texts.

Amidst the fugal writing, twelve-tone subjects and other erudite classical techniques, Brubeck indulges in a sour assassination of "The Star Spangled Banner," and echoes of "Taps" and "Over There," and a bizarre yet oddly effective prelude, with a country/jazz/rock jam turning into a big-band/symphonic rampage. The big problems occur when Brubeck lets his son Chris's rock group New Heavenly Blue carry the ball, for their passages are filled with embarrassing cliches, musical and literary, made even more quaint by the poor recording quality. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Symphony give their all, but Brubeck doesn't give his piano much to do outside the Prelude.

Richard S. Ginell

© Copyright Rovi Corporation

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