Correspondence With Friend John Fricks Spotlighting Pierce Freelon's MLKJr's Holiday Address

Alan, thanks for suggesting lunch together, with Arthur. Twas good.

As you may know, I manage the sound system at First Presbyterian, Durham. For more than a few years, First Presbyterian has provided its downtown sanctuary space to the Durham City and County government employees for their annual observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are always many presenters, and always many government leaders deserving accolades and applause.

For me, it's a two-to-three hour event involving setup and teardown, and pleas to presenters who don't understand how to speak into a microphone in a room designed to produce echoes for organ and choral music. (This is probably not a suitable venue for the bass percussion of "19 miles from Davis".)

Nevertheless, I've been trying to give a good audio feed to visiting press and videographers. So I was pleased with the January 11 Pierce Freelon keynote speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5zxWt__LhI

Take a look. In fact, take 22 minutes to listen to the whole message.

Before this experience, I don't remember hearing of Pierce Freelon. Of course, I've now done my Google search.

One of our church members, Paul Baldasare, an advocate for education, is president of St. Andrews College in Laurinburg. I sent him the YouTube link (above). Paul responded, "Pierce is an excellent speaker, just like his father!"

So…I had to then Google search "Phillip Freelon": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Freelon

This is interesting - and inspiring - stuff.

Dear John,

Thanks for your email.

I thought I recognized Pierce's name when you mentioned it at lunch yesterday.

About a year ago, I met Pierce on the roof of The Durham Hotel where he was singing with his band The Beast whose bass player, Pete Kimosh, is both a friend and 19 Miles From Davis' sound engineer. 

On "Woke," "The Beast" Gets More Political and Personal Than Ever

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/07/on-woke-beast-durham-nc-gets-more.html

Thanks for joining Arthur and me at lunch yesterday and for following up with your insightful email.

I look forward to our next get-together.

Best wishes to Sue.

Paz contigo,

Alan

Attachments are