Jun 6, 2018
Requiem
Paying Homage to Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy
1968. A few hours after Martin Luther King was shot dead by a white man, Robert Kennedy gave a remarkable eulogy in Indianapolis. He acknowledged the pain, but also anger and disbelief, inviting everybody to overcome hatred and violence and seek love and compassion instead.
Although all major cities had riots that night, Indianapolis remained calm. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy was also assassinated.
When I walked in, Mrs King was sitting before the television set, weeping copiously—remembers Stanley Levison, a key adviser to Martin Luther King, who met Coretta King a few hours after Robert Kennedy had been shot.
Read the full speech here.
I dedicated a song to this event.
Requiem is included my concept album After 1989: A Trip To Freedom. It’s the only instrumental piece, featuring a mellow piano texture accompanied by a fretless bass solo. A fragment of Bobby’s speech in Indianapolis, which I cleaned and edited with great attention and respect, attempts to give some closure.
