Hilton Kean Jones

Music for Sunday, Mother’s Day

My mother, Jane Jones, with 4 year old me in Biloxi, Mississippi.

In my job as music director at Lakewood UCC (my favorite church job of all time, without exaggeration!) the piano pieces I’ll be doing Sunday, Mother’s Day, were all favorites of my mom’s. Here’s the list, with YouTube links. Only the first link is me; the rest are my favorite YouTube versions of the pieces.

PRELUDE: Let the Lower Lights Be Burning — Bliss https://youtu.be/4XiF3nUf56A
OFFERTORY: Humoresque — Dvorak https://youtu.be/JZnzjzjYkK0
POSTLUDE: still can’t decide…it’ll either be…
Kitten on the Keys — Confrey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW9mmFOlPwQ
or maybe Nola — Arndt https://youtu.be/6uziP45NCpQ
(If I can still play it, sigh…although Kitten isn’t that easy either!)

Piano solo: “I Will Give My Love an Apple”

I’ve been having some sales of my solo piano pieces through the sheetmusicplus and sheetmusicdirect websites. It’s gratifying to actually make some money from something I’ve written. The only creatives who typically make less from their art than composers are poets! Right now I’m doing a bunch of EZ intermediate piano arrangements of folk tunes. Here’s the video of my playing the newest, “I Will Give My Love an Apple” – https://youtu.be/SX_xHIKMnwY. This video was made when I was about 85 pounds heavier than I am now. If one of your students would enjoy playing it, they can get the sheet music at
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/i-will-give-my-love-an-apple-piano-solo-digital-sheet-music/22492319 or https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1318783/Product.aspx.

Remembering Harry Belafonte

Gifts in Open Hands

I remember the actor, the singer, the activist,
the winner of all the awards.
A child of immigrants without documents,
the voice of song in my childhood.

I remember the concert for the bus boycott,
in Montgomery, Alabama,
and “We are the World,”
for famine in Africa,

but no one told me before today
he helped pick out the suit
for Martin Luther King, Jr
to be buried in.

I read in today’s newspaper
that he was a Peace Corps advisor
a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.
then I thought I remembered it.

Maybe. that’s what it is like
thinking back about anyone.

I didn’t know
he started one of the first all-Black
music publishing companies
and produced for stage and screen,
and even for my family’s little TV,

though I wasn’t surprised,
because what I really remember
is that he was there when something
good could be done
with his…

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Special notice!

One City Chorus Concert Ahead

The One City Chorus, which specializes in songs about civil rights and peace, will offer a free concert Sunday April 16 at 4:00 p.m. at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Road, St. Petersburg). A free will offering will be collected to support the Woodson Warriors Scholarship Fund to enable African American students to attend college. All are welcome at this uplifting afternoon of music! Jeff Wells from LUCC sings with the One City Chorus.

Easter at Lakewood music playlist

Here’s the list of pieces Hilton played on Easter Sunday this year.

Gathering Music

The Cherry Tree — John Ireland
Sonata “Pathetique” Op. 13 – II. Adagio cantabile — Ludwig Beethoven
Meditation (from “Thaïs”) — Jules Massenet
First Arabesque — Claude Debussy
Air with Variations (from “Suite F major HWV 430”) –George Frideric Handel
Ashokan Farewell — Jay Unger
May It Be — Enya, Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan
In Dreams — Fran Walsh, Howard Shore

Service

Prelude: Feuilles Volantes 1 — Henri Duparc

Offertory:
Come Sunday — Duke Ellington
Prelude II — George Gershwin

Communion:
What a Wonderful World — George Weiss, Bob Thiele
Sonata 16 C Major K545, II — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
You Raise Me Up — Rolf Løvland, Brendan Graham

Postlude: Hallelujah Chorus (from “The Messiah”) — George Frideric Handel