Here’s a moving video to listen to in celebrating Martin Luther King’s anniversary. At Carnegie Hall, gospel singer Wintley Phipps delivers perhaps the most powerful rendition of Amazing Grace . He says, “A lot of people don’t realize that just about all NegroSpirituals are written on the black notes of the piano. Slaves were not permitted to use the white keys. Probably the most famous on this slave scale was written by John Newton, who used to be the captain of a slave ship, and many believe he heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant.
