On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, once again I’ll be spinning this neglected contemporary classic from vinyl. This world premiere – and preferred – recording of “New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom” has, inexplicably, never appeared on compact disc.

These are the forces that introduced the piece on January 15, 1983 (King’s birthday), at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The texts were compiled from King’s speeches. The narrator is former Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell. Composer Joseph Schwantner was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1979 for his work “Aftertones of Infinity.”

You can learn more about Stargell here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Stargell

That such a beloved figure would have been subjected to discrimination and harassment in the still recent past should make us realize how short history is, and how pertinent was King’s life’s work.

Tune in today, between 4 and 7 p.m. EST to hear “New Morning for the World,” among my featured offerings, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.