Inspired by the lyrics “Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water,” the musicians of the avant-gospel Trouble Ensemble enter into musical conversation that creates, listens to, reveres and questions, the melody, rhythm and text derived from spirituals, (and other songs they inspired). They revel in enjoying, discovering and making trouble.

The spirituals always illuminated the spiritual force that troubles the waters of injustice and oppression using the power of African and African American music and spirituality. Originally songs of black American slaves, they are rooted in song, dance and drumming of West Africa, the experience of oppression of an uprooted people, and the teachings of a transformative faith. They troubled the dominant narratives, and their message and tradition continue to trouble unjust systems today.

Composers and experimenters like Sun Ra, Charles Ives and Pauline Oliveros troubled the musical establishment and its conventions as they envisioned radical new ways of making and listening to sound. Their traditions are a separate musical “voice” from African American spirituality and the two voices cannot merge into one. Instead, they must converse. Listen to one another. Learn from one another. Discover harmony. Enjoy dissonance. Each with our own distinct voices, we create, listen to, revere and question, the melody, rhythm and text derived from spirituals, and other songs they inspired, we revel in our own ways of enjoying, discovering and making trouble.