BACKGROUND
Bunmi Adeyeye does a stunning cover of Mahalia Jackson’s Negro Spiritual/Gospel Piece, ‘Elijah Rock’.
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MUSICALITY
Bunmi’s alto range is simply a breath of fresh air on this bluesy piece. Her version of Elijah Rock is slower paced to Mahalia’s tap dancey one. The cover starts with notes from the organ and beats from the drums. Her tone is all round rich as she sings ‘Elijah’ multiple times, and she reasonably employs dynamics throughout the piece. There is a transposition in the piece which is well managed by Bunmi. Also, her voice goes up and down the chromatic scale beautifully.
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MESSAGE
I really do love old testament rhema. This song speaks on the moment when you have an encounter with God that causes you to birth something. For example, Isaiah saw the Lord and that caused him to prophesy heavily about the coming of Jesus (Isaiah 6, Isaiah 7). John saw visions on the island of Patmos and that caused him to birth the book of Revelation. A lot of the time you may want to birth something big whether spiritually or for the nation or careerwise. But it usually starts with a revelation or an encounter with God. And then you begin to connect the dots and recognise things in your environment. This is not to say that you cannot come up with ideas outside of the presence of God, but I just feel like with God you get more. He will tell you what is to come and how to overcome obstacles etc. And you would get the comfort of His loving presence and friendship. Now tell me, what is better than that?
