Chicago Children's Choir first full-length recording in 15 years. Long Way Home sets Homer's epic 24-part poem The Odyssey in modern day Chicago

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES, August 3, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC), a nonprofit organization that inspires and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to become global ambassadors through music, is releasing a new studio album, Long Way Home, the Choir’s latest full-length LP and their first full-length theatrical work since the acclaimed Sita Ram. Long Way Home, a reimagination of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey set in modern day Chicago, tells the story of Ody, a South Side poet who unexpectedly ends up on a magical journey home through Chicago's neighborhoods. The 34-track collection of original compositions will be fully available on all major streaming platforms starting August 17. Proceeds support Chicago Children's Choir’s mission to inspire and change lives through music.

Originally written for the stage, the Long Way Home production sold out five nights at Chicago's historic Studebaker Theater in 2018. The new studio recording captures the passion of the timeless tale while dealing with challenges of modern times and seamlessly integrates a range of home-grown musical styles, from blues to house. True to the album’s celebration of Chicago’s cultural scene, Long Way Home features custom artwork by Chicago-native Hebru Brantley.

“There’s never been anything like this,” Josephine Lee, CCC President and Artistic Director said. “This love note to the city that has nurtured our organization for 65 years is a testament to the global impact of Chicago’s peerless music scene—and the impact we’ve been able to have through it. Chicago’s youth and its musical culture are its greatest treasures. With this production, the Choir saw an opportunity to use the unmatched power of music and fuse it with Homer’s timeless, beloved epic to deliver a message of hope, unity, and empowerment.”

As with the theatrical performance, CCC collaborated with Chicago's award-winning hip hop musical pioneers Q Brothers Collective who masterfully brought the stage performance to the studio. Many of the original cast were reunited to record Long Way Home, and nearly 100 youth from communities across Chicago performed on the album.

“We’ve been using the hip hop musical form to tell captivating stories for over two decades,” said JQ of the Q Brothers Collective. “But Long Way Home is a one-of-a-kind fusion of Chicago’s wide-ranging musical styles. And what better way to honor a globally cherished story than by paying homage to the city we grew up in, while celebrating its own pioneers of musical genres whose influence can be heard in every corner of the world?"

In the spirit of the Choir’s mission to unite the world through music, the release of this exciting new cast recording will make the magic of Long Way Home available to listeners around the world while they work with the Q Brothers to re-stage the theatrical production in the 2022-2023 season.


Long Way Home tracklist:

1. Vocalo Intro

2. Good Morning

3. Freestyle

4. Famous

5. The Rhyme Book

6. Get 'em

7. Penny's Home

8. Turn the Page

9. The Plan

10. Deep Dish Intro

11. Deep Dish Express

12. Beware the Sirens

13. St. Sweetness Intro

14. St. Sweetness Church

15. The Super Soul Shuffle

16. The First Star

17. The Bottom of the Lake

18. Raise up Your House

19. Wolf Point Junction - The Second Star

20. The Alley

21. The Rat Race

22. The Third Star

23. Siren Song

24. Not the Fourth Star

25. Cy's Rib Shack

26. Muddy Cy's Blues

27. Jarvis

28. Long Way Home

29. Back in Ithaca

30. Get 'em Part 2

31. Oxygen

32. Home

33. Vocalo Part 2

34. Chicago Fire


About The Q Brothers Collective

The Q Brothers Collective (Creators, Writers, Composers) is internationally known for its hip hop adaptations of the classics. These productions include Othello: The Remix, Funk It Up About Nothin' (Much Ado), and Dress The Part (Two Gents). The collective has grown beyond founding members GQ and JQ, to include Jackson Doran and Postell Pringle. Together, Q Brothers Collective has written and composed Q Brothers Christmas Carol, Ms. Estrada (Lysistrata), Rome Sweet Rome (Julius Caesar), Long Way Home (The Odyssey), and more. Q Brothers can typically be found at Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, performing and teaching kids to love rhyming as much as they do.

For more information about the Q Brothers, please visit QBrothersofficial.com or @qbrothers1 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


About Chicago Children’s Choir

Founded in Hyde Park in direct response to the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC) has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs driven by one mission: to inspire and change lives through music. CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 64-year history. Since its founding, CCC has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of youth served are from low-moderate income homes, with over 4,000 students annually participating completely free of charge. All singers in CCC programs receive some level of subsidy. High school seniors enrolled in CCC have a 100% graduation rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on CCC’s core values in a wide array of professional fields.

Learn more at ccchoir.org.

Erika Force
DeSoto & State Communications, Inc.
+1 773-612-0511
email us here

Animated medley of Long Way Home performed by Chicago Children's Choir

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