MLK/X’ composer on using music to raise awareness of the civil rights movement

“I felt not only that it was important, but that I had an obligation to be a part of it,” says composer Terence Blanchard of writing the score for National Geographic’s “Genius: MLK/X,” the eight-part series about the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

“Growing up in New Orleans, seriously believing in the teachings of Martin Luther King and then meeting Malcolm Bloods”, “BlacKkKlansman”) and multiple Grammy winner.

Music supervisor Amani (Burt Blackarach) Smith agrees. “Learning about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King when I was in high school and college completely shaped and changed the way I began to approach life. But there were so many things, so many nuances, that I didn’t know. And if I didn’t know, then the public has no idea about a lot of these things.”

For Blanchard, the challenge was finding the right voice for each leader, “to create this demarcation between the two camps from an early part of their lives, but the strength of their beliefs is similar in certain respects. I considered both to be honorable men. Their stories are so powerful and so unique.”

Blanchard’s jazz trumpet is heard occasionally throughout the eight hours of “MLK/X,” but much of the score is played by strings, percussion and the occasional flute. “It was all about storytelling, allowing the story to tell me where to go,” he explains.

Asked about the most challenging scene to score, Blanchard didn’t hesitate: “The scene where they meet. Here are these two very powerful figures in the African-American community, approaching the same issues from different points of view. There is a tension that needs to be built, but then there is a realization for everyone watching. They are trying to solve the same problems in our community.”

Music supervisor Smith was not only able to find songs that provided the 1950s and 1960s setting for much of the drama, he also commissioned new songs from artists such as Jacob Banks and Aloe Blacc. “Those two are masters at writing songs to scenes,” he says. “There is so much emotion in their voices.”

He quotes executive producer Gina Prince-Bythewood as saying: “We don’t want it to sound like a museum piece.” That, he adds, “completely opened up the opportunity to share this message with voices from all generations.”

He admits that he is “very passionate” about convincing Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens (“Omar”) to write a song for the series. “The song she wrote was used for the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, the most iconic moment in civil rights history. She could just make it.” Her gospel-tinged anthem “Home” is a highlight of the six-track soundtrack EP.

Blanchard liked the idea of ​​adding contemporary artists to the soundtrack, as the problems in the series “are still problems today. Artists today have a voice and say in how we should address these issues. There are voices that resonate today.”

“Many times I would sit in my studio in tears working on these scenes,” says Blanchard. ‘It’s all they do [these men] what we were trying to do was make sure we got a fair chance at life in this country. And they were cut down in the prime of their lives. The emotion of that drove everything I created for this show.

“I said to myself, what is it about us that makes people hate us so much that they would want to kill our leaders?”

To which Smith adds: “And why is it still happening today?”