Grace Notes: Gavin Bryars, A Winged Victory for the Sullen

Back in the early ’70s, Gavin Bryars was working on a documentary about the London homeless. The film crew had made a number of recordings of various street folks, and one of them — that of a homeless man singing a simple hymn in a broken, faltering voice — caught Bryars’ attention. That simple recording serves as the basis for Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet. Here, Bryars loops the recording and, over the course of 74 minutes, slowly layers piano, strings, and other vocals (including those of Tom Waits) on top of it. This may sound rather simple and straightforward on paper, but the composition’s effects are anything but. Indeed, the piece becomes exponentially more affecting with each passing minute. There’s something deeply beautiful in the man’s broken voice, Bryars’ arrangements are moving without ever being saccharine, and it’s impossible to not notice, and not be affected by, the apparent irony of a homeless man singing, with such humble sincerity, “Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.”