Overview
- The announcement, released Friday, June 19, 2026, included a preview reimagining of Son House’s “Death Letter Blues” featuring Taj Mahal and credits recordings made at Memphis’s Royal Studios and London’s Abbey Road.
- Decca Records will release the 12-track Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience on Aug. 7, 2026, with Freeman serving as narrator and producer on recordings that trace roughly 100 years of the blues.
- The project pairs traditional repertoire with contemporary performers including Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Shemekia Copeland and others alongside orchestral arrangements conducted by Martin Gellner and parts played by the Chineke! Orchestra.
- A short live run to support the album has been confirmed with dates on Aug. 7 in Houston, Sept. 26 in Memphis and Oct. 17 in Gulfport, Mississippi, with the Houston date to feature the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
- Freeman framed the release as rooted in his Mississippi Delta ties and preservation work at Ground Zero Blues Club, and the record’s use of a majority-Black, pan-European Chineke! Orchestra and storied studios aims to introduce blues history to new audiences through symphonic reinterpretation.