Mother’s Day is typically a time for celebration and joy. But for many, it’s a time of reflection and even sadness. This week’s edition of Sunday Jazz is, in my estimation, a bit of both.

“Tribute” is the final track on Robert Glasper‘s fantastic 2007 release, In My Element. It was written for Glasper’s mother, Kim Yvette Glasper Dobbs, who along with her husband Brian was murdered in April 2004. Kim’s impact on her son’s life and on his music was incalculable, and so it was only fitting that he recorded and released “Tribute” for her.

The song is beautiful any way you approach it, but what elevates it from pure melancholy to joy is the inclusion of Rev. Joe Ratliff’s eulogy, delivered at Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. I would kill the spirit of his moving words by analyzing them here, so I exhort you to just listen to them.

And remember that whether you are a mother, honoring a mother still with you, or thinking of one who is gone, remember the dash…

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