MUSIC REVIEW SECTION

Happy Birthday, Max!

See bio in side

YouTube - Max Roach Combo - Driva-Man [1964]

Black Classical
Music living legend
Craig S. Harris
check his bio


see also
H. B. Barnum, Master conductor
by Norman Richmond






Black Bird Press
Hip Hop Editor
Muhammida
El Muhajir
and Mary J.
Blige on a
project to save
exploited females





Bay Area living
legend Ghasem.
Marvin X read
his poem What If
with Ghasem
at Anna's Jazz
Island, Berkeley CA
see youtube.com





Bay area living legend
Phavia, multi-talented
poet, singer, dancer, trumpet player



Tarika Lewis, my
favorite violinist.
She soothes the
wild beast in me.
Alias Matilaba, first female member
of the Black Panther Party.
She also plays violin with
legendary jazz artist John Handy.

Another Bay living
legend Augusta Collins
will receive Blues award
soon. Performs often with
Marvin


Rashidah
Mwongozi
accompanies
poet reading
from his memoir
of Eldridge Cleaver
My Friend the Devil

(see Rudolph Lewis review in book section)




Soldier of Love
SADE

YouTube - Sade - Soldier of Love

YouTube - Sade-Pearls

We predict this will be the hottest album of 2010. Hotter than a two dollar pistol in North Philly!
In the front line of this battle of mine, but I'm still alive--soldier of love. We've waited ten years to hear from this goddess of love and she has not disappointed us. She is that lover we await til eternity, and then she appears in all her glory, and we are fulfilled. Soldier of Love, every day of my life, all the days of my life. In the wild, wild West. Doing my best to stay alive--ain't we all? Think of that--for us, the wild wild west is the wilderness of North America. I've lost the use of my heart, but I'm still alive. There is no greater truth than this for us. In the front line of this battle of mine, but I'm still alive. I'm a soldier of love. All the days of my life, torn up inside, left behind, but still I rise, I rise.

The beat is haunting as Sade has always been, that voice as well, but even more so on Soldier, for it is a marching beat of soliders on the battlefield, fighting for love, of which man/woman has no greater battle. Think of the wars fought over love, the soldiers fallen, but Sade doesn't give up, that is her message, don't give up, give in, stay on the battle field. It is the message of hope, determination. Just know this, I'm in Sade's army! Forward march!

HB Barnum

By Norman (Otis) Richmond


Several times a year I used to get a call from my mother Eliza Richmond simply saying, “Earl, H. B. is on television.” Most of my family called me Earl when I was growing up because my father’s name was also Norman. He was Norman Lee and I was Norman Earl. However, he was called by his nickname Bud and rarely was referred to as Norman. The H.B. – my mother was referring to – is H.B. Barnum, my next door neighbor when my family lived in Aliso Village, a housing project inLos Angeles – built in 1942 and demolished 1999. Today, Barnum is the conductor of Aretha Franklin’s orchestra. Barnum‘s place in African (Black) and American music is secure. Barnum invited a mutual friend of ours Linda Carter (not to beconfused with “Wonder Woman”) and I to the rehearsal earlier in theday. Franklin’s performance at Roy Thomson Hall later that night didnot disappoint her sold-right-out audience. Ms. Franklin blasted offwith Jackie Wilson’s 1966 smash, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higherand Higher,” and went into “Share Your Love with Me,” a song oncerecorded by the Bobby “Blue” Bland in 1963, and covered by The Queenof Soul on her 1970 "This Girl’s in Love with You" album. The song “Share Your Love with Me” brought back special memories forme. To paraphrase the immortal Duke Ellington “music has always beenmy mistress.” Besides living next door to Barnum, my parents surroundedmy sister and me with music. I remember seeing Bland at the Fox Theatrein L.A. when I was ten years old. The Fox was the equivalent to theApollo in New York City, the Regal in Chi Town, or the Howard inWashington D.C. My mother used to take my two sisters Lorraine Marie and Helen Anitato the Fox often. Don & Dewey (I’m Leaving It All Up To You) wreckedthe place, Little Junior Parker was the headliner of this show. Onhis 1974 album "Explores Your Mind," Al Green dedicated his originalversion of the song "Take Me To The River" to Parker, who he describesas "a cousin of mine who's gone on, and we'd kinda like to carry on inhis name." I later discovered that Parker and Bland headed the highlysuccessful Blues Consolidated Revue, which became a staple part of the southernblues circuit. I recall Mr. Bland picking up my baby sister Helen who was six andserenading her. Since that magic moment he has been one of my musicalheroes. I have always shared with those closest to me. I wanted toshare the Bland experience with my now deceased wife Yvonne KathleenKentish. Being born in Jamaica Yvonne was not nearly as familiar withBland as I. I told her that Bland and I were from the “same bowl of grits.” She laughed and said, “You’ll have to get used to corn meal porridge.” We ventured to see Bland in Buffalo, N.Y. only find out that he was married to a Jamaican woman at that time. Yvonne also met H.B. on one of his many visits to Toronto. We attendedseveral house parties with Barnum and he rocked and grooved to therhythms of Toronto as if he were in Angel Town. He was at home. Heeven visited the home of Charles and Heddie Roach. At the Roach’sresidence he met Margaret Gittens and others that night. After James Brown and the Temptations, I have seen Bland more than anyother recording artist. The day my father died I was scheduled tohear Angela Davis speak at the University of Toronto. I however,passed up on Ms. Davis and ended up going to the Colonial Tavern onYonge Street to hear Bland in honor of my father. At Franklin’s concert Barnum was introduced as “The Legendary H.B.Barnum.” He is one of the most humble people you will ever meethowever; he has many things to brag about if he chose to. As a musicproducer and arranger he has worked with an extraordinary spectrum ofperformers. he was born Hidle Brown Barnum, in Houston, Texas. At age four, he won a nationwide talent contest for his singing andpiano playing, which launched a film and radio career that included appearances on Amos 'n' Andy and The Jack Benny Program. Barnum recorded his first solo album at the age of fourteen as Pee Wee Barnum. He attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles along with future members of the Platters and Coasters. In 1955, Barnum co-founded the short-lived vocal group, The Dootonesat the request of Dootone label owner, Dootsie Williams. When thegroup broke up, he joined another group, The Robins. Barnum beganproducing for The Robins in 1958 and also recorded a single on hisown. Barnum's reputation flourished after he joined Capitol Records,where he often worked in collaboration with producer and longtimefriend David Axelrod. In fact capital records has recently gone into the vaults and released THE LAST GREATEST RECORDING SESSIONS OF LITTLE WILLIE JOHN. The man who recorded “Fever” before Peggy Lee iscurrently being revisited thanks to Axelrod and Barnum. Barnum has arranged for many notable musicians including Gladys Knight& The Pips, Johnny Bristol, Lamont Dozier, Jimmy Norman, ArethaFranklin, Count Basie, Etta James, Nancy Wilson, Martha Reeves, TheTemptations, The Jackson 5, The Marvelettes, O.C. Smith, FrankSinatra, Lou Rawls, The Supremes, Al Wilson, B.B. King and Puff Daddy.By the mid-1970s, Barnum switched from pop music to television,scoring countless series and specials in addition to composingnumerous advertising jingles. He won international awards for hismusical compositions for commercials. Barnum is responsible for around 100 gold LPs and 160 gold singles. Barnum like John William Coltrane has always been a force for good.Beginning in 1967, Barnum has held an annual Thanksgiving dinner forthe homeless in his Los Angeles community. In 1981, he founded andbegan directing H. B. Barnum's Life Choir, a large well-known gospelgroup that assists him in helping feed nearly one thousand needypeople every Thanksgiving. Barnum has also served as minister of music at St. Paul's Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

BLACK CLASSICAL MUSIC

BIO of CRAIG S. HARRIS

We recently caught
Craig S. Harris in
Harlem at the
Schomburg Libary
for Amiri Baraka's
75th birthday. He took
us back 30,000 years when
his entire group performed with the
didgerido.



When Craig Harris exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, he brought the entire history of the jazz trombone with him. From the growling gutbucket intensity of early New Orleans music through the refined, articulate improvisation of the modern era set forth by J.J. Johnson, and into the confrontational expressionism of the ‘60s avant-garde, Craig handled the total vernacular the way a skilled orator utilizes the spoken word.
But the contemporary music world quickly realized that his talents went far beyond his superb skills as a trombonist. While he performed with a veritable Who’s Who of progressive jazz’ most important figures �” including Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Lester Bowie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Jaki Byard, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, and the list goes on and on -- his own projects displayed both a unique sense of concept and a total command of the sweeping expanse of African-American musical expression.
And it’s those two qualities that have dominated Craig’s past 15 years of activity, bringing him far beyond the confines of the jazz world and into the sphere of multimedia and performance art as composer, performer, conceptualist, curator and artistic director.
Sensing the increasing economic constrictions and diminishing opportunities that would soon place a stranglehold on the more adventurous aspects of music in the jazz tradition, Craig began to devote his energies to a broader realm of artistic realization back in 1988. He established Renovations, Inc., a non-profit organization devoted to the development of large-scale multi-media collaborative works, as well as educating and creating new opportunities for emerging artists.
This also marked the beginning of the long and fruitful collaborative relationship with the renowned poet Sekou Sundiata that continues to this day. Their first collaboration, The Circle Unbroken Is a Hard Bop premiered at City College of New York’s Aaron Davis Hall in 1992. This epistolary praise poem with music won the theater world’s prestigious Bessie Award in 1993, as well as three Audelco awards: best musical, best writer (Sekou) and best composer (Craig). It also toured U.S. colleges, fine arts institutions and festivals for two years before settling in for an extended run at New York City’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
This work caught the attention of David White and Joseph Mellilo, founders of The Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, who helped establish a curating and artistic directorship with the American Center in Paris for the two collaborators. The result was Lost in Translation, a music, dance and poetry collaboration, also featuring choreographer Marlies Yearby and guitarist/composer Vernon Reid, premiering in 1994.
In that same year, Harris and Sundiata began work on Return of Elijah, focusing on the Middle Passage period of the slave trade. Commissioned through Rites & Reason Theater at Brown University, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and Aaron Davis Hall, with a major grant from Meet The Composer’s Readers’ Digest Commissioning Fund, the provocative work premiered at Brown in 1996.
The following year, Craig was co-artistic director, composer and performer for Remembering We Selves, a fast-paced, non-linear tribute to the Harlem Renaissance, in collaboration with famed poet, writer and social commentator Amiri Baraka. This work, commissioned by Woody King’s New Federal Theater at New York’s Henry Street Settlement House, premiered with a one-week run at Harlem’s Schomburg Center in 1997.
In 1998, Craig composed and led a six piece ensemble as one of the artistic directors of the Tongues of Fire Choir, an evening of music and spoken text in collaboration with Nona Hendryx, Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hagedorn, Regina Carter, Quincy Troupe, Baraka and Sundiata. This event was also commissioned and presented by Aaron Davis Hall.
That same year Craig and Sekou collaborated on one episode of the PBS series, The Language of Life with Bill Moyers, taking place as part of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village. Expanding upon concepts established in Return of Elijah, Harris and Sundiata embarked on their most expansive project to that date, Udu, a full-evening musical-theatre work based upon the contemporary slave trade in Mauritania.
This highly ambitious project was commissioned by an extensive consortium of arts institutions, including the Brooklyn Academy’s 651 ARTS; The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis; University of Massachusetts’ New World Theater; Rites & Reason at Brown; and Aaron Davis Hall, with major support from Rockefeller’s MAP (Multi-Arts Production) Fund. It premiered at the Walker and then settled in at 651 ARTS’ Majestic Theater with a group of West African musicians in the troupe. Following that, Udu was performed at fine arts centers and universities throughout the U.S. While Harris and Sundiata continue to collaborate, Craig has two other large-scale projects of his own in the works. Brown Butterfly, the first of a trilogy, is a multi-media work incorporating video, dance and music and is based upon the physical movement of Muhammad Ali. For this, Craig is collaborating again with choreographer Yearby (who’s also directing), along with noted video artist Jonas Goldstein. This enormous undertaking has already garnered support from Rockefeller’s MAP Fund, the Lila-Wallace Readers Digest Arts Partners Program, the Warhol Foundation, the Jerome Foundation and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust. The work includes seven musicians, seven dancers and three video screens and is scheduled to premiere at Aaron Davis Hall in March 2003. The other two parts of the trilogy will be based on the movement of James Brown and Tina Turner, respectively. The second project in the development stage is a work based upon W.E. B. DuBois’ stunningly prophetic 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk. Despite his seemingly overwhelming commitments as artistic director and curator that have somewhat diminished his participation on the jazz circuit, Craig is about to return to the world of regular performing with his various ensembles and pure music projects. Established in 1988, Tailgaters Tales, featuring Craig accompanied by guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, melds intricate composition with exploratory improvisation and draws upon the entire spectrum of Black music for its repertoire. Nation of Imagination features Harris with three vocalists, three percussionists, keyboards, guitar and bass. Conceived as a springboard for forays into the rich veins of world music, it was founded in 1996 and is designed to form artistic alliances with musicians from different cultures. The first collaboration was with Eastern European Gypsy musicians and premiered in Turkey, then toured Europe. A collaboration with West African percussionists is the most recent project. In keeping with the goals of Renovations, Inc., the regular members of both ensembles have been nurtured through the activities of the organization and its large-scale artistic endeavors. Rounding out Craig’s current musical associations is the cooperative ensemble Slide Ride, a trombone quartet formed in 1993 and featuring some of the most adventurous, innovative and talented trombonists on the current scene. In addition to Craig, Slide Ride’s members are Ray Anderson, Joseph Bowie and Gary Valente. All three groups will be touring the U.S. and Europe in the near future. Born in Hempstead on Long Island, N.Y. in 1953, Craig is a graduate of the renowned music program of SUNY at Old Westbury. Profoundly influenced by its legendary founder and director, the late Makanda Ken McIntyre, Craig’s move to New York City in 1978 quickly established him in the forefront of young trombonists, along with Ray Anderson, George Lewis and Joseph Bowie. First playing alongside another of his teachers at SUNY, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick in Sun Ra’s Arkestra for two years, Harris embarked on a world tour with South African pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) in 1981. Highly affected by their stay in Australia, Craig played with Aborigine musicians and returned with a dijeridoo, a haunting wind instrument that has become a part of his musical arsenal ever since. Upon his return, Harris became a member of such major groups as David Murray’s Octet, the Beaver Harris-Don Pullen 360 Degree Musical Experience, Sam Rivers’ various orchestral aggregations, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy and many, many more. He also played for Lena Horne in her Broadway orchestra for a year. Craig has performed all over the world with his own ensembles and has recorded numerous albums for various labels.

Happy Birthday, Max

Born: January 10, 1925
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (born January 10, 1924) is a percussionist, drummer, and jazz composer. He has worked with many of the greatest jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins. He is widely considered to be one of the most important drummers in the history of jazz.

Roach was born in Newland, North Carolina, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach; his family moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical context, his mother being a gospel singer, and he started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. He performed his first big-time gig in New York City at the age of sixteen, substituting for Sonny Greer in a performance with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
In 1942, Roach started to go out in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway for Georgie Jay's Taproom (playing with schoolmate Cecil Payne). He was one of the first drummers (along with Kenny Clarke) to play in the bebop style, and performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis.
Roach played on many of Parker's most important records, including the Savoy 1945 session, a turning point in recorded jazz.
Two children, son Daryl and daughter Maxine, were born from his first marriage with Mildred Roach. In 1954 he met singer Barbara Jai (Johnson) and had another son, Raoul Jordu.
He continued to play as a freelance while studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music. He graduated in 1952.
During the period 1962-1970, Roach was married to the singer Abbey Lincoln, who had performed on several of Roach's albums. Twin daughters, Ayodele and Dara Rasheeda, were later born to Roach and his third wife, Janus Adams Roach.
Long involved in jazz education, in 1972 he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
In the early 2000s, Roach became less active owing to the onset of hydrocephalus-related complications.
Renowned all throughout his performing life, Roach has won an extraordinary array of honors. He was one of the first to be given a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, cited as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, twice awarded the French Grand Prix du Disque, elected to the International Percussive Society's Hall of Fame and the Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame, awarded Harvard Jazz Master, celebrated by Aaron Davis Hall, given eight honorary doctorate degrees, including degrees awarded by the University of Bologna, Italy and Columbia University.
In 1952 Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a concert, billed and widely considered as “the greatest concert ever,” called Jazz at Massey Hall, featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach. Also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, Percussion Discussion.
In 1954, he formed a quintet featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and bassist George Morrow, though Land left the following year and Sonny Rollins replaced him. The group was a prime example of the hard bop style also played by Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Tragically, this group was to be short-lived; Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956. After Brown and Powell's deaths, Roach continued leading a similarly configured group, with Kenny Dorham (and later the short-lived Booker Little) on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor and pianist Ray Bryant. Roach expanded the standard form of hard-bop using 3/4 waltz rhythms and modality in 1957 with his album Jazz in 3/4 time. During this period, Roach recorded a series of other albums for the EmArcy label featuring the brothers Stanley and Tommy Turrentine.
In 1960 he composed the “We Insist! - Freedom Now” suite with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., after being invited to contribute to commemorations of the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Using his musical abilities to comment on the African-American experience would be a significant part of his career. Unfortunately, Roach suffered from being blacklisted by the American recording industry for a period in the 1960s. In 1966 with his album Drums Unlimited (which includes several tracks that are entirely drums solos) he proved that drums can be a solo instrument able to play theme, variations, rhythmically cohesive phrases. He described his approach to music as “the creation of organized sound.”
Among the many important records Roach has made is the classic Money Jungle 1962, with Mingus and Duke Ellington. This is generally regarded as one of the very finest trio albums ever made.
During the 70s, Roach formed a unique musical organization--”M'Boom”--a percussion orchestra. Each member of this unit composed for it and performed on many percussion instruments. Personnel included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.
Not content to expand on the musical territory he had already become known for, Roach spent the decades of the 80s and 90s continually finding new ways to express his musical expression and presentation.
In the early 80s, he began presenting entire concerts solo, proving that this multi-percussion instrument, in the hands of such a great master, could fulfill the demands of solo performance and be entirely satisfying to an audience. He created memorable compositions in these solo concerts; a solo record was released by Bay State, a Japanese label, just about impossible to obtain. One of these solo concerts is available on video, which also includes a filming of a recording date for Chattahoochee Red, featuring his working quartet, Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater and Calvin Hill.
He embarked on a series of duet recordings. Departing from the style of presentation he was best known for, most of the music on these recordings is free improvisation, created with the avant-garde musicians Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Abdullah Ibrahim and Connie Crothers. He created duets with other performers: a recorded duet with the oration by Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream”; a duet with video artist Kit Fitzgerald, who improvised video imagery while Roach spontaneously created the music; a classic duet with his life-long friend and associate Dizzy Gillespie; a duet concert recording with Mal Waldron.
He wrote music for theater, such as plays written by Sam Shepard, presented at La Mama E.T.C. in New York City.
He found new contexts for presentation, creating unique musical ensembles. One of these groups was “The Double Quartet.” It featured his regular performing quartet, with personnel as above, except Tyrone Brown replacing Hill; this quartet joined with “The Uptown String Quartet,” led by his daughter Maxine Roach, featuring Diane Monroe, Lesa Terry and Eileen Folson.
Another ensemble was the “So What Brass Quintet,” a group comprised of five brass instrumentalists and Roach, no chordal instrumnent, no bass player. Much of the performance consisted of drums and horn duets. The ensemble consisted of two trumpets, trombone, French horn and tuba. Musicians included Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis, Robert Stewart, Tony Underwood, Marshall Sealy, and Mark Taylor.
Roach presented his music with orchestras and gospel choruses. He performed a concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He wrote for and performed with the Walter White gospel choir and the John Motley Singers. Roach performed with dancers: the Alvin Aily Dance Company, the Dianne McIntyre Dance Company, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
In the early 80s, Roach surprised his fans by performing in a hip hop concert, featuring the artist-rapper Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers. He expressed the insight that there was a strong kinship between the outpouring of expression of these young black artists and the art he had pursued all his life.
During all these years, while he ventured into new territory during a lifetime of innovation, he kept his contact with his musical point of origin. His last recording, “Friendship”, was with trumpet master Clark Terry, the two long-standing friends in duet and quartet.