In the long chain of musical creativity that characterizes Black American music (and increasingly, American music), jazz played a pivotal role.


Although it is now the stuff of college radio and concerts for the middle class intelligentsia, there was a time when it was a radical, and indeed, a revolutionary music, carrying within it the seeds of rebellion and protest.


Among the artists who personified these attributes were the drummer and composer, Max Roach (1924 -2007) and his beautiful, talented wife, jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln.


The power of their performance can be seen in the radicalization of Black revolutionary nationalist, Muhammad Ahmed (fka Max Stanford, Jr.) who, in his work, We Will Return in the Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations: 1960-1975,explains the potential political impacts of the works of Roach, Lincoln and other jazz artists in the late '50's:


"First was going to see Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln present their "Freedom Now" suite at the national convention of the NAACP.....I had been raised on Jazz and had done my homework with Eddie Collier while listening to John Coltrane's Giant Steps.... But this was the first time I had heard "Message music" so direct for my generation. The "Freedom Now" suite immediately raised my political/cultural consciousness."


Noted musicologist, Dr. F. Ricky Vincent has credited Roach and Lincoln as being among the forerunners of the 'Funk' movement in jazz and later Black popular music; the 'funk' being the realness, earthiness and Africanity that fueled dozens of groups from James Brown to Parliament Funkadelic, and beyond.


Although jazz is a relatively small slice of CD sales these days (two percent, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) FOR 2006), it sells more than classical, but less than children's music for the same period; it has had a powerful and outsized impact on music, politics and culture.


Abbey Lincoln, with her moving and memorable contralto, certainly played a leading role in that march, and she will be remembered.


Lincoln was 80 years old.


(c) '10 maj


Read and search hundreds of music reviews on SeeingBlack.com's Music channel and archive.

Click here to post a comment on this review or your own review

Do you shop at Amazon? Please shop through our link and support SeeingBlack.com!


[Sources: Ahmad, Muhammad, We Will Return in the Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations: 1960-1975 (Chi., IL; Kerr Publ. 2007; Vincent, Ricky, Funk: The Music, The People, and the Rhythm of the One. (NY; St. Martin's Griffin, 1996), 43]
--------------


The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090

Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).

WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM

Please mail donations/ checks to:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION
PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,
NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212-330-8029

Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:

Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!

© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com

Top of Page