Ornette Coleman, freedom, Biafra

(Ornette Coleman: ... freedom)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TODAY is the 89th birthday of Ornette Coleman (born 9 March 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, US):  alto saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, composer, one of the very top inventive jazz artists of all time – leading exponent of the avant-garde/free jazz movement, beginning late 1950s/early 1960s when his varying working quartets (personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone [tenor saxophone on Ornette on Tenor only], Don Cherry, cornet/trumpet/pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden/Scott LaFaro/Red Mitchell/Percy Heath/Jimmy Garrison/Don Payne, bass; Billy Higgins/Ed Blackwell/Shelly Manne, drums) and quintet (Something Else!!!! only with Walter Norris on piano) record seven classic albums:

1. Something Else!!!!, 1958

2. Tomorrow is the Question, 1959

3. The Shape of Jazz to Come, 1959

4. Change of the Century, 1959

5. This is our Music, 1960

6. Ornette!, 1961

7. Ornette on Tenor, 1961

and an eighth, this time recorded by an octet:

8. Free Jazz, 1960

(personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Charlie Haden, bass; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; Billy Higgins, drums)

Biafra

IN this revolutionary epoch in which stretches of peoples and nations across the globe but especially in the African World have risen against centuries of pan-European conquest, occupation and subjugation and also pointedly in these past 53 years, the Igbo resistance to the bludgeoning genocide being waged on their people in Biafra by the Africa-based Fulani islamist/jihadist-led Nigeria client state and its suzerain Britain, Coleman’s music has consistently offered an infectiously gripping optimism for freedom. 

Igbo people have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in the resistance and will surely overcome this Anglo-Nigeria haematophagous monster as the strikingly innovative and irrepressible Biafra freedom movement triumphs.

TWO compositions from the Coleman repertoire couldn’t be more appropriate to capture the immense transformational possibilities that success in Biafra will have for constituent peoples in southwestcentral Africa region and elsewhere in Africa: “Turnaround” (February 1959) and “Change of the century” (October 1959).

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Turnaround” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums; recorded: Contemporary’s Studio, Los Angeles, US, 23 February 1959])

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Change of the century” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, US, 8 October 1959])

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is author of the recently published The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019)  (https://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.com/2019/01/published-longest-genocide-since-29-may.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Chukwuemeka Ike

(Born 28 April 1931, Ndikelionwu, Biafra)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

NOVELIST, university registrar, academic, Africa west region principal pre-university qualifying examination board (WAEC) administrator, one of the leading intellectuals in defence of the people during the Igbo genocide, phases I-III, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, carried out by Britain and its Nigeria client state led by Hausa-Fulani/islamist jihadists during which 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of Igbo population are murdered in this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa; Anglo-Nigeria launches phase-IV of the genocide on 13 January 1970 and this has continued unabated with tens of thousands of additional Igbo murdered; Igbo genocide is the longest, most gruesome, and most ruthless genocide in contemporary history

(The New York Contemporary Five, “Trio” [personnel: Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone; Cherry, pocket trumpet; John Tchicai, alto saxophone; Don Moore, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, Jazzhus Montmarte, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 November 1963])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Ornette Coleman, freedom, Biafra

(Born 9 March 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, US)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TODAY is the 88th birthday of Ornette Coleman: alto saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, composer, one of the very top inventive jazz artists of all time – a leading exponent of the avant-garde/free jazz movement, beginning late 1950s/early 1960s when his varying working quartets (personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone [tenor saxophone on Ornette on Tenor only], Don Cherry, cornet/trumpet/pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden/Scott LaFaro/Red Mitchell/Percy Heath/Jimmy Garrison/Don Payne, bass; Billy Higgins/Ed Blackwell/Shelly Manne, drums) and quintet (Something Else!!!! only with Walter Norris on piano) record seven classic albums (Something Else!!!! [1958], Tomorrow is the Question [1959], The Shape of Jazz to Come [1959], Change of the Century [1959], This is our Music [1960], Ornette! [1961], Ornette on Tenor [1961]), and an eighth, this time recorded by an octet (Coleman, alto saxophone; Cherry, pocket trumpet; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Haden, bass; LaFaro, bass; Blackwell, drums; Higgins, drums), pertinently titled Free Jazz (1960).

Biafra

In this revolutionary epoch in which stretches of peoples and nations across the globe but especially in the African World have risen against centuries of pan-European conquest, occupation and subjugation, and also, pointedly in these past 52 years, the Igbo resistance to the bludgeoning genocide being waged on their people in Biafra by the Africa-based Hausa-Fulani/islamist-led Nigeria client state and suzerain Britain, Coleman’s music has consistently offered an infectiously gripping optimism for freedom. 

IGBO PEOPLE have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in their resistance to the genocide and will surely overcome this Anglo-Nigeria haematophagous monster as the strikingly innovative and irrepressible Biafra freedom movement triumphs. Two compositions from the Coleman repertoire couldn’t be more appropriate to capture the immense transformational possibilities that success in Biafra will have for constituent peoples in southwestcentral Africa region and elsewhere in Africa: “Turnaround” (February 1959) and “Change of the century” (October 1959).

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Turnaround” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums; recorded: Contemporary’s Studio, Los Angeles, US, 23 February 1959])

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “Change of the century” [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; recorded: Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, US, 8 October 1959])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

On that introspection on Igbo people by Balarabe Musa

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

BALARABE MUSA is one of the leading Fulani islamist/jihadist north genocidist Nigeria public persons. He was once head of regime of the Kaduna northcentral region.

Musa has recently been speaking to his “country”’s media on Igbo people who, for the past 52 years, 1966-2018, have been subjected to the most gruesome and expansive genocide in the history of Africa by Nigeria and its suzerain state, Britain. The dual genocidists murdered 3.1 million Igbo people or 25 per cent of Igbo population during phases I-III of the genocide (29 May 1966-12 January 1970) and a further murder tally of tens of thousands of Igbo in organised pogroms executed in north Nigeria and elsewhere in Nigeria as well as in Biafra during the course of phase-IV of the genocide (13 January 1970-present day: 1980 ... 1982 ... 1985 ... 1991 ... 1993 ... 1994 ... 1999 ... 2000 ... 2001 ... 2002 ... 2004 ... 2005 ... 2006 ... 2007 ... 2008 ... 2009 ... 2010 ... 2011 ... 2012 ... 2013 ... 2014 … 2015 … 2016 … 2017 … 2018 …).

MORE IGBO have been murdered in genocides committed in African history than any other African peoples. The primary perpetrator of the Igbo genocide, it cannot be overemphasised, is an African-led state, not European. The Igbo genocide far outstretches the 30 years’ duration of the horrendous genocide of a host of constituent African peoples of the Congo River basin of central Africa carried out by Belgian King Leopold II/Belgian state, 1878-1908, when the Belgians and their European World allies murdered 13 million Africans.

THE crux of Musa’s reminiscences on the Igbo in that media interview is rendered in the following direct quotes (criticaltimesnews.com, Saturday 17 February 2018):

“Igbo are more republican than the [n]orth and other [peoples in Nigeria] … [Peoples in Nigeria] are afraid of the Igbo because they [Igbo] are more competitive … both in practice and history. The Igbo are more competitive than the Hausa and the Yoruba. The Hausa and Yoruba bourgeoisie are afraid of this … Igbo are more competitive because they don’t have inhibition … You can say largely that Igbo are free thinkers …”

“Republican history and competitive drive” and genocide

NOWHERE in his interview, though, does Musa condemn the Igbo genocide by Nigeria unreservedly nor demand forthright the punishment of those culpable in this crime against humanity. Those categorisations of his on features of Igbo national character are indeed central, right from the outset, in the execution of the Igbo genocide particularly as conceived and evaluated by its notorious lead perpetrators – the British and Fulani islamist/jihadist north region Nigeria. It is precisely in response to those Musa’s repeated references to Igbo republican history and competitive drive that Fulani islamist/jihadists executed the pogroms of Igbo immigrants in Jos (northcentral Nigeria) in 1945 and in Kano (north Nigeria), 1953, precursors or “dress rehearsals” to the Igbo genocide (29 May 1966-present day); it is precisely in response to those Musa’s repeated references to Igbo republican history and competitive drive that Ahmadu Bello, the Fulani islamist/jihadist leader and sardauna of Sokoto, carried out his infamous late 1950s/early 1960s interview where he called for the mass murder of Igbo people (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/igbo-tenacity-drive-and.html); it is precisely in response to those Musa’s repeated references to Igbo republican history and competitive drive that Britain, in full alliance with the Fulani islamist/jihadist north Nigeria which opposed the freedom of African peoples under the British conquest and occupation which the Igbo led (1930s-October 1960), planned and executed the Igbo genocide (29 May 1966-present day), this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/herbert-ekwe-ekwe-conquerors-concord-in.html); it is precisely in response to those Musa’s repeated references to Igbo republican history and competitive drive that the Yoruba nation or what Musa tags “Yoruba bourgeoisie” joined the Igbo genocide-prosecuting amalgam of Britain, Fulani islamist/jihadists and other constituent Nigeria nations (Kanuri, Tiv, Idoma, Nupe, Yergam, Bachama, Edo, Uhrobo, etc., etc.) on 6 July 1966 and have remained a reliable and dedicated ally in pursuit of this morbid enterprise ever since; it is precisely because of those Musa’s repeated references to Igbo republican history and competitive drive and indefatigable opposition to any form of human oppression and subjugation that the Igbo led the African peoples’ freedom movement (mid-1930s-October 1960) to terminate the British occupation of the states and peoples of this southwestcentral region of Africa it calls “Nigeria” (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/blog-post_19.html).

Nigeria collapsed as a state with any serious prospects for the future on Sunday 29 May 1966 – verily, the day it embarked on the Igbo genocide. Musa should have conveyed this fact to his interviewers most urgently and explicitly. Surely, Nigeria couldn’t recover from committing this heinous crime, this crime against humanity... Besides being contemporary Africa’s most vicious genocidist state, it is Africa’s worst kakistocratic state, home to two of the world’s five most deadly terrorist organisations (Boko Haram, Fulani militia), worst murderer of an African people in history…

Biafra

THANKFULLY, for the survivors of the Igbo genocide and for African peoples and the rest of the world, the only redemptive breakthrough that has occurred from the haunting tragedy that is Nigeria has been the emergence, therein, of the transformative state of Biafra. This is indeed extraordinary.

(John Coltrane Sextet, “Out of this world” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Garrett, clarinet, bass; Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: live at Penthouse Jazz Club, Seattle, US, 30 September 1965])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe