Rethinking Africa is a forward looking blog dedicated to the exchange of innovative thinking on issues affecting the advancement of African peoples wherever they are. We provide rigorous and insightful analyses on the issues affecting Africans and their vision of the world.
Showing posts with label Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Show all posts
PRODIGIOUS DRUMMER and bandleader whose band, The Jazz Messengers, cofounded with multifaceted pianist and composer Horace Silver in 1954, becomes a conservatoire for over 30 years, developing the careers ofscores of graduates who would subsequently contribute immensely to the landscape of improvisation and composition in the jazz repertoire – Messengers’ alumni include the following, grouped by their key performing instrument: trumpet (Clifford Brown, Donald Bryd, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard), trombone (Curtis Fuller, Julian Priester, Slide Hampton, Steve Turre, Robin Eubanks), alto saxophone (Lou Donaldson, Jackie McLean, Bobby Watson, Donald Harrison), tenor saxophone (Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Wayne Shorter, John Gilmore, Billy Harper, Bill Pierce, Javon Jackson, Jean Toussaint, Branford Marsalis), piano (Kenny Drew, Walter Davis, Jr., Benny Green, Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, Jaki Byard, Keith Garrett, Cedar Walton, John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, James Williams), and bass (Doug Watkins, Wilbur Ware, Spanky DeBrest, Jymie Merritt, Reggie Workman, Charles Fambrough, Lonnie Plaxico, Essiet Okon Essiet)
(Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, “Mosaic” [personnel: Blakey, drums; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 2 October 1961])
ACCORDING to media reports from genocidist Nigeria, a
British royal air force detachment is in a north Nigeria airbase to “train”
genocidist forces – who would, in turn, head for Biafra, in due course, to
continue their slaughter of Igbo people as is now their notoriously
demonstrated definitive goal. Nigeria, supposedly, has been “independent” since October 1960
and, 57 years later, is still being “trained” by the same Britain! What a “state”! “Nigeria ‘train’ yourself”? Oh no! When will Nigeria begin to “train” itself? Didn’t Britain leave Nigeria 57 years ago? Of course not!
Nigeria is Britain’s, the British lead client-state in this strategic region of
southwestcentral Africa – emplaced, as Britain envisages, in perpetuity. This at the crux of the Igbo genocide which both Britain and
Nigeria, led by its anti-African freedom Hausa-Fulani/islamist religiopolitcal
forces, have waged since 29 May 1966. IGBO FREEDOM opens up immeasurable possibilities for liberation
of scores of African peoples trapped in this British expropriation estate.
Freedom peoples across the world can’t wait for this incoming epoch being inaugurated by Biafra.
(Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, “Free for all” [personnel: Blakey, drums; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 10 February 1964])
AWARD-WINNING tenor saxophonist and bandleader and versatile composer including jazz standards “I remember Clifford”, “Blues march”, “Whisper not”, “Stablemates”, “Are you real?” and “Along came Betty” and scores for films on television (including Mission: Impossible, Ironside, M*A*S*H)
(Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, “Whisper not” [personnel: Blakey, drums; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Golson, tenor saxophone; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; recorded: live, L’Olympia, Paris, France, 22 November 1958 & 17 December 1958])
(Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, “Blues march” [personnel: Blakey, drums; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Golson, tenor saxophone; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; recorded: Van Gelder Studios, Hackensack, NJ, US, 30 October 1958])
(Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, “Moanin’” [personnel and recording dates as in “Blues march” above])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is specialist on the state and on genocide & wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch – beginning with the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day, the foundational and most gruesome genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of this nation’s population were murdered by Nigeria and its allies, principally Britain. Africa and the rest of the world largely stood by and watched as the perpetrators enacted this horror most ruthlessly. The world could have stopped this genocide; the world should have stopped this genocide. This genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. During the period, 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in further genocide in Rwanda (1994), Zaïre/DRCongo (variously, since the late 1990s) and Darfur – west of the Sudan – (since 2004) and in other wars in Africa. African peoples have, presently, no other choice but exit/dismantle the extant genocide-state (the bane of their existence & progress) & construct own nation-centred states that serve their interests. He is author of several books & papers on the subject and his new book is entitled The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019).
