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 Charles Mingus Sextet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Mingus Sextet. Show all posts
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe PIANIST,pianists’ pianist whose “encyclopaedic knowledge”, to quote the recurring phrase from many a critic of the jazz piano repertoire, ensures he ranges effortlessly in his solo take from the stride traditions of the 1920s-1930s (James Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller) to the late 1940s/early 1950s revolutionary breakthroughs of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and the later flights of Cecil Taylor but still sounding Jaki Byard; academic; indelible footprints on the Charles Mingus jazz workshop – particularly the classic sextet: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums
(Jaki Byard Trio, “Trendsition zildjian”[personnel: Byard, piano; David Izenzon, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Prestige, New York, US, 31 October 1967])
(Charles Mingus Sextet – featuring Eric Dolphy, Live in Oslo 1964, “So long Eric” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, 12 April 1964])
THE IGBO were one of the very few constituent nations in British Nigeria, southwestcentral Africa, prior to the 29 May 1966 Anglo-Nigeria launch date of the Igbo genocide, who understood, fully, the immense liberatory possibilities ushered in by 1 October 1960 (presumed day for the restoration-of-independence for the subjugated African peoples) and the interlocking challenges of the vast reconstructionary work required for state and societal transformation in the aftermath of the British occupation.
Enterprise
The Igbo had the most robust economy in the country in their east regional homeland, supplied the country with its leading writers, artists and scholars, supplied the country’s top universities with its vice-chancellors (presidents/rectors) and leading professors and scientists, supplied the country with its first indigenous university (the prestigious university at Nsukka), supplied the country with its top diplomats, supplied the country’s leading high schools with its head teachers and administrators, supplied the country with its top bureaucrats, supplied the country with its leading businesspeople, supplied the country with an educated, top-rated professional officers-corps for its military and police forces, supplied the country with its leading sportspersons, essentially and effectively worked the country’s rail, postal, telegraphic, power, shipping, and aviation services to quality standards not seen since in Nigeria…
And they were surely aware of the vicissitudes engendered by this historic age precisely because the Igbo nation played the vanguardist role in the freeing of Nigeria from Britain, beginning from the mid-1930s...
Suzerain’s response
BRITAIN responded to this Igbo fervent resourcefulness by plotting the genocide against the Igbo along with its on the ground north region Hausa-Fulani/islamists who were vociferously opposed to African freedom. Indeed, the Hausa-Fulani/islamists wanted the British occupation indefinitely – which, in fact, is the case, 57 years after!
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “Passions of a man” [personnel: Mingus, piano, vocals; Jimmy Knepper, trombone; Rahssan Roland Kirk, flute, siren, tenor saxophone, manzello, strich; Booker Ervin, tenor saxophone; Doug Watkins, bass; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 6 November 1961])
Pianist, pianists’ pianist whose “encyclopaedic knowledge”(to quote the recurring phrase from many a critic) of the jazz piano repertoire ensures he ranges effortlessly in his solo take from the stride traditions of the 1920s-1930s (James Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller) to the late 1940s/early 1950s revolutionary breakthroughs of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and the later flights of Cecil Taylor but still sounding Jaki Byard; academic, indelible footprints on the Charles Mingus jazz workshop – particularly the classic sextet: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums
(Charles Mingus Sextet –
featuring Eric Dolphy, Live in Oslo 1964, “So long Eric” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded:
live, University Aula, 12 April 1964])
INFLUENTIAL African freedom nationalist, physician, writer, who notes, memorably, “every people should be originators of their own destiny” – the very breathtaking resilient resolve that powers the ongoing Biafra freedom movement in southwestcentral Africa
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Meditations” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
MULTIFACETED drummer who, in 1957, joins the jazz workshop of brilliant bassist, cellist and composer Charles Mingus(ensemble often varying from a quintet, sextet, octet and dectet) and both embark on one of the most enduring and resourceful artistic collaborations of recent times, recording over 30 albums in 22 years involving several influential instrumentalists in the repertoire, including, especially, multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “So long Eric” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])
THE IGBO were one of the very few constituent nations in British
Nigeria, southwestcentral Africa, prior to the 29 May 1966 Anglo-Nigeria launch date of the Igbo genocide, who understood, fully,
the immense liberatory possibilities ushered in by 1 October 1960 (presumed day
for the restoration-of-independence for the subjugated African peoples) and the
interlocking challenges of the vast reconstructionary work required for state
and societal transformation in the aftermath of the
British occupation.
Enterprise
The Igbo had the most robust economy in the country in their
east regional homeland, supplied the country with its leading writers, artists
and scholars, supplied the country’s top universities with its vice-chancellors
(presidents/rectors) and leading professors and scientists, supplied the
country with its first indigenous university (the prestigious university at
Nsukka), supplied the country with its top diplomats, supplied the country’s
leading high schools with its head teachers and administrators, supplied the
country with its top bureaucrats, supplied the country with its leading
businesspeople, supplied the country with an educated, top-rated professional
officers-corps for its military and police forces, supplied the country with
its leading sportspersons, essentially and effectively worked the country’s
rail, postal, telegraphic, power, shipping, and aviation services to quality
standards not seen since in Nigeria…
And they were surely aware of the vicissitudes engendered by
this historic age precisely because the Igbo nation played the vanguardist role
in the freeing of Nigeria from Britain, beginning from the mid-1930s...
Suzerain’s response
BRITAIN responded to this Igbo fervent resourcefulness by
plotting the genocide against the Igbo along with its on the ground north
region Hausa-Fulani/islamists who were vociferously opposed to African freedom.
Indeed, the Hausa-Fulani/islamists wanted the British occupation indefinitely –
which, in fact, is the case, 57 years after!
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “Passions of a man” [personnel: Mingus, piano, vocals; Jimmy Knepper, trombone; Rahssan Roland Kirk, flute, siren, tenor saxophone, manzello, strich; Booker Ervin, tenor saxophone; Doug Watkins, bass; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 6 November 1961])
Pianist, pianists’ pianist whose “encyclopaedic knowledge”(to quote the recurring phrase from many a critic) of the jazz piano repertoire ensures he ranges effortlessly in his solo take from the stride traditions of the 1920s-1930s (James Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller) to the late 1940s/early 1950s revolutionary breakthroughs of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols and the later flights of Cecil Taylor but still sounding Jaki Byard; academic, indelible footprints on the Charles Mingus jazz workshop – particularly the classic sextet: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Orange was the colour of her dress, then blue silk” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
INFLUENTIAL African freedom nationalist, physician, writer, who notes, memorably, “every people should be originators of their own destiny” – the very breathtaking resilient resolve
that powers the ongoing Biafra freedom movement in southwestcentral Africa
(Charles Mingus Sextet – with Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, “Meditations” [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])
Multifaceted drummer who, in 1957, joins the jazz workshop (often varying from a quintet, sextet, octet and dectet) of brilliant bassist, cellist and composer Charles Mingus, and both embark on one of the most enduring and resourceful artistic collaborations of recent times, recording over 30 albums in 22 years involving several influential instrumentalists in the repertoire, including, especially, multiinstrumentalist Eric Dolphy
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “Orange was the colour of her dress, then blue silk” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])
(Chike Ofili:...Why do they continue to bear dialectical variants of Igbo names such as Chime in the Igbo West of the [the great river] and Chima in East of same?)
[reposted as in the original on author’s Facebook wall, Monday 19 September 2016]
ANIOMA and NIGER DELTA IGBO MIGRATIONS to the WEST of the NIGER
and the DELTA are EXTENSIONS, not SEPARATIONS from MOTHERLAND... Divisions Are Creations
of Poisonous Politics … So, is Anioma Biafra or a Benin Republic?
ByChike Ofili
Great, Phil Akpenyi, well reasoned reply to my piece that DELTA
IS ANIOMA IS BIAFRA.
If Anioma is not Igbo but are Igbo speaking in all its
dialectical variants, WHAT ETHNIC GROUP THEN IS ANIOMA? if a conference of
ethnic nationalities of Nigeria were to be convoked as has been advocate
continuously for the restructuring of Nigeria, which group would Anioma come
under? Would they come under THE EDO NATION, since many claim they migrated
from Benin ? So the larger Benin of the old Mid West, Bendel and now Delta and
Edo states would now be under your BENIN REPUBLIC ?
BEFORE THE BENIN ESCAPEE MIGRANTS WERE THE IGBO SPEAKING PEOPLE
What happens to the Igbo speaking people as all Igbo are, that fought or
amicably gave accommodation, land, language and home to your migrating Benin
escapees from tyranny as is almost the same story of all diasporic Benin that
now forms your Benin Republic of today's Edo and Delta states? Why was Benin
not the language of communication as the migrating ones from Benin joined in?
Why were they not bearing Bini names if they met empty lands as they migrated
from Benin? Why do they continue to bear dialectical variants of Igbo names
such as Chime in the Igbo West of the Niger, and Chima in East of same? Why has
the common Igbo culture still dominant till this day in spite of the dominating
military and cultural tyranny of old Benin kingdom?
The answer is that the escapees
met a people whom they only added themselves to either amicably, or by force.
As in all cases of such contacts, the bigger winner is the triumph of number;
and this is long before they ever knew the democratic mathematics of democracy.
A PEOPLE’S POPULATION ASSERTS THEIR PRIDE OF PLACE THAT THEIR NATION
AND TONGUE RE-ASSERT
It was primarily, the triumph of
the self-assertive power of population, further putting down its foot even when
sometimes conquered with its TONGUE, in a people’s language. The conquering
migrants can only at best carve out their own part of the invaded land where
not an amicable settlement with the aborigines. Thus, they may keep their
language which most often they soon lose as the town grows bigger. Where there
is an enduring compromise, a bilingual community is born. Even at that, there
would still be a major and a minor language. In all of these cases, the Igbo
language triumphed over all the other culture that came into contact with it;
forcefully or amicably. Be it Benin, Yoruba, Ishan, Igala etc. They have come
to constitute ANIOMA’S RAINBOW ROOTS. It is however culturally criminal to then
turn around and begin the history of a people in spite of all of these
evidences from when the migrants joined them; and not before they arrived.
In the case of Igbo West of the Niger, the migrants from Benin,
Yorubaland/Ishan, Igala and so on were outnumbered and so had to speak the
language of the majority group they met there; even when they came with a
conquering might. Not even some manifest cultural influences will suddenly
amount to a historical and cultural hijack of a people who were not spoken for,
and who have still not learnt to coherently speak for themselves.
UN-ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ANIOMA,
THE IGBO WEST OF THE NIGER
Have you asked yourself how the
Igbo East and West of the Niger speak the same language, share fundamental
cultures and ritual traditions? What circumstances produced these binding
similarities? Are the circumstances any different from that which came to bind
the Yoruba of the West and the Yoruba of the Middle Belt? Are they not all
linguistically and culturally Yoruba? Is migration not just expansion and not
permanent separation? If so, then you and I are right that your Benin republic
amounts to migration as expansion and not separation. It amounts to a
re-gathering of the same old people from far and near. If so, then the Igbo
West of the Niger were largely migrants from their common ground where they
were most populous in the East to where they crossed the Niger river onto the West
of it, carrying their Igbo language and culture with them which as in all
cases, kept changing insignificantly in dialects of the same language.
It is this their prime advantage
of being the first to arrive, of being aboriginal and aucthotonous to a new and
uninhabited place over time, that gave them the numerical powers over their
latter day settlers like the Benin migrants and escapees from terror; who
integrated themselves into the dominant culture, influencing it in part with
their imported Benin culture in the West of the Niger, and Igala cultural
partnership in the East of the Niger. But never overwhelming its core culture
in its fundamental culture markers like the language which remains a dialect of
Igbo, names, rituals etc.
EZE CHIMA RE-UNITED THE IGBO WEST
AND EAST OF THE NIGER
Even Eze Chime/China, the biggest
influencer among the Benin migrant who founded or more appropriately, mixed and
integrated with the Igbo speaking people, was himself an Igbo in the Benin
diaspora. He must have been an NRI priest plying his ritual cleansing trade in
Benin as only them bore the title, Eze, a royal priesthood as Benin records too
testify to Igbo priest(s) carrying out ritual functions in their palace. In the
case of Chime/Chima he has a clear Igbo name that is not in any way Benin in
origin; even if most of his followers with whom he fought the Benin kingdom
were largely of Benin origin as was his regent wife. Chima never took his
followers after the lost battle to Yoruba land that is closer to Benin, he faced
where he hailed from, East/West of the Niger.
The Onitsha account showed us that his direct children who
founded some of the last towns of Onitsha, Ogwuta and Aboh were inspired to do
so because they wanted to be as faraway from the long arm of the Benin power
and tyranny as they could be to be assured of safety. And also because their
father, Chime/Chima had inspired them about a place across the river. It is no
wonder that the direct children from his loins all were attracted to the
watersides of the Niger river of Onitsha founded by Oreze who met an Igala
settlement, headed by Ulutu; the Igala being the riverine people of the
northern Middle Belt of Nigeria as the Izon/Ijo are to southern Nigeria. He
joined Chima’s first Ukpali having stayed back in Obior to inherit and
continue the lineage and throne of their father, Chima. The third and fourth
son who felt deceived by their brother Oreze in an open competition that was to
determine who among the new contingent that migrated from Obior upon the death
of Chima was to be the new leader of the new settlement, followed their own new
path.
He found his own waterway in Ogwuta and its lake, and his brother, Ogwuwzi,
found Aboh and its river. Chima their father in his time could not go beyond
Obior, West of the Igbo Niger where he decidedly settled down from long journey
and old age, making Obior, the fountain head of Onicha Ugbo, Onicha Ukwu,
Onicha Onicha Olona, Onicha Mmiri/Ado N’Idu, Isele Ukwu, Isele Azagba, Isele
Mkpitime, Ezi and Obamkpa that constitute the Igbo federation of the
Umu/children of Chima. Their Easter faction being Onitsha, Ogwuta and Aboh of
Chima’s children.
(Charles Mingus Sextet, “Conversation” [Mingus, bass; Clarence Shaw, trumpet; Jimmy Kneeper, trombone; Shafi Hadi, alto and tenor saxophones; Bill Evans, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: Bethlehem Records, Cincinnati, US, 16 August 1957])
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).
