81st birthday of Albert Ayler

(Born 13 July 1936, Cleveland, Ohio, US)

ICONIC tenor saxophonist and composer whose July 1964 album, Spiritual Unity (Ayler, tenor saxophone; Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, percussion) and subsequent landmark recordings celebrate the concept of rhythmic freedom that captures the saliency of the ongoing age of freedom drive in the United States and elsewhere in the world

(Albert Ayler Trio, Spiritual Unity [“Ghosts: First variation”, “The wizard”, “Spirits”, “Ghosts: Second variation” {personnel: Ayler, tenor saxophone; Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, drums; recorded: Variety Arts Recording Studio, New York, US, 10 July 1964}])

(Albert Ayler & Don Cherry, Vibrations  [“Ghosts: short version”, “Children”, “Holy Spirit”, “Ghosts: extended version”, “Vibrations”, “Mothers” {personnel: Ayler, tenor saxophone, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet, Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, drums; recorded: Copenhagen, Denmark, 14 September 1964}])

 Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

79th birthday of Lee Morgan

(Born 10 July 1938, Philadelphia, US)

VERY BRIGHT trumpeter and composer who records prolifically both on his bands (usually quintets and sextets) and on a stretch of others including those led by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, Art Farmer and Andrew Hill

(Lee Morgan Sextet, “Tom cat” [personnel: Morgan, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone; Jackie McLean, alto saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Art Blakey, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 11  August 1964])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

115th birthday of Nicolás Guillén

(Born 10 July 1902, Camagüe, Cuba)

CELEBRATED PROLIFIC liberatory poet, essayist, journalist, freedom exponent, Cuban national poet

(George Russell Sextet, “Ezz-thetic” – personnel: Russell, piano; Don Ellis, trumpet; Dave Baker, trombone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Steve Swallow, bass; Joe Hunt, drums [recorded Riverside Records, New York, US, 8 May 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

209th or 210th birthday of Solomon Northup

(Born 10 July 1807/1808, Minerva, Essex county, New York, US)

African American violinist, farmer and landowner, kidnapped and enslaved in 1841 whilst visiting Washington, DC, for a music performance mission; regains his freedom in 1853 and becomes an influential campaign speaker for the African American freedom movement in the US’s northeast, publishes 12 Years a Slave (1853), the classic of his experience – basis of the feature, award-winning 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen in which Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup

(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]) 

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

115th birthday of Gwendolyn Bennett

(8 July 1902, Giddings, Texas, US)

Poet, graphic artist, organiser and leader of artists’ guilds, cultural magazine editor and contributor, academic, one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Hank Mobley

(Born 7 July 1930, Eastman, Georgia, US)

Tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, with an impressive recording career beginning in the mid-1950s and spanning two decades

(Hank Mobley Quartet, “Dig dis” [personnel: Mobley, tenor saxophone; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Art Blakey, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 7 February 1960])

 Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

111th birthday of Helene Johnson

(Born 7 July 1906, Boston, Mass, US)

One of the outstanding poets of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s, later develops the discipline to write a poem each day for a period stretching almost five decades

(George Russell Sextet, “Ezz-thetic” – personnel: Russell, piano; Don Ellis, trumpet; Dave Baker, trombone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Steve Swallow, bass; Joe Hunt, drums [recorded Riverside Records, New York, US, 8 May 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe