54th birthday of Marcus Roberts

(Born 7 August 1963, Jacksonville, Florida, US)

VIRTUOSO pianist and composer who has recorded prolifically especially with his trio and also solo, and earlier on with Wynton Marsalis’s varying ensembles (1985-1991); academic

(Marcus Roberts Trio – with expanded ensemble, “Deep in the shed” [Roberts, piano; Roland Guerin, bass; Jason Marsalis, drums; solos from expanded ensemble: Etienne Charles, trumpet; Ron Westray, trombone; Wess Anderson, alto saxophone; recorded: live, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, US, 1 February 2008])

(Marcus Roberts plays “Blue Monk”, classic composition by Thelonious Monk, on the Wynton Marsalis Quintet performance [personnel: Marsalis, trumpet; Todd Williams, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone; Roberts, piano; Reginald Veal, bass; Herlin Riley, drums; recorded: live, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand, 18 March 1988])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Ozubulu, Biafra: St Philips Catholic Church, Sunday 6 August 2017 (0600 mass)

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Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Abbey Lincoln

(Born 6 August 1930, Chicago, US)

ACCLAIMED lyricist, actress, freedom exponent, plays central role in Max Roach Decatet’s classic composition, We Insist!: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960) – undoubtedly music to the ears of the Biafra freedom movement which must free 50 million Biafrans from genocidist Nigeria in one of the pressing liberation quests of the contemporary era

(Max Roach Sextet, “Freedom day” [personnel: Roach, drums; Abbey Lincoln, vocals; Booker Little, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Walter Benton, tenor saxophone; James Schenk, bass; recorded: Nola Penthouse Sound Studio, New York, US, 31 August/6 September 1960)

 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

185th birthday of Edward Wilmot Blyden

(Born 3 August 1832, St Thomas, Virgin Islands)

RENOWNED Igbo-St Thomas intellectual, prolific author whose books, essays, commentaries and speeches, whilst working in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, France, Britain and the United States between 1850 and 1912, inaugurate the epistemology, pan-Africanism

(Sonny Rollins Quartet, “St Thomas” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone, Tommy Flanagan, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 22 June 1956])

 Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

93rd birthday of James Baldwin

(Born 2 August 1924, Harlem, New York, US)

Novelist, essayist, commentator, dramatist, arguably African America’s leading writer and intellectual during its age of freedom affirmation, 1950s-1990s

(The iconoclastic Baldwin in conversation with the Father of African Literature: … African Atlantic discourses, Gainesville, Florida, US, 9 April 1980…)

...Reflections on history, art, politics, brainpickings, 22 September 2014,

(https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/21/james-baldwin-chinua-achebe-art/), accessed 28 September 2014

(Sam Rivers Quartet, “Ellipsis” [personnel: Rivers, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 11 December 1964])

 Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

210th birthday of Ira Aldridge

(Born 24 July 1807, New York, US)

ONE of the leading Shakespearean actors of the 19th century, active on the London stage and principal theatres across Europe between the mid-1820s and 1867

(Mal Waldron Quintet, “Warm canto” [personnel: Waldron, piano; Eric Dolphy, clarinet;  Ron Carter, cello; Joe Benjamin, bass; Charlie Persip, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 27 June 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

215th birthday of Alexandre Dumas

(Born 24 July 1802, Villiers-Cotterêts, France)

ONE OF THE preeminent luminaries of French letters, prolific across genres – novels, drama, travel books, history, journalism – with classics which include The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Twenty Years Later, The Last Cavalier, Georges

(Miles Davis Quintet featuring Sonny Stitt, “Autumn leaves” [personnel: Davis, trumpet; Stitt, tenor saxophone; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums; recorded: live, L’Olympia, Paris, France, 11 October 1960])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe