New Day Jazz
Justin Desmangles
“God has brought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create – and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
"It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of 'racial identity' as a problem for a multi-racial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.
"In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Genre
Blues & Classical & Experimental & Jazz & Poetry & Literature
Missed the Show?
Artist | Song | Album | Label | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Art Ensemble Of Chicago | Theme De Yoyo | Les Stances A Sophie | Nessa | |
Melvin Jackson | Bold & Black | Funky Skull | Limelight | |
Air | G.v.E. | Air Time | Nessa | |
Kamau Brathwaite | The Cabin | Rights Of Passage | Argo (U.K.) | |
Airbreak | ||||
Charles Mingus | All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother | Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus | Candid | |
Thelonious Monk | Brilliant Corners | Brilliant Corners | Riverside | |
Ken Nordine | My Baby | Word Jazz | Dot | |
Archie Shepp | Sorry 'Bout That | The Magic Of Ju-Ju | Impulse | |
Sarah Vaughn | All Or Nothing At All | Sarah + 2 | Roulette | |
Sarah Vaughn | The Very Thought Of You | Sarah + 2 | Roulette | |
Bill Evans & Jim Hall | Darn That Dream | Undercurrent | United Artists | |
Airbreak | ||||
Alberta Hunter | Workin' Man | Remember My Name | Columbia | |
Alberta Hunter | You Reap What You Sow | Remember My Name | Columbia | |
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells | Poor Man's Plea | Play The Blues | Atco | |
Ntozake Shange | No Assistance | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf | Buddha | |
Ntozake Shange | No More Love Poems #1 | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf | Buddha | |
Magic Sam | I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie) | West Side Soul | Delmark | |
Kenny Dorham | Blue Spring Shuffle | Quiet Kenny | New Jazz | |
Sonny Rollins | Ee-Ah | Tour De Force | Prestige | |
Sterling Brown | Long Gone | Anthology Of Negro Poetry | Folkways | |
Airbreak | ||||
Tommy Flanagan | Ugly Beauty | Thelonica | Enja | |
Tommy Flanagan | Thelonica | Thelonica | Enja | |
Ella Fitzgerald | Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did | Sings The George & Ira Gershwin Songbook | Verve | |
Ella Fitzgerald | Bewitched | Sings The Rodgers & Hart Songbook | Verve | |
Gene Ammons | My Romance | Boss Tenor | Prestige | |
Charles Mingus | Vasserlean (a.k.a. Weird Nightmare) | The Complete Candid Recordings | Mosaic | |
Melvin Jackson | Say What | Funky Skull | Limelight | |
Airbreak | ||||
Jimi Hendrix | The Star Spangled Banner | The Essential Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2 | Reprise |