New Day Jazz

Justin Desmangles

 

 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 multiracial 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.


Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival

 

pictured at right, Miles Davis at his “Miles Davis Quartet” session of March 6, 1954. (Francis Wolff © Mosaic Images LLC)

Genre

Jazz

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Sunday 6/07/2015 @ 3:00PM - 6:00PM
ArtistSongAlbumLabelComments
Charles Mingus Stop! Look! And Sing Songs of Revolutions! The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Impulse
Charles Mingus Saint and Sinner Join in Merriment on Battle Front The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Impulse
Charles Mingus Of Love, Pain, and Passioned Revolt, then Farewell, My Beloved, 'til It's Freedom Day The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Impulse
Etta James At Last At Last Argo
Nat King Cole You're Looking at Me After Midnight Capitol
Airbreak
Charles Mingus Take the A Train / Exactly Like You Mingus Revisited Limelight
Art Pepper Four Brothers Art Pepper + Eleven Contemporary
Miles Davis Nonet Godchild Birth of the Cool Capitol
Miles Davis Nonet Venus de Milo Birth of the Cool Capitol
Chris Connor Lullaby of Birdland Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of Birdland Bethlehem
Chris Connor What is There to Say Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of Birdland Bethlehem
Bill Evans Trio What is There to Say Everybody Digs Bill Evans Riverside
Kronos Quartet featuring Eddie Gomez Nardis Music of Bill Evans Landmark
Airbreak
George Russell Nardis Ezz-thetics Riverside
Langston Hughes (Ellen Holly) I've Known Rivers A Hand is on the Gate Verve-Folkways
Robert Hayden (Moses Gunn) Frederick Douglass A Hand is on the Gate Verve-Folkways
Paul Laurence Dunbar (Cicely Tyson) We Wear the Mask A Hand is on the Gate Verve-Folkways
Ornette Coleman Quartet Focus on Sanity The Shape of Jazz to Come Atlantic
Roland Kirk Quartet Rip, Rig and Panic Rip, Rig and Panic Limelight
Richard Pryor God Are You Serious? Laff
Richard Pryor Grandmother Are You Serious? Laff
Thelonious Monk Quartet Criss-Cross Criss-Cross Columbia
Airbreak
Beverly Kenney Surrey with the Fringe on Top Beverly Kenney Sings for Johnny Smith Roost
Sonny Rollins Surrey with the Fringe on Top Newk's Time Blue Note
Jackie McLean Stablemates Swing, Swang, Swingin' Blue Note
Ted Joans featuring Jimmy Garrison Jazz Must Be A Woman Europa Jazz (EJ-1050) Europa Jazz
Ronald Shannon Jackson featuring Michael S. Harper Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song Pulse Celluloid
Ron Carter / Jim Hall Bag's Groove Live at Village West Concord
Airbreak
Ken Nordine Looks Like It's Going to Rain Word Jazz Dot
Lenny Bruce Psychopathia Sexualis The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce Fantasy
Stan Getz Jordu Stan Meets Chet Verve
Bill Evans Trio Peri's Scope Portrait in Jazz Riverside
Kronos Quartet Peace Piece Music of Bill Evans Landmark
Ronald Shannon Jackson featuring Michael S. Harper Those Winter Sundays (Robert Hayden) Pulse Celluloid
Sarah Vaughn Chelsea Bridge Duke Ellington: Song Book Two Pablo
Airbreak
Charles Mingus Half-mast Inhibition Mingus Revisited Limelight