The Next Last Greatest...
Entry 8 - 11/15/24
Solar Suite
Released in May of 2022 on bandcamp
This is the first recording of the Solar Suite. It was performed live in concert at this exhibition -
https://www.hydeparkart.org/event/symposium-traveling-the-spaceways-sun-ra-the-astro-black-and-other-solar-myths-day-1/
but if you check this link you won't see any mention of it, though it was the most fascinating thing that happened, out side of the artifacts themselves.
this website says I spoke on some panel. I don't remember being a part of a panel discussion.
I have a video of the musical performance though -
let me know if you'd be interested in viewing it - maybe I'll do a bandcamp streaming thing.
The Lineup:
David Boykin – tenor saxophone,
Nicole Mitchell - flute
James Baker – piano,
Josh Abrams - bass,
Mike Reed drums
Renee Baker – violin,
Shirazette Tinnin - congas
Chinatsu Nakano – alto saxophone
The music:
Solar Suite
Midnight
Sunrise
Herukhuti (Midday)
Sunset
Enocturnal Sun
recorded live in concert 11/11/2006 - total time 46:31
Cover art by Xris Espinosa
I guess this was not long after the Ultra Sheen record. The main regular group was Nicole, Josh, and Jim; and then Mike was the current occupier of the drum seat.
Renee was playing with Nicole in Black Earth. Shirazette was a student at Northern Illinois University and was playing in Nicole’s projects. Chinatsu Nakano was a on the scene for a moment and I think was studying with Fred Anderson. I got called to do something for the Sun Ra exhibition and thought it’s be a great opportunity to play the Solar Suite with an expanded the ensemble.
The music - a suite that organically evolved over a period of time of my regular composition process. Sunrise and Sunset were on the album 47th Street Ghost years before and the other peices came in the years after.
One interesting thing that I was experimenting with on this gig with the expanded lineup, was where i was trying to get the group to play as though they were two distinct ensembles playiing independently side by side and together at the same time. On Midnight we are split into two groups. One group consisting of myself (sax), Chinatsu (sax), Mike (drums), and Josh (bass). The other group was Nicole (flute) Renee (viola?), Jim (piano), and Shirazette (percussion). The music composition does a thing that i ddi earlier on my first album Evidence of Life on Other Planets on the track Eclipsing Beauty. There is a melody that is introduced that is gradually eclipsed by a later counter melody with a different feel that gradually shifts the whole scape.
I’m trying to create the sensation of omnipresence in the listener’s awareness.
This is one of the few times that i’m recorded playing with another saxophonist. I enjoy playing with other saxophonist a lot, in spite of how many times it happens. I heard Chinatsu Nikano at the Velvet or someplace at a jam session and thought it would be interesting to play her. I felt like I heard a lot of her reaching, searching, trying to breakthrough, in her playing which is something that I like to hear in music.
Solar Suite
Released in May of 2022 on bandcamp
This is the first recording of the Solar Suite. It was performed live in concert at this exhibition -
https://www.hydeparkart.org/event/symposium-traveling-the-spaceways-sun-ra-the-astro-black-and-other-solar-myths-day-1/
but if you check this link you won't see any mention of it, though it was the most fascinating thing that happened, out side of the artifacts themselves.
this website says I spoke on some panel. I don't remember being a part of a panel discussion.
I have a video of the musical performance though -
let me know if you'd be interested in viewing it - maybe I'll do a bandcamp streaming thing.
The Lineup:
David Boykin – tenor saxophone,
Nicole Mitchell - flute
James Baker – piano,
Josh Abrams - bass,
Mike Reed drums
Renee Baker – violin,
Shirazette Tinnin - congas
Chinatsu Nakano – alto saxophone
The music:
Solar Suite
Midnight
Sunrise
Herukhuti (Midday)
Sunset
Enocturnal Sun
recorded live in concert 11/11/2006 - total time 46:31
Cover art by Xris Espinosa
I guess this was not long after the Ultra Sheen record. The main regular group was Nicole, Josh, and Jim; and then Mike was the current occupier of the drum seat.
Renee was playing with Nicole in Black Earth. Shirazette was a student at Northern Illinois University and was playing in Nicole’s projects. Chinatsu Nakano was a on the scene for a moment and I think was studying with Fred Anderson. I got called to do something for the Sun Ra exhibition and thought it’s be a great opportunity to play the Solar Suite with an expanded the ensemble.
The music - a suite that organically evolved over a period of time of my regular composition process. Sunrise and Sunset were on the album 47th Street Ghost years before and the other peices came in the years after.
One interesting thing that I was experimenting with on this gig with the expanded lineup, was where i was trying to get the group to play as though they were two distinct ensembles playiing independently side by side and together at the same time. On Midnight we are split into two groups. One group consisting of myself (sax), Chinatsu (sax), Mike (drums), and Josh (bass). The other group was Nicole (flute) Renee (viola?), Jim (piano), and Shirazette (percussion). The music composition does a thing that i ddi earlier on my first album Evidence of Life on Other Planets on the track Eclipsing Beauty. There is a melody that is introduced that is gradually eclipsed by a later counter melody with a different feel that gradually shifts the whole scape.
I’m trying to create the sensation of omnipresence in the listener’s awareness.
This is one of the few times that i’m recorded playing with another saxophonist. I enjoy playing with other saxophonist a lot, in spite of how many times it happens. I heard Chinatsu Nikano at the Velvet or someplace at a jam session and thought it would be interesting to play her. I felt like I heard a lot of her reaching, searching, trying to breakthrough, in her playing which is something that I like to hear in music.
Entry 7 - 8/26/23
Chicago: Featuring Lasana Kazembe about to be out on bandcamp 9/1/23
Chicago:
Featuring Lasana Kazembe
David Boykin Expanse
SHM 029
Recorded Live in concert
David Boykin - music composition and tenor saxophone; Lasana Kazembe - spoken word; Nicole Mitchell - flute; Josh Abrams - bass; Darius Savage - bass; Avreeyal Ra - drums; Eliel Sherman Storey - tenor saxophone; Lawrence Jones - congas; Zahra Glenda Baker - vocals; Jeff Parker - guitar
Lasana Kazembe was a poet I met on the Poetry scene - probably at Afrika West. Afrika West was a black bookstore owned by Kwodjo Ababio. I first met Kwodjo when his store was located on the northside near the Wilson Redline el station. Walking through the neighborhood and came upon it. This was around 1993. He moved his store to the West side down the street from Bobby Wright Mental Health Center, across the street from Marshall High School, and around the corner from Ednas Soul Food. They would have weekly open mic poetry sets in the store. I was just starting to play out at jazz jam sessions and somehow started playing with poets at open mics. Lasana frequented the open mics at Afrika West. I dug his poetry - mostly black socially conscious political stuff, more analytical than most, and more critical than most, and i liked his delivery, his cadence, it always reminded me of Malcolm X.
I met Lawrence Jones (on congas) at the same place. And brother Nate Germany (not playing on this record but a great poet, painter, and visual artists) as well. Lawrence also plays on Evidence on Life on Other Planets, the first recording I made, in 1999. This record (Chicago) was probably recorded in 1998 or 1999. There was a couple of shows that i was blessed enough to have Avreeyal Ra playing drums with us. The group was evolving. I had started with a trio in like 96 and added Nicole in like 97 and maybe Glenda in like 98 and so on and so on. Darius Savage was a new young bass player on the scene at the Velvet. As the group got bigger, more people needed to solo, and songs got longer. So these two gigs that resulted in the recordings Chicago and Space Garden Mission and Remote Depossession and one other joint, might have been a week apart. The night Space Garden Mission was recorded, somebody was asking about the set list and I said we was just gon play Space Garden Mission for the whole 1st set. The sets usually be 45 min to an hour. We was stretching out like that.
So this night was a similar kind of thing. I’d invited Lasana to do something with us over this yet untitled song with a slick foreboding horn line on the saxes countered by a funky melody on the flute and Glendas vocals, upheld by tow contrasting bass lines, one a slow plodding over the 7/4 time signature the other playing a funky double timed 10 beat phrase that repeats like 2 and 7 tenths times. Avreeyal’s playing in the double time swinging hard on the ride and dropping these funky bombs on the snare and bass and crash accenting the seven.
Jeff Parker
I had admired Jeff Parker since the first time i saw him playing at a New Horizons Concert probably close to like 1992. He was killing it. Playing so hard he broke a string and cut a finger, or fingers. The musical intensity was face plastering as it was with Ernest Dawkins, Ahmeen Muhammed and Steve Berry but then you had the Jeff Parker shredding the guitar till strings brake and blood drips. He was playing more like Sonny Sharrock than Wes Montgomery at the time. Anyway, i had met him at some point through Josh and we never played together. I would ask him sometimes but he was always too busy and never available.
Then this night i get to the gig and he’s there asking me where to set up and I’m like “What? “I didn’t ask you play tonight” and he’s like “Yes You did” - and I’m like well shit maybe i did, told him where to set up, hand copied him a chart from somebody else's part, told him what we was gon do, and that was that. No rehearsal or nothing and he fit in perfectly. The whole thing was magic.
Chicago: Featuring Lasana Kazembe about to be out on bandcamp 9/1/23
Chicago:
Featuring Lasana Kazembe
David Boykin Expanse
SHM 029
Recorded Live in concert
David Boykin - music composition and tenor saxophone; Lasana Kazembe - spoken word; Nicole Mitchell - flute; Josh Abrams - bass; Darius Savage - bass; Avreeyal Ra - drums; Eliel Sherman Storey - tenor saxophone; Lawrence Jones - congas; Zahra Glenda Baker - vocals; Jeff Parker - guitar
Lasana Kazembe was a poet I met on the Poetry scene - probably at Afrika West. Afrika West was a black bookstore owned by Kwodjo Ababio. I first met Kwodjo when his store was located on the northside near the Wilson Redline el station. Walking through the neighborhood and came upon it. This was around 1993. He moved his store to the West side down the street from Bobby Wright Mental Health Center, across the street from Marshall High School, and around the corner from Ednas Soul Food. They would have weekly open mic poetry sets in the store. I was just starting to play out at jazz jam sessions and somehow started playing with poets at open mics. Lasana frequented the open mics at Afrika West. I dug his poetry - mostly black socially conscious political stuff, more analytical than most, and more critical than most, and i liked his delivery, his cadence, it always reminded me of Malcolm X.
I met Lawrence Jones (on congas) at the same place. And brother Nate Germany (not playing on this record but a great poet, painter, and visual artists) as well. Lawrence also plays on Evidence on Life on Other Planets, the first recording I made, in 1999. This record (Chicago) was probably recorded in 1998 or 1999. There was a couple of shows that i was blessed enough to have Avreeyal Ra playing drums with us. The group was evolving. I had started with a trio in like 96 and added Nicole in like 97 and maybe Glenda in like 98 and so on and so on. Darius Savage was a new young bass player on the scene at the Velvet. As the group got bigger, more people needed to solo, and songs got longer. So these two gigs that resulted in the recordings Chicago and Space Garden Mission and Remote Depossession and one other joint, might have been a week apart. The night Space Garden Mission was recorded, somebody was asking about the set list and I said we was just gon play Space Garden Mission for the whole 1st set. The sets usually be 45 min to an hour. We was stretching out like that.
So this night was a similar kind of thing. I’d invited Lasana to do something with us over this yet untitled song with a slick foreboding horn line on the saxes countered by a funky melody on the flute and Glendas vocals, upheld by tow contrasting bass lines, one a slow plodding over the 7/4 time signature the other playing a funky double timed 10 beat phrase that repeats like 2 and 7 tenths times. Avreeyal’s playing in the double time swinging hard on the ride and dropping these funky bombs on the snare and bass and crash accenting the seven.
Jeff Parker
I had admired Jeff Parker since the first time i saw him playing at a New Horizons Concert probably close to like 1992. He was killing it. Playing so hard he broke a string and cut a finger, or fingers. The musical intensity was face plastering as it was with Ernest Dawkins, Ahmeen Muhammed and Steve Berry but then you had the Jeff Parker shredding the guitar till strings brake and blood drips. He was playing more like Sonny Sharrock than Wes Montgomery at the time. Anyway, i had met him at some point through Josh and we never played together. I would ask him sometimes but he was always too busy and never available.
Then this night i get to the gig and he’s there asking me where to set up and I’m like “What? “I didn’t ask you play tonight” and he’s like “Yes You did” - and I’m like well shit maybe i did, told him where to set up, hand copied him a chart from somebody else's part, told him what we was gon do, and that was that. No rehearsal or nothing and he fit in perfectly. The whole thing was magic.
Entry 6 - 7/10/23 -
Been a long time - after this entry there might be a few to recap music releases since the last post - but for now - you ever just straight up ask somebody why they dont fuck with you like that? how did that go?
somebody recently told me i should be on tiktok - and thought yeah i probably should - so signed up and started to browse before i posted some content - and came across a profile doing some music reviews that i thought were in a similar vein of my stuff and clicked follow and was started drafting a message to them inviting them to check out my music when i stumbled over a post of some new music from an artist i know featuring a number of other artist that i know of and at least one that i know very well and just wondered what makes some people fuck with you or not fuck with you on whatever levels. I answered myself by with an echo of something i heard earlier today when someone said “i would go ask them myself”, but was speaking about something totally indifferent in a different context, but I thought it might apply. Then i was like, damn, "you think they’ll tell you?" - and also- "are you sure you really wanna know?" you ever asked somebody why they do or dont fuck with you like that? how did that go?
Been a long time - after this entry there might be a few to recap music releases since the last post - but for now - you ever just straight up ask somebody why they dont fuck with you like that? how did that go?
somebody recently told me i should be on tiktok - and thought yeah i probably should - so signed up and started to browse before i posted some content - and came across a profile doing some music reviews that i thought were in a similar vein of my stuff and clicked follow and was started drafting a message to them inviting them to check out my music when i stumbled over a post of some new music from an artist i know featuring a number of other artist that i know of and at least one that i know very well and just wondered what makes some people fuck with you or not fuck with you on whatever levels. I answered myself by with an echo of something i heard earlier today when someone said “i would go ask them myself”, but was speaking about something totally indifferent in a different context, but I thought it might apply. Then i was like, damn, "you think they’ll tell you?" - and also- "are you sure you really wanna know?" you ever asked somebody why they do or dont fuck with you like that? how did that go?
Entry 5 - 7/4/22 -
- How did you start playing music?
I was in college studying economics at Florida A&M University. When I returned from summer break my roomate, Rudy (Rudolph Headley) returned with a new interest in jazz music and a bunch of jazz recordings that he began to play all the time
I was called to be a musician when i was a college student studying economics at Florida A&M University. My roommate returned from summer break with a new found interest in jazz music. He had several recordings jazz music that he played on the stereo all of the time. Prior to this we mostly listened to hip-hop, r&b, and reggae. One day while hearing the music i was struck by a deep and powerful knowing unlike anything i had ever known before or since. I knew profoundly that i enjoyed listening to this music, that I wanted to play this music, that i could play this music, that i would play this music, and that it was my life’s purpose.
The following spring semester i took a break form school and worked full time to save some money. I was visiting a friend from and discovered that at one point wanted to be a singer and had a recording studio in his home that included a clarinet that he gave to me when i told him that i wanted to play jazz saxophone. A few weeks later i was carrying the clarinet when i walked into record store where the clerk spotted my instrument case and asked me about it. After i told her about it she let me know that she was a clarinetist and music student at Roosevelt University and offered to give me music lessons. A week or so later on my way to my first lesson as i am crossing the street in downtown Chicago on Wabash under the train tracks with my headphones on, I feel someone bumping up against me on my right side and wonder if someone is attempting to pick pocket me. I pull off headphones and turn to see whats going on and prepare t defend myself to find that its Eddie Harris noticing my case and trying to get my attention. He told me who he was and asked me about the clarinet. I told him that i knew him and his music and about the clarinet and that i was on my way to my first lesson. He told me he was in town visiting his family and wished me luck.
I took lessons with the student for a number of weeks and then returned to Florida where i was not enrolled in school but studied the clarinet independently and absorbed as much music as i could. My roommate introduced me to Lindsey Sarjeant the jazz music teacher who would let us sit in on his jazz history class lectures. He would bring musicians to the school to perform often. I would see Marcus Roberts (with new teenage sensation drummer Brian Blades) a number of times coming to performing and working with the students trumpeter Scottie Barnhardt, saxophonist Herb Ellis, and drummer Frank Parker are the ones I most remember.
I returned to Chicago that fall for good and decided to finish my studies there. I would finish my degree in economics but music was the thing.
My grandmother was visiting from the Alabama and staying with my cousin who is a few days younger that me. I went over their house to visit and told my cousin of my musical interest in conversation. He then told me that he had a saxophone in the closet that he played in high school and gave it to me. I had some difficulty playing it and decided I would just stick to the clarinet. I would not play it for about another year later after i discovered that it needed some mechanical repair and that that was the reason for my difficulty. (The same thing happened to me with flute, Im just getting around to really studying the flute.)
In that first year of independent autodidactic practice/study/discovery led by intuition and focused on improvisation - i would experience moments of playing for hours entranced by the music and the search. when i would stop playing i would feel as though i had awakened from sleep or a trance or a dream. It felt wonderful. It was a high. I wanted to feel it all the time.
- How did you start playing music?
I was in college studying economics at Florida A&M University. When I returned from summer break my roomate, Rudy (Rudolph Headley) returned with a new interest in jazz music and a bunch of jazz recordings that he began to play all the time
I was called to be a musician when i was a college student studying economics at Florida A&M University. My roommate returned from summer break with a new found interest in jazz music. He had several recordings jazz music that he played on the stereo all of the time. Prior to this we mostly listened to hip-hop, r&b, and reggae. One day while hearing the music i was struck by a deep and powerful knowing unlike anything i had ever known before or since. I knew profoundly that i enjoyed listening to this music, that I wanted to play this music, that i could play this music, that i would play this music, and that it was my life’s purpose.
The following spring semester i took a break form school and worked full time to save some money. I was visiting a friend from and discovered that at one point wanted to be a singer and had a recording studio in his home that included a clarinet that he gave to me when i told him that i wanted to play jazz saxophone. A few weeks later i was carrying the clarinet when i walked into record store where the clerk spotted my instrument case and asked me about it. After i told her about it she let me know that she was a clarinetist and music student at Roosevelt University and offered to give me music lessons. A week or so later on my way to my first lesson as i am crossing the street in downtown Chicago on Wabash under the train tracks with my headphones on, I feel someone bumping up against me on my right side and wonder if someone is attempting to pick pocket me. I pull off headphones and turn to see whats going on and prepare t defend myself to find that its Eddie Harris noticing my case and trying to get my attention. He told me who he was and asked me about the clarinet. I told him that i knew him and his music and about the clarinet and that i was on my way to my first lesson. He told me he was in town visiting his family and wished me luck.
I took lessons with the student for a number of weeks and then returned to Florida where i was not enrolled in school but studied the clarinet independently and absorbed as much music as i could. My roommate introduced me to Lindsey Sarjeant the jazz music teacher who would let us sit in on his jazz history class lectures. He would bring musicians to the school to perform often. I would see Marcus Roberts (with new teenage sensation drummer Brian Blades) a number of times coming to performing and working with the students trumpeter Scottie Barnhardt, saxophonist Herb Ellis, and drummer Frank Parker are the ones I most remember.
I returned to Chicago that fall for good and decided to finish my studies there. I would finish my degree in economics but music was the thing.
My grandmother was visiting from the Alabama and staying with my cousin who is a few days younger that me. I went over their house to visit and told my cousin of my musical interest in conversation. He then told me that he had a saxophone in the closet that he played in high school and gave it to me. I had some difficulty playing it and decided I would just stick to the clarinet. I would not play it for about another year later after i discovered that it needed some mechanical repair and that that was the reason for my difficulty. (The same thing happened to me with flute, Im just getting around to really studying the flute.)
In that first year of independent autodidactic practice/study/discovery led by intuition and focused on improvisation - i would experience moments of playing for hours entranced by the music and the search. when i would stop playing i would feel as though i had awakened from sleep or a trance or a dream. It felt wonderful. It was a high. I wanted to feel it all the time.
Entry 4
Progenitor
Expanse All Stars/DB expanse with vocals/voices -
Live in Concert at the Hereafter Fest 2018
we are sunlight/empowerment; omni-intervallic; progenitor
shm 027 - released august 6 2021
David Boykin - sax, vocals
Jim Baker - piano
Isaiah Spencer - drums
Alex Wing - bass
Cher Jey - vocals
Quenna Lene - vocals
Rhonda Gray - vocals
This was recorded live at the last Hereafter Fest at the time of this writing (7/24/21). That was year number 14 (2005 to 2018). 2019 year off, 2020 pandemic, 2021 who knows?
Dope - hard hitting - vocalic spectacle - background singer triumvate, tryptic, trinity. DB Expanse With Strings; vocal chords that is. Heavy rhyming old and new shit with omni-ntervallic and progenitor and opens with we are sunlight/empowerment. we was on fire that night. Jaytoo was spinning in between sets. Had some food from Roeeyah (beans greens plantain). Hunter Gallery is a gallery that Angel and nem, Xris, Be Ra El, Liz ,(“who is thay?” - tell they story) was in residence at the gallery. I was looking for a space for the festival and they recommended it cause they was doing stuff there. They had studio spaces and exhibition space. I think it might be owned by some church. Its across and up the street from Ancient Egyptian Museum** and the South Side Community Art Center.
One of our most spirited performances. With voices is like with the ancestors singing back to us with us. The voices add yet another dimension to the David Boykin sound. He first come out as this out playing big fat tenor sound with swing era swag like gene ammons and ben webster and chops like chu berry and coleman hawkins and rhythm like charlie parker and monk, and vision like sun ra, trane, and spirit like pharaoh and dolphy (evidence of life on other planets vol1 and 2, 47th street ghosts, nextspiritmental.)… Then the mutha fucka start rhyming like guru and kool keith (Ultra Sheen, Omniintervallic). Then he start singing like fucking roy ayers (love power magic, SEBAU). Now he gon put some background singers on that shit?!
He on some other shit.
**Ancient Egyptian Museum - founded by Walter Williams - i found it in like 1991 or 2 or 3 or something and he sent me to Jimmy Ellis for lessons - its where i played my first show - gotta go back and find les paul face book post story video bout walter clark reminiscing at phil cohran exhibit telling story of how walter williams introduced him to sun ra. That was some old chicago cosmic connection bringing it back full circle shit. Reminder i gotta meet/gon meet walter clark at some point. Or maybe not. Spiral not circle, looping but not closed, we open and ascending out, expanse.
DB 7-24-21 sun morn
Expanse All Stars/DB expanse with vocals/voices -
Live in Concert at the Hereafter Fest 2018
we are sunlight/empowerment; omni-intervallic; progenitor
shm 027 - released august 6 2021
David Boykin - sax, vocals
Jim Baker - piano
Isaiah Spencer - drums
Alex Wing - bass
Cher Jey - vocals
Quenna Lene - vocals
Rhonda Gray - vocals
This was recorded live at the last Hereafter Fest at the time of this writing (7/24/21). That was year number 14 (2005 to 2018). 2019 year off, 2020 pandemic, 2021 who knows?
Dope - hard hitting - vocalic spectacle - background singer triumvate, tryptic, trinity. DB Expanse With Strings; vocal chords that is. Heavy rhyming old and new shit with omni-ntervallic and progenitor and opens with we are sunlight/empowerment. we was on fire that night. Jaytoo was spinning in between sets. Had some food from Roeeyah (beans greens plantain). Hunter Gallery is a gallery that Angel and nem, Xris, Be Ra El, Liz ,(“who is thay?” - tell they story) was in residence at the gallery. I was looking for a space for the festival and they recommended it cause they was doing stuff there. They had studio spaces and exhibition space. I think it might be owned by some church. Its across and up the street from Ancient Egyptian Museum** and the South Side Community Art Center.
One of our most spirited performances. With voices is like with the ancestors singing back to us with us. The voices add yet another dimension to the David Boykin sound. He first come out as this out playing big fat tenor sound with swing era swag like gene ammons and ben webster and chops like chu berry and coleman hawkins and rhythm like charlie parker and monk, and vision like sun ra, trane, and spirit like pharaoh and dolphy (evidence of life on other planets vol1 and 2, 47th street ghosts, nextspiritmental.)… Then the mutha fucka start rhyming like guru and kool keith (Ultra Sheen, Omniintervallic). Then he start singing like fucking roy ayers (love power magic, SEBAU). Now he gon put some background singers on that shit?!
He on some other shit.
**Ancient Egyptian Museum - founded by Walter Williams - i found it in like 1991 or 2 or 3 or something and he sent me to Jimmy Ellis for lessons - its where i played my first show - gotta go back and find les paul face book post story video bout walter clark reminiscing at phil cohran exhibit telling story of how walter williams introduced him to sun ra. That was some old chicago cosmic connection bringing it back full circle shit. Reminder i gotta meet/gon meet walter clark at some point. Or maybe not. Spiral not circle, looping but not closed, we open and ascending out, expanse.
DB 7-24-21 sun morn
Entry 3 - May 26, 2019 -
I would just like to share, first, here in the beginning of this story or memoir or series of anecdotes, the lyrics to the song Imbroglio from the album Ultra Sheen as they are somewhat biographical and may kind of lay things out almost like an outline or table of contents; and i’ll fill in the details in later postings.
Best,
IMBROGLIO
once upon a time yet to come
a woman gives birth to a son
destined to bring all rhythms to one
quite unlike your typical youth
distant and aloof
with an inner urge to know the truth
what he sought was understanding
of underlying forces commanding
all in the universe ever expanding
and what was his fate that future was planning
but 21 sun revolutions
yielded no resolution
to what path in life he should be choosing
till one day during rotation
came revelation
to true destiny he awakened
that’s when it came to him in a vision
he saw himself in position
leading a mystic order of musicians
creative geniuses of unmatched precision
filled with energy abound
from his new purpose found
he would uncover the secrets of sound
of every instrument he could find
in every moment of time
and its effect on the body the spirit the mind
from the first down to the last
not one did he past
voice percussion woodwinds strings and brass
but the die had already been cast
saxophone and clarinet were preferred
above the others he heard
to express what he could not put into words
he was an anomaly
could navigate phenomenally
in extended ranges through changes of keys
melody to mesmerize
harmony to hypnotize
and rhythm that would revolutionize
were acquired through relentless exercise
with intense study and practice
of techniques and tactics
he mastered the intergalactic
sound of songs sung by the sphere
that once rung in the ears
of mankind evolving him over thousands of years
knowledge of intervals and notes
to exorcise and invoke
demons of despair and angels of hope
would cast the deciding vote
in a war waged round the world
in which sound waves were hurled
a terrifying beauty would unfurl
many hearts cried for peace
but not one hand would cease
devastation death tolls increase
in attempt to stop the violence
and restore compliance
with the laws of vibratory science
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEZOe7n3m88
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Entry #2 - Sunday February 3, 2019 - "Next, Last Greatest...", Explained
“Next Last Greatest” is an excerpt from a line from rap song i wrote - mocking the way marketers of jazz describe their product as the next, the last, or the greatest jazz musician, composer, instrumentalists, recording, etc. It is the tentative/working title for my memoirs of my life as a jazz musician in Chicago from 1991 till today during a critical phase in the history of the music during which we are witnessing the completion of the shift of the spiritual, creative, industrial, performance, and economic center of the van-garde of the music from the black dominantly populated south and west sides of the city to the white dominantly populated north side of the city. This is significant because: 1. jazz is a music created by black people; 2. Chicago is an anti-black, racist, hyper-segregated, apartheid city where jazz music once flourished in black communities from the 20s til the early 60s and now scarcely exist in the black community in Chicago; 3. its only after the musicians playing this style left Chicago and gained wider acceptance in the world abroad that the music industry in Chicago saw its marketability and recognized it, claimed it and then promoted it and try to control and define the music and its historical narrative. The significance of the current time period that I’m dealing with is marked by the deaths of three important figures in the Chicago jazz music scene, Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, and Phil Cohran. Fred Anderson (March 22, 1929 – June 24, 2010), Von Freeman (October 3, 1923 – August 11, 2012), Phil Cohran (May 8, 1927 – June 28, 2017) With the recent deaths of these three musicians Chicago has seen a shift in the jazz music scene where the center of the music has completely shifted form the southside to the northside. THE WHITENING OF CHICAGO JAZZ SPIRIT - FINAL STAGE - there was always a split division in this historically racist and segregated city that kept the scene segregated. Black southside and westside jazz and blues entertainment venues once flourished in Chicago but the economic oppression of them has reached its peak. Fred Anderson was the owner of The Velvet Lounge and institution that flourished from the early 90s til his death in 2010 - he was the gateway/sanctioner/validator for many musicians black and white playing free or more innovative styles - Von Freeman hosted sessions at the new apartment lounge - from 90s til 2010 playing traditional be-bop style - he “sanctioned” many bebop players. Phil Cohran - played with Sun Ra in the late 50s in Chicago and stayed here in Chicago to work “on his own thing” (afro arts theater, astronomy, black cultural studies, the frankiphone, science of sound, esoteric teachings of science, history, mysticism) when Sun Ra’s group left for New York. Phil was an institution for the mysticism of the music, a keeper of black history and culture and the cultural legacy of the music in Chicago. The physical existence of these three men as institutions on the southside of Chicago (though Phil in later years lived mostly on the north side) kept the spiritual center, the soul of the music, rooted in the black community. Even though almost all of the clubs had disappeared from the black community and the economic vitality of playing this music was centered on the north side in white owned clubs (record labels, publications, magazines, journals, philanthropic organizations, schools, talent booking agencies) the music’s identity still remained black. Now the style of jazz music that is most adventurous - so called free, avant-garde, experimental, creative music - is housed on the north side of the city in dominantly white populated communities and venues featuring mostly white musicians. The music was maligned socially and economically when most of its practitioners were black musician, but it is now acceptable at this time when the infrastructure for the music (clubs, radio stations, theaters) on the dominantly black populated south and west sides of the city has been decimated, and new infrastructure has been built up to support it on the north side of the city and most of the practitioners employed by this economy are white. Previously a Fred Anderson or a Von Freeman sanctioned the next last greatest, but now there is no longer a black musician functioning in that role. That role of validating the next last greatest was on of the last remaining strands of power/influence upon the jazz music industry that the black community had managed to hold on to in Chicago. Going forward now i wonder what does it all mean. Entry #1 Thursday January 24th 2019 Greetings everyone, African people were brought to America to be enslaved and everything that they create is owned by their slave masters and this situation still persist today. Very few African artist own and control their art. Most of this blog will deal with me as an African artist in America getting/exercising freedom from a society created to deny it and perpetually imprison and exploit me. I felt a need to write this blog as way to tell my story in my own words. Eliel Sherman Storey, (saxophonist, recording engineer, entrepreneur, owner and operator of Transitions East, friend, colleague) is always reminding me about the importance of the narrative to put this music we make into context and to tell our story in our own words. A story is being told by the music and other art that I create (physical artifacts left behind); and the things that I do and the memories and effects of them on other people. This story is real and is the truth. There is then a narrative being written by people who write about the music. None of these people speak on my behalf nor have my interest at heart. Some of the things they write about me are true. Most of what they write is used to marginalize the truth of the effect of my work. This blog is to tell my story in my own words from my perspective. It might be every week. It might be once a month. I'm not sure yet. Please email me on the contact tab to be added to a list to receive updates. In the next entry I will explain the current title of the blog "The Next Last Greatest..." peace. |