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Atlanta, GA Weather from Weather Underground

Jackie McLean

John H. Armwood Jazz History Lecture Nashville's Cheekwood Arts Center 1989

Saturday, January 25, 2014

David Murray - Cousin Mary

David Murray live at Village Vanguard. This is Morning Song.

David Murray Octet Morning Song 1987 I spent six nights a week with this band. Amiri Baraka and his wife Amini as well as anybody else who was in the arts community in New York. Managing David was a magical period in my life for which I will be eternally thankful.

David Murray Quartet - Murray's Steps - This was a band I managed during the early eighties. I loved David Murray's work. This song is mistitled.

Lester Bowie New York Organ's Ensemble - live

Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Funky AEC/ Odwalla 1981. I used to love this melody. This was their closing act in the eartly eightie

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Berlin Jazzfest - 1991 - Ohnedaruth

"Saving all my love" - Lester Bowie & Brazz Brothers (live)

Lester Bowie - Rios Negros

Monday, January 13, 2014

Amiri Baraka's Legacy Both Controversial And Achingly Beautiful : NPR





Amiri Baraka's Legacy Both Controversial And Achingly Beautiful : NPR

Amiri Baraka was a complex brilliant but somewhat bitter man.  Was he an anti-semite.  Yes, many of his poems clearly demonstrate this.  Did he believe he was one?  No, I know this from personal conversations with him.  His talent was matched by his bitterness over oppression.  We shared a love for jazz.   My politics were far too conservative for him.  I rejected communism in high school after reading Richard Wright's the Outsider.  Black Cultural Nationalism, which he exposed when I first encountered his writings had some attractions but clearly was nihilistic at it's core.  It was a pseudo religious cult birthed out of a justified anger but limited by it's tribalism.  Barack never lost his love for Alan Ginsburg, the great beat poet.

Baraka's love for Ginsburg, who was born Jewish and adopted Buddhism proves the truism that an anti-semite, a racist, a homophobe or any other bigot can still have friends and care about people from the group they despise.  In this sense despite his obvious talent Amiri Baraka's life is a cautionary lesson in human frailty.

John H. Armwood