{"id":3113,"date":"2014-01-10T22:28:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T22:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3113"},"modified":"2014-01-10T22:28:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T22:28:22","slug":"on-the-resonant-voices-of-roy-campbell-and-amiri-baraka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/10\/on-the-resonant-voices-of-roy-campbell-and-amiri-baraka\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Resonant Voices of Roy Campbell and Amiri Baraka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Roy Campbell\/ photo by Peter Gannushkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nYesterday I was shaken by the deaths of two men: Roy Campbell<\/a><\/strong>, 61, a musician who expressed himself best on trumpet, flugelhorn and pocket trumpet but also played flute, was an insightful writer, and acted in independent films and plays; and Amiri Baraka<\/a><\/strong>, 79, who is best known as an influential poet, playwright and critic but whose use of words as rhythm and color and whose many performances with jazz ensembles counts him as a musician of high order in my book.
\nThat they passed on the same day merely highlights many points of connection\u2014cultural, spiritual and intellectual\u2014regarding their respective arcs of art and life, not to mention one regular spot of physical convergence, Manhattan\u2019s annual Vision Festival<\/a>. That\u2019s where I saw and heard Baraka, wearing reading glasses and a cardigan sweater, holding a book of his own prose onstage, making the phrase \u201cWe were slaves\u201d sound alternately tender and fierce, sad and angry, as set against the thrum of William Parker\u2019s bass. And it\u2019s where I began a friendship I\u2019ll always treasure with Campbell, who played in multiple Vision Fest set most years, sometimes alongside Parker, his dear friend and longtime associate, and often leading his own powerful bands.
\nIt will take me a while to process these passings, and I\u2019m sure to write about each of these men separately to celebrate their distinctive achievements and spirits: They were towering artists and very different men whose warmth, wit and wisdom took often contrasting forms. I suspect I’ll be attending gatherings in each of their honors.
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Amiri Baraka\/ photo by Peter Gannushkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBut just now, I want to mark the moment and acknowledge how much both of them taught me about what black music sounds like, why it sounds that way, and what that might mean. I want to share these black-and-white photos by Peter Gannushkin.\u00a0I want to relay what musicians have told me about Campbell and what Baraka and Campbell have said to me.
\nTrumpeter Dave Douglas told me that Campbell’s musicianship and humanity and his efforts as cofounder inspired the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which recently celebrated its tenth year. \u201cOn a cocktail napkin, Roy and I made a list of interesting players we could present,\u201d he told me in an interview for this piece<\/a>, \u201cand it just got longer and longer. We didn\u2019t think we\u2019d do it again, but it created a community and people starting asking us, \u2018What\u2019s happening next year?\u2019 We thought, \u2018Why not see how far we can take this?\u2019\u201d
\nI want to spill out this comment, emailed from pianist Matthew Shipp:<\/p>\n

There is no one like Roy Campbell on the music scene now. I guess it\u2019s hard to situate someone by comparing them to others, but for lack of a better way to look at it: Roy encompasses both Lee Morgan\u2019s soulfulness and the true abstract genius of Don Cherry into an organic synthesis. That statement is just an attempt to get a something across and is not meant to be taken literally, for what Roy brought to the table is original for this time. Roy was a natural\u2014everything about him was completely real and never forced. The jazz industry does not have a place for someone as real as Roy Campbell. The jazz industry has some soul searching to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to recall what Amiri Baraka told me a the Vision Festival in 2006, when the post-Katrina devastation in New Orleans was still raw, and I was trying to make sense of its context:<\/p>\n

“See, what Bush wants is to make New Orleans like his mother \u2014 shriveled and colorless.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Baraka could pack wisdom, hard truths, racial pride and funny stuff into a phrase as tightly as Thelonious Monk did at the piano.)
\nAnd I want to paste below an interview I did with Campbell for a Vision Festival program book nearly a decade ago (hence the dated references):
\nRoy Campbell\u2019s presence is felt wherever he goes. His smile is infectious, his humor disarming. But it\u2019s really about his intensity and openness when he picks up his trumpet, a wound piece of brass with three keys. Campbell thinks there\u2019s magic in threes. He says it took him basically three years to formulate his style of playing, one that mixes blues and bebop convention with a searching sense that grew out of late-\u201960s free jazz. As on his new recording, Ethnic Stew and Brew (Delmark), he makes good use of a threesome\u2014his Pyramid Trio, with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid. But Campbell thrives in all manner and number of contexts. He leads a quartet too, with new disc on Thirsty Ear Records. And among the many contexts you can hear Campbell is one clear favorite of his, the collective known as Other Dimensions in Music.<\/em>
\nWe tried to cover I all over lunch at an East Village Chinese joint.<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nHow was your attention drawn to improvised music?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nI think what turned me around was when I heard Albert Ayler, when I heard that album \u201cLive in Greenwich Village.\u201d I had seen Sunny Murray with Byard Lancaster, and then, I think, around 1968 or \u201869, there used to be a store called The Gramophone that was on 42nd Street.
\nI remember they had ESP albums for 99\u00a2 at that time. I didn\u2019t even know who the guys were; I just bought these records. I bought Frank Wright, and I knew Sunny Murray, so they had Sunny Murray\u2019s album there, and then when I heard Sonny Simmons, that really linked something for me. I heard \u201cStaying on the Watch,\u201d and there was this other album he did; man, I could hear the tradition and the outside music all together. I really dug those albums.
\nAnd then Pharoah Sanders: He had that tune, \u201cUm-La-La,\u201d and he played that solo after the piano solo, and it made a lot of sense to me too. And then when I heard that tune \u201cChange Has Come\u201d by Albert Ayler, I began forming a concept about avant-garde jazz and just the<\/em> music, period:\u00a0 It\u2019s like it\u2019s all in a circle, and when you study, you have this cycle of fourths and cycle of fifths that\u2019s in a circle, so you take all the different periods of jazz, and you put them in a circle as they develop. And I said, \u201cThis guy, Albert Ayler, is doing the beginning and the end in the same time.\u201d
\nHow did you connect with the community of musicians you now play with? How did the hook up with William Parker happen?<\/em>
\nFirst time I saw William was at the Jazzmobile years ago. We all attended the Jazzmobile, some of the guys that I\u2019d known for years, at the same time, and that was like in the early 7O\u2019s. I think I saw William in 1971. I happened to go by the bass room one day, and I saw this guy there, and he was really serious, and he had an intense look about him. Well, I was a shy person at that time, too, and I think William was probably shy, so we didn\u2019t meet each other then.
\nThey had workshops with whatever instrument you played. I think Richard Davis and Wilbur Ware were teaching up there at that time on bass, and Lee Morgan and Joe Newman on trumpets, and Kenny Dorham. And I used to just wander around different rooms, you know, just checking out different things that were happening in the rooms, because within a year or two I started forming bands with some of the young musicians who were in the rooms.
\n <\/strong>
\nAnd then you were recruited in Jemeel Moondoc\u2019s band, Muntu, right?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nJemeel called me, and he said, \u201cThis is Jemeel Moondoc. I got your number from William Parker, and I need a trumpet player to play with me at Ali\u2019s Alley, an\u2019 we gon\u2019 be workin\u2019 for the door.\u201d So he said, \u201cYou into it?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah.\u201d So when we had the first rehearsal, it was at William\u2019s house, so I said, \u201cAh, you were right. You said I would be hearing from you, and you were right.\u201d
\n <\/strong>
\nBecause he led you to the type of music you were seeking?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nNot only that, but when we played that gig with Jemeel, all the senior guys of the avant-garde were there, like Rashied Ali, Charles Tyler \u2014 \u2018cause we were there for a week \u2014 Frank Wright, Sunny Murray. I remember Eddie Jefferson came by there. And they all loved my playing. And within about two years I was playing with all those guys in bands, you know. I was telling William the other day he was like an angel; he was responsible for the second renaissance of my career when we started playing together and we were in Jemeel\u2019s group.
\nEarlier I had a band for about two years, in \u201874 to about \u201876, and a lot of young musicians who became well known in the future played in my band. Charles Neville was playing saxophone in this band, Bobby Jones was in there at one point, Kenny Washington, Omar Hakim, Marcus Miller, Robert Watson. And all these people came within two years. We used to do standards, and then we had commercial tunes. I was working a lot. And then in \u201876, all this stuff fizzled out. I mean, one time, there I was, working in the post office while also doing gigs. I\u2019ve always been hustling. But I got disillusioned in \u201876, so I went to City College, and I was thinking about becoming a music teacher in \u201877 and \u201878. One day I realized that wasn\u2019t for me. This was.
\nWhat was distinct about this group of musicians?<\/em>
\nThey improvised, but with respect. A lot of groups that were playing free music just came in and were making a whole bunch of noise. And see, I come from a traditional background, and I\u2019ve been listening to jazz since I was a little kid. My father used to play, and I like traditional music. And so I like traditional music as well as free music. Groups that are just screaming? That bores me after a while.
\n <\/em>
\nHow did Other Dimensions in Music come about?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nWe formed Other Dimensions in 1981, because Jemeel was in Europe. At the time he was living over there, and William and Rashid [Bakr] and I had been playing together with Jemeel\u2019s band. We used to do rehearsals with Jemeel, and a lot of times we would just hit before we\u2019d actually do the tunes. So I suggested to Jemeel, \u201cLook, why don\u2019t we start doing this on gigs?\u201d\u00a0 He was reluctant to do that. Even though Jemeel\u2019s music at that time was free, he was still a traditionalist.
\n <\/strong>
\nYou mean you wanted to improvise the whole introduction?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nYeah, you know, and just do a set, and we\u2019d eventually go to tunes like we were doing. But he didn\u2019t want to do that at that time. He said, \u201cNaah, man, I still wanna play tunes.\u201d So I said okay. And I met [saxophonist] Daniel [Carter] in 1974 too. I liked Daniel\u2019s playing. He can play traditional music, he knows changes, but he didn\u2019t want to play heads at the time. Years ago, he didn\u2019t want to play any written music.
\nHe used to come by a jam session I used to lead at Studio 97 in the early \u201880\u2019s, an after-hours jam session that started from 2 till about 9 in the morning. And so I told all of them, \u201cLook, we\u2019re going to form a new group.\u201d And I said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to call it \u2018Other Dimensions in Music.\u2019\u201d I was the one who had the idea about this group, and I said, \u201cWe ain\u2019t gonna play no tunes.\u201d That\u2019s how that started.
\n <\/strong>
\nHow <\/strong>did and how do things work musically in the group, then? What do you use for starting points?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nWe listen to each other, man. I mean, when we first started it was rough. But after a while we formed the concept, and then after doing it for a while I called it \u201ccompositional improvisation,\u201d because people started asking me, \u201cWell, who writes the charts, because on this or that tune it sounded like composed music.\u201d And see, I could listen to Daniel and I listen to William and Rashid, and we all listen to each other, and that\u2019s how the music is formulated, more or less.
\nI used to have arguments with my father about this, too. He said, \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to know what you\u2019re going to play before you play it,\u201d and I said, \u201cNo, you come to the music with a certain knowledge of harmony and chords and whatever, but there\u2019s a certain point at which you let the music take you.\u201d Mingus also said that. I\u2019ve always said, \u201cIf you can play a whole bunch of runs and whatever from exercise books, that\u2019s fine, but to me that\u2019s memorizing or playing a \u2018classical\u2019 piece or whatever, and that\u2019s not jazz. Jazz is what you play at the moment. Even when you\u2019ve learned patterns, you don\u2019t play the patterns. Some people, when they play, you can hear when they start a pattern how the pattern is going, and you can hear the whole thing, the routine, and, hey, that\u2019s fine. They memorized that, but I feel that you need to break those patterns up and interlock them and change them or do something different with them. Creation is in the moment. It\u2019s like I said about Other Dimensions one time: I said, \u201cIt\u2019s like sailing on uncharted waters. You know, we just sail, and whatever you play, that\u2019s the compass.\u201d
\nSo has your father, like some other listeners, come around?<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nSometimes even he listens to stuff William and I do, and he says, \u201cMan, there\u2019s a hook-up between you and William that\u2019s very unique.\u201d I say, \u201cI know.\u201d And he says, \u201cWhen y\u2019all start that chant sometimes, y\u2019all are right together.\u201d Sometimes we\u2019ll do that and there\u2019s a point where you can\u2019t tell whether it\u2019s him or the horn or vice-versa, you know.
\nI call him Brother Parker, because we\u2019re like ministers, you know, our music is like a religion, and we take our music very seriously. He plays with different people, I play with a whole lot of different people, sometimes we are together with some of the different people, and then he has his own individual things he does, and I do a lot of things with different people too. And then there are the times when we come together to do something, and that\u2019s always special. When William and I are together in a group or an ensemble, they know something special is going to happen right away, and, you know, they\u2019re drawn to that.
\nI imagine the Vision Festival is a very tangible representation of what you and William and others have experienced through music.<\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s very important, that what we were struggling through in the 1970s and \u201980s bore fruit to the Vision Festival in the \u201990s. That\u2019s the long and short of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was shaken by the deaths of two men: Roy Campbell, 61, a musician who expressed himself best on trumpet, flugelhorn and pocket trumpet but also played flute, was an insightful writer, and acted in independent films and plays; and Amiri Baraka, 79, who is best known as an influential poet, playwright and critic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “On the Resonant Voices of Roy Campbell and Amiri Baraka”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[50,25,12,14,51],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3113"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}