Reminiscing in Tempo: Memories and Opinion/Volume Ten: What three or four songs best epitomize the era of the Civil Rights Movement?

December 29th, 2007

Reminiscing in Tempo

*

Memories and Opinion

_____

 

“Reminiscing in Tempo” is part of a continuing effort to provide Jerry Jazz Musician readers with unique forms of “edu-tainment.” As often as possible, Jerry Jazz Musician poses one question via e mail to a small number of prominent and diverse people. The question is designed to provoke a lively response that will potentially include the memories and/or opinion of those solicited.

Since it is not possible to know who will answer the question, the diversity of the participants will often depend on factors beyond the control of the publisher. The responses from the people who chose to participate in this edition are published below with only minor stylistic editing. No follow-up questions take place.

_____

What three or four songs best epitomize the era of the Civil Rights Movement?

Originally published December, 2007

*

With appreciation to reader W. Kim Heron for the question suggestion

 


The following songs are all by brilliant artists who made the message their own and delivered songs so powerful you can actually feel it in the music:

The House I Live In — Sonny Rollins

Alabama — John Coltrane

Strange Fruit — Nina Simone

“Lift Every Voice” — Max Roach

March On Selma — Blue Mitchell

“Chattahoochee Red” — Max Roach

Triptych: Prayer / Protest / Peace — Max Roach

 

 

_________________

 

 

 

The question you pose is interesting. My answer is:

1. Keep On Pushing, by the Impressions

2. Brother Where Are You?, by Oscar Brown, Jr.

3. Afro Blue, by the John Coltrane Quartet

4. Pirate Jenny, by Nina Simone

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

People Get Ready, by Curtis Mayfield

A Change Is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke

Blowin’ In The Wind, by Bob Dylan

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

The songs I think most epitomize the civil rights movement are:

1. ” We Shall Overcome” — The song is based on an old spiritual called “I Will Overcome.” Zilphia Horton heard it sung by people on strike in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1930s. She brought it back to Highlander Folk Song and changed the pronoun to “We”. The song became the theme song at Highlander. In 1960 young civil rights workers came to Highlander for a workshop, heard the song sung by folksinger Guy Carawan, and from there the song became the theme of the civil rights movement and has gone around the world.

2. “Ain’t Gon’ Let Nobody Turn Me Around” — Another spiritual adapted by civil rights workers to fit the times.

3. “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” — A spiritual known as “Keep Your Hands on the Plow” An old woman on St. Johns Island, South Carolina, changed the chorus lin-e to “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”.

 

 


 

 

 

 

Max Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite (Freedom Now)” LP

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” LP

Aretha Franklin’s “Freedom.”

 

 

 

____________________

 

 

Obviously, the Movement could never have succeeded as it did without “We Shall Overcome.” It’s the one absolutely essential song. I would add to it “If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus” and “They Say That Freedom Is A Constant Sorrow.” I well remember a night in The Gaslight in New York in, say, 1961 when Len Chandler first sang “They Say That Freedom Is A Constant Sorrow.” There was power in those songs that was unstoppable. The racists had no songs to match them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

A Change Is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke

Prayer For Passive Resistance,” Charles Mingus

Fables Of Faubus,” Charles Mingus

We Shall Not Be Moved,” (by anyone)

 

 

__________________

Henry Grimes

*

Jazz double bassist; recording artist; poet; has recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Anita O’Day, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, David Murray, Hamid Drake and many others; author of Signs Along the Road.

[/infobox]

 

 

Max Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite (Freedom Now),” with Oscar Brown and with Abbey Lincoln’s unforgettable singing

Jimi Hendrix playing “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock (and elsewhere)

Sonny Rollins, ”

The Freedom Suite”

Gil Scott Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

John Coltrane, “Alabama”

We Shall Overcome,” based on a turn-of-the-2Oth-century gospel song by one Rev. Charles Tindley and updated by various others

Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn”

Otis Redding, “A Change Is Gonna Come,”

James Brown, “Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud

 

 


While “A Change is Gonna Come” has become the unofficial popular anthem of the civil rights movement in the years since, for me — a teenager at the time — its contemporaneous soundtrack was dominated by Curtis Mayfield’s self-described “songs of inspiration.” These included, “Keep On Pushing,” (’64), “We’re A Winner” (’67), and “Choice Of Colors” b/w “Mighty Mighty [Spade & Whitey]” (’69). Of them, my own favorite is “This Is My Country,” which was released into the swelling black nationalist tide of 1968, and whose inclusivist premise (“. . .we’ll perish unjust or live equal as a nation. . .”) seemed stubbornly counter-cultural at the time. But Curtis’s true intention was revealed in lines imbued with the pride, anger, and dogged hopefulness of grassroots black Americans confronting a society they both hated and loved, and whose original sin was race: “Too many have died, in protecting my pride, for me to go second class/ We’ve survived a hard blow, but I want you to know, that you’ll face us at last. . .”

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

Comment on this article:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Site Archive

In This Issue

painting of Clifford Brown by Paul Lovering
A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring/Summer, 2024 Edition...In this, the 17th major collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician, 50 poets from all over the world again demonstrate the ongoing influence the music and its associated culture has on their creative lives.

(featuring the art of Paul Lovering)

Feature

photo of Rudy Van Gelder via Blue Note Records
“Rudy Van Gelder: Jazz Music’s Recording Angel” – an essay by Joel Lewis...For over 60 years, the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder devoted himself to the language of sound. And although he recorded everything from glee clubs to classical music, he was best known for recording jazz – specifically the musicians associated with Blue Note and Prestige records. Joel Lewis writes about his impact on the sound of jazz, and what has become of his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio.

Interview

Interview with James Kaplan, author of 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool...The esteemed writer tells a vibrant story about the jazz world before, during, and after the 1959 recording of Kind of Blue, and how the album’s three genius musicians came together, played together, and grew together (and often apart) throughout the experience.

Publisher’s Notes

photo by Rhonda Dorsett
On turning 70, and contemplating the future of Jerry Jazz Musician...

The Sunday Poem

"Bluesnik" by Martel Chapman
”Jazz Improv” by Michael Keshigian

Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Essay

“Gone Guy: Jazz’s Unsung Dodo Marmarosa,” by Michael Zimecki...The writer remembers the late jazz musician Michael “Dodo” Marmarosa, awarded Esquire Magazine’s New Star Award in 1947, and who critics predicted would dominate the jazz scene for the next 30 years.

Short Fiction

Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records. Photographer uncredited/via Wikimedia Commons
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #66 — “Not From Around Here” by Jeff Dingler...The author’s award-winning story is about a Jewish kid coming of age in Alabama and discovering his identity through music, in particular the interstellar sound of Sun Ra..

Click here to read more short fiction published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Playlist

“‘Different’ Trios” – a playlist by Bob Hecht...A 27-song playlist that focuses on non-traditional trio recordings, featuring trios led by the likes of Carla Bley, Ron Miles, Dave Holland and Jimmy Giuffre...

Feature

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 5: “Scott Joplin: King of Ragtime”...A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this sixth edition of excerpts from his book, Rife writes about jazz novels and short stories that feature a theme of “mystery.”

Interview

Interview with Larry Tye, author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America...The author talks about his book, an intensely researched, spirited, and beautifully told story – and an important reminder that Armstrong, Ellington, and Basie all defied and overcame racial boundaries “by opening America’s eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music.”

Poetry

John Coltrane, by Martel Chapman
Four poets, four poems…on John Coltrane

Feature

What we discover about Kamala Harris from an armful of record albums...Like her or not, readers of this site will enjoy learning that Vice President Kamala Harris is a fan of jazz music. Witness this recent clip (via Youtube) of her emerging from a record shop…

Short Fiction

Munich University of Music and Theater/© Raimond Spekking/via Wikimedia Commons
“The Pianist (Part One)” – a short story by J. C. Michaels...The story – finalist in the recently concluded 66th Short Fiction Contest – describes the first lesson at a music conservatory of a freshman piano-performance major who is more accustomed to improvising than reading music. It is an excerpt from a novel-in-progress.

Poetry

“Revival” © Kent Ambler.
If You Want to Go to Heaven, Follow a Songbird – Mary K O’Melveny’s album of poetry and music...While consuming Mary K O’Melveny’s remarkable work in this digital album of poetry, readings and music, readers will discover that she is moved by the mastery of legendary musicians, the wings of a monarch butterfly, the climate and political crisis, the mysteries of space exploration, and by the freedom of jazz music that can lead to what she calls “the magic of the unknown.” (with art by Kent Ambler)

Book Excerpt

A book excerpt from Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records, by Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder...In this excerpt, the authors write extensively about music instruction and appreciation records dealing with the subject of jazz.

Interview

The Marvelettes/via Wikimedia Commons
Interview with Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz, authors of But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the 60’s Girl Groups...Little is known of the lives and challenges many of the young Black women who made up the Girl Groups of the ‘60’s faced while performing during an era rife with racism, sexism, and music industry corruption. The authors discuss their book’s mission to provide the artists an opportunity to voice their experiences so crucial to the evolution of popular music.

Short Fiction

photo via FreeRangeStock
“Hip Replacements” – a short story by William Torphy...The story – a short-listed entry in our recently concluded 66th Short Fiction contest – is a humorous take on a septuagenarian attempt to resurrect a revival band.

Art

photo of Johnny Griffin by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Johnny Griffin and Von Freeman...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition is of saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Von Freeman, who appeared together at the at Bimhuis on June 25/26, 1999.

Short Fiction

Shisma, CC BY 4.0  via Wikimedia Commons
“Nostalgia” – a short story by John-Paul Cote...Harlan has an addiction. A most illegal addiction. It drives him from morning until night. He dreams of it. How can he escape it before it brings him into the arms of the law? Down a dark alley he will find out just how far he is willing to go.

Essay

“Like a Girl Saying Yes: The Sound of Bix” – an essay by Malcolm McCollum...The first time Benny Goodman heard Bix Beiderbecke play cornet, he wondered, “My God, what planet, what galaxy, did this guy come from?” What was it about this musician that captivated and astonished so many for so long – and still does?

Trading Fours with Douglas Cole

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 21: “The Blue Truth”...In this edition, the poet riffs on Oliver Nelson’s classic 1961 album The Blues and the Abstract Truth as if a conversation between conductor and players were caught on tape along with the inner monologue of some mystery player/speaker of the poem.

In Memoriam

Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“Remembering Joe Pass: Versatile Jazz Guitar Virtuoso” – by Kenneth Parsons...On the 30th anniversary of the guitarist Joe Pass’ death, Kenneth Parsons reminds readers of his brilliant career

Book Excerpt

Book excerpt from Jazz with a Beat: Small Group Swing 1940 – 1960, by Tad Richards

Click here to read more book excerpts published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Jazz History Quiz #176

photo of Lester Young by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
While legendary as a saxophonist, his first instrument was a violin and his second the piano — which he played well enough to work as an accompanist to silent movies. Ultimately it was Lester Young’s father who taught him the saxophone well enough that he switched instruments for good. (It was during this time that he also saved Lester from drowning in a river). Who is he?

Community

photo via Picryl.com
“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (March – September, 2024)

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Coming Soon

An interview with Larry Tye, author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America; an interview with Jonathon Grasse, author of Jazz Revolutionary: The Life & Music of Eric Dolphy; A new collection of jazz poetry; a collection of jazz haiku; a new Jazz History Quiz; short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and lots more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.