Home base for the Nia Coffeehouse is at 2555 Euclid Heights Boulevard in St. Alban in Cleveland Heights 44118. For more information Ph. 216/759-0790, leave a message here in comments or at Leftthumbprint@gmail.com.
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In this bloggissue:
- Announcement and information about our next Nia Coffeehouse events
- More on protest jazz and music
- Comments and favorites from our readers
- Wade in the Water
Our next Nia Coffeehouse @ St. Alban music and poetry set is June 26th @ 6:00pm. Nia is coming at you with healthy music, phenomenal words, and some healthy eats for you. And unless we say otherwise, Always Open Mic.
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| Judith after her last event... got kinda rowdy |
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| Judith Mansour |
Judith has a BA in English and, Psychology and an MA in English and Creative Writing. She has been a creative force in the writing, art and literature scene behind the scenes and in front of the mic for years. You can find Judith at LinkedIn and at facebook.
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| Vince Robinson (seated) with past and current Jazz Poet members |
The band- Vince Robinson and the Jazz Poets. Look for future Nia blogs dedicated just to this powerhouse who has done so much in poetry, jazz and the community but for now go here are no less than ten pages on Vince and the cats take your pick.
So Many Issues Too Little Time
We've got some interesting responses for favorite protest music from you but first we have questions. It is quite possible that most folks feel overwhelmed and powerless to do anything about today's social ills. For one thing, the "what can little ole me do" syndrome kicks into effect for many and secondly there are so many things that need attention it is overwhelming, for instance there is fracking, homelessness, infant mortality, child abuse, oil spill issues, Kony, Travon Martin; the object or the objects of the occupy everything movement; the Grammy awards categories being cut that Nia thinks is an important cultural, diversity and monetary issue for people of color and the list goes on.
Musicians: Powerful or Powerless
Should musicians and people in media feel powerless? Many talk about the power of music but maybe it's a fairy tale conjured up by musicians and their managers. Already the entire burden shouldn't be put on jazz so we can broaden the conversation for now with an emphasis on jazz.
Ritscher left a detailed smoking gun (sorry) pointing at protest as the raison d'être of his actions. What about protest music, the power of music, the music that soothes the savage beast? The actual quote is "music has charms to soothe the savage breast" and forgive me for waxing pedantic. It would be remiss of us not to mention that according to Ritscher's son Mark David was a recovering alcoholic fighting depression and yet we say this exposes two more arena's in which one must question the power of music.Mark David Ritscher aka Malichi Ritscher, a fixture and musician in the Chicago music scene, apparently didn't think the power of music was enough. Ritscher's self-immolation in 2006 on downtown Chicago's Kennedy expressway not mentioned by the media for nearly a week . Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, finally wrote "With all due respect, if he thought setting himself on fire and ending his life in Chicago would change anyone's mind about the war in Iraq, his last gesture on this planet was his saddest and his most futile."[3]
Latin Jazz, Grammy Awards Protest
Go to Multi- American for the entire video and more info on the protest
In contrast to Mr. Ritscher's self-immolation members of the Latin Jazz community protested with music and signs and slogan-chanting the elimination of 31 mostly people of color categories from the Grammy Awards. Polka, gospel, Native American and R&B are among the categories that have been removed. It would be very interesting if musicians took a page from Black folk and started their own Grammy since they as a group are now not allowed to participate; because of this kind of exclusion Black newspapers sprang up, Miss Black America beauty pageant and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to workers' unions, clubs and restaurants.
Nia would like to hear from musicians and people in the industry;
- What are you doing/ have done with your talents to "fight the power?" Where and when are you doing it, venues, times and dates if appropriate. Here is an effort by Cleveland Orchestra member violinist Isabel Trautwein.
- Is Nia asking the right questions?
- Is Nia defining the "power of music" correctly?
Nia would like to hear from patrons and music lovers;
- What place does music hold in your life?
- Has music effected change in your life, an epiphany perhaps, set you on a different path, "saved your life," or helped you through a most difficult time in life? What was the music that "did it?"
Your comments on Protest music
Ian Heams from Barnet a borough of London writes:"I totally agree Oscar Brown Jr and also that satire and humour can be found in the MUSIC as well as the lyrics. At our local pub on Sunday (The Mitre) the band playing there (Big Chief) played Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehaving" to a ska beat. It worked a treat and the humour of the contrast between old and new wasn't lost. There's also a tension between a song by a black composer/performer being played to rhythm mostly thought of as being developed by white artists."For me Jazz works best when it's in fusion with other music and the players are pushing the boundaries."
Ian concerning Nina Simone:
"There's a woman who understands, and owns, her own feelings and is big enough to respect other people and allow them theirs. Great performance."
From pitmonkey
The main chorus is:
- Wade in the water.
- Wade in the water children.
- Wade in the water.
- God's gonna trouble the water.
The song relates to both the Old and New Testaments. The verses reflect the Israelites' escape out of Egypt as found in Exodus:14.[1] The chorus refers to healing: see John 5:4, "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."Many internet sources and popular books claim that songs such as "Wade in the Water" contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom.[2] This particular song allegedly recommends leaving dry land and taking to the water as a strategy to throw pursuing bloodhounds off one's trail.
- Wikipedia
Here is a cool version of Wade in the Water by Kevin Whallum:
Wade in the Water - Jazz Version from unityall on GodTube.