Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
CAL MASSEY TRIBUTE at the Red Rooster
The Music of Cal Massey----a Tribute Featuring 'The Black Liberation Freedom Suite' -
7:30 and 9:30
310 Lenox Avenue
New York New York 212-792-9001
Radio NOIR's clarinetist QUINCY SAUL, working in accordance with baritone saxophonists FRED HO and BEN BARSON, founded this event in honor of the great Jazz musician and revolutionist CAL MASSEY
From the press release:
We are honored to inform you of an historic occasion in both music and politics. This
year the first recording celebrating the life and work of Cal Massey will be released. The
release party will be at The Red Rooster in Harlem on February 22nd. A big band will
perform Cal Massey's music in be two sets at 730pm and 930pm. All attendees will
receive a copy of the album. To book tickets in advance, you can RSVP to the contacts
listed here, or contact The Red Rooster directly.
By any measure, Massey should rank among the top figures of jazz and American
musical history. That he was never recorded and that his influence is so rarely
acknowledged can only be understood politically. A leading figure in the radical Black
Arts Movement and a close collaborator with the Black Panther Party, Massey has been
marginalized and almost erased by the recording industry and the jazz establishment,
despite his close association with and influence on some of the biggest names in the
jazz world, including John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, McCoy Tyner, Carmen RcRae,
Thelonious Monk, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders.
The centerpiece of the album is The Black Liberation Movement Suite.
Commissioned by then-exiled Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver, the suite
was used as a fundraiser for the party in self-produced concerts that Massey organized.
Each movement of the suite is dedicated to a different hero in the history of the Black
Liberation Movement, from Marcus Garvey to Huey P. Newton. The suite evokes
American musical history as well, developing themes and techniques from early blues to
bebop to hard bop and beyond.
While parts of the suite have been recorded by Archie Shepp, this is the first time that
The Black Liberation Movement Suite has been recorded in its entirety. The album
also includes several additional compositions by Massey, including Goodbye Sweet
Pops, a moving tribute to Louis Armstrong, Quiet Dawn, which was composed for
Duke Ellington's band, and Cry of My People, a haunting testament to resistance.
This recording deserves a prominent place in the collection of any jazz fan, any music
historian, and any student of revolutionary politics. With the magnificent original artwork
and design of Arabelle Clitandre, the album is a beautiful testimony to the man and the
movement it honors. If the musical powers-that-be choose to ignore this album as it has
ignored Massey in the past, this album will still be perhaps the most important release of
the year. That a glorious and epic work such as The Black Liberation Movement
Suite has remained unrecorded for so long is an oppressive tragedy which makes its
release a celebratory act of resistance. As the 21st century unravels, the work of Cal
Massey, musically and politically, may be poised to become more important and relevant
than ever. This tribute is not an exercise in nostalgia, but an invitation to carry on the
work -- aesthetic and ethical -- that Cal Massey exemplified. It is in the words of Fred
Ho, "music in tune with reality to compose a new reality."
(written by Quincy Saul)
Saturday, March 31st, 2012
Radio NOIR at Colors -
9PM
417 Lafayette Street
New York NY
Radio NOIR returns to the hip NoHo restaurant Colors to perform another set of their dissident swing and free jazz-laced protest song to the downtown public!
Friday, August 17th, 2012
THE DISSIDENT ARTS FESTIVAL - DAY 1 -
8:00 PM
17 Frost Street
Brooklyn NY
Friday August 17, 8PM - 11PM, 17 Frost (Williamsburg, Bklyn) and Saturday August 18 4PM - 11PM, the Brecht Forum (Greenwich Village). The Festival is a showcase of cultural workers and a bridge between the arts and the progressive activist community. We feature a great span of just what ‘protest’ art is: radical avant garde Jazz, topical Folk, dissentful performance poetry, revolutionary New Music, social justice film and theatre, post-Punk dissidence, progressive Pop and cabaret of social change.
*8/17 will consist of a screening of the silent sci-fi/social change classic film 'METROPOLIS' with a live improvised score by the Radio NOIR Orchestra; there will also be an opening segment featuring acoustic music acts.
*8/18 will open with a film screening of 'CULTURES OF RESISTANCE' at 4 and then the concert will run from 6 through 11. There will be a wide variety of revolutionary musicians and poets in performance. Full line-up to be announced in the coming months. SAVE THE DATE(S) for the nation's only annual festival or protest arts!
Performers added on a regular basis! Visit us for updates at……….
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-DISSIDENT-ARTS-FESTIVAL/116881725023683
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Tentative Schedule:
AUG 17, 7PM – 11PM, 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts, Williamsburg Brooklyn
-Acoustic musicians in performance open the evening – performers TBA
-Film screening with live improvised score - ‘Metropolis’ with the Radio NOIR Orchestra: John Pietaro- xylophone/percussion/voice; Quincy Saul: clarinet; Javier Hernandez-Miyares: electric guitar & effects; Cheryl Pyle: flute; Nick Gianni: tenor saxophone & flute; and more TBA
Saturday, August 18th, 2012
THE DISSIDENT ARTS FESTIVAL - DAY 2 -
4PM
451 West Street
New York NY 212-242-4201
THE DISSIDENT ARTS FESTIVAL 2012:
Friday August 17, 8PM - 11PM, 17 Frost (Williamsburg, Bklyn) and Saturday August 18 4PM - 11PM, the Brecht Forum (Greenwich Village). The Festival is a showcase of cultural workers and a bridge between the arts and the progressive activist community. We feature a great span of just what ‘protest’ art is: radical avant garde Jazz, topical Folk, dissentful performance poetry, revolutionary New Music, social justice film and theatre, post-Punk dissidence, progressive Pop and cabaret of social change.
*8/17 will consist of a screening of the silent sci-fi/social change classic film 'METROPOLIS' with a live improvised score by the Radio NOIR Orchestra; there will also be an opening segment featuring acoustic music acts.
*8/18 will open with a film screening of 'CULTURES OF RESISTANCE' at 4 and then the concert will run from 6 through 11. There will be a wide variety of revolutionary musicians and poets in performance. Full line-up to be announced in the coming months. SAVE THE DATE(S) for the nation's only annual festival or protest arts!
Performers added on a regular basis! Visit us for updates at……….
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-DISSIDENT-ARTS-FESTIVAL/116881725023683
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AUG 18, 4PM – 11PM, The Brecht Forum, Greenwich Village
-Film screening – ‘Cultures of Resistance’
-Concert: a wide variety of cultural warriors including
Jennie Litt/David Alpher’s radical cabaret
Judy Gorman, topical singer-songwriter
Radio NOIR, dissident swing combo
Cheryl Pyle Trio, new music vs. post-punk jazz
Nick Gianni’s Evolution, free jazz and more
****And many more performers TBA***