DBDBD NY – cross-cultural on-line magazine – believes based on the view that music and community are indivisible that a social awareness can be fostered through music.
Vernon Reid, Bruce Mack & Greg Tate (photo by Petra Richterova)
On Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, musician, journalist, author, activist Greg Tate died.
Tate was one of the most unique and influential individuals in the New York Music scene. As a brilliant guitarist, leader of Burnt Sugar (a.k.a. Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, where he employed Butch Morris’ process of “conduction” – a method of conducted improvisation), he synthesized the entire spectrum of African American rock music. His music had a quality that held the suggestion of a man who did music out of love, and who was a man of peace who could be a formidable warrior when necessary.
Wednesday, December 8th, 2021, seven days before what would have been his 92nd birthday, Barry Harris was called home.
https://youtu.be/qXWudWZvDJE
It’s difficult to quantify the impact he had on the jazz scene. How do you measure the influence of a man who’d played with Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, Yusef Lateef, Lou Donaldson, Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderly, Coleman Hawkins, Tommy Flannigan, Illinois Jaquette, Bud Powell, Lee Morgan, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker?
Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, December 10th, 2021)
“And When I Die” Written & Performed by Laura Nyro (in 1967)
Covered by Peter, Paul & Mary & Blood, Sweat and Tears And when I die and when I’m dead, dead and gone, there’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on. I’m not scared of dying and I don’t really care. If it’s peace you find in dying, well, then let the time be near. If it’s peace you find in dying, when dying time is here, just bundle up my coffin cause it’s cold way down there, I hear that it’s cold way down there, yeah, crazy cold way down there. And when I die and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on. My troubles are many, they’re as deep as a well. I can swear there ain’t no heaven but I pray there ain’t no hell. Swear there ain’t no heaven and pray there ain’t no hell, but I’ll never know by living, only my dying will tell, only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell. And when I die and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on. Give me my freedom for as long as I be. All I ask of living is to have no chains on me. All I ask of living is to have no chains on me, and all I ask of dying is to go naturally, only want to go naturally. Don’t want to go by the devil, don’t want to go by the demon, don’t want to go by Satan, don’t want to die uneasy, just let me go naturally. And when I die and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born, there’ll be one child born. When I die, there’ll be one child born. When I die, there’ll be one child born. When I die, there’ll be one child born. When I die, there’ll be one child born.
“We cannot be in lockdown forever with this virus…we need events…we need art in our lives, and we need interaction with art and with music. More importantly, music cannot be taken for granted. We can make shows happen in a safe and positive way for everyone involved.”
In this episode of the “MFM Speaks Out,” Adam Reifsteck interviews Brooklyn-based producer and powerhouse performer Anne Wichmann about immigrating to the United States from Germany and finding a home in the New York underground Indie Electronica music scene. Topics also discussed include the issue of gender inequality in the music industry and creating opportunities in spite of a global pandemic.
Anne Wichmann is known for her edgy indie Electronic Pop project She’s Excited! With an appetite for intelligent and genre-bending music of icons like David Bowie and Björk as well as grooving Future Pop and Dark Electronica of artists like Billie Eilish and ODESZA, she listens to music defined by limitless imagination rather than genre. This bleeds into her versatile style of edgy and dark yet sparkling Electronic Pop that she merges with empowering and uplifting lyrics. She’s Excited! is a solo project, yet Anne collaborates with singers, musicians, producers and artists all over the globe.
