Are we all People of Earth…? Well, let’s think about it as we recite a mighty and a seemingly never-ending sorrowful litany: It began in Isle de Gorée, off the coast of Dakar, Senegal…
Dean Juliette Derricotte refused treatment after a road accident because she was black, Bessie Smith, her death [September 26, 1937] could have been prevented had she the opportunity to be treated in a whites-only hospital instead of a hospital for black further away from the scene]… Emmett Till – his life was snuffed out on August 28, 1955, the Watts Riots, Los Angeles in 1965, Selma to Montgomery March 7, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr assassinated on April 4, 1968, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark assassinated in bed on December 4, 1969…
Amadou Diallo hunted and shot on February 4, 1999, Rodney King beaten to a pulp on March 3, 1991, Trayvon Martin shot and killed on February 26, 2012, Tamir Rice shot and killed on November 22, 2014, Ahmaud Aubrey hunted and killed on February 23, 2012, George Floyd strangled to death by four policemen, March 20, 2020… Black lives have never seemed to matter – not then, not now. And yet we have always been people of the same earth…
The legendary Cheikh Anta Diop [Research Fellow at IFAN, Dakar’s Institute of African Studies and Director of the Radiocarbon-14 Dating Laboratory, a facility he himself built from scratch] – despite several attempts by white anthropologists to debunk his theory – proved beyond reasonable doubt that the first civilisation was an African one in his seminal thesis The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality [English translation, 1974], a combination of Mr Diop’s two books, Nations negres et culture [1955] and Anteriorite des civilizations negres [1967].
The way that Mr Diop’s worthy thesis was received in the mid-20th century it is clear that the refusniks and naysayers were motivated by false-theorised paleontology created to promote racial aligned with old-fashioned, Leakey-inspired Darwinian hypotheses. Those theories referred to “races” as belonging to a three colour-bar system Caucasian, black and yellow.
Scientifically, however, as Pithecanthropus Erectus tells us this is patently false. This is simply because – also scientifically – there is but one race: The Human Race. It should not have taken Cheikh Anta Diop to prove that. We have known that before his studies began. But it bears remembering that the first – and highly sophisticated civilisation for its time was before even Nuba in the Upper Nile.
Moreover, in line with Mr Diop’s mighty thesis, the fact that the beginning of all civilisations was African is also why we refer to that [African] continent – quite rightly – as Mother Africa. But with the Great Migrations of proto-history, and over thousands of years and intermingling of peoples further away from the equatorial Africa and closer to the North Pole, the pigment in the African skin lightened…
The old adage: ‘six degrees of separation’ simply, therefore, not apply because we may all closer by several degrees. And yet tens of thousands of years later people – as Charles Mingus once said in a prescient introduction to his epic work Meditations on Integration and in his other wordless composition of epic proportions, Pithecanthropus Erectus – that there were regions where “they separated” “the blacks,” the browns, and the yellows [in other words] ‘the coloureds’ from “the whites.”
That old kind of plantation slavery may not be so prevalent today, but with disenfranchisement especially of people of colour, that kind of slavery may not exist in contemporary democratic polity. But a terrible new and more potent kind has raised its ugly head: economic slavery.
We are now simply People of Earth, echoes in the inspired music with an [equally] inspired eponymous title. The music has been created and performed by the powerful music collective calling themselves Black Lives. And why not? Why not draw attention to the most marginalised people – people of colour? In his seminal works Black Music and Blues People, Amiri Baraka chastised the white world for not being hip to the significant role that Folk Blues played in birthing Classic Blues and Jazz.
Meanwhile, by now, we know that it took celebrated European composers – notably Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin to align themselves with concepts from Black Music. More to the point of music arriving with rhythm-first comes from Igor Stravinsky spoke of the beginning of the world being announced when God beat a BIG drum together with loudly clashing symbols.
It bears remembering that that drum-beat came from Africa, was refined millions of years later by William Ludwig, who – hearing Warren “Baby” Dodds play the kick drum while creating accents on other percussion designed – for Mr Dodds – the first drum set…the first authentically black-inspired Jazz instrument to revolutionize modern music.
But while Black Music has now spread the world over without due deference to its creators from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson, Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins and to BB King and Albert King… From the near-mythical Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong – all from New Orleans, often erroneously called the birthplace of jazz.
Truth be told ripples also collided with the Louisiana and its Congo Square in the French Quarter when a pebble became a ripple- became a flood with Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, with Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman, with John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp.
Then the revolution began afresh when in Chicago Muhal Richard Abrams, Jodie Christian, Steve McCall and Phil Cochran, co-founders of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians [AACM], fell through a black to the future-past time-warp. soon boosted by Roscoe Mitchell and George E. Lewis to and Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill, from Adegoke and Iqua Colson to Leroy Jenkins, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman and others…
George E. Lewis, composer, trombonist and historian of the ACCM notes in his brilliant book A Power Stronger Than Itself [University of Chicago Press, 2007] that Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago pushed the boundaries of jazz and challenged the avant-garde classical movement led by John Cage.
“Concerts were heavily improvised, and many AACM members created scores that blended music,” as postulated by Mr Braxton and Mr Threadgill, “[came from a melding of] geometry, painting, and ciphers to be interpreted by the performers live. The AACM was part of an artistic movement on the South Side of Chicago that included AFRICobra [African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists] and other collectives.”
Later, in the 1980s came Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Robin Eubanks, and Greg Osby emerged in Brooklyn with their organic, experiential music they called M-Base [an acronym for Macro – Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations].
In the words of Mr Coleman, the expositor-[of-the-word] of M-Base, “Music critics have constantly stated that M-Base is a musical style, and this is not true. Since the beginning of time critics have by and large been unable to deal with any creative expression.
“M-Base is a way of thinking about creating music, it is not the music itself. One of the main ideas in M-Base is growth through creativity. As we learn through our experiences then the music will change and grow to reflect that. The idea is not to develop some musical style and to play that forever.”
Mr Coleman explains further: “This mostly involves conceptual growth as opposed to technical growth, although that is necessary also. All of the elements in the music come from life experiences. Speaking for myself, when people hear my music they are listening to a musical expression of how I view the world limited by my musical abilities at that point in time.
“What makes the music change is a broadening (or change) in the way I view things [perspective or philosophy] or learning more about how to express this point of view through music [for me this means becoming a better musician] or both. I am not playing from the point of view of developing something “different” as any individual is already unique and all that is left is learning to express that [through music or whatever].”
Finally: “The conception of M-Base is in many ways a non-western conception of how to use music to express experience. For example, for me the western concepts of time signatures [including so called “common” and “odd time signatures”] largely do not exist and have no place in creating music.
“These concepts come from European art music and the concepts of M-Base are based primarily on music from Afrika and creative music of the Afrikan Diaspora [where in the last 76 years there has been a steady progression to use non- western concepts as a basis for the music].
“This music is unique primarily in the areas of spiritual, rhythmic and melodic development. It is the spiritual component that is most often misunderstood [and this affects the way the other elements are viewed]. In this M-Base is no different than many other creative perspectives that have come before.”
When they released their first album, it became clear that the collective, whose bassist Reggie Washington and drummer, Oliver “Gene” Lake had taken their musical experience inspired by many years of playing in the M-Base-driven environment, to whole new level.
Their molten, volcanic mix of Black Music brought in its wake vocalastics evocative of the fire of The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron via the Black Panthers. The Black Power of the “Afrikan Diaspora… spiritual, rhythmic and melodic development…” of the AACM, and of M-Base had seemingly magically collided in a collective of epic proportions entitled Black Lives.
Their marvellous debut double album set the tone and intent of their gloriously fiery music. I described it using the following words in The WholeNote Magazine: “It is usually difficult to judge albums that contain repertoire by various artists simply because single songs while representing the best music by a particular artist – may, on the other hand, not suggest consistent artistry on a long-playing album.”
However, in the case of this Black Lives album, From Generation to Generation these musicians were giving notice that they were giving voice to a new response was demanded of the artist – the black artist first and then the coloured artist; indeed, all artists – to the untenable socio-political situation around a society spinning and surging towards a right-wing,, Neo-Fascism. Musically the age demanded a new idiom of accelerated grace.
Urgency in socio-political comment had to be a head-on collision with an unacceptable ”new normal.” Thus, in keeping with this challenge on Black Lives: From Generation to Generation, concept trumped a mere compilation of songs dealing with the uncomfortable truth. This was smartly achieved not only because the concept of the album was a strong one but because each track was loaded with both artistry and message.
“Credit had to, de rigueur, go to the album’s executive producer Stefany Calembert-Washington. As she said in her booklet notes she wanted “…to give black lives a voice and to listen to what they have to say in 2021…” something that stemmed from being “…deeply disturbed by the air of superiority and hypocrisy of white people.”
Mrs Calembert-Washington who is white and did herself enormous credit for giving voice to these artists. Moreover, she has a discerning taste in Black Music. There is a subliminal suggestion that Black music – born in Africa – has spread and been reimagined forever thanks to the blues, jazz rap and hip-hop music of Black American artists.
Artistic excellence was uniformly – and clearly – evident among the strident voices on both discs. Thus, it was unfair – then as now – to single out a select few artists and their songs for appropriate praise. Unrelenting intensity drives every song. The inclusion of African-born artists – such as Cheikh Tidiane Seck and Jean-Paul Bourelly, together with such Black American stars as Reggie Washington, Oliver Lake, Gene Lake, Marvin Sewell and others including Guadeloupean saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart. made this a recording to die for.
Additionally, the performers also teamed up with the celestially-qualified vocalist Christie Dashiell and others… so that, lyric-wise, the entire repertoire made good on the intent of the concept. All stayed the course drawing attention to the untenable plight of the black and dispossessed worldwide. So that from the beginning to the end an enthralling tone was maintained throughout. This made this 2-disc package something to die for.
Just when you felt that the 2021 recording could not be topped along comes the 2024 recording Black Lives: People of Earth [see review at the end of this feature]. On first examination this might single disc recording might seem – to some – to be a ‘smaller’ offering compared with the length of the debut double disc from three years before.
This repeat performance par excellence demanded that I had to preface my assessment; my critique by first assuaging my curiosity by talking to Mrs Calembert-Washington, whom I consider just as important as the musicians who brought their fierce and fearless creativity to the music of Black Lives: People of Earth.
Here is what I discovered when I addressed my questions to Mrs Calembert-Washington: “What,” I asked her, “was the origin of JammincolorS” the advocacy group, the production house and label that brought us this music?”
Mrs Calembert-Washinton went back a few years: “Jammin’colorS was born after a car accident. I drank too much,” she proffered, then added [“Now, I ‘ve stopped for 17 years … not one drop of alcohol…and I hurt myself pretty bad [the ribs, lung & liver].
“After spending several weeks in the hospital, I could not walk for 6 weeks and had to stay lying down in a bed between 4 walls. I listened to a lot of music as usual, but this time felt like I had a mission. I thought of the deep passion I had for music and the role of music in my life.
When I was released from the hospital, I was determined to start managing and organizing concerts, and a few months later I created Jammin’colorS and then went to New York to learn more about the music scene. It’s when I met Reggie in the middle of the night in Harlem… [but] that’s another story…” She added in a wistful tone.
I wanted to understand the motivation of this Brussels-based music advocate. So, I asked her: “How do you help shape the sound world [of Black Lives]… how do you influence the lyrics?” Her answer didn’t really surprise me, but it did suggest she was coming from a place of a dramatic epiphany for she said:
“I [give] total freedom to each composer to create their song…’tell t heir story]. I think artists need 100% freedom when they create.” [the way it was in the days of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Mr Mingus, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and others, I thought]… “I like to give my input or feeling about the music and if it doesn’t feel creative or strong enough, I will say something. Art must be honest when we are creating [it] together.
And because “Black Lives music makes me dance,” [I felt the need to ask as if the question was rising like a tidal wave in my throat], “ said to the producer, “It also makes me hold up my left fist in defiance.” “Does it do the same thing for you?”
Mrs Calembert-Washington was quick to reply: “Oh yes, I dance all the time to this music,” she replied, “With my kids [she has with Mr Washington]… in my car, at the live concerts … I feel it and it’s a liberation from all the horrible things we see and hear every day. It gives me strength for sure. This music makes us move… and the emotions are intense.
Surely these “emotions” must also include a certain concerned prescience relating to balancing motherhood with hope and love? “I’m guessing, I said, “that your family relationships have much to do with it. And yet I wondered aloud, “Is there something else too?”
“Our children are part of all this,” she replied. “They listen, they follow us, they go on tour, and they understand the message. It is important that they know we are trying to make things move in a positive way. I don’t sleep much because of all the work but I want to give it all and tell people that everything is possible if you love and invest yourself. No matter how hard it is.
“I love to be a mom,” she averred. “I [also] love to work in music, I love this world and its people so it’s natural for me. I don’t think I could live in another way.” Meanwhile, by way of a break and to contemplate, she added, “I [also] go walking in the forest every day, and I think of everyone and what we can do to make this world better. Nature gives me many answers.”
But answers to what? A preponderance of social issues and existential questions that seemed to come from a place that worried Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir… and the more militant playwright Jean Cocteau emerged. “…[I like…] to think that so many people do not care about the history and about the future. It’s sad to see so many politicians accused of so many things and continue to have the power and support of the people. To know that I am in my bed while millions of children are suffering…” her thoughts appear to trail off into a darkening, crepuscular mist.
“I want to do anything I can to save the children of the world,” Mrs Calembert-Washington brought me back and out of that darkening mist: “This is my goal,” the militant mother in her said. “No one child should have to deal with war, hunger, or abusive behavior. They deserve love and attention… people understand this, we must make [this happen] even if it takes the biggest step we have ever taken. The album People of Earth is dedicated to all the children of the world, and about taking a first, bigger step, “ she said, putting things in perspective.
But when did this begin? “What other artists have you developed?” I asked.
“When I met Reggie in 2005,” she told me, “he was a sideman. We’ve worked a few months on collecting pictures, biographies, and songs he had recorded and thought of the line-up he could use. His first tour was with Ravi Coltrane and Gene [Lake]. One of the most beautiful trios I’ve heard. I love to bring artists that deserve to be heard worldwide.
“I’ve worked and often still work with E.J. Strickland, Paul Jost, Hadar Noiberg, Grégory Privat, Marcus Strickland, Adam Falcon, Gene Lake, Christie Dashiell, Hervé Samb, Joe Sanders, Pierrick Pédron, Tutu Puoane, Manuel Valera, Raul Midón, Madeleine & Salomon, and Jacques Schwarz-Bart,” she revealed.”
Meanwhile the next year promises to be choc-full of activity. “I’d love to bring artists to new territories and [promote them] and exchange journalists about us and the work they are doing. This will happen, of that I am sure, although there will always be some uncertainty. It is still year by year but there is constant and natural movement also naturally. That’s what I like.
“I don’t see Jammin’colorS as a business company,” she reminded me. “I see it as an platform for art and artists where they [artists] can exchange ideas, create, and play their music. I really want to advocate for art as much as I wish to draw attention to the world’s problems. If I had more money, I would do a lot more for them. Hopefully one day… These artists are incredibly special, and they deserve a lot more attention than many others. They are highly creative and always bring something unique with their art,” Mrs Calembert-Washington concluded.
“What did the crystal ball reveal,” I was curious to know. “I would love to record the third album in New York, bring new guests to the recording,” she gushed, “and have Russell Elevado [my favorite sound engineer who has worked with D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Angelique Kidjo, Kamasi Washington] with us in the studio for pre-production and on the days of recording.
For Mrs Calembert-Washington it appears to be full steam ahead already. “I want to do a documentary about Black Lives and its composers when I go to New York, Guadeloupe, South Africa, and Europe and interview all generations of the musicians [grandparents and children included] about racism in the world. What they have lived through, what they have to say, and to talk about finding solutions…
“I also want to see more white people move and speak about the racism and the suffering of Black People for 500 years. There are very few white people denouncing all that happened to Black People in the world for centuries. I want to connect a maximum of people and create a peaceful movement that can help this world to be more beautiful and more human.
“At the same time, I want to connect with the children and teenagers and speak with them about the future and all the possibilities they would like to explore. The real dream would be to use a part of the money from the concerts to give to associations to help children in the world… I have many other dreams, but we’ll see how things evolve. I hope to realize each of them in short order,” Mrs Calembert-Washington concluded.
I would be remiss if I had not spoken to Reggie Washington, a pivot in the drive shaft that propelled the music – not simply the music of Black Lives, but – with his low-hammering, growling bass – the co-creator of the bottom end of Mr Coleman’s iconic Five Elements ensemble. It made sense to dive headlong into this sound-world.
So, I asked the tall, raspy-voiced, nobility: “How much does M-Base factor into your music? I have to admit that was somewhat prepared for his answer… “Of course, Steve’s musical concept has affected me in a deep and positive way, just as it has the current members of this band who have played with him [David Gilmore and Gene Lake].
There is an artistic caveat. “But we have developed our own musical identities since then. David, Gene and I have [also] performed with some legends of recorded music as well. Musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller, Roy Hargrove, Archie Shepp and others.
“So, we also learned from them. Besides have developed into leaders in our own right, and we have been playing in each other’s bands too. We have our own voices. Our brotherhood is determined by the fact that we are socially-conscious musicians. Obviously when we assume position in Black Lives our individual leadership-experience is parked outside the door and we become a band of brothers…
There’s work to be done daily – even when the musicians are on the road. “We have discussions and debates every time we meet up as a collective. There are so many diverse and far-sweeping views about what’s happening NOW in the World, but we are all on the same page, trying to make the world a better place… that comes out in the music when we perform on stage together.
Much of the glue that binds – not simply the dark rhythmic rolling thunder of Mr Washington has to do with his long relationship with Gene Lake. “Gene and I first played together in 1987 or 88 with the flutist and griot Atiba Wilson in New York. I would see Gene periodically at the music clubs in town, and when Steve [Coleman] was looking for a drummer, I recommended him.
We’ve [also] worked together with Meshell Ndegeocello, Screaming Headless Torsos, and his father, [alto saxophonist] Oliver Lake. He’s been my favorite drummer to work with for over 30 years,” Mr Washington says with his characteristically soft rasp. The story between these rhythm twins continues to be written.
I also wanted to ask about the musical reaction to the new colonial equivalent of the old ‘White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant [WASP]’ world and the new racism of the far right that has increased the temperature of the music, the emotional propulsion, and what would it take to tamp things down.
“As lyrics get angrier and angrier as times is Fahrenheit 451 [à la Ray Bradbury] plus,” I asked. “How do you keep love and hope alive?” Mr Washington’s reply was a little surprising to be sure but inspired by a hopeful fatherhood: “You wake up every morning and see your kids wake up with a stinky breath and a smile. That’s what keeps love and hope alive. The lyrics may get angrier, but they still bring a message of strength, peace, and inclusion. Music is medicine, and we’re giving out healing doses to the masses!
Like every father in the world, he also finds himself staying awake at night. “Happily,” he said, “Baby duties are the least of them. They [his and Mrs Calembert-Washington’s children] bring sunshine on a cloudy day. The future of the music,” he said.
The woes that come with being a black musician in a world where economic slavery are ever prevalent. “Business, travel woes, the geopolitical landscape, bills, basic life trials, and tribulations make it hard to sleep and get much-needed rest,” he said. In this regard he echoes what black musicians the world over are grappling with.
In a pioneering three-part documentary series – Paid in Full – currently airing on CBC Gem in Canada Kevin Greene, a professor specializing in entertainment and intellectual property law, discussed his pioneering work on reparations in the music industry. This was inspired by conversations he heard growing up in the South Bronx. “Our community has always known … that there was something terribly wrong with a system that basically relied on Black cultural production,” said Mr Greene.
“There’s no music industry without Black input, right?” My thoughts immediately go out to black artists from Bessie Smith to Nina Simone, and from Chuck Berry to Little Richard… to scores of artists even extremely popular ones today. “Think about Without the Black culture. And yet, the fortunes were made for all these people [in the industry] but very rarely for the people who created anything,” Mr Greene reminds us in the series Paid in Full.
For Black Lives… for Mr Washington – as much as for Mrs Calembert-Washington and others hope springs eternal. Much of this hope comes from the heart of faith in the future of the music of Black Lives ad others like it. That’s because what motivated the musician is almost other-worldly.
“… the music comes from the temporal/musical and the spiritual places,” Mr Washington insisted. “In fact, it’s become one place over the years. I’ve realized where it comes from – the heart and the soul – including the music for this project has come from life experiences, our dreams, and aspirations. A hopeful view of the future, as well as a grounded knowledge of the past… however, the clear [and true] reality… is that this is going to be a hard, but just fight… for the children…”
As to the where, and the wherewithal, this will surely include places that really need love, hope; the Raised Fist of the Left Hand, made famous of Jim Hines and John Carlos, as well as everyone from Bessie Smith to Charlie Parker and The Last Poets, to Gil Scott-Heron and Fred Hampton all the children of the People of the World.
Mr Washington says in a clear voice: “This message [of hope in music] needs to get to all parts of the world! The battle against inequality isn’t local. We need to spread this idea to every person who will listen. Align with like-minded folks to push for change that is not necessarily for us in the present. I do is so my kids, grandkids, and every other child so they have a world to live in. “For the future…for the People of Earth.”
There is no doubt that all of this is echoed in every not and every phrase, in the poetry of the lyrics and in the heat of the music of Black Lives: People of Earth. From right out of the gates, from the intro, the rippling, soulful grooves of Friendship, in fact, through the provocative rumble of Think. And from the new pleading interpretation of Oscar Brown Jr’s seminal I Apologize to the piercing blues of Awakening and AfRi-LoGiKal, the moods are dark yet hopeful.
This is, of course, the characteristic of the blues, of the Blues People… Amiri Baraka’s Blues People, the blues people of Black Lives as well. Christie Dashiell and Tutu Puoane sing of lives lived. Mr Washington and Mr Lake, Mr Schwarz-Bart and Sonny Troupé – all sing of lives lived. Each song is seemingly – and magnificently – crafted out of thin air. Elegance and hopeful nobility triumphs over dark, tepid and dystopian despair.
Black Lives establish themselves as artists of the first order in every long invention and sculped phrase. In every musical invention that flows inexorably from one variation to the next. As listeners we discover the music of joy and hope, of despair seen in a shattered mirror in an urban forest of man’s own making. But the light that shines brightly from the verve and in every sunburst of artistry from vocalist and instrumentalist, indeed, hope springs eternal…
Deo Gratis…
Music for People of Earth – 1. Intro – Friendship; 2. When We Love; 3. Think; 4. On Sel Rev 5: Fifth Dimension; 6. Move; 7. I Apologise; 8. Valley of Kings; 9. Junie’s Jones; 10. Price to Pay; 11. People of Earth; 12. Better Days; 13. Awakening; 14. AfRi-LoGiKaL; 15. Outro – On Sèl Rèv.
Musicians on People of Earth – Christie Dashiell: vocals [1, 3 – 6, 9, 11, 14] and background vocals [2, 6, 10, 12, ]; Tutu Puoane: vocals [2, 11, 14] and background vocals [3]; Federico González Peña: piano [2, 4], Fender Rhodes [1, 3, 6], keyboards [5, 8, 10, 12 13, 14], and percussion [12]; Gregory Privat: keyboards [4] and piano [11]; Andy Milne: piano [9, 14]; Dart Mortis: keyboard [7]; David Gilmore: guitar [2 – 4, 8, 10 – 14, solo on 12]; Jean-Paul Bourelly: guitars [6, 9, solo on 10], vocals [6] and vocalisation [9]; Mars Milton: guitar [7]; Reggie Washington: contrabass [2, 9, 10, 11], electric bass [3 – 8, 10 – 14], vocals [14] and background vocals [3, 10]; Miles Karlin: additional bass [7]; Gene Lake: drums [2 – 6, 8, 10 – 14]; Sonny Troupé: Ka drum [3, 5, 14, 15]. percussion [4, 15], boulagèl [4, 15] and samples [4, 15]; Marque Gilmore: acousti-lectric drums [3, , 4, 8, 10, 14] and percussion [8, 14]; Julian Singh: drums [7]; Slam Twig: drums [9]; DJ Grazzhoppa: turntables [3, 6, , 10], and MPC 2000 [3]; Marcus Strickland: soprano saxophone [3], tenor saxophone [9, 14] and bass clarinet[3]; Pierrick Pédron: alto saxophone [4, 8, 11, 14]; Jacques Schwarz-Bart: tenor saxophone [4, 9, 11, 14]; Sharif Simmons: spoken word [3, 4, 9, 10, 12 – 14]; Elom 20CE: Éwé voice [4]; Joaquim Tivoukou: Lingala voice [4]; Ezra Schwarz-Bart: lead vocal [7]; Stephanie McKay: lead vocals [7]; Adam Falcon: lead vocals and acoustic guitar [12] Black Lives: choral [4, 15]; Stefany Calembert: executive production [Jammin’colorS].
Released – 2024
Label – Jammin’colorS
[jammincolors.com]
Runtime – 1:19:20