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HERBIE MILLER'S TAKE ON GARVEY'S RADICAL BLACK MUSIC TRADITION
By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter
Sunday, August 30, 2009
From a cultural perspective, the week which started on Sunday August 16 could have easily been dubbed Marcus Garvey Week. From Monday, August 17, which marked the 122nd birthday of our first National Hero, throughout the week a number of events highlighting his work were staged across the country.
Chief among these was the first staging of the Marcus Garvey Awards for excellence. Under the auspices of the Kingston Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the awards, quite appropriately, included music, of which the first recipient was Queen Ifrica. Most fitting, because as the chairman of the UNIA, Steven Golding pointed out, Marcus Garvey was like the father of Jamaican culture and was responsible for the emergence of some of our legendary artistes, with the late Randolph 'Ranny' Williams heading the list.
Through the inspiration of Rastafari, reggae artistes - but moreso Burning Spear - have kept the name of Marcus Garvey alive across the globe. Through his music, Spear lamented No One Remembers Old Marcus Garvey, while observing in another of his works immortalising the great black visionary, Marcus Garvey's Words Come to Pass.
It is rather interesting that recently the first journal of Liberty Hall, The legacy of Marcus Garvey, was launched.
The journal - which bears the title 76 King Street, the address of Liberty Hall (Marcus Garvey's headquarters) - has a very interesting chapter written by musicologist Herbie Miller titled Marcus Garvey and the Radical Black Music Tradition.
"Marcus Garvey's headquarters at Kingston's Liberty Hall had its own cultural and musical events," Miller stated in the journal. He goes on to explain, "Throughout the 1920s, concerts, plays and dances were regular features that kept both UNIA
(Universial Negro Improvement Association) members and unofficial supporters as well as the general public entertained and aware of black pride."
Miller, director of the Museum of Jamaican Music, also highlighted the fact that after Garvey's return to Jamaica in 1927, he established Edelweiss Park, a theatre, recreation and administrative facility for UNIA activities where acts like the UNIA's own Universal Jazz Hounds Band were regular attractions.
However, long before Burning Spear, as documented by Miller, one of Jamaica's earliest international jazz exponents, was a Garvyite by the name of Leslie Thompson.
"As a follower of Garvey, Thompson encouraged others to support the UNIA, and his lifelong friendship with Coleman Hawkins, with whom he recorded in Paris and Holland in 1938, may not have been purely musical, but may also have been so because of their shared interest in the Garvey movement," Miller noted. Coleman Hawkins is regarded as the father of the tenor saxophone.
Explaining his involvement with the journal, Miller, the former manager of Peter Tosh clarifies, "What this essay has indicated is the extent to which musicians and singers embraced Garvey and his philosophy. They did this in turbulent times in America and the Diaspora when racial tensions were widespread; between the outbreak of war in 1914 through the duration of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and they did it all at the risk of their lives."
Miller also made connection of Garvey's Black Music Tradition with one of Jamaica's most famous poets, Claude McKay, both of whom were in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
"...Garvey was fortunate that Harlem during that period was also the destination of more than just a few West Indians. Most notable among them was Garvey's compatriot, Jamaican poet and novelist, Claude McKay. He was one of the earliest, most outstanding and enduring writers of the Black or Harlem Renaissance," Herbie Miller stated.
This is just a brief overview of the chapter Miller wrote. The journal 76 King Street should be a collector's item for everyone with an interest in the consciousness rooted in reggae music.
By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter
Sunday, August 30, 2009
From a cultural perspective, the week which started on Sunday August 16 could have easily been dubbed Marcus Garvey Week. From Monday, August 17, which marked the 122nd birthday of our first National Hero, throughout the week a number of events highlighting his work were staged across the country.
Chief among these was the first staging of the Marcus Garvey Awards for excellence. Under the auspices of the Kingston Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the awards, quite appropriately, included music, of which the first recipient was Queen Ifrica. Most fitting, because as the chairman of the UNIA, Steven Golding pointed out, Marcus Garvey was like the father of Jamaican culture and was responsible for the emergence of some of our legendary artistes, with the late Randolph 'Ranny' Williams heading the list.
Through the inspiration of Rastafari, reggae artistes - but moreso Burning Spear - have kept the name of Marcus Garvey alive across the globe. Through his music, Spear lamented No One Remembers Old Marcus Garvey, while observing in another of his works immortalising the great black visionary, Marcus Garvey's Words Come to Pass.
It is rather interesting that recently the first journal of Liberty Hall, The legacy of Marcus Garvey, was launched.
The journal - which bears the title 76 King Street, the address of Liberty Hall (Marcus Garvey's headquarters) - has a very interesting chapter written by musicologist Herbie Miller titled Marcus Garvey and the Radical Black Music Tradition.
"Marcus Garvey's headquarters at Kingston's Liberty Hall had its own cultural and musical events," Miller stated in the journal. He goes on to explain, "Throughout the 1920s, concerts, plays and dances were regular features that kept both UNIA
(Universial Negro Improvement Association) members and unofficial supporters as well as the general public entertained and aware of black pride."
Miller, director of the Museum of Jamaican Music, also highlighted the fact that after Garvey's return to Jamaica in 1927, he established Edelweiss Park, a theatre, recreation and administrative facility for UNIA activities where acts like the UNIA's own Universal Jazz Hounds Band were regular attractions.
However, long before Burning Spear, as documented by Miller, one of Jamaica's earliest international jazz exponents, was a Garvyite by the name of Leslie Thompson.
"As a follower of Garvey, Thompson encouraged others to support the UNIA, and his lifelong friendship with Coleman Hawkins, with whom he recorded in Paris and Holland in 1938, may not have been purely musical, but may also have been so because of their shared interest in the Garvey movement," Miller noted. Coleman Hawkins is regarded as the father of the tenor saxophone.
Explaining his involvement with the journal, Miller, the former manager of Peter Tosh clarifies, "What this essay has indicated is the extent to which musicians and singers embraced Garvey and his philosophy. They did this in turbulent times in America and the Diaspora when racial tensions were widespread; between the outbreak of war in 1914 through the duration of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and they did it all at the risk of their lives."
Miller also made connection of Garvey's Black Music Tradition with one of Jamaica's most famous poets, Claude McKay, both of whom were in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
"...Garvey was fortunate that Harlem during that period was also the destination of more than just a few West Indians. Most notable among them was Garvey's compatriot, Jamaican poet and novelist, Claude McKay. He was one of the earliest, most outstanding and enduring writers of the Black or Harlem Renaissance," Herbie Miller stated.
This is just a brief overview of the chapter Miller wrote. The journal 76 King Street should be a collector's item for everyone with an interest in the consciousness rooted in reggae music.
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