Amina Baraka and The Red Microphone
Release date: June 30, 2017
Amina Baraka speaks truth and spits fire when she reads her poetry. She is a warm and friendly person, but keeps a metal shovel by her front door in case of trespassers. She is a devoted member of the Communist Party USA. She is vast, she contains multitudes. After decades in the shadow of her late husband, poet and playwright Amiri Baraka, Amina is having a career renaissance in the company of The Red Microphone, four musicians who are fellow fighters in the struggle for equality for all. Not that she hasn't been getting her poetry published all those years, but as we have so often seen, poets who add music to the mix can transcend category boundaries and reach more listeners. And this is some powerful music, inside/outside jazz, created in the moment but occasionally building on a composition by group member Rocco John Iacovone, the cadences of Baraka's words intertwining with the rhythms of the music to become more than the sum of its parts.
Personnel:
Amina Baraka: words, lead vocals
with The Red Microphone:
Ras Moshe Burnett: tenor saxophone, flute, percussion
Rocco John Iacovone: curved soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, piano
John Pietaro: musical direction, drums, percussion
Laurie Towers: bass guitar
'amen chorus' on "Talking Drum": Ras, Rocco, John
Track Listing:
1. Time Step 8:41
2. The Spirit of Billy Bang 3:06
3. The Things I Love 7:36
4. Jayne Cortez 8:25
5. Afro American Child 19:33
6. For Margaret Walker Alexander 6:55
7. Real Dreams 4:08
8. Talking Drum 5:45
9. The Fascist 7:32
71:58
All words by Amina Baraka. All music collectively improvised by The Red Microphone except:
music under "Timestep": "Travelin' Thru" by Rocco John Iacovone, with quote of "L'Internationale" by Pierre Degeyter
music under "The Spirit of Billy Bang": by Laurie Towers
music under "The Things I Love": "Blue Nights" by Rocco John Iacovone
music under "Talking Drum": by John Pietaro
