Playlist
1. Charles Mingus – Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat
2. Eric Dolphy – Densities
3. Cassandra Wilson – Strange Fruit
4. Charlie Parker – Salt Peanuts
5. Bobby Hutcherson – Ghetto Lights
6. Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay
7. Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers – I Remember Clifford
8. Pharoah Sanders – You’ve Got To Have Freedom
9. Brother Jack McDuff – Oblighetto
10. Gil Scott Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
11. Billy Cobham – Inner Conflicts
12. Charles Mingus – Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat
13. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (Instrumental)
14. Ronnie Laws – Tidal Wave
15. Cal Tjader – Curacao
16. Wes Montgomery – Theodora
17. Eddie Henderson – We End In A Dream
18. Gator Soundtrack – Laying The Trap
19. Deep Forest – The First Twilight
20. Pharoah Sanders – You’ve Got To Have Freedom
Narrated by Alfre Woodard
Including Commentary from:
Sonia Sanchez
Wallace D. Muhammed
Betty Shabazz
Attilah Shabazz
Dr. John Henrik Clark
Wilfred Little
Philbert Little
Alex Haley
Yusef Shah
James Baldwin
Ossie Davis
Maya Angelou
This mix originally aired late in May of 2010…I wanted to make a lasting tribute to the life and the integrity of a thoroughly unselfish man who exhibited more courage and integrity than I’ve seen in my lifetime. He was supposed to be a statistic, but instead turned into one of the greatest champions of Black America. He knew that lazy, frightened blacks would hate him. Oppressive whites feared him. He continued – even in the face of his own death, not for himself, but for those coming after him.
He shamed the black and white demons that surrounded him and no matter how the media tries to shame and vilify him, I stand by Malcolm X and his legacy of responsibility for changing our own sorry state of affairs.
His stance was radical in it’s departure from the position of other leaders, yet it can never be argued that he acted out of anything but pure love. He took no money and consistently deferred greatness to a lesser man, using his popularity to raise a horribly flawed individual to heights he never deserved. It takes an immense amount of character and courage to resist the temptation of power. Of course, in true nigger fashion – they murdered him. But he still lives. You can’t kill greatness.
This took longer and was a bit more involved than I originally thought it would be. This is a true labor of love – full of jazz and obscure rhythms overdubbed with rare commentary from family, friends, enemies, and supporters (from a PBS American Experience Documentary entitled “Make It Plain” – 1994 – you can watch and download the documentary below)
…The editing, the music, the sound bytes, everything had to be right…