Uhuru
The Common Ground
The Herbie Mann Afro-Jazz Sextet + Four Trumpets
Recording engineer: Tommy Nola Cover photo: Ruth MannSupervision: Nesubi Ertegun
Atlantic Records 1343 (STA-60282 PR)
1960
PERSONNEL
On Baghdad, Asia Minor, High Life & The Common Ground, the personnel is: Herbie Mann, flutes; John Rae, vibraharp & percussion; Nabil Totah, bass; Ray Mantilla, conga drums; Ray Barretto, bongos; Rudy Collins, drums; Michael Olatunji, percussion; Doc Cheatham, Leo Ball, Ziggy Schatz & Jerry Kail, trumpets.
On Walkin', St. Thomas & Night In Tunisia, the personnel is the same except that Michael Olatunji, percussion, is not heard.
On Sawa Sawa Dé & Uhuru, the personnel is: Herbie Mann, flutes; John Rae, vibraharp & percussion; Nabil Totah, bass; Ray Mantilla, conga drums; Rudy Collins, drums; Michael Olatunji, percussion. The vocals are by Maya Angelou, Dolores Parker & Michael Olatunji (Michael Olatunji appears by arrangement with Colum bia Records).
From the back cover: A characteristic of modern jazz is its interest in both its own root materials and in other kinds of music with which jazz can be naturally fused.
Afro-Cuban music is one "root" that particularly fascinates the modern jazz musician. It represents an early confrontation of West African music and "European" music; in some parts of the Caribbean, the music remains very "African." My fascination with the Afro-Cuban idiom is an old one, and that is why I felt very happy about a recent opportunity to make an extensive trip to Africa itself. The indigenous African music I heard, the Afro-Cuban synthesis, and modern jazz are different branches of the same family tree, and in this album I have tried to bring them together and find a level on which they could relate to each other. That is what I mean by The Common Ground.
My group and I were invited earlier this year to tour 17 African countries. Our 14-week trek began at Dakar, and went on through Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Congo, Mozambique, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Ethiopia, Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia. Besides giving concerts, we also listened to as much native music as we could. Four of the compositions in this LP: High Life, Uburu, Baghdad and Sawa Sawa Dé contain melodic and rhythmic suggestions from African music. We also collected many instruments. I picked up 20 different flutes and a variety of percussion instruments.
We are a group of many nationalities, and this made a big impression on the African audiences, who are not used to seeing "mixed" bands. Nabil Totah is Arabic, born in Palestine; Rudy Collins is an American Negro; Olatunji is from Nigeria; Ray Mantilla and Ray Barretto are Puerto Rican; Johnny Rae is of Italian descent and I am Jewish of Russian and Roumanian descent. (This was the group that went with me on the tour; for the record session I added a trumpet section to act as a kind of "kicker" for the rest of the group.)
Because of this variety in backgrounds, there is greater understanding among the members of this group for my attempt to blend the African, Afro-Cuban and modern jazz elements into a unified style. Incidentally, I have termed this style "Afro-Jazz" to make clear that it is more broadly based than Afro-Cuban music. My interest and that of other musicians in Afro-Cuban music originated from a feeling that conventional jazz is limited in rhythm possibilities. Har- monic exploration in modern jazz has taken many different avenues, but this has not been equally true of rhythm. My experience in Africa has given me many valuable new ideas on use of rhythm in jazz. This does not exhaust the possibilities, however. Other native musics of the world offer other possible areas of jazz use. I am thinking right now, for instance, of incorporating American Indian music into jazz.
The "African" origin of jazz has been overstated. Some of the rhythmic drive of jazz perhaps derives from Africa, but jazz as we know it today is so idiomatically American that African audiences, particularly those south of the Sahara, do not understand or appreciate it. They are making great efforts to do so. There are, in fact, such strong forces at work for the people to become "civilized" that much of the old music is not played any more. Africans seem to be afraid that the native music will be considered "jungle" or "Tarzan" type music by outsiders, and so they tend to favor American and European music of the commercial type. In coming back to Africa with some of their own music transformed into unrecognizability, – I hope we made them as we admitted before feel to some extent how highly the rest of the world regards their native heritage.
Baghdad is not in Africa, of course, but the music of Asia Minor is related to that of North Africa. They have a common Moslem culture. Incidentally, Nabil Totah, my bassist, is Arabic, and so it was logical that the melody should be played in unison with Nabil bowing bass in the Arabic style and myself on wooden flute.
Asia Minor also has a genuine Near Eastern feeling, which is natural enough, considering the fact that the composer, Roger Mozian, is Armenian. This is a piece that Charlie Parker liked to play. He recorded it with Flip Phillips and Machito.
Walkin' is a well-known jazz standard, but I don't think that it has ever been done before with the particular styling and feeling we have given it here.
Sawa Sawa Dé is done with small group and singers led by Olatunji. We heard some children singing this folk song in Sierra Leone. The rhythms are a combination of things. The flute I play on this is an African cane flute and Johnny Rae is playing a wooden marimba from Mozambique. It has a very happy feeling.
St. Thomas is based on a folk song from the Caribbean. Sonny Rollins adapted it as a jazz riff. This piece has become one of the most popular items in our repertoire.
High Life also has a strong Afro-Cuban feeling. In it I also tried to express the Spanish love of brass sound. It is based on a West African dance, a fascinating dance using elaborate robes and gestures. It can be danced by two people or ten. Rudy plays it here in quadrille march tempo, as we did it when we played at the Inauguration Ball of President Tubman in Liberia.
Uhuru is the Swahili word for "Freedom." It is a word that you hear everywhere in Africa today. I wrote Uhuru as the last movement of my Jazz Evolution Suite, which we played in our concerts on the African tour. It uses the language of modern jazz, but tries to suggest older strains, going back through Negro "church" music all the way back to Africa. The lyrics are by Olatunji and are Swahili, Yuruba and English.
Night In Tunisia is one of the first Dizzy Gillespie Afro- Cuban compositions. It exerted a tremendous amount of in- fluence on the early modern jazz movement, and deservedly belongs in this LP. With all due despect to Dizzy, we were in Tunisia, but we didn't hear any music that was anything like this.
The Common Ground is perhaps the most successful synthesis of the three strains of music that has occupied our group in recent months native African, Afro-Cuban and modern jazz. It is an indication of the direction we are going. The value of the give-and-take of a group with as diverse backgrounds as ours is well illustrated in this closing number. – HERBIE MANN (as told to Gary Kramer)
Afro-Cuban music is one "root" that particularly fascinates the modern jazz musician. It represents an early confrontation of West African music and "European" music; in some parts of the Caribbean, the music remains very "African." My fascination with the Afro-Cuban idiom is an old one, and that is why I felt very happy about a recent opportunity to make an extensive trip to Africa itself. The indigenous African music I heard, the Afro-Cuban synthesis, and modern jazz are different branches of the same family tree, and in this album I have tried to bring them together and find a level on which they could relate to each other. That is what I mean by The Common Ground.
My group and I were invited earlier this year to tour 17 African countries. Our 14-week trek began at Dakar, and went on through Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Congo, Mozambique, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Ethiopia, Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia. Besides giving concerts, we also listened to as much native music as we could. Four of the compositions in this LP: High Life, Uburu, Baghdad and Sawa Sawa Dé contain melodic and rhythmic suggestions from African music. We also collected many instruments. I picked up 20 different flutes and a variety of percussion instruments.
We are a group of many nationalities, and this made a big impression on the African audiences, who are not used to seeing "mixed" bands. Nabil Totah is Arabic, born in Palestine; Rudy Collins is an American Negro; Olatunji is from Nigeria; Ray Mantilla and Ray Barretto are Puerto Rican; Johnny Rae is of Italian descent and I am Jewish of Russian and Roumanian descent. (This was the group that went with me on the tour; for the record session I added a trumpet section to act as a kind of "kicker" for the rest of the group.)
Because of this variety in backgrounds, there is greater understanding among the members of this group for my attempt to blend the African, Afro-Cuban and modern jazz elements into a unified style. Incidentally, I have termed this style "Afro-Jazz" to make clear that it is more broadly based than Afro-Cuban music. My interest and that of other musicians in Afro-Cuban music originated from a feeling that conventional jazz is limited in rhythm possibilities. Har- monic exploration in modern jazz has taken many different avenues, but this has not been equally true of rhythm. My experience in Africa has given me many valuable new ideas on use of rhythm in jazz. This does not exhaust the possibilities, however. Other native musics of the world offer other possible areas of jazz use. I am thinking right now, for instance, of incorporating American Indian music into jazz.
The "African" origin of jazz has been overstated. Some of the rhythmic drive of jazz perhaps derives from Africa, but jazz as we know it today is so idiomatically American that African audiences, particularly those south of the Sahara, do not understand or appreciate it. They are making great efforts to do so. There are, in fact, such strong forces at work for the people to become "civilized" that much of the old music is not played any more. Africans seem to be afraid that the native music will be considered "jungle" or "Tarzan" type music by outsiders, and so they tend to favor American and European music of the commercial type. In coming back to Africa with some of their own music transformed into unrecognizability, – I hope we made them as we admitted before feel to some extent how highly the rest of the world regards their native heritage.
Baghdad is not in Africa, of course, but the music of Asia Minor is related to that of North Africa. They have a common Moslem culture. Incidentally, Nabil Totah, my bassist, is Arabic, and so it was logical that the melody should be played in unison with Nabil bowing bass in the Arabic style and myself on wooden flute.
Asia Minor also has a genuine Near Eastern feeling, which is natural enough, considering the fact that the composer, Roger Mozian, is Armenian. This is a piece that Charlie Parker liked to play. He recorded it with Flip Phillips and Machito.
Walkin' is a well-known jazz standard, but I don't think that it has ever been done before with the particular styling and feeling we have given it here.
Sawa Sawa Dé is done with small group and singers led by Olatunji. We heard some children singing this folk song in Sierra Leone. The rhythms are a combination of things. The flute I play on this is an African cane flute and Johnny Rae is playing a wooden marimba from Mozambique. It has a very happy feeling.
St. Thomas is based on a folk song from the Caribbean. Sonny Rollins adapted it as a jazz riff. This piece has become one of the most popular items in our repertoire.
High Life also has a strong Afro-Cuban feeling. In it I also tried to express the Spanish love of brass sound. It is based on a West African dance, a fascinating dance using elaborate robes and gestures. It can be danced by two people or ten. Rudy plays it here in quadrille march tempo, as we did it when we played at the Inauguration Ball of President Tubman in Liberia.
Uhuru is the Swahili word for "Freedom." It is a word that you hear everywhere in Africa today. I wrote Uhuru as the last movement of my Jazz Evolution Suite, which we played in our concerts on the African tour. It uses the language of modern jazz, but tries to suggest older strains, going back through Negro "church" music all the way back to Africa. The lyrics are by Olatunji and are Swahili, Yuruba and English.
Night In Tunisia is one of the first Dizzy Gillespie Afro- Cuban compositions. It exerted a tremendous amount of in- fluence on the early modern jazz movement, and deservedly belongs in this LP. With all due despect to Dizzy, we were in Tunisia, but we didn't hear any music that was anything like this.
The Common Ground is perhaps the most successful synthesis of the three strains of music that has occupied our group in recent months native African, Afro-Cuban and modern jazz. It is an indication of the direction we are going. The value of the give-and-take of a group with as diverse backgrounds as ours is well illustrated in this closing number. – HERBIE MANN (as told to Gary Kramer)
SIDE ONE
1. a) BAGHDAD by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP.
b) ASIA MINOR by Roger Mozian; Arkayem Music, ASCAP.) (Total Time: 5:12)
2. WALKIN' y Richard Carpenter; Prestige Music, BMI. (Time: 5:21)
3. SAWA SAWA DÉ - Arranged by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. (Time: 3:00)
4. ST. THOMAS by Sonny Rollins; Prestige Music, BMI. (Time: 3:23)
SIDE TWO
2. WALKIN' y Richard Carpenter; Prestige Music, BMI. (Time: 5:21)
3. SAWA SAWA DÉ - Arranged by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. (Time: 3:00)
4. ST. THOMAS by Sonny Rollins; Prestige Music, BMI. (Time: 3:23)
SIDE TWO
1. HIGH LIFE by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. (Time: 2:10)
2. UHURU by Herbie Mann & Michael Olatunji; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. (Time: 4:53)
3. NIGHT IN TUNISIA by Dizzy Gillespie & Frank Paparelli; Leeds Music, ASCAP. (Time: 5:58)
4. THE COMMON GROUND by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. Time: 3:48)
2. UHURU by Herbie Mann & Michael Olatunji; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. (Time: 4:53)
3. NIGHT IN TUNISIA by Dizzy Gillespie & Frank Paparelli; Leeds Music, ASCAP. (Time: 5:58)
4. THE COMMON GROUND by Herbie Mann; Herbie Mann Music, ASCAP. Time: 3:48)
