ASCENDING | Guts and Gifts: Celebrating the Essence of Jazz Music and Culture!

Is jazz music enjoying a comeback or has it never really left the scene? Are the celebrated pioneers of this art form right in calling it “African American Classical Music” or is that a reach? On episode 28 of ASCENDING—with APRIL R. SILVER, host—we touch on all these topics and more!

Two legendary artists and one executive presenter (all-in-all, three voices steeped in the culture) join the ASCENDING lot to shed light on a music and culture that continues to thrive to this day!

GREER SMITH is the founder and CEO of TRANSART, the organizational home of Jazz In The Valley (JITV). JITV began in the summer of 2000 when Smith commissioned the late great AHMAD JAMAL to create an original composition to uplift the mission and goals of her organization, located in the Hudson Valley region of New York. TRANSART was founded to harness the ability of art to celebrate, preserve, advance the history and popular culture of diasporic communities.

CRAIG HARRIS is an award-winning trombonist, composer, bandleader, and “sonic shaman.” When he exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, he brought the entire history and vernacular of the jazz trombone with him, including the confrontational expressionism of the ‘60s avant-garde. In his early career, he toured with the SUN RA. Harris is deliberate in using his art to counter social injustices. A key work includes BREATHE, a sonic statement in response to injustices inflicted upon African American people (created in response to the death of Eric Garner). He is also a NAACP Image Award nominee for his co-composition of the score for the Oscar-winning film Judas and the Black Messiah.

CHIEF BABA NEIL CLARKE (aka “CHIEF BABA NEIL”) is an internationally respected African percussionist and scholar. He was trained by the pioneers who presented African cultural traditions to North America in the 1950s and 1960s. “Chief” James Hawthorne Bey and Baba Kwame Ishangi, among others, were his master teachers. The Bed-Stuy native has served as the resident percussionist for Harry Belafonte and Randy Weston and has also performed, toured, or recorded with Dianne Reeves, Phyllis Hyman, Third World, Norman Connors, David Sanborn, Miriam Makeba, and many other greats. The Boston University alumnus and Schomburg Center scholar is a skilled researcher on African culture, the global significance of the drum, and the African drum in America. An elder in the Orisa community, Chief Baba Neil has been initiated to Osun, Ayan, and Ifa. At a historic ceremony in Nigeria, Clarke was installed as a chief and now has the title of Alufopejo Awo of Osogbo.

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🔔 ✨ 🔔 And as always, this is another "breaking ground" show. Watch ASCENDING weekly for enriching conversations that tap into the root of today's cultural, artistic, social justice, personal, and spiritual health matters. Watch every Saturday morning, LIVE!, at 11:00 am ET. Turn on your notifications so you'll be alerted when we go live!

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