Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BLACK NATIONALISM
Marcus Garvey spearheaded the Back-to-Africa movement. He believed that fortifying education, health, science, infrastructure, etc.
Negroes could rise up and become the great and mighty people that they once were by being proud of their heritage and uniting.
BLACK ART
Cultural nationalists believed there was a special consciousness in
their art.
They saw increasing visibility of Black culture as more power for the
school and college curriculums, and that his ancestors art was called tribal and primitive.
He also spoke against art for arts sake.
GUY WARREN
Also known as Kofi Ghanaba. Warren first fell in love with American music when he was given
ragtime musicians that played in Accras Gold Coast Bar. He became the bars house drummer as a young teenager.
He learned music theory at Achimota College in Accra, where he wrote
his own variety shows. He moved shortly to New York, where he worked with trombonist Miff Mole.
GUY WARREN
In Accra in 1947, he formed the Tempos, a highlife band with trumpeter
player.
He hosted a show on BBC Radios Calling West Africa covering the
first DJ.
in a performance with sax player Lester Young on Studs Terkels radio show.
In Chicago in 1955, he met pianist Gene Esposito, and would record his
first album, Africa Speaks, America Listens with Esposito and drummer Red Saunders.
He was invited to play in an all-star concert by bebop saxophonist
well as them because he had a different culture. They have a different culture, and they can never play like you, he told himself.
JAZZ
The blending of African sounds with European traditions to create a
unique style.
Jazzs roots in African music tradition can be seen in:
Polyrhythm Call and response Lots of expression A lessened boundary between musician and audience
AFRO-JAZZ
Warren combined African rhythms with Western harmonies to create a
unique sound.
He wanted to bring jazz back to its African roots, to play African music
with a jazz influence, rather than jazz music with an African influence.
Robin D.G. Kelley explained that Warren wanted to play the jazz drum
kit, but bring to it a kind of African rhythmic conception. He wanted to add talking drums to the mix and ultimately create the first Africanjazz fusion album.
American jazz drummer Max Roach said that Warren was ahead of his
time with the genre, and that he was ignored at first. It took 17 years for imitators to attempt to recreate Warrens sound.
MAX ROACH
He was an American drummer whom Warren befriended and admired
for playing drums closely to the original style of their African origin.
Roach called Warren a genius and compared his work for the Black
race to the Black Nationalism movement that Marcus Garvey had begun several decades earlier.
According to Roach, Warren was considered a hero of the Back-to-the-
AFRICA SPEAKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmJfp1ypWMg&t=2m13s The first half is based on West African drum tradition, with the vocal
African percussion.
Melodic composition lent itself easy to an orchestral version.
POST-SUCCESS
In 1960, he premiered a drum suite called Voices of Africa at the
Roach, I only do the things which would stimulate my growth as a person and as a musician.
At this time, he was living in Ghana but wasnt accepted and often
looked down upon for his music. I mix with the people without letting the people mix with me, he told Roach.
POST-SUCCESS
Despite Roachs accounts, acceptance and acclaim for Warren seemed
OVERVIEW
Guy Warren has a reputation as the artist responsible for bringing an
Black music, giving visibility to the African continent as a source of great music and great national identity.
Some believe that his genre-fusing compositions paved the way for
now as they did when they were released, and some even think that the full power of his work still has yet to be understood.