|
Jazz, that creative source of music inspired by life’s totality of experiences by the ancestors both in Africa and America, is constantly being reconfigured into a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds. The trumpeter, composer, and visual artist Wadada Leo Smith has created a vivid perspective on the oneness of music and art with his current exhibit “The Language of Ankhrasmation” at the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Audubon Terrace, on Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets), now through July 3.
Wadada Leo Smith, “Jupiter in Black Space,” 2020, from “The Three Jupiters,” 2020–23. (© Wadada Leo Smith) Smith’s concept of Ankhrasmation was 50 years in the making: He wrote that first score in Chicago in 1965. The term Ankhrasmation represents a diasporic concept with meaningful layers. The beginning, “Ankh,” is derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph, symbolizing life. The word “Ras” is Ethiopian and means head or head creator. The word “Ma” is the basic sound of all the planet.“Ankhrasmation is the life force of mother and father, who generate everything on the planet, and I thought I would name my language after this general process. I was looking for something but didn’t know what it would be until I found it,” explained Smith in an interview with Geeta Dayal. “… the sound-rhythm beyond is what I’m after through this precious and glorious art of the Black man.” Smith’s colors boldly speak out (similar to his trumpet solos), adding a bright exuberance to the written scores. The colors, like his music, encompass a historical, cultural, social, and mythical elements of Ankhrasmation. Some of his images, particularly the booklets that reflect some of his works from 2023–24, are multi-dimensional, with art structures and shapes, sound music, and the concept of literature with poetry. |
McKinley Morganfield, (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983) known professionally as Muddy Waters was an American blues singer, songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Muddy is famous for helping to invent the Chicago blues, a style of music that fused the rural, acoustic Mississippi Delta blues with the sounds of the electric guitar. Muddy's greatest influences were blues legends Son House, Robert Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy.
Waters was a lifelong womanizer who met his last wife, Marva Jean Brooks, when she was 19 and he was over 60. He had at least six children, most illegitimate; mistresses and a daughter were lost to drugs.
Muddy is famous for helping to invent the Chicago blues, a style of music that fused the rural, acoustic Mississippi Delta blues with the sounds of the electric guitar. Muddy's greatest influences were blues legends Son House, Robert Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy.
Waters was a lifelong womanizer who met his last wife, Marva Jean Brooks, when she was 19 and he was over 60. He had at least six children, most illegitimate; mistresses and a daughter were lost to drugs.
|
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996)
|
