Avant 17: Eric Mingus: Langston Hughes - The Dream Keeper (Mode Records)
Eric Mingus, voice
David Amram, piano
Larry Simon, guitar, music director
with Groove Bacteria:
Don Davis, alto saxes, clarinets
Catherine Sikora, soprano sax
Cynthia Chatis, Native American flute, flute
Scip Gallant, Hammond organ
Chris Stambaugh, bass
Mike Barron, drums
Shawn Russell, percussion
Frank Laurino, percussion
Langston Hughes (1902–67) was an American poet, novelist, social activist and playwright whose work showcased the dignity and beauty in ordinary black life. His African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The hours he spent in Harlem clubs affected his work, making him one of the innovators of “Jazz/Poetry.”
Hughes’ poetry is still powerful, relevant and contemporary today.
The Langston Hughes Project came from jazz guitarist Larry Simon, who is the founder of JazzMouth, a unique festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that combines jazz and spontaneous music with readings by some of the finest poets.
Half of the poems are duos with Mingus and Amram. The instrumentally varied balance of the album are Mingus duos with electric guitar or Hammond organ; with woodwinds and percussion or with larger ensembles.
Hughes’ texts are brought to life by the rich, soulful delivery of Eric Mingus — son of Charles Mingus. For some years he worked as a session musician and backing singer, playing on dates with artists such as Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Karen Mantler. He has also performed with the Mingus Big Band, Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane, Todd Rundgren, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Catherine Sikora and Levon Helm, and a featured performer in many of Hal Willner’s projects.
Simon also brought David Amram — composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and author — to the project. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz, folk and world music led him to work with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Levon Helm and Betty Carter. Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, and written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic scores for the films Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate. Amram collaborated with Hughes on his cantata Let us Remember, premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1965. Importantly, Amram gave the first ever public jazz/poetry readings in NYC in 1957-58 with Jack Kerouac, the spontaneous creation of words and music which came to be known as “jazz/poetry.”
