"This is Triumphant Music" - Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Inaugural JazzFest Berlin, 1964
"This is Triumphant Music" - Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Inaugural JazzFest Berlin, 1964.
Dr. King’s Essay on the importance of Jazz to humanity and the Civil Rights movement was not a speech, but it was written at the request of the festival organizers. The words are powerful .
An excerpt:
Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
And now, Jazz is exported to the world.
Pittsburgh Jazz in a second century - and remembering all of it
2024 looks to be part of a new “roaring 20’s” of a sort. Back then, as the economy was coming back from the Great War and the 1918 Flu pandemic, the music scene in Pittsburgh was a part of that “roar.”
Yet, many of the artists from that era in Pittsburgh are not remembered, today.
Pianist and historian Tom Roberts is working to lift some covers on that forgetting - and finding new artists from 100 years ago that deserve to be heard - including the Russin brothers and the Humphries brothers.
The Scene - Thursday at 6pm, Sunday at 5pm, Friday and Saturday at noon on WZUM.
A Visit with John Shannon, Roger Humphries and Howie Alexander go Global, and Deanna Witkowski for Lincoln Center
2024 has just begun - and new things are on the horizon for the Pittsburgh Jazz scene. Some of them have not be fully revealed, so we’ll be working to keep up with the updates and the days and weeks roll by.
For the early start of it - we take a visit with guitarist and musical curator John Shannon of Con Alma.
The Scene - Thursday at 6, Sunday at 5, Friday and Saturday at noon.
Pittsburgh Jazz Scene from 2023
In the last days of December, it is tradition to look back at the past year’s events and do a tally and recounting of sorts. For WZUM and Jazz lovers in Pittsburgh, it was, on the whole, a year filled with notable appearances, performances and also passings.
The Scene - Thursday at 6, Sunday at 5, Friday and Saturday at noon.
