REVIEW ON MAX ROACH <i>WE INSIST! FREEDOM NOW SUITE<i>

PROUDFLESH: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness

ISSN: 1543-0855

Issue 6 (2007)

REVIEW ON MAX ROACH, WE INSIST! FREEDOM NOW SUITE, CANDID RECORDS, 1960

Sharisse Stancil-Ashford

I wish I could have been there for the recording of WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite—to witness live the birth of a new, conscious, PAN-AFRICAN sound. There was something about this particular project which stuck with me long after I initially heard it. It was full of truth and honesty; for those reasons alone, I immediately went home to download it to my computer, and so it began. Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr., both Jazz musicians of the 1960’s, arranged this project to express the current “freedom situation” concerning ALL AFRICANS, not only in America, but across the globe. This was not only projected through the aesthetics of Jazz, but also with traditional African Drumming and other instruments played by Olatunji. Abbey Lincoln adds “PURE FIYA” to this project with her rich, “griot-graced” vocals, which serve to tell the story of this Pan-African struggle, evoking as well a sense of consciousness and self-awareness. Her voice is deeply rooted in a newly discovered “mother tongue,” one seeming to provide a “new-birth” to those who listen. The “mother tongue,” as described by M. Noubese Philip in She Tries Her Tongue, is not “foreign” or “full of anguish.” For us it is Africa’s tongue, Africa’s languages, and Africa’s cultures, BEFORE the arrival of white imperialism. The art expressed in this project is ACTIVE and “grounded” in the concepts of Pan-Africanism, many of which can be tied to works by Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney and Assata Shakur. Because of its “groundings” in the Pan-African struggle, WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite is not your average recording. It seeks to identify and convey the “mother tongue” to its listeners, helping us not to be “tongue dumb,” providing us with art that is both active and beautiful.

In the early 1960’s, a new wave of social consciousness was evoked: “Jazz musicians, who were normally a-political and relatively unmindful of specific social movements, were also unprecedentedly stimulated” (“WE INSIST!” 1). The musicians in this project, who were both inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and the Pan-African struggle, helped to expose the “language” and transcribe the “mother tongue” in music. “All Africa” begins with Olatunji on conga drums and Abbey Lincoln telling the story of “the beat.” The beat she describes “has a rich and magnificent history, full of excitement, and mystery.” Although it is not the first track on the project, “All Africa” lays the groundwork for Pan-African discussion by revisiting history and paying homage to the many peoples in Africa who were enslaved. Judging from how she attacks the vocals, Lincoln seems to be representing one perspective on how our history began. “They say, it began with a chant and a hum, and a black hand laid on a native drum.” This verse is grounded in the “traditional,” as expressed in a poem titled “Tradition” by Assata Shakur and in Ama Ata Aidoo’s play Anowa. The “traditional” which Assata represents and what Abbey Lincoln conveys is a Pan-African tradition, and is deeply rooted in struggle and resistance. “The beat . . . some of it bitter and some of it sweet, but all of it part of the beat.” This particular song, I believe, represents the beginning of Pan-African struggle. The initial acts of being taken from your homeland, having your culture attacked, and then becoming enslaved in a new land, all suggests a new found terror. Now, a place which was once controlled by the “natives” has come to be controlled by capitalism and imperialism. Abbey Lincoln begins to name some of the many peoples who were a part of these activities. All-Africans were affected, from the Bantu (the first name Abbey Lincoln calls), as well as the Zulu and Igbo. This part of the song is a form of libation, recognizing the ancestors and all who have gone on before. This same process of libation is evident in the songs by many rappers, one group being the Lost Boyz who rhyme in the classic song, “Renee”: “I’m pourin’ beer out for my shorty who ain’t here. I’m from the ghetto. So listen. This is how I shed my tears.” This subtle comparison is a link in the chain of tradition, one that has transcended boundaries globally, proving that we who are a part of the African Diaspora are still connected.

After establishing a connection between ourselves and the rest of our African brothas and sistas across the globe, it is much easier to discuss other concepts of Pan-Africanism, most notably those of revolutionary scholars, such as Rodney and Fanon. “Driva Man” and “Tears for Johannesburg” musically illustrates the effects of “white power” and the power of destruction unleashed on African peoples. “Tears of Johannesburg” as explained in the liner notes of “WE INSIST!” is a representation of “the incredible and bloody cruelty against Africans, as in the Sharpeville massacres in South Africa.” The fact is that in the 1960’s Africans in America were struggling for the some basic human rights as those struggling on the mother continent. This illustrates the global system of oppression ad exploitation of African peoples. It is a global system which has grown to negatively affect people who are “non-white.” As Rodney explains, “the white world defines who is white and who is black. In the U.S.A. if one is not white, then one is black; in Britain, if one is not white then one is coloured . . . even the fact of whether you are black or not is decided by white people—by white power” (Rodney 16). Although this particular song does not include any vocals (besides in the very beginning of the song), the instrumentation provides listeners with a sense of chaos and destruction. The saxophones create an eerie, honest melody, which represents the oppressive, chaotic, destructive system of imperialism and colonialism, better known as “white power.”

One song featured on WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite that can provide great insight into the writings and teachings of Rodney and Fanon is “Freedom Day.” Once again, the soulful, “griot-graced” Abbey Lincoln provides the vivid, powerful vocals for this track, singing: “Whisper, listen, whisper, listen, whisper, say we’re free. Rumors flyin’. Must be lyin’. Can this really be?” Although she is pronouncing freedom, she is also questioning whether or not it is real. This is a question that both Rodney and Fanon pose, especially in Fanon’s discussion of “pseudo-independence” and “true liberation.” There is a clear difference between pseudo-independence and true liberation. “True liberation is not that pseudo-independence in which ministers, having limited responsibility, hobnob with an economy dominated by the colonial pact, nor is it simply a flag or a specific territory (Fanon 105). True liberation is the “total destruction of the colonial system” (Fanon 105). Pseudo-independence, as Fanon discusses in Toward the African Revolution, is one which is a new form of colonialism or “neo colonialism.” Although it is supposedly “Freedom Day,” there are still factors which are preventing it from being “true and total liberation.” As Abbey Lincoln sings, “Freedom Day, its freedom day. Free to vote and earn my pay. Dim my path and hide the way. But we’ve made it Freedom Day,” she questions the validity of this “freedom.” This “freedom” has been designed and packaged to provide Negroes with a false sense of self and history. “Dim my path and hide the way” illustrates that we have lost ourselves in this colonial process, and the only way to get back to Black is to love and have control over all things concerning the welfare of Africans globally. This would be what Fanon would describe as “true liberation.” Our path is still dimmed, although we have “so-called” freedom. This is not the freedom that was originally intended for all human beings to have. “True liberation” is too strong to be packaged and sold for sale. Yet pseudo-independence is very marketable. A nation is deemed “free” because they have a flag. But if a colonial power is still tied to the country, and maintains economic power and influence, then this country is not free at all.

The “powers that be” never knew what true freedom was, so how can they tell the oppressed what freedom is? “The oppressed peoples know today that national liberation is a part of a process of historical development, but they also know that liberation must be the work of the oppressed people” (Fanon 105). It is important to understand that colonialism will not undue itself. The colonizer will never give total and true liberation to the colonized. Therefore colonialism still exists. . . , “but we’ve made it freedom day.” Isn’t it ironic? The significance of this irony is vital if we want to understand “true liberation.” We are “pseudo-independent” and “semi-free” because, as described before, our path is still dimmed, and because, as Walter Rodney describes, we as Black folks in this system, “have no power.” The issues of pseudo-independence and true liberation are illustrated throughout Rodney’s The Groundings with my Brothers. The main issue which needs to be discussed is the equal distribution of power, not just the right “to be free to vote and earn my pay,” as sista Abbey sings. Power is the key to liberation, not merely a flag or “land.” This is the power to handle our own affairs and the power to control our most oppressed and downtrodden communities. We simply have no “real” power because the game of colonialism and slavery was not set up that way. Therefore, as Lincoln, Fanon, and Rodney asked, is this really freedom day?

Freedom day is on its way. Although we have accepted and embraced “pseudo-independence,” it is this distorted version of freedom that has transported us from plantations to ghettoes and prisons, all of which are designed to keep Black people oppressed. In this global, capitalistic and racist society, we are still oppressed by social and political systems. There is a cry for this true liberation in “Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace.” The protest writ large in the title obviously represents the rage of Black folks, which Abbey Lincoln conveys very well with her vocal sound. The earnestness in her voice lets us know that we are still fighting, and resisting, proving that the Pan-African struggle is a live of resistance of one people. As said by Assata Shakur in her poem “Tradition,” “we took their whips and their ships. Blood flowed in the Atlantic and it wasn’t all ours.” After total resistance shall come total peace, which is illustrated in “Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace.” Peace, as described in the liner notes, “is the feeling of relaxed exhaustion, when you’ve done everything you could to assert yourself.” Freedom must come from you, from us, because no one else will make us free. Black people globally have mastered the telling of our struggles through art, especially music. Nearly every music form can be linked back to Africa, and nearly everything to the drum. Max Roach’s WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite is beautiful because it is ACTIVE. It is also nurturing and deeply rooted in struggle and the hope for progress. This form of Black art is exactly what we need in order to inspire true liberation. I will end with a quote from Assata Shakur: “We do not have time to talk about being players, hustlers and gangsters. We didn’t come off the slave ships that way.” But what we do have time for is active art that seeks to liberate as opposed to desecrate. WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite is Pan-Africanism at its finest, and if we “whisper, listen, whisper listen,” we can inspire and plan for Freedom Day.

Revolutionary Works

Ama Ata Aidoo’s Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa. Longman, 1995.

M. Nourbese Philip’s She Tries Her Tongue. Ragweed Press, 1989.

Frantz Fanon’s Toward the African Revolution: Political Essays. Grove Press, 1988.

Lost Boyz. “Renee.” Legal Drug Money. Umvd Labels, 1995.

Max Roach’s WE INSIST! Freedom NOW Suite. Recorded at Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City, August 31st and September 6th 1960. Candid Records.

“WE INSIST! Max Roach and Oscar Brown, Jr.’s FREEDOM NOW SUITE.” Liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Assata Shakur “Tradition” in Assata: An Autobiography. Lawrence Hill Books, 1987.

Assata Shakur’s “Thoughts on Cuba, Black Liberation and Hip-Hop Today.” The Source. January 1998.

Walter Rodney’s The Groundings with my Brothers. Frontline Distribution International, 1996.

Citation Format:

Sharisse Stancil-Ashford. “Review On Max Roach, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, Candid Records, 1960,” PROUDFLESH: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness: Issue 6, 2007.