Report by Dawoud Kringle
On Tuesday, November 29, 2022. MFM presented its 12th “Music is Essential” Zoom Talk. The guest speaker was MFM member Ron Wasserman.
Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, July 15th, 2022)
“Fables of Faubus” by Charles Mingus. From Mingus Ah Um (1959) and Presents Charles Mingus (1961)
Oh, Lord, don’t let ’em shoot us!
Oh, Lord, don’t let ’em stab us!
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!
Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Dannie.
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won’t permit integrated schools.
Then he’s a fool! Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that’s ridiculous, Dannie Richmond.
Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate.
H-E-L-L-O, Hello.
On Monday July 18th, 2022, MFM hosted the latest Music is Essential ZOOM webinar: “Bass: The Joys of the Bottom Line” Special guest speakers were bassists Jerome Harris and Randy Landau .
Jerome Harris first major professional performing experience came as bass guitarist with the iconic jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins in 1978. Harris has played on over seventy recordings and performed on six continents, working with Jack DeJohnette, David Krakauer, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Leni Stern, Martha Redbone, Ray Anderson, Julius Hemphill, Amina Claudine Myers, Ned Rothenberg, Oliver Lake, and many others.
He has taught at Hampshire College, William Paterson University, Lehman College (City University of New York), and the Alternative Guitar Summit Camp. Harris is also a music activist functioning as MWA’s President and has been a member of Local 802 for a while.
Randy Landau has been free lancing, for the most part, in NYC since 1978.
He has worked with Chuck Berry, Paul Anka, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendrick, Loretta Devine,Patti LaBelle, James Taylor, Bette Midler, Dave Stewart, Kelli O’Hara, Anika Noni Rose, to Larry Coryell, L. Subramanium, Gary Burton, and New York Voices. Randy’s many Broadway and national-tour credits include The Bridges of Madison County, First Date, Ghost: The Musical, Billy Elliot: The Musical, High Fidelity, In My Life, Spamalot, Legally Blonde, Man of La Mancha, Bombay Dreams, Rent, City of Angels, Aida, and many more. Landau has played on all the cast recordings of Jason Robert’s band’s Songs For A New World, and The Last 5 Years. He released two solo albums, Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes, and How We React and how We recover. Randy’s next collaboration with JRB will be The Connector, which will have its debut in winter of 2023. He is also playing with the local Orchestral bass chair for The Who, and beginning a production of Tom Kitt and Cameron Crow’s Almost Famous, opening on Broadway fall of 2022. Landau is also a member of MFM and of the Local 802.
JACO tells the story of Jaco Pastorius, a self-taught, larger-than-life musician who changed the course of modern music. Never-before-seen archive unveils the story of Jaco’s life, his music, his demise, and the lasting victory of artistic genius.
JACO presents the world of the bass guitar phenomenon through the eyes of his family and various musical collaborators.
