“Liberation Narratives”, Nicole Mitchell and Haki Madhubuti [Third World Press/Black Earth Music, 2017]

Every morning on Worldwide FM, we play a track from our album of the week. This week, on Morning Mari*, we’ll be listening to Liberation Narratives by jazz flautist, Nicole Mitchell and writer and poet, Haki R. Madhubuti. 

In 2014 the Jazz Institute of Chicago commissioned Mitchell to create music inspired by her relationship with Madhubuti, the first African American Pulitzer Prize winning poet. The result, Liberation Narratives, is an exploration of the renowned writer’s work through jazz, originally recorded live at the Logan Center’s Theatre in Chicago. 

The collection of ten tracks features Madhubuti reading his poetry, which spans an entire career from the 1960s to the present. Underneath, Mitchell’s compositions create vivid textures that punctuate and give momentum to the socio-political themes of the spoken word.

We first heard ‘Too Many of Our Young’ from Liberation Narratives on Francois K‘s four-hour show “World of Echos”. Check out his show – broadcast every third Tuesday of the month on Worldwide FM – here. 

Liberation Narratives – Tracklist:
Often Hard to Believe
Move Into Our Own
Gwendolyn Brooks
Too Many Of Our Young
Blackman Unfinished
Rise Vision
Peace Starts Inside of You
We Walk In The Way of The New World
Woman Black
Poetry

Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble Line up: 
Mitchell (flute)
Ugochi (vocals)
Pharez Whitted (trumpet)
Tomeka Reid (cello)
Rene Baker and Zara Zaharieva (violin)
Miguel de la Cerna (piano)
Harrison Bankhead (bass)
Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
Jovia Armstrong (percussion)