- Good evening, everyone.
- Good evening.
- Thank you for being here.
I'm Jane Kamensky, the
Pforzheimer Foundation Director
of Schlesinger Library.
And I'm so delighted and
honored to welcome you
to the first evening
of the gathering we've
called "Radical Commitments."
It is sure to be a remarkable
evening, and a remarkable day
and a half, devoted to
exploring the life, work,
and thought of Angela Y. Davis.
It fits both our
subject and our setting
that we begin this exploration
with a performance.
The Radcliffe Institute, of
which Schlesinger Library
is a pillar, has
for two decades been
committed to integrating the
arts and inquiry into all
of its major public programs.
When the subject of a program
is Angela Davis, the performing
arts, music especially, become
an essential touchstone.
In Blues Legacies and Black
Feminism, published in 1998,
Davis' pioneering book on
Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith,
and Billie Holiday, she
demonstrated the ways that,
quote, "Performances divulge
unacknowledged traditions
of feminist consciousness
in working-class black
communities."
Music also played a
vital role in setting
the tone and
inspiring discussions
at the inaugural
Critical Resistance
Conference held that same year.
Davis' scholarship on music
and activism, and on music
as activism, illuminates
the ways that music anchors
and often guides social
justice movements,
helping to build
communities of resistance.
Once the planning
committee decided
to consider the themes
of the conference
through performance, in
addition to conversation,
the percussionist and
educator Terry Lyne Carrington
came immediately to mind.
And we are honored to have
her as our musical director
this evening.
[APPLAUSE]
We are especially
grateful to Carrington
for conceiving and organizing
the evening's performance.
Esperanto Spalding playing
bass and Vijay Iyer on keyboard
are both faculty members
in the music department
here at Harvard.
And they will be joined
by Cecile McLorin Salvant,
vocalist, Carrington
herself on percussion,
Stephon Harris on vibraphone,
and Nicholas Payton on trumpet.
It would take too long
to list even the headline
accomplishments of
all these artists now,
so I refer you to
the printed program,
which contains their full bios.
We're honored to have all of
these internationally-renowned
performers with us,
and I hope you'll
join me in welcoming
them to Radcliffe
to help us begin to explore
the life and thought of Angela
Davis.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
- So good evening,
early evening it is.
We're not used to playing this
early, but anything for Angela,
of course.
[LAUGHTER]
Of course, music has been
such an important part
of social activism.
So, you know, how
appropriate for us
to play some music that
is either directly--
that was either directly
written for her,
or things that we felt are
affiliated or associated
with her, or just something
that we thought you would enjoy.
So hopefully there's at
least one surprise in there.
I'm sure you've guessed some
of them, or you just looked.
OK.
All right, well, then
that blows the surprise.
But you can see that we're
very casual, because Angela
has been a friend of my for--
2019 made 30 years.
So--
[APPLAUSE]
So I'm very happy
to be here at this,
for this momentous occasion.
So since you know
the songs already,
the first piece we will play is
written by saxophonist Harold
Land.
And also Bobby
Hutcherson recorded it.
And it's called "Ode to Angela."
[SNAPPING]
1, 2, 1, 2, 3.
[MUSIC - HAROLD LAND, "ODE TO
 ANGELA"]
- So I know that everybody's
names in the program,
but I'll just introduce
them one more time
because these are truly
amazing musicians.
On piano, Vijay Iyer.
[APPLAUSE]
On bass, Esperanto Spalding.
[APPLAUSE]
On trumpet, Nicholas Payton.
[APPLAUSE]
And on vibraphone,
Stefon Harris.
[APPLAUSE]
We would like to invite--
OK.
I never say my own name.
But we would like to invite
to the stage somebody.
I know she's one of
Angela's favorite singers,
so that's why she's
here and she's
one of ours, too,
Cecile McLorin Salvant.
[APPLAUSE]
- Thank you, Angela Davis.
This comes from her book, Blues
Legacies and Black Feminism.
Yeah, some of you are nodding--
a great, important book with
a lot of incredible lyrics
to songs by Bessie Smith, and
Billie Holiday, and Ma Rainey.
And this song is called
"Sam Jones Blues."
[MUSIC - BESSIE SMITH, "SAM
 JONES BLUES"]
[APPLAUSE]
(SINGING) Sam Jones left
his lawful wife just
to step around.
Came back home about a year,
took it for his high ground.
Went to his accustomed
door, then he
knocked his knuckles sore.
To his surprise, he realized
she was his wife no more.
Sam said, I'm your
husband, dear.
Well, she said, dear,
that's strange to hear.
'Cause you ain't
talking to Mrs. Jones,
you speaking to Ms Wilson now!
(SINGING) I used to be your
lawful maid, but the judge done
changed my fate.
There was a time you could
have walked right in and called
this place your home sweet home.
But now, it's all
mine, for all time.
I'm free and living all alone.
I don't need your rent,
don't need your clothes,
don't need your ones and twos.
Though I ain't rich,
I know my [INAUDIBLE]..
I earn my strutting shoes.
(SINGING) So hand
me the key that
unlocks that front
door, 'cause that door
don't say Sam Jones no more.
You ain't talking to Mrs. Jones;
you speaking to Ms. Wilson now.
You speaking to Ms. Wilson now!
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - NINA SIMONE, "PIRATE
 JENNY"]
- (SINGING) You
gentlemen can watch
while I'm scrubbing the floors,
and I'm scrubbing the floors
while you're gawking.
And maybe once you've
tipped me, and it
makes you feel swell, in
this crummy southern town,
in this crummy old
hotel, but you'll never
guess to who you're talking.
You'll never guess to
who you're talking.
(SINGING) Then one night,
there's a scream in the night.
And you wonder, who
could that have been?
And you see me kind of
grinning while I'm scrubbing,
and you wonder what the
hell she got to grin?
And the ship, the
black freighter,
with a skull on its
masthead will be coming in.
(SINGING) You gentlemen can say,
hey, girl, finish the floors,
get upstairs, make the
beds, earn your keep here.
And you toss me your tips,
and look out at the ships,
but I'm counting
your heads as I am
making the beds,
'cause there's nobody
going to sleep here tonight.
Nobody going to
sleep here, honey.
(SINGING) Then, one night,
there's a bang in the night.
And you yell, who's
that kicking up a row?
And you see me kind of
staring out the window.
And you say, what the hell's
she got to stare at now?
And the ship, the
black freighter,
turns around in the harbor,
shooting guns from the bow!
(SINGING) You gentlemen can wipe
off that laugh from your face--
every building in
town is a flat one.
This whole stinking
place will be
down to the ground, only
this cheap hotel standing up
safe and sound.
And you say, why the hell
do they spare that one?
You say, why do
they spend that one?
(SINGING) All the night through,
through the noise and to do,
you wonder who's the
person that lives up there?
And you'll see me stepping
out into the morning,
looking nice with a
ribbon in my hair.
And the ship, the
black freighter,
runs a flag up its masthead,
and a chill rings the air.
(SINGING) By noon
time, the dock is all
swarming with men coming off
of that ghostly freighter.
They're moving in the
shadows where no one can see,
and they're chaining up people,
and bringing them to me, asking
me, kill them now or later?
Asking me, kill
them now or later?
(SINGING) Noon by the clock,
and so still on the dock.
You can hear a
foghorn miles away.
And in that quiet of death,
I will say, right now.
And they pile up the bodies.
And then I'll say,
that'll learn ya.
And the ship, the
black freighter,
disappears off to sea.
And on it is me!
[APPLAUSE]
- So for those of you that
don't know that piece,
it's called "Pirate Jenny,"
that Nina Simone made popular.
Or I don't know if it's popular,
but I know that she did it.
I was not so familiar with
that one, so thank you for--
I was looking up
something, and I
saw that you listed that as
one of your more favorite Nina
Simone pieces.
But anyway, we'd
like to continue
with a song that really
needs no introduction,
so I won't introduce it.
But I will say that
Billie Holiday sang it.
And I know one thing
that you said was,
that she would not sing it if
the audience wasn't receptive
or the right audience
for this piece.
So I figured that this is the
right audience for this piece.
So here we go.
[MUSIC - BILLIE HOLLIDAY,
 "STRANGE FRUIT"]
- (SINGING) Southern trees
bear a strange fruit.
Blood on the leaves,
and blood at the roots.
Black bodies swinging
in the southern breeze.
Strange fruit hanging
from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant
south, the bulging eyes
and the twisted mouth.
Scent of magnolia,
sweet and fresh.
Then the sudden smell
of burning flesh!
(SINGING) Here is a fruit
for the crows to pluck,
for the rain to gather,
for the rain to suck.
For the sun to rot!
For the tree to drop!
Here is a strange
and bitter crop!
[APPLAUSE]
- We'd like to close
this with a piece written
by Herbie Hancock.
And it's called-- it's
called "Ostinato--
Suite for Angela."
And I know, didn't
you almost get
in trouble going to hear
him play this or something?
- I was out on bail.
- You was out on bail, right.
And you knew he was
playing, and you
had to go see it, even if
you were under house arrest
or something.
They did put you back in jail?
- No, they threatened.
- They threatened, OK.
But Herbie was worth it, right?
OK.
So I'm sure he played this
this evening, that evening.
[MUSIC - HERBIE HANCOCK,
"OSTINATO (SUITE FOR ANGELA)"]
[APPLAUSE]
- Thank you, again--
Stefon Harris, Nicholas
Payton, Esperanza Spalding,
Cecile McLorin
Salvant, Vijay Iyer.
I'm Terry Lyne Carrington.
Thank you, and congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
- What an incredible
performance.
Can we get another round of
applause for director Terri
Lyne Carrington on drums, with
vocals from Cecile McLorin
Salvant, Esperanzo Spalding
on bass, Vijay Iyer on piano,
Stephon Harris on vibraphone,
and Nicholas Payton on trumpet.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you all, truly.
[APPLAUSE]
