The Red, Black and Green Revolutionary EcoMusic Tour
February 18-23, 2014, Vermont & New York City
For a full list of dates and times, visit the Eco Music Tour Blog.
The Red, Black and Green Revolutionary Eco-Music Tour will perform the music of two legendary and influential big band jazz composers: Cal Massey, a leading 1960s African-American composer whose long-lost magnum opus “The Black Liberation Movement Suite” is one of the 20th century’s great undiscovered long-form works; alongside famed composer, political activist, ecosocialist and “Best baritone saxophonist of all time” (The New Yorker) Fred Ho, who be showcasing the world premiere of his newest work, “The Revolutionary Gardens of Harlem Suite: A Tribute to Clifford Thornton.”
The tour will collaborate with Vermont’s premier performing Arts institutions, across a diverse spectrum of urban and rural locales, including the University of Vermont’s Lane Series, BARNArts in Barnard, Johnson State College’s Art and Music program, the Goddard College Concert Series, and the Governor’s Institute in Vermont. It is sponsored by the Vermont based Canaday Foundation and Goddard College.
Alongside the musical performance of these two majestic suites, Clare Dolan, veteran of the Bread and Puppet circus and director of the Museum of Everyday Life, will present a new Cantastoria work on the life and work of Cal Massey, the legacy of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and their relevance and resonance in Vermont.
The 16-piece EcoMusic Big Band includes some of the nation’s most acclaimed jazz musicians, including bass trombonist Earl McIntyre (Duke Ellington, Mel Lewis/Thad Jones), trumpeter Winston Byrd (Paquito D’ Rivera, Clark Terry), and Fred Ho’s saxophone protégé Ben Barson (Arturo O’Farrill, Craig Harris). Tenor saxophonist and distinguished jazz scholar Salim Washington (Pharoah Sanders, Randy Weston) will be accompanying the tour as performer and a speaker, having worked with the music of Cal Massey for decades.
The tour will also launch the release of Truth And Dare: A Comic Book Curriculum for the End and the Beginning of the World, a graphic novel written by the environmental and social justice advocacy nonprofit Ecosocialist Horizons, and featuring artwork from the internationally renowned comic collective World War Three Illustrated. Both a comic book and a teaching tool, this affordable comic book for all ages will promote a popular understanding of the ecological and social challenges humanity faces, and the political and economic strategies to find solutions.
