Trails of Tears
| Trails of Tears | ||||
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| Music album by Jacques Coursil | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Sunnyside Records , Universal Music | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
39:58 |
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Bruno Guermonprez, Daniel Richard, Yann Ollivier |
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Studio (s) |
Belleville, New Jersey; Montreuil; Fort-de-France, Martinique |
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Trails of Tears is a jazz album by Jacques Coursil . The recordings, which were made between May 2007 and February 2008 in Belleville, New Jersey, in Montreuil and in Fort-de-France, Martinique, were released in 2010 on Sunnyside Records .
background
Coursil's album Trails of Tears is a musical suite inspired by the forced evictions of multiple cultures over the course of human civilization. The title refers directly to the resettlement of Indians in the 19th century, but Coursil also makes explicit reference to the " Middle Passage " of slaves transported from Africa to America. "The genocide of the [American] Indians is the history of the world," he says, "not just the story of the Indians or the blacks." The Middle Passage is not the story of blacks; it is the history of the world because they were not alone on the boats. “Every time someone suffers, there is someone who makes them suffer. It's a shared story, just like your story [or] my story. "
Trails of Tears was conceived in the early 1970s when Coursil was spending time among the Sioux in South Dakota and was told the story of the Path of Tears . “I was there when the Indian movement was born,” he recalled, “and I was deeply impressed by the seriousness of the people who don't talk much. But when they say something, it weighs heavily. There are many books about it, but that is nothing compared to people who tell me bit by bit. The musician always translates into music what he sees, hears, smells and experiences. Instead of making a theory out of it, I made music. "
One of Jacques Coursil's pieces on Trails of Tears that comment on colonialism in America is “Gorée”. This composition itself is a severe lamentation about the history of slavery at the westernmost point of Africa, which was once the center of the slave trade . From Gorée , white colonialists bought Africans as slaves and transported them from this point in West Africa to South America, especially to Brazil, as well as to the Caribbean and what is now the continental USA.
Trails of Tears contains recordings from three different studio sessions; "The Removal, Act I" was written in Belleville, New Jersey, in May 2007. Perry Robinson (clarinet), Mark Whitecage (alto saxophone), Bobby Few (piano), Alan Silva (double bass) and Sunny played with Jacques Coursil (trumpet) Murray (drums); The session was arranged by Jeff Baillard . Coursil recorded the pieces “The Removal, Act II”, “Goree” and “The Middle Passage” in Montreuil in January 2008 and in Fort-de-France, Martinique, in January 2009 with Bobby Few and José Zébina (drums); François Lê Xuân acted as arranger . During the last sessions in Fort-de-France, Martinique, in January and February 2009, Jacques Coursil recorded the three tracks "Nunna." With Jeff Baillard (keyboards, e-piano, arrangement), Alex Bernard (bass) and José Zébina (drums) Daul Sunyi ”,“ Tagaloo, Georgia ”and“ Tahlequah, Oklahoma ”.
Track list
- Jacques Coursil: Trails of Tears (Sunnyside Communications SSC 3085)
- Nunna Daul Sunyi 7:08
- Tagaloo, Georgia 4:47
- Tahlequah, Oklahoma 3:10
- The Removal (Act I) 11:26
- The Removal (Act II) 6:10
- Goree 4:35
- The Middle Passage 2:42
- All compositions are by Jacques Coursil.
reception
According to Raul D'Gama Rose, who reviewed the album in All About Jazz , the tears can be heard from the beginning on “Nunna Daul Sunyi” ( the path we wept on ). Coursil's “unique deconstruction of the trumpet language and its subsequent restoration” lies somewhere between the growling jungle rap of Bubber Miley and Rex Stewart and Coursil's own Creole tongue-and-cheek vocalizations. Trails of Tears is the work of a musician with a magical, polished horn that stands "head and shoulders" over most of the trumpeters who practice their craft today. The album is a moving lament that reflects one of the worst Native American displacement and is eerily similar to the displacement of the African diaspora. “This music describes the lawsuit of a people - the Cherokee, who were forced to leave their traditional homelands of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee between 1830 and 1839, a slap in the face of one of the most civilized, loyal Native Americans called colonial government. The story of this heartbreaking hike comes alive in the remarkable and dramatic seven-part lament. This is Coursil's musical way of the cross, which unfolds like a sharp liturgy, comparable to Wynton Marsalis ' From the Plantation to the Penitentiary (Blue Note, 2007) or of course Beaver Harris ' and Don Pullen's pioneering work on the album A Well Kept Secret from 1984. "
Shaun Brady wrote in JazzTimes that Coursil's reaction to the stories of the Indians was mainly reflected in the idiosyncratic sound of his trumpet, “a fluttering, breathless tone that reacts in empathy with the work and exertion of the long march. Most of the CD was recorded with a quartet with keyboardist Jeff Baillard, who offered Coursil's lamentations airy landscapes. "
According to Jake Zaslav, who reviewed the album in his A Year in Albums series , Trails of Tears shows “how beautiful and melodic free improvisation can be.” Coursil has “such incredible control over the trumpet and is able to To produce sounds on the horn that I can't even fathom. "
Web links
- Information about the album at Bandcamp
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 27, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ according to Allmusic "Jazz, Pop / Rock"
- ↑ a b c Jacques Coursil: The Weight of History - The peripatetic trumpeter's melancholy horn explains human tragedy on Trails of Tears. JazzTimes, March 1, 2011, accessed June 26, 2011 .
- ^ A b Raul D'Gama Rose: Jacques Coursil: Trails of Tears. All About Jazz, January 31, 2011, accessed June 26, 2020 .
- ↑ A Year in Albums: 10 from 18. medium.com, accessed June 27, 2020 .