15) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker

 

Saxophonist enters T.O. mayoralty race

 

Jazz musician Richard Underhill has entered Toronto's mayoralty race, stepping out with the emphatic issues‑oriented

slogan "may the best PLAN win." He's rightly sidestepped the divisive and misleading personality politics surrounding controversial neo‑con Mayor (and candidate) Rob Ford. Underhill is a Juno Award‑winning saxophonist and co‑founder of the Shuffle Demons, a popular jazz combo that combines funk, rap and avant-garde jazz with extravagant costumes. His platform contains a host of thoughtful and innovative proposals including: "Yes" to the Scarborough LRT; "No" to island airport expansion; more affordable housing, expanded TTC service, increased arts funding, more nutritional and recreational programs for kids and seniors, solar farms above TTC parking lots, and proportional representation. While he has little chance of winning, Underhill's campaign could have a positive effect on the outcome of the Oct. 27 vote. At the very least he'll help mobilize the arts community. He's promised to withdraw at some stage to support a "more viable progressive candidate." For more info visit: www.underhillformayor.com.

 

Where is Pussy Riot going?

 

In February 2012, five members of feminist punk rock collective Pussy Riot staged their anti‑Putin "Punk Prayer" in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and became instant global celebrities. The subsequent "hooliganism" trial of members of the group exposed deep cultural fault lines in Russian society. The defendants attracted international support from prominent musicians, politicians, and human rights groups. The Pussy Riot story resumed in December, when band members Maria Alyekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were released as part of a general amnesty. The two announced that they would abandon performances to concentrate instead on founding "Rights Zone," a human rights organization. It's hard not to sympathize with these young women. They've exposed the cozy relationship between the governing United Russia Party and the Orthodox Church. Their "Punk Prayer", if nothing else, dramatized the reactionary nature of this alliance. But another statement gives cause for concern. The two also declared their "close ideological and conceptual cooperation" with the recently‑released oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The tycoon (and reputed future presidential candidate) is the most prominent representative of a generation of corrupt Soviet‑era bureaucrats who made vast fortunes, thanks to the wholesale privatization policies of the Yeltsin era. Are Alyekhina and Tolokonnikova naive or what?

 

Inaugural "Woody Guthrie Prize"

 

Legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie (1912‑1967) has proven a hard act for American elites to co‑opt. Despite the mainstream acclaim on the centenary of Guthrie's birth, his progressive legacy endures. Pete Seeger, who passed away on Jan. 27, was to have received the inaugural Woody Guthrie Prize at a Feb. 22 ceremony in New York. The annual award will honour an artist who "best exemplifies the spirit and life work of Woody Guthrie." In the announcement, Woody's daughter Nora Guthrie said, "We hope that the Woody Guthrie Prize will shed an inspirational light on those who have decided to use their talents for the common good rather than for personal gain," adding, tongue‑in‑cheek, that her father loved to refer to himself and a "common‑ist." That Pete Seeger should be the first recipient is a no‑brainer. Woody's old sidekick and friend inspired millions of people around the world, both with his music, and with his activism on behalf of world peace and countless social and environmental causes. An obituary of Pete Seeger will appear in our next issue. For more info visit: www.woodyguthriecenter.org.

 

Amiri Baraka 1934‑2014

 

Poet, playwright, cultural critic and political activist Amiri Baraka died in Newark, NJ on Jan. 8. Typically, the New York Times headline announcing his death referred to him as a "polarizing" figure. Even before he founded the influential Black Arts Movement in 1965, Amiri Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones) exerted a powerful influence on American culture. He played a leading role in the beat poetry movement in the 1950s. In the 1960s, he received acclaim for his play The Dutchman, and for his book Blues People, a groundbreaking study of African‑American music. By the mid‑seventies, influenced by his wife Amina, Baraka moved from cultural nationalism towards Marxism. He called himself a scientific socialist for the rest of his life. His influence on the younger generation can be heard on "Something of the Way Things Are (In Town)", his 2002 collaboration with hip‑hop band The Roots. The Jan. 10 episode of Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org) was dedicated to Amiri Baraka, It features archival film clips (including one of the poet performing with jazz saxophonist David Murray), and insightful interviews with Puerto Rican and African-American activists he'd mentored, as well as with his Black Arts Movement collaborator, poet Sonia Sanchez. For more info visit: http://peoplesworld.org.

 

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)