Monday, February 14, 2005
Jamaica was roiling in 1938. The economy was hurting, and workers were fighting against low wages and colonial rule. Violent strikes and bloody riots were common in the capital city of Kingston.
Led by a loud, charismatic speaker named Alexander Bustamante---who would later become the country's first prime minister---the call for labor rights hit its crescendo on May 23 in downtown Kingston, when a couple thousand Jamaicans, mostly dock workers or unemployed, crowded Victoria Park to protest economic conditions. Bustamante climbed on the giant statue of Queen Victoria and told the crowd in no uncertain terms that he would negotiate on their behalf and never back down.
When he finished his fiery speech, Bustamante urged the workers to disperse peacefully. As he climbed off the Queen, Bustamante was confronted by a group of policemen who aimed their guns at him and the crowd. The defiant 54-year-old aristocrat-turned-politician tore open his shirt, bared his chest and shouted, "Shoot me, but leave these defenseless, hungry people alone!"
Standing near Bustamante during much of this chaotic, nation-defining day was a seven-year-old future trumpeter named Dizzy Reece.
[Click here to continue reading this story.... You'll also be able to download a two-hour radio program on Dizzy Reece, broken up into 14 files, which features numerous examples of his work for Blue Note, Prestige, Tempo, out-of-print rarities such as his 1970 LP From In to Out with John Gilmore and his 1978 LP Manhattan Project, and unreleased recordings made with a Czech big band in 1979....]
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There's a grassroots effort going on right now, pushed along by longtime broadcaster Dermot Hussey (formerly of RJR in Jamaica, now with XM Satellite Radio), to get Diz an evening as the featured soloist at Jazz at Lincoln Center, with the institution's big band playing his arrangements (which, as you'll hear during the radio program, are stunning). As hard as it is to believe, Dizzy hasn't played in NYC for more than a decade, and only sporadically in Jamaica and England.
If you dig Diz, please consider writing an e-mail to Andre K. Guess (aguess@jalc.org), the vice president & producer for Jazz at Lincoln Center, urging the institution to consider a night that spotlights Reece's music. And if you really dig Diz's music, please give his Web site a big up with a link on yer blog. Spread the word.
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