Giselle Campbell
Staff Writer
The room is dark and quiet. A trumpet sounds backstage, belting out the sweet, lasting notes often found in jazz music.
The captivating, yet still unseen musician walks onstage to accompany his quartet, which joins in on the melody.
Meanwhile, a large screen begins to display images of rushing water,
oceans and scenes from an era that are now a mere shadow of a memory.
On Nov. 12, Cal Poly Pomona, in association with the African American Student Center and Black History Month, hosted “The Langston Hughes Project – Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz,” a multimedia performance featuring jazz, live spoken word and slide presentations.
The performance celebrates the lifework of the highly praised black writer and poet, Langston Hughes.
“Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz,” is a book-length poem written in 12 parts by Langston Hughes in the early 1960s.
Through his prose, Hughes deconstructs and comments on the state of the African diaspora from the early to mid-20th century and their global struggle for freedom.
While writing the piece, Hughes suggested musical cues to accompany the spoken word, but at the time of his death in 1967, the pieces had still never been performed together.
“The Langston Hughes Project” is the brainchild of Ron McCurdy, chair of the jazz department and professor of music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and also serves as past-president of the International Association for Jazz Educations.
In addition to writing the entire musical accompaniment and performing the spoken word, McCurdy led the quartet with his chilling trumpet solos.
“McCurdy and a colleague performed the Langston Hughes Project for a class, and they got such a positive response that they put music to it and made it a traveling show,” La’Keisha Gilford-Beard, coordinator for the African American Student Center at Cal Poly, said.
McCurdy’s band consists of Eli Brueggemann on piano, Edwin Livingston on bass and Peter Buck on drums.
“The original project has been evolving for 15 years. We travel around to universities and jazz festivals. I run the video at the same time as playing, so it’s a lot of fun,” Brueggemann said.
McCurdy shifted roles constantly during the performance by setting his trumpet aside and embodying the speaker – the voice of Langston Hughes – while his band continued.
The slide presentation in the background featured photography and artwork by such black artists as Jacob Lawrence and Gordon Parks.
“I thought it was wonderful, creative and great,” Patricia De Freitas, a professor of Ethnic and Women’s Studies at Cal Poly said.
Mood 1, entitled “Cultural Exchange,” paints a description of the life of southern blacks around the turn of the century.
“In Negro sections of the South where doors have no resistance to violence, danger always whispers harshly. Klansmen cavort, and havoc may come at any time.
“Negroes often live either by the river or the railroad, and for most there is not much chance of going anywhere else,” McCurdy recited.
The subsequent moods focused on the journey of Africans around the world.
Historically many Blacks relocated from the Old South to the East, specifically Harlem during the late 1800s after the Civil War resulted in the emancipation of the slaves. For the first time, Blacks were able to move freely about the country.
While they were given their freedom, they were not free from the racism that Hughes also puts into his works.
The performance reflected this journey by displaying images of the Harlem Renaissance, a place in time where black culture, art and music flourished.
It was during this time that Hughes himself gained notoriety.
Hughes’ humorous contribution woven throughout the piece was a line commenting on the ignorance of those the Blacks would encounter on their journeys out of what he described as “the quarter of the negro.”
“They asked me at Christmas, would my black skin rub off.”
“I said, ask your Mama,” McCurdy said.
Following the conclusion of “Twelve Moods,” college students were given the opportunity to perform their own spoken word to the audience.
Deveon Remaker, a junior at Cal State Fullerton, performed his piece called “Let the Ink Bleed.”
“I just started spoken word a year ago,” Remaker said.
“I am definitely influenced by Langston Hughes as an artist. He was even a member of my fraternity, Omega Psi Phi.”
“The Langston Hughes Project” brings a slightly different interpretation of Hughes’ art to the audience, as each listener understands the work in different ways.
With this new exhibit, his passion is on display for students at Cal Poly and community members as well.
“As a musician, you can react off the poetry and meaning. Performing the piece makes it entertaining each time because it’s always a unique experience for all involved,” Brueggemann said.
For more information on the Langston Hughes Project, visit www.ronmccurdy.com.
Giselle Campbell can be reached at gcampbell@ulv.edu. |
