Research Catalog

Title

The cricket : Black music in evolution,1968-69 / [edited by Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, and A.B. Spellman].

Publication

Brooklyn, NY : Blank Forms Editions, [2022]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014
• Neal, Larry, 1937-1981
• Spellman, A. B., 1935-

Description

181 pages : black and white illustrations; 27 cm

Summary

A rare document of the 1960s Black Arts Movement featuring Albert Ayler, Amiri Baraka, Milford Graves, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor and many more, The Cricket fostered critical and political dialogue for Black musicians and writers. Edited by poets and writers Amiri Baraka, A.B. Spellman and Larry Neal between 1968 and 1969, and published by Baraka's New Jersey-based JIHAD productions around the time of the Newark Riots, this experimental music magazine ran poetry, position papers and gossip alongside concert and record reviews and essays on music and politics. Over four mimeographed issues, The Cricket laid out an anticommercial ideology and took aim at the conservative jazz press, providing a space for critics, poets and journalists (including Stanley Crouch, Haki Madhubuti, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez and Keorapetse Kgositsile) and musicians (including Cecil Taylor, Milford Graves, Sun Ra, Mtume, Albert Ayler and Black Unity Trio) to devise new styles of music writing. The publication emerged from the heart of a political movement--"a proto-ideology, akin to but younger than the Garveyite movement and the separatism of Elijah Mohammed," as Spellman writes in the book's preface--and aimed to reunite advanced art with its community, "to provide Black Music with a powerful historical and critical tool" and to enable avant-garde Black musicians and writers "to finally make a way for themselves." This publication gathers all issues of the magazine with an introduction by poet and scholar David Grundy.

Alternative Title

Black music in evolution

Subjects

• African Americans > Music
• African Americans > Music > History
• Sources
• Periodicals
• Jazz > Periodicals
• African Americans > Music > Periodicals
• Music
• History
• African American periodicals
• African Americans > Music > History > Sources

Genre/Form

• Periodicals.
• History.
• Music.
• Sources.

Note

• "...published by Jihad Productions in four issues from 1968 to 1969.... This volume collects all four issues as they were originally published."--Colophon.

Contents

• Preface / A.B. Spellman -- "We need everything": The Cricket in context / David Grundy.
• Issue 1 (1968): The cricket / editorial -- My music is words / Sun Ra -- Rhythm in blues / L. Miller -- One. In a series / L. Miller -- [Essay] / Milford Graves -- "And some music ...." (poem) / Sun Ra -- Tauhid (review) / L. Jones -- Issue 2 (1968): Editorial -- Black song west / S. Crouch -- To Otis / G. Neal -- Just intonation and the new Black revolutionary music / J. Stewart -- The new Black music / J. Stewart -- Further comment on The empty foxhole / L. Neal -- Issue 3 (1968): Letter from Atlanta / A.B. Spellman -- Memorial / Sonia Sanchez -- "Sun Ra" / Clyde Halisi -- Blackmusic/a beginning / don l. lee -- Position paper : revolutionary black music in the total context of black distension / J. Stewart -- Music workshop / Milford Graves -- [Essay] / Oliver Nelson -- Music the neglected plane of wisdom / Sun Ra -- Black song west / S. Crouch -- Inquiry / Crickets -- The silent prophet / Norman Jordan -- Harlem column #1 / Ben Caldwell -- Gossip / The Cricket -- Issue 4 (1969): Trippin' - a need for change / Mtume -- Integration music / Imamu Ameer Baraka -- Monk at Count Basie's / Larry Neal -- Karma/Pharoah Sanders / Larry Neal -- Sun Ra at the end of the world / Joe Goncalves -- Scenes/basic makeup of the music / Roger Riggins -- A consideration of the art of Ornette Coleman / J. Stewart -- The outer bridge / Sun Ra -- Eulogy for Tommy / Askia Muhammad Touré -- "Say and behold it is" / Haasan Oqwiendha Fum al Hut -- Positive black music / Norman Jordan -- Archie Shepp, Impulse AS-9162, Three for a quarter one for a dime / Mwanafunzi Katibu -- To Mr. Jones---I had a vision / Albert Ayler -- Poem for the Journal of black poetry / Norman Jordan -- Respect / Roger Riggins -- Whistle for pennies / Willie Kgositsile -- New grass/Albeert Ayler / Larry Neal -- Rockgroup / Imamu Ameer Baraka -- Liberation (to Le Graham) / E. Hill -- Notes on Lou Donaldson & Andrew Hill / Imamu Ameer Baraka -- Between shadow and substance - Part I / Ronnie Gross -- Revolutionary black music for the revolutionary black people at the East Coffee-House/Rappa House on Detroit's East Side / Ibn Pori 'det -- Harlem column #2 / Ben Caldwell -- Julius Lester / Donald Stone -- Phil Cohran - Affro Arts Theater / Imamu Ameer Baraka -- Charles E. Clark : suddenly the blues / Roger Riggins -- Record review - Your prayer / Roger Riggins -- Gossip -- Aide denies LBJ called Pope "a dumb cunt" / Ishmael Reed.

Call Number

Sc F 23-279

ISBN

• 9781953691101
• 1953691102

OCLC

1316776688

Title

The cricket : Black music in evolution,1968-69 / [edited by Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, and A.B. Spellman].

Publisher

Brooklyn, NY : Blank Forms Editions, [2022]

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Added Author

Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014, editor.

Neal, Larry, 1937-1981, editor.

Spellman, A. B., 1935- editor.

Research Call Number

Sc F 23-279

JMF 22-337