Ancient/ Future is a bi-monthly radio program hosted by Willard Jenkins on WPFW, Pacifica Radio for the Washington, DC metro area at 89.3 FM.  Ancient/Future playlists will be regularly posted at The Independent Ear.

                    MLK & Enter: The Age of Obama

Artist              Track                               Album                         Label

Max Roach    "The Dream/It’s Time"  Chatahoochie Red           Columbia                              

Denys Baptiste  "Free At Last"           Let Freedom Ring            Dune

Machito          "Kenya"                       Mambo in Jazz                Saludos Amigo

Nina Simone   "To Be Young Gifted and Black"   (ditto)              Legacy

Garry Dial & Terre Roche "Guinea"      Us An’Them                    Dial-Roche

(ditto)              "Brazil"                      (ditto)                            (ditto)

(ditto)              "Greenland"               (ditto)                            (ditto)

Randy Weston   "Ancient Future" w/Regina Carter  (concert recording)

Sonny Rollins     "Global Warming"      Global Warming              Milestone

Ask Your Mama "Twelve Moods for Jazz by Langston Hughes (concert recording)

Sonny Rollins     "Blossom"                   Road Shows                   Doxy

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra  "I Will Not Stand Still"   Harriet Tubman  MSJQ

(ditto)               "Freedom Trail"          (ditto)                           (ditto)

(ditto)               "Asmanti Stomp"         (ditto)                           (ditto)

I had the pleasure of joining Randy Weston at the United States launch of The World Festival of Black Arts, FESMAN 2009, on January 14 at the United Nations in the Chamber of Economic and Social Council.  FESMAN 2009, which will take place December 1-21, 2009 in Dakar, Senegal, seeks "…the remobilization of the cultural diversity of Africa and the Diaspora, for the sake of longlasting development of the [African] Continent."  The launch event was presented by the host of what promises to be an incredible World Festival of Black Arts, the President of the Republic of Senegal, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade.

The UN launch event was an introductory opportunity for remarks from Dr. Djibril Diallo, the chairman of the Leadership Committee for the United States Launch of FESMAN 2009, and Dr. Marta Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute in New York and a member of the U.S. Committee for FESMAN 2009, and a keynote speech from President Wade (pronounced Wad).  Welcoming remarks were provided by the hip hop artist and record producer Akon, the son of Senegalese percussionist Mor Thiam who many remember from his groundbreaking work with pianist-composer Don Pullen among others, and the renowned singer Angelique Kidjo who is from Benin, West Africa was on hand, as was U.S. committee member Maulana Karenga, the creator of the Kwanza holiday celebration.  Weston perfomed with his trio to tumultuous applause.

FESMAN 2009 will actually be the third such global Africa arts & culture event.  The first two were known as FESTAC, the second of which was in 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria.  Elsewhere in The Independent Ear you can read an anecdote on FESTAC ’77 from the book African Rhythms, the forthcoming autobiography of Randy Weston (composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins to be published by Duke University Press.  In the meantime anyone interested in FESMAN 2009, including artists wishing to be considered for what should be a groundbreaking festival, should visit www.fesman2009.com.

One afternoon hanging out with a good friend and fellow writer in the Crescent City during my November completion of the Randy Weston book manuscript for our publisher (Duke University Press) we started speculating on the various end-of-the-year lists we’d been called to participate in.  For me that included the JazzTimes magazine, and Francis Davis’ Village Voice respective year-end "critics" polls.  My friend threw up his arms and wondered aloud how one even arrives at such a list given the dearth of comprehensive listings of the releases of a given year.

    Thank goodness I have a ready solution to this personal conundrum – my radio playlist file.  Thanks to a year-long stint of program subbing on air at the Crescent City’s great radio station WWOZ (www.wwoz.org), and particularly to several months of alternating hosting with the superb Maryse Dejean the Sunday evening new release program "What’s New", I was blessed with a ready index of my favored new releases for the year.  

    I won’t be so bold as to label this some sorta "best of" list — and one will readily ascertain that the numbers are a bit uneven, there’s no particular ordering, and certainly no top 10 or top 25 or whatever arbitrary number — so here are some ’08 releases and reissues worthy of your attention:

Recommended 2008 Releases

New Releases

Sonny Rollins, Road Shows, Doxy

Joe Lovano, Symphonica, Blue Note

Catherine Russell, Sentimental Streak, World Village

Charles Lloyd, Rabo de Nube, ECM

TK Blue, Follow the North Star

Esperanza Spalding, Esperanza, Heads Up

Jenny Schienman, Crossing The Field, Koch

Dafnis Prieto, Taking The Soul for a Walk, Zoho

Sumi Tonooka, Long Ago Today, Kindred Rhythm

Jose James, The Dreamer, Brownswood

Dr. Michael White,

Gilfema +2, Obliq Sounds

Evan Christopher, Django ala Creole, Classic Jazz

Robin Eubanks, EBB Live Vol. 1, REM

Marty Sheller Enemble, Why Deny, PVR

Conrad Herwig, The Latin Side of Wayne Shorter, Half Note

Cassandra Wilson, Loverly, Blue Note

Rosa Passos, Romance, Telarc

Eric McPherson, Continuum, Smalls

Jaleel Shaw, Optimism

Vijay Iyer, Tragicomic, Sunnyside

Elio Villafranca, The Source In Between, Ceiba Tree

Adam Rudolph, Dream Garden, Justin Time

Corey Wilkes, Drop It, Delmark

Danilo Perez, Across the Crystal Sea, Universal

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Live at the Village Vanguard, Planet Arts

Kurt Elling, Nightmoves, Concord

Bennie Maupin, Early Reflections, Cryptogramophone

Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly, The Speed of Change, 482 Music

Liz McComb, The Spirit of New Orleans, Gve

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Harriet Tubman, Noir

JD Allen, Now!, Sunnyside

Dave Holland, Pass It On, Dare2

SF Jazz Collective, Live 2008, SF Jazz

Reissues/Historic

Sarah Vaughan, Live at the 1971 Monterey Jazz Festival, MJF

Lester Young, Live at Birdland, ESP disk

McCoy Tyner, Fly With The Wind, Milestone

Anthony Braxton, The Complete Arista Recordings, Mosaic

Return to Forever, Anthology, Concord

Henry Grimes Trio, The Call, ESP disk

Art Pepper, The Croydon Concert, Widow’s Taste

Coleman Hawkins, The Hawk Flies High, Riverside

John Coltrane, Traneing In, Prestige

Steve Lacy, The Forest and the Zoo, ESP disk