ON THE TOWNS: MUSIC
ON THE TOWNS: MUSIC; How the Voices of One Continent Influenced the Culture of Another
By LESLIE KANDELL
Published: November 8, 1998
IT'S as if some terrible anniversary of slavery -- or some danger of its its resurgence -- were at hand. Film, television, science and music are turning to it as a theme. Slavery-bashing, though evidently no guarantee at the box office, has gathered the momentum of a trend.
Brutal hardships of captured Africans oppressed by Europeans are the subject of ''Amistad,'' the subject of both an opera by Anthony Davis and a film by Steven Spielberg last year. Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''Beloved'' is now a movie starring no less a personality than Oprah Winfrey, who is also one of its producers.
On public television, ''A Respectable Trade'' dramatized the love affair between a slave and his owner's wife just days before the DNA findings on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings made headlines, and in the series ''Africans in America'' smooth black voices narrate owners' atrocities as the camera glides over deceptively peaceful plantations and caresses photos of tortured and humiliated slaves.
''African Portraits,'' an oratorio by the composer and jazz trumpeter Hannibal, fits in with this company. It traces the story of slavery and black culture's contributions to American music, using orchestra, jazz quartet, blues guitar, chorus, gospel singer, African griot and ethnic instruments. Though complicated to mount, it has had an astonishing 55 performances since it was first played in Carnegie Hall by the American Composers Orchestra in 1990. Friday's concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is the arts center's first collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra's Community Chorus, formed last spring.
''African Portraits,'' sharing the program with William Grant Still's ''Afro-American Symphony,'' highlights the arts center's second World Music Festival, titled ''Inventing America: Memory, Work, Spirit.'' This ''Festival of Pan-African America,'' which follows last year's festival on a Portuguese theme, focuses on African immigrants' cultural influences and transformations in the United States.
Hannibal Lokumbe, now known by his first name only, studied with John Coltrane and is to play trumpet on Friday. Originally named Marvin Charles Peterson. he was born in Smithville, Tex., and returned there three years ago to farm and bring up his children after a Lakota healer told him to get out of Harlem, he said. Hannibal is his own griot, or storyteller, of sorts, spinning autobiographical yarns with morals. ''Once you understand who your people are, you can get to everyone,'' he said in a telephone interview.
His image of his mission took shape in 1979 on a trip to Africa, where, he said, he was going to die of double pneumonia: ''On the plane, all I had was my trumpet and two vials of penicillin.'' He was cured by herbal potions of a respected medicine man, ''the same person they portray in Tarzan movies with a chicken bone around his neck, jumping around and going, 'Ooga booga,' '' he said. ''When I came back to New York, I had anger eating me alive. If I had held onto it, I'd be in somebody's cage. I started sketching what I had learned.''
''Portraits'' begins with a peaceful picture of life in Africa and moves to the attack of the slavers. It includes gripping scenes on slave ships and an auction at which a frantic mother is sold without her baby. (The original words, which have been changed from the original but are on the Teldec recording with the Chicago Symphony, are, ''That's without the little pickaninny.'') At that point comes a powerful, show-stopping gospel song, slightly reminiscent of ''Calvary,'' to be sung by Cissy Houston on Friday.
Two soloists have stayed with the oratorio from its beginning: David (Honeyboy) Edwards, a singing guitarist whom Hannibal calls the ''Mozart of the blues,'' and Hannibal himself, whose extended trumpet improvisation of 1950's jazz, with his quartet, is the heart of the work.
After all the godless brutality, the choral text about love, ''You can find your way,'' doesn't seem to follow. But Andre Raphel Smith, who is to conduct, said: ''It's about man's relationship with man and God. Out of all the atrocities, he comes back. It's not easy to get to that point. The relationship with God is the strength of the African-American. I know of no one who has gone about this as honestly as Hannibal has.''
Mr. Smith, assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, led the piece in St. Louis, and again last year in Philadelphia, where its success prompted a new commission from Hannibal for next season, an oratorio called ''One Heart Beating,'' on which Hannibal plans to work in Mali.
For the rest of World Festival II, African and American performers are paired in contemporary and traditional song, dance, music and physical theater. On Saturday, ''Undesirable Elements,'' a work in progress by the performance artist Ping Chong, will use spontaneous interviews with Newark residents to produce a text on the spot. Later this month, a Harlem-centered play, Pearl Cleage's ''Blues for an Alabama Sky,'' is coming from the Crossroads Theater Company in New Brunswick, and the dance companies Forces of Nature from Harlem and Odadaa from Ghana will combine for a program of West African dance and martial arts.
Later in the season, the Kronos Quartet features an African griot, and Urban Bush Women join the National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique, which was so popular in Newark last year. Sweet Honey in the Rock and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater are among the events, and the Newark Museum has related exhibitions and plans a film festival.
A FESTIVAL OF PAN-AFRICAN AMERICA
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
1 Center Street, Newark
Friday at 8 P.M.
'Blues for an Alabama Sky'
Today and next Sunday at 2:30 P.M.; Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 P.M.; Thursday at 1:30 P.M.; Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 P.M.
A theater project by Ping Chong exploring the history, culture and ethnicity of Newark. Saturday at 5:30 P.M. Free.
Forces of Nature And Odadaa!
African dance and music. Nov. 27 and 28.
Kronos Quartet And Foday Musa Suso
Jan. 15 and 16.
Urban Bush Women And the National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique
Jan. 29 through 31.
'Things Fall Apart'
A staged performance of Chinua Achebe's novel, featuring the Performance Studio of Nigeria. Feb. 10 through Feb. 21.
Sweet Honey in the Rock
A cappella quintet in African-American folk and gospel music. March 14.
'Labor of Love'
Jazz artists pay tribute concert to Sarah Vaughan, who was born in Newark. March 27.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Featuring a re-creation of Geoffrey Holder's ''Prodigal Prince.'' April 16 through 18.
'Waramba: A Mandingo Opera'
Music and dance about Africa's history and culture, featuring the Ensemble Koteba D'Abidjan. April 21 to 25.
Featuring performances, vendors and ''A Taste of Africa.'' June 18 to 20.
Photos: Among the artists participating in this year's World Music Festival at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center are Hannibal, composer of this week's ''African Portraits,'' and Ping Chong, far left, who will interview Newark residents to produce an impromptu performance.