[JPL] Sekou Sundiata, 1948–2007...Vernon Reid remembers the seminal black artist and activist

[r durfee]

Runnin' Scared
Sekou Sundiata, 1948–2007
Vernon Reid remembers the seminal black artist and
activist
by Vernon Reid
July 24th, 2007 5:42 PM 

The untimely death last week of the visionary
activist, poet, playwright, songwriter, educator, and
vocalist Sekou Sundiata is a terrible shock to the
many communities that his extraordinary life and art
touched. Sekou was truly a great man, an artist whose
incisive analysis of modern society was equaled by a
deep compassion for, and understanding of, the human
condition. The sound of Sekou's voice was iconic and
electrifying, its deep melody the sound of a griot for
the ages. It was the sound of unflinching honesty,
warmheartedness, wry comedy, righteous anger, and
elegiac longing. It was as distinctive as Coltrane's
horn or Jimi's guitar. Sekou loved everyday people,
their madness and occasional genius, their
inexplicable and contradictory natures. 
I was introduced to Sekou in the early 1980s by the
great drummer J.T. Lewis, who was raving about an
amazing poet he was playing with at City College. I
went to the gig and was mesmerized by a tall, dashing
figure who had the audience in the palms of his large,
expressive hands. His band Sekou and the Crew was
funky and edgy, like Gil Scott Heron's Midnight Band,
but not at all derivative. After the show, J.T.
introduced me. Sekou became a mentor and a close
friend. 

Sekou was a witness to and part of the tumult of the
'60s and '70s. Despite the many setbacks that plagued
and stymied the black-empowerment movements, he
remained a steadfast opponent of racism and fascism in
all their hydra-like forms, and was an indefatigable
optimist with regard to the future of black people.
Unlike many black-power ideologues, Sekou's love
wasn't solely reserved for people of African descent,
because he internalized Dr. King's message of love for
people of all colors. Sekou was also a great romantic,
a trenchant observer of the mysteries and
misunderstandings that exist between men and women,
themes explored in poems like "Forsaken Sea" and
"Sweet Tooth"—poems I heard performed many times, but
which always seemed new because the truth never grows
old. 

Sekou was the first person from whom I heard about a
drug named crack, the first person who told what it
was doing to his beloved Harlem. The nation would soon
follow. I also first learned about the emerging AIDS
crisis from him. He always had his ear to the street,
listening to its shadowy music, shifting rhythms,
flows and currents. 

Sekou had a magnetic leadership quality that centered
the energies of the artists he collaborated with. In
Craig Harris, the master trombonist, composer, and
didgeridoo-ist, Sekou found a musical soulmate. Their
play collaboration, The Circle Unbroken Is a Hard Bop,
looked unsparingy at what happened to the children of
Martin's dreams and Malcolm's grassroots. The lyric
prose work "Space, a Monologue" lies at its center.
It's a tour de force in the voice of a madman making
mad sense, an incredible stream of black consciousness
that brings together a butt-naked Marilyn Monroe in
Bird's hotel room, Afrika Bambaataa, Nat Turner, and
Martha and the Vandellas. Astounding. 

Nothing slowed Sekou down—not a kidney transplant, nor
the terrible car accident that happened right after.
Sekou transformed these harrowing experiences into his
solo masterwork Blessing of Boats, performed
nationally to the acclaim his work always deserved.
It's hard to imagine a world without Sekou Sundiata in
it. At the end of "Space, a Monologue," he says: "Let
this be my epitaph: 'His heart to the very end was in
the left place.'" And there he is, in the hearts of
those he loved, especially his beloved Maureen. In the
hearts of those he taught, and the ones he touched
with his beautiful works, all of us who heard him
laugh or saw him dance at those great parties uptown
or heard him speak truth to power without clichés.
Sekou Sundiata lives inside of us now and will never
die. 

Musician-composer Vernon Reid is guitarist for the
band Living Colour and co-founder of the Black Rock
Coalition. 
 
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0730,reid,77324,2.html

Roy Durfee
P.O. Box 40219
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196-0219
rdurfee2003 at yahoo.com


       
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