# CD review: Jason Moran – From the Dancehall to the Battlefield 2023: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/01/19/cd-review-jason-moran-from-the-dancehall-to-the-battlefield-2023-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2023-01-19T00:04:04+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**They walked a very long way, saw you, and tagged you forever… then strode away,
but kept you in their mind as they tagged**** someone else. See, That’s how a lot
of this works.**

They didn’t tell you where they were going, or what it would feel like, or sound
like, or the stories you’d tell about all that you’d survive. And YES, you will 
survive…or be survived by.

In 1881, James Reese Europe is born in Mobile, Alabama, and in the pre-dawn of the
Great Migration, his parents moved up to Washington, D.C. because they knew. It 
is in D.C that James begins to take violin lessons from Joseph Douglas, the grandson
of Frederick Douglass because Douglass innately knew that liberation not only speaks
from the mind, but also from instrument. The violin, hollowed wood, with a bow strung
with horse hair abrading tense steel.

See, Liberation occurs in many forms. And when James then takes his violin up to
New York, he is seeking a new sound to make, new folk to break bread with, and a
new stage to plow, for The “stage” will always be a portal, a place to test what
is real and surreal.

What he realizes is that a required respect on the stage and off must be demanded,
which culminated in the Black musicians union called The Clef Club. It is the humanity
that I hear in these songs and in his bands. When James tagged 125 musicians to 
bring his brand of syncopation to Carnegie Hall, the new beat had arrived. Because
syncopation is about urgency, pushing the beat ahead to apply the anticipation of
the oncoming downbeat , an outlook that is inherently futuristic.

So all that futurism arrives. But the indoor stages proved only preparation for 
another dangerous stage, the battlefield of WW1. With his band of Black diaspora,
he brought the music across the Atlantic, to the frontline of battle as his commitment
to expansive vision was beyond.

Beyond the last row of seats in the house, or the horizon of the trenches ahead.
James Reese Europe becomes one of the seminal Big Bangs in Black Music. Let us meditate
on that. From to the Dance Hall to the Battlefield, and back home to you. Love, 
Jason

From the Dancehall to the Battlefield connects to one of the original Big Bangs 
in Black Music, James Reese Europe. In the early 20th century, James Reese Europe
and others firmly understood that Black culture has a history, sound, and a code.
This brought Black pride onto the stage and into the world.

All of No Man’s Land is Ours was a song frequently sung by JRE’s right hand man,
Noble Sissle while JRE played piano. The lyrics include
 “The victory’s won, the
war is over The whole wide world is wreathed in clover! All of No Man’s Land is 
ours” I keep thinking that much of what is considered “Land”? And though these brave
soldiers fought “for their country”, This bravery is something that I consider is
the root of how abstraction is used in Black improvisational music. The soldiers
trust JRE, because he is a celebrity. But none of them have ever performed in an
actual war., and neither has JRE. They are all marching into a void together, but
they are led by the sound.

Flee as a Bird/ Ghosts features Brian Settles.. a piece the 369th Infantry band 
played when a soldier did not return from the battlefield. Brian represents the 
restless soul fighting for his last breath before the last shovel full of dirt covers
his body. The medley with Albert Ayler’s composition Ghosts gives a nod to Ayler’s
own military band work. Also, Ayler performs his own version of Le Marseillaise,
the French national anthem that James Reese Europe remixed for French audiences.

W.C. Handy, the bard of the blues, wrote many pieces that became the backbone of
the 369th Infantry band. Some of the arrangements were done by William Grant Still.
These blues’ were also used as a recruitment tool for the 369th Infantry, aka Harlem
Hellfighters.

Zena’s Circle is a breathing meditation the composer and deep listening practitioner
Pauline Oliveros showed the Bandwagon at the Park Avenue Armory. We use this meditation
at the end of the performance to become one breath within the music. The band stands
in a circle while holding hands, one person sends a pulse around the circle while
exhaling.

Castle House Rag – a piece James wrote for the dancing couple, Vernon and Irene 
Castle. His dance tunes in the early 20th century became hits and shifted the tempos
of dance music within the dancehall.

For James – is my anthem for James. I take this anthem around the world and have
audiences sing it as well. The middle of the piece features a German audience and
the final section is when i taught it to the 369 Experience band, a group of HBCU
students that gathers to play Europe’s music. JRE is a throughline to the HBCU marching
bands. By the end, I’m speaking with the students about how Randy Weston shared 
the profundity of James Reese Europe with me.

1. From the Dancehall to the Battlefield – Jason Moran
 2. Ballin the Jack / Feed
the Fire – James Reese Europe and Geri Allen 3. All of No Man’s Land is Ours – James
Reese Europe 4. Russian Rag – George Cobb 5. Darktown Strutter’s Ball – Shelton 
Brooks 6. Flee as a Bird to your Mountain / Ghosts – Traditional / Albert Ayler 
7. Drop (Tear) – Jason Moran 8. That Moaning Trombone – Carl Bethel & Sandy Coffin
9. Memphis Blues – W. C. Handy 10. St. Louis Blues – W. C. Handy 11. Hesitating 
Blues – W. C. Handy 12. Clef Club March – James Reese Europe 13. Castle House Rag–
James Reese Europe 14. Zena’s Circle – Pauline Oliveros 15. For James – Jason Moran

**Jason Moran – Piano and voice**
 **Tarus Mateen – Bass** **Nasheet Waits – Drums****
Logan Richardson – Alto Saxophone** **Brian Settles – Tenor Saxophone** **Darryl
Harper – Clarinet** **David Adewumi – Trumpet** **Reginald Cyntje – Trombone** **
Chris Bates – Trombone** **Jose Davila – Tuba, Helicon.**

![From the Dancehall to the Battlefield | Jason Moran](https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.
com/img/a1571096854_10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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