Rabble Without A Cause, February 5: Noah Howard from the 1970s

February is Black History Month and I’ll start my series of shows celebrating Black History with selections from three new reissues of Noah Howard from the 1970s

Noah Howard was a saxophone player born in New Orleans. He moved to Los Angeles where he became immersed in the free jazz movement, and moved to New York in the mid-60s. He recorded with Archie Shepp before leading his own ensembles.

On this show we are going to hear three new reissues of recordings he made in Europe in the 1970s. Howard relocated to Europe in 1973, joining many avant garde musicians who found more receptive audiences and less racism.

Patterns was recorded in 1971, with Dutch musicians Misha Mengelberg (piano), Han Bennink (drums), and Jaap Schoonhoven (guitar). Also joining Howard were Earl Freeman on bass and Steve Boston on conga. We will listen to side 2 of this release.

“Berlin Concert” was recorded 50 years ago (January 1975). Noah Howard was on alto saxophone; Kent Carter on double bass; Taskashi Kato on piano; Lamont Hampton on percussion; and Oliver Johnson on drums.

“Schizophrenic Blues” was also recorded in Berlin, two years later. This release featured Italy Oki on trumpet; Jean-Jacques Avenel on double bass; and Oliver Johnson on drums.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

The show will end with Noah Howard’s interpretation of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, from “Schizophrenic Blues”. This hymn was written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson (lyrics) and J. Rosamond Johnson (music) and has been described as the Black National Anthem. This short documentary gives a good overview of the history of this music - now over 120 years old.

Jon Batiste has said that the hymn “connects us to the history of all the people who we stand on the shoulders of—who have marched and fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy and that we’re trying to improve upon”.

The words certainly are powerful:

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place For which our fathers died.
We have come, over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

And here is Alicia Keys singing the hymn in 2021.

You can listen to the show live on Wednesday at 11 p.m. at 93.1 FM in Ottawa or live stream at CKCUFM.com. The show is also available for on demand streaming.

Next week we will hear reissues from Byard Lancaster - another avant garde jazz artist who spent a lot of time in Europe in the 1970s.