But in the activist musical tradition of such jazz composers
as Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Charlie Haden - whose pioneering Liberation
Music Orchestra provides the model as well as the namesake for their efforts -
the Liberation Music Collective seeks to do what artists have always done, and
what they should always do. They distill the anger and despair to create works
that teach and inspire. With words as well as music, they gather up the
emotions that attend history's victims and turn them into beacons, focusing
listeners' remembrance and galvanizing their resolve. They transform sorrow
into hope.
This dynamic undergirds Rebel Portraiture, the eagerly
awaited sophomore effort from the Liberation Music Collective, a contemporary
jazz orchestra born in Bloomington, Indiana - under the direction of
bassist/vocalist Hannah Fidler and trumpeter Matt Riggen - who interrupted the
jazz conversation two years ago with their startling Siglo XXI. That album that
fulfilled their mission to form "a socially-conscious big band dedicated
to performing original compositions about contemporary issues." Now, on
Rebel Portraiture, they go behind the issues to honor the individuals whose
courage and commitment call attention to oppression and injustice the world
over.
As author and GRAMMY®-winning producer Kabir Sehgal states
in his informative liner notes, "These tracks are tasteful and elegant
portraits of those who defied fear and spoke truth to power. Now their stories
become 'music to power.'"
In the tradition of the greatest artists in any genre, the
LMC achieves this consciousness-raising with grace and grit, creating pieces
that can stand on their own regardless of the events that inspired them.
Reading about the fallen heroes to whom these performances are dedicated will
certainly deepen one's appreciation for the goals and accomplishments of the
LMC. But even without the historical overview, Rebel Portraiture overflows with
musical wonder. The music employs a wide range of influences and resources:
African and Arabic music, rap poetry, a 19th-century American hymn, early 20th
century classical music, pan-national folk songs - all within the context of
the modern jazz orchestra, with sophisticated arrangements by the LMC
co-founders Fidler and Riggen.
In Rebel Portraiture, contemporary heroes rub shoulders with
martyrs of history. They include Berta Cáceres - an indigenous environmental
activist in Honduras, assassinated in her home in 2016 for her opposition to
the Agua Zarca Dam project - all the way back to Giles Corey, put to an
agonizingly slow death during the Salem Witch Trials in 17th-century
Massachusetts. The LMC reminds us of the fallen we may have forgotten - such as
the four students killed while protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State
University in 1970 - and introduces us to more recent profiles in courage,
whose names have already become rallying cries for the causes they championed.
One such woman is Noxolo Nogwaza, a South African LGBTQ+
organizer who was raped, murdered, and left on the side of the road in 2011, by
perpetrators who remain unknown. Her death led more than 170,000 people to sign
a petition demanding more protection for victims of sexual hate crimes, and
trained the world's attention on human rights in that country. Riggen's homage,
titled "Ditchside Monument," uses the hint of South African harmonies
to craft a memorial that moves from mournful to momentous. Another dedication
honors Syrian journalist Ruqia Hassan, whose blog posts reported on
deteriorating conditions around the city of Raqqa under the influence of ISIS.
She was murdered by the terrorist group in 2015, at the age of 20. In the
composition "Iqra," the value of independent reporting like Hassan's
is tied to a famous verse from the Quran in spoken word written and recited by
Fidler.
The musicians of the LMC live what they believe. For the
last two years, a small group drawn from the orchestra has traveled to
Ferguson, Missouri - a touchstone of the Black Lives Matter movement - at the
invitation of the Center for Social Empowerment and Justice. There they
conducted daylong workshops to exchange ideas and share experiences (musical
and otherwise) with local residents focused on racial justice. Members of the
LMC have travelled together to be part of history in the making - from protests
against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock, North Dakota to the
streets of our nation's capital for the Women's March on Washington. These
musicians strive to "show up" for the turning points of our era, both
musically and personally.
In the two years since their debut, the musicians of the LMC
have undergone a dramatic shift in the musical and personal relationships within
the band. "I see this as a far more intimate album, in several ways,"
Fidler says. "The subject matter is much more personal. We're touching
very deeply on intimate aspects of people's lives, involving their final
actions and the decisions they made." In addition, the musicians have
grown closer since Siglo XXI, making the LMC a collective in the truest sense.
"That album was literally our first project as a group," Fidler
explains. "But now you can really hear the result of two years working
together; you can hear the trust these musicians have in each other, and in the
music."
This has certainly been the case among the core members of
the band, who have continued to create new projects in smaller groupings
between public performances by the entire orchestra. Although various members
have moved on since 2015, long-term musical relationships in the band have
begun to bear fruit-especially because Fidler and Riggen have tailored many of
the compositions for the individuals playing it. "So, when we know that
our lead trumpet player will be available, we write certain parts that only she
can play," Fidler points out - a practice that came to fruition in the
music of Duke Ellington, whose 1941 suite Black, Brown and Beige was one of the
first jazz works driven by concepts of social justice and racism.
Indiana natives Hannah Fidler and Matt Riggen are both
scientist-musicians: Riggen graduated with degrees in jazz and biology, and
Fidler completed a double major in jazz bass and neuroscience. They met and bonded
over music in the classes and performance groups led by GRAMMY-nominated
trombonist Wayne Wallace, who is renowned for his exploration of Latin American
musical traditions. Fidler and Riggen formed the Liberation Music Collective in
2015 as a way to channel their sociopolitical concerns into meaningful music.
Since graduating from IU, both have moved to Chicago to pursue their careers
and to introduce new musicians to their engaging brand of jazz activism.
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