A couple months ago, I sat with composer/bandleader/reedman/wise kat Jesse Sharps on a Mt. Washington hilltop patio overlooking the San Gabriel Valley. Sharps was using the amazing view to illustrate one of his musical philosophies. “There are sounds that hurt, just like there’s sounds that heal.” He swept his arm across the valley vista: “Say we got ten thousand motherfuckers standing up here on the hill with their horns. They all play the wrong note all at once, who knows what effect it’ll have on down there.” And this was before the Valley was on fire.
Sharps will be bringing the rain (hopefully, a light summer one) to the ACJF Sunday with his new ensemble The Gathering, a meeting of minds between "The Roots and Branches of LA Jazz." The "roots" include many who began their distinguished careers in Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan People Arkestra, including Sharps (who joined when he was 15) and the mercurial soul-jazz singer Dwight Trible; the “branches” are some of the young voices in L.A. jazz who have been making big sounds as of late, including tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, violist/producer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and bassist Nick Rosen (who plays his debut CD release party tonight at The Mint!).
Jesse Sharps (left) conducts Kamasi Washington, Randall Fisher, and MIchael Session
The band’s name refers to a fondly remembered a co-op community center in Watts called that lasted from 1970-1973. Writes Mimi Melnick in her liner notes for The Gathering CD: “Started by [Cal State student] Dadisi Sanyika and located on Western Avenue near 45th Street, it was a place for what poet Kamau Daáood calls ‘inner attainment,’ a gathering together of various aspects of African American culture: community organizations, fund drives, tea, music, poetry, dance, film, theater, martial arts, and discussion groups. Horace Tapscott and Kamau [Daa’ood] performed there regularly, often joined by top performers of the day such as Pharoah Sanders, as well as many local talents.”
Dwight Trible wails at the original Gathering sessions, with Taumbu (congas) and Roberto Miranda (bass)
Back in 2005, when I first interviewed him for the L.A. Weekly, Sharps, who had lived abroad for over a decade, was overseeing the massive (and tedious) task of digitally archiving the Arkestra’s music (some 500 songs). He also planned a recording session for the material, as much of it hadn’t even been committed to tape. When that fell through, Sharps then borrowed inspiration from one of Tapscott himself, whose mantra was "Contributive, Not Competitive” and who formed the Ark in part to draw kids from the community aware from the dark lures of street life.
Back in the charred days of the Watts Riots, Sharps was one of those boys, as was Dwight Trible.
Dwight Trible emotes with the Ark, with Horace Tapscott conducting
As Trible says in The Gathering's liner notes: "Horace said the spirit has given you something to give to this universe. It doesn't matter who digs it or who doesn't dig it because we're rescuing this planet with what we're doing. You have to have the courage to put it down no matter what happens. Horace did that. He never backed down, always gave his all no matter if two people or two million were there....That's the main thing I learned from Horace Tapscott: give everything you've got."
Jesse plays the Balkan blues
With encouragement and assistance from Leimert Park mainstay Bongo Ras Starr and funding and production equipment supplied by Tom Paige, Sharps brought together at least three different generations of L.A.’s jazz underground and initiated The Gathering’s Leimert Park: Roots and Branches of L.A. Jazz CD. “Through the whole album’s varied moods and individual statements, you hear a whole community, black and white, older and younger, breathing the same warm air and reaching for the same promised land,” wrote Greg Burk on his blog MetalJazz. This is exactly what you don’t get with a Lincoln Center Orchestra or even a Mingus Big Band -- selfless love, a natural blend.”
Greg Burk reviews The Gathering CD
Downbeast reviews Jesse Sharps & The Ark at the Horace Tapscott 10th Anniversary Tribute (April 2009)
Live review of the Gathering at the Jazz Bakery (11/16/08)
Jesse Sharps: The Downbeast Interview (August 2008)
Mimi Melnick’s superb and comprehensive liner notes for The Gathering:
All About Jazz reviews Jesse Sharps' Sharps & Flats (2005)
The Gathering: Leimert Park - Roots and Branches of LA Jazz
The Gathering preview trailer
Jesse Sharps interviewed in Hollywood (2007)
Jesse Sharps with the Creative Music Ensemble featuring Azar Lawrence
The Gathering warms up before gig at the Jazz Bakery
The Gathering kicks it live at the Jazz Bakery
The Gathering performs Abdul Salim’s “Justice” featuring Dwight Trible at the Jazz Bakery featuring Dwight Trible (2 parts)
Dwight Trible with the Universal Consciousness Orchestra, Tribute to Alice Coltrane at the Japanese-American National Museum, Los Angeles
The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with Dwight Trible live at LACMA (4/18/08)
Dwight Trible with Derk Reklaw Raheem and friends live at Malcolm X festival, Leimert Park
Dwight Trible with Harold Land, Jr.
Dwight Trible at benefit for pianist Nate Morgan at the World Stage, Leimert Park (December 2008)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
Jesse Sharps’ The Gathering with Dwight Trible will play this year’s Angel City Jazz Festival at 6:30pm on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009.
