Mama Africa
Miriam Makeba died Sunday night of a heart attack after a concert in Italy. She was 76. It seems that she collapsed after singing her signature song Pata Pata. An enormous talent with a beautiful voice and a smile to match, she will not soon be forgotten. “I look at an ant and I see […]
Darwin, Lincoln and…Haiti?
“That there is suffering, no one will dispute it, but according to my judgment, happiness will decidedly prevail.” Darwin(according to Beaty) “Four score and seven years ago, my heart began to break, and for a while, I did not know what it meant to be free.” Lincoln(according to Beaty) Was there a relationship between Lincoln […]
TGIF
Thank God It’s Friday because…. It’s live jazz night at Jazz966! With jazz vocalist, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch And what were you doing on a Friday night that was better than listening to the Ray Abrams Big Band? In fact, when was the last time you listened to a big jazz band? (My last time was […]
Happy Thursday?
Michele, Temar and Francesca Sometimes you don’t need a reason Not a birthday Not a holiday Just celebrating the day that is The friends that are New and old And the music that makes it all Allright…. Or as poet Lucille Clifton writes: come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me […]
The woman in my bed….
I woke up with a French tune this morning: La femme qui est dans mon lit…The woman in my bed. Written by Moustaki for Edith Piaf when they were lovers, it is a song of praise for the older woman (she was nearly 20 years older than him). It brought back memories of one of […]
my dear friends
My brother Leslie once came back from Brazil with a gift for me. A cassette tape. Remember these relics of another age? Remember that flimsy brown strip of magnetic tape that would melt in the summer, snap in the winter and unravel when in a bad mood? To save our music, we learned the now […]
Good Fortune!
“Sonny Fortune is one of the most intriguing alto players in contemporary jazz.” Stereophile magazine You and the Night, Sonny… You and your alto sax and your music in the night at Jazz 966! Back in the 1970’s, when we were bright young things spending our nights in jazz clubs clouded with cigarette smoke, nursing […]
Leyla and the Medicine Women
Her instrument is: “this mermaid whose hair can sing this cross to bear a wooden box half hourglass half hollowness restraining resonant air to know what is not woman not thing but voice and with the audience mute as a landscape to let it scream” Ramon C. Sunico ~“Cello poem” “I believe we all have […]
Music is the weapon
Fela believed that music was the weapon of social fight for the future. Throughout a career that began with the London jazz scene and the uptown Nigerian Highlife music in the 1950’s, peaked with the revolutionary Afrobeat in the 1970’s, and inspired countless artists ever since, Fela lived out the war cry ‘Music is the […]
Maestro!
Le Maestro Michèle Voltaire Marcelin et Issa El Saieh ~ 1990 Un peu plus de trois ans que le Maestro est parti. Un peu plus de trois ans que je ne vais plus à l’Avenue du Chili. Ce passage désiré et obligé me manque. Et me manque aussi son affection à la fois nonchalante et […]
Summer fling
It was a June-blue sunday, a perfect summer-fling day; a music-filled day with poetry and song and friends and laughter; and our spirits were high and the energy was electrifying and it was summer, and we were starting it with a blast at our first Toukouleur Jazz & Poetry Brunch. Wish you had been there […]
Lumane Casimir
A 14 ans, sa guitare sous le bras, Lumane Casimir, fraîchement débarquée des Gonaïves, arriva à Port-au-Prince avec sa voix de rossignol. Excentrique, vive, revêche, toujours à court d’argent, elle y mena longtemps l’existence typique des artistes fauchés. Bien que son passage sur la scène musicale Haitienne fut bref (elle mourut vers 35 ans dans […]
Album Covers Exhibit at LIU
"I miss album covers. One of the huge reasons I loved albums was because of the cover art. And even though I bought records for the music, an album’s cover played a role that couldn’t be overlooked. In many cases the music was as astounding as the artwork, but sometimes, I bought albums just because […]
Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. The publication of her first novel “La Désenchantée” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2006) was followed by its Spanish translation “La Desencantada” and two other books of poetry and prose: “Lost and Found” and “Amours et Bagatelles” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2009) - translated into Spanish by Editorial ALBA as "Amores y cosas sin importancia" - all of which garnered rave reviews. Her writings are also featured in 3 anthologies published in France: "Cahier Haiti" (published by RAL'M-2009), "Terre de Femmes" (Editions Bruno Doucey-2011) "Revue Intranqu'îllités" (2012). She speaks and writes fluently French, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a Masters from The New School for Social Research.