''We Insist!'' (subtitled ''Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite'') is a jazz album released on

Candid Records Candid Records was a jazz record label first established in New York City. Early Candid Records The CANDID jazz label was founded in New York City in 1960 as a subsidiary of Cadence Records, owned by Archie Bleyer. The jazz writer and civil right ...

in 1961. It contains a suite which composer and drummer

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...

and lyricist

Oscar Brown Oscar Brown Jr. (October 10, 1926May 29, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, civil rights activist, and actor. Aside from his career, Brown ran unsuccessfully for office in both the Illinois state legislature and the U. ...

had begun to develop in 1959 with a view to its performance in 1963 on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.LP liner notes by

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. Fo ...

. C.H. Garrigues, "A New Jazz Label Voices a Shocking Call for Freedom," ''San Francisco Examiner,'' March 12, 1961, page 23 The cover references the

sit-in movement The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign or student sit-in movement, were a wave of sit-ins that followed the Greensboro sit-ins on February 1, 1960 in North Carolina. The sit-in movement employed the tactic of nonviolent direct action and was a p ...

of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' awarded the album one of its rare crown accolades, in addition to featuring it as part of its Core Collection. The music consists of five selections concerning the Emancipation Proclamation and the growing

African independence movements The African independence movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed. Notable independence movements took place: *Algeria (former French Algeria), see A ...

of the 1950s. Only Roach and vocalist

Abbey Lincoln Anna Marie Wooldridge (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010), known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress. She was a civil rights activist beginning in the 1960s. Lincoln made a career out of deli ...

perform on all five tracks, and one track features a guest appearance by saxophonist

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

. In 2022, the album was selected by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

for preservation in the United States

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.".

Composition

''We Insist!'' is an

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Ori ...

album and a vocal-instrumental suite on themes related to the

. It incorporates aspects of avant-garde trends during the 1960s, including the use of a pianoless ensemble, screaming vocals on "Protest", and moments of collective improvisation, such as at the end of "Tears for Johannesburg". Max Roach collaborated with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. on the album and wrote songs that played variations on the theme of the struggle for African Americans to achieve equality in the United States.

, a frequent collaborator and subsequent wife of Roach's, performed vocals on the album. While Brown's lyrics were verbal, Lincoln sang wordless vocals on her parts. Brown and Roach began collaborating in 1959 on a longer piece that they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. However, the urgency of civil rights issues steered them towards a new project in 1960, the album that would become the ''Freedom Now Suite''. This urgency was sparked by the

Greensboro sit-ins The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Comp ...

at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the rapidly spreading momentum of the civil rights movement aided by the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC) and

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE). During the composition of the album, Roach lived in New York and Brown in Chicago, and Brown recalls that "we did it on the road kind of; we really wrote it by telephone." From this came tensions between the two composers about the political content of the article and especially about how the album should end. The pair continued arguing throughout the composition, and eventually Brown backed out. Monson wrote that "Brown did not know about the ''Freedom Now Suite'' recording until he received a postcard from Nat Hentoff requesting biographical material to be included in the liner notes to the album. Brown was disappointed that the music from their collaboration had been rearranged without his knowledge to serve Max Roach's political vision." Specifically, Brown did not like the screaming section of "Protest" in the track "Triptych." Although both Brown and Roach agreed on issues of social justice, they disagreed on the vehicles with which to express this. "During the same period, there was also increasing press coverage of the emerging, newly independent nations of Africa. Negro students in the south had been particularly aware of the impetus to their own campaigns for freedom given by the African examples because of the presence of African students on their campuses. Jazzmen too had been becoming conscious and prideful of the African wave of independence."

"Driva' Man"

Written by Max Roach and Oscar Brown, "Driva Man" tells the explicit story of slavery through its lyrics and accompaniment. Nat Hentoff, who was present at the recording sessions of the album, wrote that the Driva' Man "is a personification of the white overseer in slavery times who often forced women under his jurisdiction into sexual relations." Also in the lyrics are "pater ollers." In Hentoff's liner notes he includes a description of the patrollers by a former slave who says they are men "who would catch you from home and wear you out and send you back to your master...Most of them there patrollers was poor white folks...Poor white folks had to hustle round to make a living, so they hired out theirselves to slaveowners and rode the roads at night and whipped you if they catched you off their plantation without a pass." This track uses several tactics to evoke its images of slavery. Alisa White describes how the 5/4 time signature of the track adds an intense percussive hit, played either by a tambourine or as a rimshot, on the first beat of each measure. The track does not deviate from this pattern, which White wrote, "conjures up images of forced labor," specifically a cracked whip. Additionally, the track is played in a blues form that is only six bars long, however this is found in pairs, so that each chorus is actually twelve bars long.White, Alissa. "'We Insist! Freedom Now": Max Roach's Transatlantic Civil Rights Imperative." ''Jazz Education Journal'' 40:2(2007), pg.48 Abbey Lincoln is the first to enter the tune, singing the melody a cappella and accompanying herself with tambourine. Coleman Hawkins then enters with the tenor saxophone melody, along with the three horns supporting him. After a chorus of instrumental melody, Hawkins takes a 4 chorus solo. All the while, Roach maintains the unusual 5/4 time signature with the punching hit on the first beat of each measure. Melodically, "Driva' Man" is the simplest tune on the album, based in a C minor pentatonic scale. Coleman Hawkins makes an appearance here and "plays the male counterpart to Abbey Lincoln," as Hentoff notes in his liner notes. Hawkins would stay far past his part in the recording, and he would turn to Max Roach in astonishment, asking, "did you really write this, Max?" In his liner notes, Hentoff wrote of an interaction between Hawkins and Abbey Lincoln after a squeak in Lincoln's opening solo in "Driva' Man": "No, don't splice," said Hawkins. "When it's all perfect, especially in a piece like this, there's something very wrong."

"Freedom Day"

The second track on the album is "Freedom Day," a track that is an extension from the slavery-driven "Driva' Man". This track is a response to Emancipation, which became official law in 1865. This track was also written and arranged by Max Roach. Although the track is titled Freedom Day, Max Roach confessed to Ingrid Monson "we could never finish it," because freedom itself was so hard to grasp: "we don't really understand what it really is to be free. The last sound we did, 'Freedom Day,' ended with a question mark." This tension between expectancy and disbelief is also mirrored in the musical technique of the track. Hentoff wrote, "'Freedom Day' manages to capture both the anticipation and anxiety of the moment of Emancipation by setting its minor-blue solos over a feverishly paced rhythm section." The conflicting layering of the instruments in the track help to express this conflict of belief in the piece. Hentoff wrote that Lincoln's vocal performance is bursting with impatience, reflecting the anticipation that the track inhabits. Although this track is the most highly arranged tune on the album and the melody is simple, the rhythms of Lincoln's vocal lines do not match the accent patterns created by the rhythm section. This track also switched textures frequently, moving quickly from an opening of horn voicings to Lincoln's vocals, followed by the introduction of a new horn melody, consecutive horn solos, and a drum solo. In his liner notes, Hentoff includes the instrumental solos played by

Booker Little Booker Little Jr. (April 2, 1938 – October 5, 1961)
– accessed June 2010 was an American

on trumpet,

Walter Benton Walter Benton (September 8, 1930 in Los Angeles – August 14, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Benton first began playing saxophone as a high schooler in Los Angeles. After three years of service in the Army in the early 1950s, he ...

on tenor saxophone,

Julian Priester Julian Priester (born June 29, 1935) is an American jazz trombonist and occasional euphoniumist. He is sometimes credited "Julian Priester Pepo Mtoto". He has played with Sun Ra, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock. B ...

on trombone, and Max Roach on drums.

"Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace"

"Triptych" is the third, and the middle, track of the album. The track is split into three sections, "Prayer," "Protest," and "Peace." According to Hentoff's liner notes, the piece was originally composed to be a part of a ballet, in which the majority of the choreography would be improvisation. This track links the histories of slavery in America to the struggles of bondage and freedom in South Africa, on which the two tracks following "Triptych" ("All Africa" and "Tears for Johannesburg") will focus. This climactic track is a dynamic duet between Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach that moves through wordless vocals and percussion in "Prayer," to Lincoln's screaming section in "Protest," and finally back to "Peace." In the liner notes Nat Hentoff wrote that "Triptcyh" is a "final, uncontrollable unleashing of rage and anger that have been compressed in fear for so long that the only catharsis can be the extremely painful tearing out of all the accumulating fury...." The first section, "Prayer," exposes "Abbey Lincoln at her most haunting, as she slowly builds from low to high in call and response with Roach's drums, which are tuned to match the tonality of Lincoln's voice." Lincoln's low moan signifies "the cry of the oppressed people, any and all oppressed peoples of whatever color or combination of colors." the second section of the track, "Protest," proves the most avant-garde of the three sections, most signified by Abbey Lincoln's one minute and twenty seconds of screaming accompanied by Max Roach on drums. "Lincoln recalls that it was Max Roach's idea, not hers, to include the screaming: 'It wasn't an approach to music that I would have chosen, but because I thought of him as a teacher- he preceded me- I did what I could to please him.' incolntook the greater heat for the political message in the Freedom Now Suite than Roach...." The "Protest" section of the album took the most heat out of any part of the album because of its explicit political message. Critics reviewed this section as an explicit rejection of Martin Luther King's nonviolent protest philosophy with a very clear take-away message from Max Roach. The final section of Triptych, "Peace," brings the tone of the track to a different place. 'Peace, as Max explained to Abbey before the take, "is the feeling of relaxed exhaustion after you've done everything you can to assert yourself. You can rest now because you've worked to be free. It's a realistic feeling of peacefulness. You know what you've been through."' "Peace" provides the first time in the track when Max Roach plays a steady rhythm behind Lincoln, whose vocal part transitions from scatting into a guttural tone and finishes with an exhaustive exhale. "If this is Peace, it is peace with gothic undertones, as if ghosts of the past might be appeased for a moment but never exorcised in their entirety."

"All Africa"

The fourth track of the album, All Africa, moves the album into the topics of civil rights in Africa, beginning with a celebration of African nationalism. Nigerian drummer

Babatunde Olatunji Michael Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist. Early life Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nige ...

, a primary force in popularizing African drumming in America, plays the drums in All Africa. In the introduction of All Africa, Olatunji accompanies Abbey Lincoln with polyrhythmic beat and direction Along with the new personnel on this track, including Afro-Cuban players Mantillo and DuVal, a new percussion ensemble, rhythmic ostinatos, and open-ended modal frameworks are added to point the listener more specifically to its African, Cuban, and Caribbean influences. Furthermore, Monson adds, "an African diasporic sensibility is musically enacted in the extended percussion solo that follows the recitation through the use of a well-known seven bell pattern that is found not only in West Africa but also in the sacred music of the Caribbean and Brazil." Abbey Lincoln adds to this African influence with her vocal part, which begins with the recitation of the names of various African tribes. Throughout the three choruses of the piece, Lincoln chants the names of African tribes amidst Olatunji's responses with freedom sayings of his tribe. The second half of All Africa is filled with an extensive percussion solo that leads into the final track, Tears for Johannesburg.

"Tears for Johannesburg"

The fifth and final track of the album, Tears for

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, continues the album's focus on civil rights issues in Africa. Tears for Johannesburg was a response to the

Sharpeville massacre The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd o ...

in South Africa in 1960, the same year the ''Freedom Now Suite'' was recorded. ''San Francisco Examiner'' reviewer C.H. Garrigues called it a "beautiful and moving dirge.'' Hentoff's liner notes continue:

Tears for Johannesburg sums up, in large sense, what the players and singers of the album are trying to communicate. There is still an incredible and bloody cruelty against African Americans, as in the Sharpeville massacres of South Africa. There is still much to be won in America. But, as the soloists indicate after Abbey's wounding threnody, there will be no stopping the grasp for freedom everywhere.

Drummer Olatunji continues his presence in this track. Musically, Monson wrote, "Tears for Johannesburg has inverted the usual order of melody and embellishment, presenting paraphrased versions of the composition first, the most direct statement of the melody last." Although there is a set chorus structure for this track, it sounds open and free In order, solos are played by Booker Little, Walter Benton, Julian Priester, and the drummers. Alisa White wrote, "just as Driva' Man sets the stage for the album, Tears for Johannesburg sums it up. The 5/4 time returns and wordless vocals express emotions too complex to be put into words."

Reception and legacy

Released in 1960 by

, ''We Insist!'' was not a commercial success and received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. Many praised the album's ambitious concept, but some critics found it to be too controversial. Nonetheless, Roach vowed after its release that he would never again play music that is not socially relevant and told ''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' magazine, "We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through." The album inspired Roach to broaden his scope as a composer and collaborate with choreographers, filmmakers, and Off-Broadway playwrights on projects such as a stage version of ''We Insist!''. Audiences, along with critics, found the album to be controversial. This was especially the case in the performances of the work at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. However, according to ''Down Beat'' magazine, 2,500 NAACP members were in the audience at the premier performance of the album at the Jazz Gallery who supported the decision to "support further performances in as many cities as could be fitted into a schedule. There aseven a proposal calling for air travel in a chartered Freedom Plane." With the album, Roach was among the first artists to use jazz as a way of addressing racial and political issues during the 1960s. In a retrospective five-star review of the album,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Michael G. Nastos called it a crucial work in the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, Roach's discography, and African-American music in general because of the emotional range and resolve of the music and the enduring relevance of its message: "Every modern man, woman, and child could learn exponentially listening to this recording — a hallmark for living life." John Morthland of

eMusic eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York C ...

gave the album four-and-a-half stars and wrote that, as a "jazz landmark" and enduring civil rights statement, it provided the model for numerous subsequent musical suites and presentations that dealt with the same subject. In addition to a maximum four-star rating, ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled ...

'' included the album in its suggested “core collection” of essential recordings, and awarded it a “crown” indicating a recording for which the authors felt a particular admiration or affection. In 2007, ''We Insist!'' was reissued by Candid in honor of Roach after his death.

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381 ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the reissue four stars and called it a "landmark jazz album" that "testifies simultaneously to Roach's remarkable playing, his clout in the jazz world, and his politics."

Track listing

Side one

# "Driva Man" (Roach, Oscar Brown) – 5:17 # "Freedom Day" (Roach, Brown) – 6:08 # "Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace" (Roach) – 8:09

Side two

# "All Africa" (Roach, Brown) – 8:01 # "Tears for Johannesburg" (Roach) – 9:42

Personnel

– drums *

– vocals *

Booker Little Booker Little Jr. (April 2, 1938 – October 5, 1961)
– accessed June 2010 was an American

– trumpet on "Driva Man", "Freedom Day", "All Africa", and "Tears for Johannesburg" *

– trombone on "Driva Man", "Freedom Day", and "Tears for Johannesburg" *

– tenor saxophone on "Driva Man", "Freedom Day", and "Tears for Johannesburg" *

– tenor saxophone on "Driva Man" * James Schenk – bass on "Driva Man", "Freedom Day", and "Tears for Johannesburg" * Michael Olatunji – congas, vocals on side two * Raymond Mantilla – percussion on side two * Tomas du Vall – percussion on side two

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1960 albums Max Roach albums Albums produced by Nat Hentoff Concept albums Candid Records albums Hard bop albums + Civil rights movement in popular culture United States National Recording Registry recordings United States National Recording Registry albums