Alabama

On the occasion of the the birth of John Coltrane, a video of his legendary quartet performing his composition "Alabama".

According to the Socialist Review:: "In 1963 Martin Luther King decided to launch a non-violent assault on Birmingham, Alabama--the bastion of segregation. Within days 2,500 protesters swamped Birmingham jails. After ten days the authorities caved in. Birmingham was the civil rights movement's biggest victory. The protests had a massive impact--there were 758 demonstrations against racism and 14,753 arrests in 186 US cities in the ten weeks that followed Birmingham, culminating in the historic march on Washington.

Coltrane never described himself as a political activist--he was a musician first and foremost. He was also a deeply religious person. But it was his deep-seated humanity that drew him towards the civil rights movement. In 1964 Coltrane played eight benefit concerts in support of King. He also recorded a number of tracks inspired by the struggle--'Reverend King', 'Backs against the Wall' and his album Cosmic Music was dedicated to King. Events in Birmingham would also move him to write 'Alabama'.

On the Sunday morning of 15 September 1963 a dozen sticks of dynamite were planted by white racists in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. At 10.45am the bomb went off, killing four young black girls aged between 11 and 14.

Coltrane wrote the song 'Alabama' in response to the bombing. He patterned his saxophone playing on Martin Luther King's funeral speech. Midway through the song, mirroring the point where King transforms his mourning into a statement of renewed determination for the struggle against racism, Elvin Jones's drumming rises from a whisper to a pounding rage. He wanted this crescendo to signify the rising of the civil rights movement."

[YouTube video from interplanetarymusic. Information provided: "The John Coltrane Quartet (John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones) en 1963, el el programa de televisión Jazz Casual, interpretando Alabama."]