All Available Titles

Newest:
Sonny Simmons Global Jungle LP
Otic Records sealed / deadstock LPs
Cooper-Moore self-released CD-Rs + Triptych Myth CD
William Parker books

Updated articles on Earl Freeman,
Rev. Charlie Jackson, & Henry Simmons, Jr.

An uptick in activity on the 50 Miles of Elbow Room youtube channel

*** Read about it at Aquarium Drunkard

*** "Radically departing from cliched ideas of 'jazz poetry,' Freeman's poems are gothic and surreal, combining out-of-context anecdotal fragments, non-sequiturs, and rule-breaking punctuation - piled-up dashes and equals signs, commas breaking into the middle of words. ... Poems and Drawings is a fascinating contribution to our sense of the multi-disciplinary undercurrents of the jazz avant garde." -Pierre Crepon & David Grundy, The New York City Jazz Record, March 2021. See the full review.

"This film was the direct result of Glover’s political activism, starting with the second March on Washington in 1968 & the Poor People’s Campaign/Resurrection City. The latter demonstration was to be headlined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. until he was tragically assassinated before the march occurred. Alan Glover covered the march as an independent photographer with his older brother, Doug. The following year, Alan & Doug went to Jackson, Mississippi, under the auspices of the Poor People’s Corporation (PPC), as volunteer workers. Alan was a photographic consultant & 16mm motion film cameraman.

"It was a harrowing & sobering cultural experience for the politically naive 21-year-old Glover. Back in New York City, Alan & Doug joined the 1969 protest against construction of the Harlem State Office Building (now the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Building), dubbed 'Reclamation Site #1' by the state. This was taking place while Columbia University was also at odds with the Harlem community regarding its plans to build an elite gymnasium on property it owned in the neighborhood.

"It was through the conflict with Columbia that Alan, Doug, & their crew wrestled a 16mm camera & recorder rig as part of Columbia’s outreach effort to assuage the offended Harlemites.

"Not only did the crew — which included Arthur Omar Owens, Birth’s starring actor — negotiate for the film equipment, but they also bargained with Columbia personnel to act the parts of the racial antagonists in the film." -Omolade.

DVD includes original film (29 min.), alternative director’s commentary, & a historical discussion panel (43 min.). Written & directed by Alan Glover. Starring A. Omar Owens, Earl Thomas, Barbara Barnes, Dick Leonard, Ayo Fenner, Stan Diamond, & Ademola Olugebefola. Photography by Alan Glover & Karma Stanley.

See a couple clips, including one of Glover & his group performing at Kimako (Baraka's) Casbah in Harlem:

Lois Eby: Eby's art draws from several strands of influence, including Asian ink painting, Zen ink painting in particular, African American improvised music, & the exploration of abstraction in Western art since Cezanne & Kandinsky. WP: "I was first introduced to her work in 1986 through a series of drawings she did for a book called From Down to the Village; these drawings both changed and saved my life. In her world, the little things become big things and life's preciousness is always echoing, moving into a stillness that is epic in its subtlety. Later I was introduced to her paintings, which are full of broad strokes and bright colors." See loiseby.com

Anne Humanfeld: Humanfeld works in a variety of media: oil & acrylic on canvas, felt & other fabrics, etching, monoprint, & woodcut. She also creates recombinations of found imagery, often with elements of drawing & painting. She has lectured & been a visiting artist at institutions such as the Cleveland Institute of Art, Williams College, & UC Berkeley. WP: "There is grandness to the art of Anne Humanfeld; her work is full of images and figures that take us to another world - a world that is full of adventure and wondrous tales or legends, a world filled with characters & symbols that you want to know more about." See annehumanfeld.com

Jo Wood-Brown: Wood-Brown is a multimedia artist based in NYC who has exhibited widely as a painter & an installation artist in galleries & site-specific locations throughout the US & Europe. She is the founder of Artist Exchange International. WP: "Jo Wood-Brown has devoted her life to the song of seeing and transforming images. In her work I see the unveiling of many layers of site language. The images all speak in their way, and Jo is not afraid to let them be. Her work achieves the perfect balance of knowing enough to follow the voice, listening to it without putting words in its mouth." See jowoodbrown.com

His initiatives in this area have taken many forms. One of the most substantial is Conversations, collections of his in-depth discussions with musicians & artists from both his immediate & extended communities. To date, RogueArt has published four of these anthologies, a total of 120+ interviews & over 2,000 pages.

Alan "Juice" Glover: Born in the Bronx, NY, Glover's artistic life has been one of social activism & expression in a variety of art forms. His early work as a filmmaker during the civil rights movement dealt with powerful themes of cultural & political consciousness. During the 1970s, Glover turned his attention to music, performing extensively with his ensemble The Juice Quartet. In Manhattan's East Village he founded the Firehouse Theater, a community arts center & important early influence on the movement later known as loft jazz. His music retains the same dedication to social commentary, often embedding these themes directly into the structure of his compositions, performances, & liner notes. His chapter in Voices includes two of his essays: "Political, Social Activism" & "Spirituality & Theology: A View from the Cleft." WP: "I met Alan in 1973 and began training in advanced music rooted in the tradition of being oneself. Alan is a multidimensional renaissance person, improviser, composer, inventor, photographer, and filmmaker who has moved through several phases of creativity...He continues to explore the many manifestations of enlightenment." See also his chapter in the first volume of Conversations as well as the CDs & DVDs on his Omolade Music imprint.

Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson: Born in Oklahoma City, Nelson is a composer & improvisor whose primary instrument is the trumpet. His significant early studies include with Iannis Xenakis, John Eaton, & Gunther Schuller. He has composed works for music theatre, orchestra, choirs, chamber music, & free-improvisation ensembles that have been performed in North and South America, Europe, & Japan. He has lived in Biel, Switzerland, since 1994. His most recent book, Words by Memory and Other Words, was published in 2019. See also his chapter in the first volume of Conversations & this video of J-KN & WP performing in Tompkins Square Park c.1989. WP: "Jalalu was born with a special gift: the ability to hear his dreams. And translate them into Sound, words, and images...Wherever he is, the joy of music follows...Dancing into the horizon, constantly interacting with beautiful worlds of Sound and silence. Jalalu is unique in his vision of creativity." See his website.

Born in Newark, NJ, trombonist/composer Steve Swell has been highly active in the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with mainstream artists such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, as well as more contemporary artists that include Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, & William Parker. He has over 50 CDs as a leader or co-leader & is a featured artist on more than 125 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system, focusing on special needs children. See also his chapter in Conversations II: Dialogues and Monologues. WP: "In this book, he shares another side of himself; we get a glimpse of his poetry, visual art, and musical composition. He has been consistently productive…soaring above America's anti-artist environment to allow beautiful things to flow through him." See www.steveswell.com

Christopher Collins (1936-2022) was a professor of English at New York University. He authored many books & was a prolific creator of artworks that engage with a wide array of materials & approaches. His chapter is comprised entirely of his art, including writings (prose & poetry), paintings, carvings, drawings, woodcuts, & masks. WP: "Christopher was a human being who loved nature. On its terms. He acknowledged the majesty of trees, streams, and back roads. He knew how to bring out and show the beauty of simple things...Poet and philosopher visual artist, he danced to his inner song living on the edge for eighty-five years as a reluctant divine." Voices in the First Person, Vol. 2 is dedicated to him.

In Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker, WP tells author Cisco Bradley that Little Huey, the guiding inspiration for his Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, represented "going back to childhood, back to the Bronx, back to the housing projects." Little Huey "wants to be a poet because all he has is a pen and paper. He begins to retell what he’s seen, whether through music, film, ideas, or just what he sees looking out the project windows."

When You Smile The Big Orange Mountain Cries presents 52 poems by Little Huey, 1967-1970. New June 2024 reprint, a saddle-stitched chapbook, 24 pages on 100# satin, published in an edition of 50 on Parker's Centering imprint. Just a modest number of copies here.

Pozar always wholeheartedly & obsessively pursued his individual, wide-ranging vision, whether it is playing be-bop, free, Latin music, bata, electronic percussion, funk, or early ragtime pieces by artists such as George Hamilton Green. This disc is another document of that sincere, free spirit. Hear Naima & Footprints. See also this interview with Pozar regarding his classic Cleve Solo Percussion album.

First LP edition of this 1982 Sonny Simmons session previously issued on cassette & CD. Hand-numbered pressing of 100 copies, issued December 2024.

From the CD liner notes: "Sonny Simmons is a revered & unrelenting pioneer, one of the remaining few. His dozen or so recordings from 1961-1970 established him as one of the most exciting new horn players of that era. During the '70s and '80s, Simmons stayed true to his art form, writing some of his major compositions, working with local musicians, and 'dealing with it.' Unfortunately, this time period produced little recorded material.

"Global Jungle is one of the rare recordings that captures Simmons' prolific work of the 1980s. Listening to these compositions, one hears searing white hot saxophone, the long winded legato, & multiple tonguing techniques for which Simmons is noted. The fluidity of this recording is further enhanced by the spontaneous and direct response from the rhythm section. Global Jungle is raw and real. It is life drama."

Notes & background regarding this LP edition: "In 1982, I booked time in a home studio in Oakland, California. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the name of this studio. I had been studying & performing with Sonny Simmons in the Bay Area in the early ’80s. I thought it was important to get into a studio to record this music. We recorded 4 tracks. Later we would return with a different bassist & record three more. In my youth, & broke as a joke, it seemed logical at the time to quickly mix the first 2-inch tape & then re-use that same tape for the second recording date, thus erasing the original master tape. Eight years later, I released a cassette tape, Global Jungle, followed by a remix on CD. 42 years later, I found a cassette tape of the very first rough mix of the original session that had been erased. The mix was very different from the released Global Jungle & contained a composition that I had written for Sonny, titled 'H.P.S. Zoarious.' This session, as Sonny would say, captures a real life drama, & a 'Play for your life Mother**ckers' moment in time." -Kirk Heydt

The compositions found on this LP edition: "The Global Jungle," "Steel Foundry of Love," The Global Prayer," & "H.P.S. Zoarious." Hear a clip.

Notable also for a rare 1980s appearance by Earl Freeman.

Sonny Simmons: alto saxophone
Kirk Charles Heydt: cello
Earl Freeman: electric fretless bass
Perry Thoorsell: acoustic bass (on 3 of the 4 tracks)
Dylan Morgan: drums