african and islamic names

[cannonball-addict]

This question is for older cats out there who witnessed this music occur over the earlier years. Who was the first or which guys were in the first wave of musicians to adopt Islamic and faux African names?

I assume some pretty early ones were Dollar Brand becoming Abdullah Ibrahim, Bill Evans becoming Yusef Lateef, Idris Muhammad, and the Mwandishi Herbie Hancock even though he didn't retain the name.

sidenote (since over 50% of my posts seem to get hijacked anyways): Anybody out there ever see any shows by Herbie when he was in the Warner Bros. stage of his career, after he left Miles? I have the Complete Herbie Hancock on WB and its all that Mwandishi Brothers stuff. It's great music. I love it but I never hear anybody talking about it. Did that band go on the road? I think Joe Henderson and Bennie Maupin were both in those bands. I love Wiggle Waggle, and Tell Me a Bedtime Story.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

The late 1940s were the time when the Islamic movement touched a number of jazz musicians - Talib Dawud, Rudy Powell (early), (Sahib Shihab (1947), Art Blakey (1947?), Yusef Lateef (1949), Ahmad Jamal (1952). Abdullah Ibrahim is rather late (1968).

http://www.muslimsinamerica.org/1900s.html

http://www.aaari.org/moustafa_bayoumi.htm

http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/history/h...%20I/cult7.html

See my website for a list of Muslim Names In Jazz.

Mike

[GA Russell]

I saw Herbie Hancock's group about 1970 at the Cellar Door in Washington. It was a sextet. The warm up act was Richard Pryor.

Compared to most of the jazz groups I was seeing at that time, it wasn't very exciting. I don't remember too much about it, except that I was kind of bored.

[mikeweil]

Amazing how tastes differ - I wish I could have heard the Mwandishi band live - I find this the most exciting thing he ever did. Maybe they had a bad day.

Mwandishi is Kiswahili and means composer. IIRC this came up when a number of musicians looked for some pan-African cultural heritage in the 1960's - even the Temptations recorded a single with a Kiswahili title - Umwenga za ulimwengu (unite the world), or Ramsey Lewis (Upendo ni pamoja - love is togetherness).

Kiswahili is rather easy to learn, but it didn't catch on, and practically all except Mtume dropped these names; here are some I remember:

Mtume - priest - James Forman

Mwandishi - composer - Herbie Hancock

Mwile - body - Bennie Maupin

Pepo Mtoto - child's spirit - Julian Priester

Mganga - native doctor - Eddie Henderson

Mchezaji - player - Buster Williams

Jabali - rocky prominence - Billy Hart

Tayari - readiness - Jimmy Heath

Msafari - traveller - Don Cherry

Fundi - craftsman - Billy Bonner

Kuumba - ? - Albert Heath

Kuumba's rare Trip LP Kawaida (cultural heritage), his other on Muse (Kwanza - "first") and Mtume's live double on Strata East "Alkebu-Lan" (land of the Blacks) were full of Kiswahili titles and all, the latter had Mtume reciting a prayer in this language.

Edited March 7, 2005 by mikeweil

[cannonball-addict]

Thanks, Mike. It's nice to see someone else digs the Mwandishi stuff. I love one of those album covers (Crossings, 1971) where the angels are snorting coke through their herald trumpets!

Edited March 7, 2005 by cannonball-addict

[mikeweil]

This is a very mystic (foldout) cover that needs the size of an LP - the reason I kept this when I got the CD.

Robert Springett did that - as well as the Sextant cover - the Tutsi dancers on th latter were taken from a photograph or a still from a movie, so I wonder whether he used a photo for the Crossings cover as well - it appears to me it might be some Koptic fishermen's mystery, like the bible (New Testament) transposed to Africa.

[Kari S]

That's good to know, mikeweil! By the way, Mike Fitzgerald, your website is an awesome source of information...

Regarding the early 70's, pre-Headhunters period in Herbie's life... As cannonball-addict said in the original post, there indeed was a group with Joe Henderson before HH formed the Mwandishi band. Bob Blumenthal writes in his liner notes to the RvG reissue of "The Prisoner" that the band comprised of Hancock, Joe Henderson, Garnett Brown, Johnny Coles, Buster Williams and Tootie Heath. Henderson also played some flute. The material they played was apparently a mixture of Herbie's earlier Blue Note stuff (Eye Of The Hurricane, Maiden Voyage) and songs from "Fat Albert Rotunda" and "The Prisoner". Even though there are bootlegs from the Mwandishi period, this earlier period seems to be completely missing.

(By the way, at darkfunk.com there's a 1971 Herbie gig available for download)

And back to topic, some of those Muslim names were pretty surprising, like McCoy Tyner = Sulaimon Saud. Did he ever record under that name?

Edited March 7, 2005 by Kari S

[Brad]

I might be off about this but the Jazz Messengers was a reference to a group that Art Blakey was in the late 40s called the Messengers, which itself, I believe, was a reference to the prophet Muhammmad.

[mikeweil]

Thanks, Mike. It's nice to see someone else digs the Mwandishi stuff. I love one of those album covers (Crossings, 1971) where the angels are snorting coke through their herald trumpets!

This interpretation sounds to me like you've never seen the LP size foldout cover - nobody snorting anything on there, but five Africans in light grey woolen or linnen robes, the front man holding a walking stick, a long one like those used by shepherds. The left part features a group of fish swimming towards them, a boy sitting on a rock above them watches the fisherboat "Dominique" in the middle of the picture only the nose of which can be seen on that CD cover.

The walking stick expands beyond his head, resting on his right shoulder ...

Seems to be no complete LP cover on the web, wish I had a scanner ....

[johnlitweiler]

Truck Parham, a not always reliable source, played with Jimmie Lunceford in the 1940s and said that the whole band was Muslim.