Educating the crowd in both
history and poetry through words of his personal experience, everyone
left a little bit more conscious of life that night.
On a Londonesque day in
Boulder, Linton Kwesi Johnson, visited from England to the stage at The
Fox Theater and delivered his message to a packed house. With the
backing of old time friend Dennis Bovell and his dub band, the workings
of two pieces of poetic art came together to give a performance that
anyone in the house won't soon forget.
It should be noted that this
was a performance, not a show. Rather than playing to the crowd,
LKJ put on his performance and brought the crowd to where he wanted
them, whether or not they realized they were at that place or not.
While educating the audience
to watch for key ingredients within his songs/poems, LKJ, as if the
meticulous college professor, commanded with the power of the intellect
for the audience to listen closely to what he had to say.
Riveted upon every word, the
crowd soaked it all in, understanding and accepting that school was in
session. Such an education in some of life's lessons are not
normally applied with such beauty and style.
With the clear message that
his generation rightfully was not going to sit idly by and accept the
persecution and oppression his parents generation had come to accept,
LKJ delivered a 2 hour summary of the cause that is his verbal assault
upon the rails of injustice and progression towards equality for all.
One
may have read history, or one may feel they understand certain concepts,
but when LKJ spoke, one could actually see his pain and frustration,
feel his quiet joy at victories, understand what he had seen in such
detail one almost saw it themselves.
Starting with "Dread
Beat an' Blood", off the album under the same name, LKJ proceeded
to give us the history Post WWII England through the perception of a man
who had seen oppression and racism first hand. In addition to the
rare gem of his perception and thoughts, it was noticeable to see how,
through the chronological delivery of his music, his views had changed
from early on in his works to the latter of his works; where
reactionary anger and rage turned to reason within the same perception
and outlook upon the events of his life and society as a whole.
A great moment of truth and
revelation came in his introduction to the song "More Time",
which is a cry for a shorter working week so that humans can experience
more out of life. Speaking on the essence of humanity, LKJ
delivered an effective and rousing explanation as to how the human
spirit, in conjunction with the advances in technology and the increased
result productivity, should also grow and become more productive.
The solution is to provide more time to grow, and require less time to
work.
One bit of history that comes
to mind came before his elegy "Reggae Fi Rodney" (elegy : a
song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is
dead, Websters Dictionary), which can be found off his album
Indapendent Intravension (The Island Anthology). LKJ proceeded to
educate the crowd who was Dr. Walter Rodney and what he stood for,
whereas he was a controversial writer who spoke out against the
establishment. One of the more notable books he had piblished was
"How Europe Underdeveloped Africa". Also duly noted were
the questionable cirumstances surrounding his death, as he was killed
with a car bomb. All this was explained before going into his
poetic description as to his perception of what the spirit and history
of Dr. Rodney meant. On queue after the education LKJ provided, The
Dennis Bovell Dub Band jumped in with a rhythm which was perfectly in
tune with the mood which Linton wanted to express through this piece of
work.
The
Dennis Bovell Dub Band, his backing band for the past 25 years, were so
perfect behind him, that it was as if it was a movie soundtrack.
So penetrating, so perfect for the mood of every scene, yet it was so
perfect it would not be surprising if one might have missed the purity
of the sound.
The bass groove provided by
Dennis Bovell was perfectly complimentary to LKJ's delivery.
When the mood called for
celebration, such as in "Forces of Victory", the band provided
the perfect backdrop for the musical ear as LKJ preached and spoke to us
about the eventual success to stage a carnival in Notting Hill during
the 1950's after repeated attempts resulted in failure.
When the mood
called for the contradiction of serious playfulness, such as the
necessary ingredients to accompany "More Time", the band
gave the perfect feeling to the soul to best soak in LKJ's words.
In every
instance, the soul was satisfied through the music as the intellect was
satisfied, and the mind opened to wonderment, through the provocative
words delivered by LKJ. Instrumental Dub sessions provided time to
enjoy the extended feeling and experience the tightness of the band.
Normally one is
pushed away when an artist speaks of where to find their albums, their
product, over and over. However, in this case, one was thankful
for the public service announcement as to where we could all broaden our
mind to that which is attainable to all. Visit www.lkjrecords.com.
Linton
Kwesi Johnson, AKA "LKJ", provided such a powerful performance
to the crowd at The Fox Theater this past Tuesday that it will not soon
be forgotten. A performance so deep on several levels of the
conscious and the subconscious, and so clear in penetrating our musical
heart, our poetic heart, our intellect and our overall enjoyment, that
the crowd which left The Fox this night left in awe of what they had
just been witness.