By Farhan Haq and Kerstin Marx
NEW YORK, Sep 4 1999 (IPS)

African American militants are planning to march Saturday in the Manhatten’s famous Harlem area, just one year after a similar demonstration ended in a brief clash with police that sparked racial tensions.

Judge Denny Chin of the US Second District Court in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that New York officials had to allow black nationalist leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad and his followers to hold a “Million Youth March” in Harlem for four hours.

On the one hand, Chin’s ruling – which the city’s lawyers planned to appeal – gave victory to civil rights advocates who worried that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had refused to allow the march because he disagreed with Muhammad’s extremist views.

On the other, many black leaders as well as whites were equally concerned that Muhammad could use the march – as he did last year – as a platform to voice racist views against whites, particularly Jews.

Several officials, including Harlem’s Congressional representative, Charles Rangel, urged African Americans not to attend the weekend rally. One black official, City Councilman William Perkins, claimed he was assaulted and threatened by Muhammad’s followers for speaking out against the march.

Michael Hess, the city’s top attorney – criticised Chin’s ruling saying that “no event should be sanctioned that was really a hate-violence march.” But Roger Wareham, attorney for the marchers, countered that the rally’s organisers were ready to cooperate with the police to ensure a peaceful event, and reiterated the marchers’ rights to demonstrate.

That argument was shared by civil-rights experts who argued that, although Muhammad and his organisation, the New Black Panther Party, may express distasteful views, the first amendment to the US Constition guarantees their right to voice them.

Bill Batson, assistant director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, argued that, after the courts allowed last year’s march, “there really shouldn’t have been any controversy.”

“(Last year’s) ruling made clear that (the organisers’) first amendment right to hold the march and rally is constitutionally protected,” he said.

Nevertheless, city leaders like Giuliani and Rangel – who rarely agree on city affairs – have been wary of this year’s march, given that last year’s event ended in chaos and that Muhammad has stepped up his racial rhetoric.

Muhammad, who was expelled from the radical Nation of Islam organisation for his extremist views, has regularly attacked Jews, Catholics and homosexuals in his public speeches. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan dismissed him after a 1993 speech in which he referred to Jews as “bloodsuckers.”

In last year’s speech, cited by city officials as one of the reasons to deny a march permit this year, Muhammad announced, “Death to every oppressor, black, white or Chinese, or whoever won’t stand up to lead us in the new millennium, the right way we need to be taken care of. Death to them!”

However, Malik Zulu Shabazz, national spokesman for the “Million Youth March” as well as last year’s events, argued that Giuliani and the police had tried to spread false information about the event in an effort to portray it as violent.

After last year’s Million Youth March, “it would be clear how the police lied…” Shabazz said.

Police last year declared they would be unable to provide security for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the march but, in the end, only 6,000 people turned up – an ironic development for an event dubbed “the Million Youth March.”

Shabazz claimed that last year’s rally had been peaceful until authorities allegedly used excessive force to shut down the march promptly at 4:00 p.m., when it was scheduled to end.

When the cutoff time arrived, he said, officers in riot gear approached the stage while others on horsebacks and motorcycles occupied the area. In response, some of the attendees started a melee which left at least 30 people injured, including six police officers.

Six people were charged with attempted assaults and reckless endangerment but a grand jury refused to indict anyone for the violence.

According to Shabazz, the police had used “fascist tactics” against the marchers by putting up barricades around the area where the event took place, closing down subway lines and deploying an excessive number of officers.

Judge Chin appeared to agree, disputing Hess’s contention that last year’s even had been attended by a “relatively normal” police presence and yet violent clashes had resulted. “Certainly some of (the police presence) appears excessive – helicopters swooping in at 4 o’clock,” Chin said.

The judge’s ruling was almost a repeat of the court’s ruling last year when it allowed the march to proceed despite Giuliani’s refusal to grant a permit.

At that time, the courts said New York officials had been “breathtaking in their lack of standards” over what the appropriate conditions were to approve or deny a march petition.

Similarly, this year, regardless of his virulent views, Khalid Abdul Muhammad can now expect a four-hour platform to espouse his views in Harlem – even despite the city’s plan to appeal Chin’s ruling.

Excerpt:

African American militants are planning to march Saturday in the Manhatten’s famous Harlem area, just one year after a similar demonstration ended in a brief clash with police that sparked racial tensions.

Judge Denny Chin of the US Second District Court in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that New York officials had to allow black nationalist leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad and his followers to hold a “Million Youth March” in Harlem for four hours.

On the one hand, Chin’s ruling – which the city’s lawyers planned to appeal – gave victory to civil rights advocates who worried that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had refused to allow the march because he disagreed with Muhammad’s extremist views.

On the other, many black leaders as well as whites were equally concerned that Muhammad could use the march – as he did last year – as a platform to voice racist views against whites, particularly Jews.

Several officials, including Harlem’s Congressional representative, Charles Rangel, urged African Americans not to attend the weekend rally. One black official, City Councilman William Perkins, claimed he was assaulted and threatened by Muhammad’s followers for speaking out against the march.

Michael Hess, the city’s top attorney – criticised Chin’s ruling saying that “no event should be sanctioned that was really a hate-violence march.” But Roger Wareham, attorney for the marchers, countered that the rally’s organisers were ready to cooperate with the police to ensure a peaceful event, and reiterated the marchers’ rights to demonstrate.

That argument was shared by civil-rights experts who argued that, although Muhammad and his organisation, the New Black Panther Party, may express distasteful views, the first amendment to the US Constition guarantees their right to voice them.

Bill Batson, assistant director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, argued that, after the courts allowed last year’s march, “there really shouldn’t have been any controversy.”

“(Last year’s) ruling made clear that (the organisers’) first amendment right to hold the march and rally is constitutionally protected,” he said.

Nevertheless, city leaders like Giuliani and Rangel – who rarely agree on city affairs – have been wary of this year’s march, given that last year’s event ended in chaos and that Muhammad has stepped up his racial rhetoric.

Muhammad, who was expelled from the radical Nation of Islam organisation for his extremist views, has regularly attacked Jews, Catholics and homosexuals in his public speeches. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan dismissed him after a 1993 speech in which he referred to Jews as “bloodsuckers.”

In last year’s speech, cited by city officials as one of the reasons to deny a march permit this year, Muhammad announced, “Death to every oppressor, black, white or Chinese, or whoever won’t stand up to lead us in the new millennium, the right way we need to be taken care of. Death to them!”

However, Malik Zulu Shabazz, national spokesman for the “Million Youth March” as well as last year’s events, argued that Giuliani and the police had tried to spread false information about the event in an effort to portray it as violent.

After last year’s Million Youth March, “it would be clear how the police lied…” Shabazz said.

Police last year declared they would be unable to provide security for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the march but, in the end, only 6,000 people turned up – an ironic development for an event dubbed “the Million Youth March.”

Shabazz claimed that last year’s rally had been peaceful until authorities allegedly used excessive force to shut down the march promptly at 4:00 p.m., when it was scheduled to end.

When the cutoff time arrived, he said, officers in riot gear approached the stage while others on horsebacks and motorcycles occupied the area. In response, some of the attendees started a melee which left at least 30 people injured, including six police officers.

Six people were charged with attempted assaults and reckless endangerment but a grand jury refused to indict anyone for the violence.

According to Shabazz, the police had used “fascist tactics” against the marchers by putting up barricades around the area where the event took place, closing down subway lines and deploying an excessive number of officers.

Judge Chin appeared to agree, disputing Hess’s contention that last year’s even had been attended by a “relatively normal” police presence and yet violent clashes had resulted. “Certainly some of (the police presence) appears excessive – helicopters swooping in at 4 o’clock,” Chin said.

The judge’s ruling was almost a repeat of the court’s ruling last year when it allowed the march to proceed despite Giuliani’s refusal to grant a permit.

At that time, the courts said New York officials had been “breathtaking in their lack of standards” over what the appropriate conditions were to approve or deny a march petition.

Similarly, this year, regardless of his virulent views, Khalid Abdul Muhammad can now expect a four-hour platform to espouse his views in Harlem – even despite the city’s plan to appeal Chin’s ruling.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, the elegant jazz composer and pianist known as ‘the Duke’, produced so much of the best US music of the twentieth century that it is fitting that the century’s end includes a commemoration of his work.

US classical and jazz musicians alike have began a seres of performances and restrospectives of Ellington’s work to honour the 100th anniversary of his birth on Apr. 29, 1899. The trubutes are scheduled to continue through the end of the year.

By the time Duke Ellington died in 1974, he had written more than 1,500 compositions, ranging from three-minute pop ditties like ‘Take the A Train’, the theme song of his big band, to an entire, rarely-performed suite dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.

“Ellington is our Shakespeare, Goethe, and Cezanne,” says Rob Gibson, executive producer and director of Jazz at Lincoln Centre, which showcases jazz compositions at New York’s most prestigious musical venue.

Jazz at Lincoln Centre will celebrate ‘The Ellington Centennial’ with more than 400 concerts, lectures, films and educational programmes.

Recently, the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, conducted by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, joining forces with classical conductor Kurt Masur to present both Edvard Grieg’s ‘Peer Gynt’ suite and Ellington’s jazzy variations on the composition.

The contrast showed both how Ellington borrowed from symphonic forms and departed from them to make his own musical language.

To mark the 100 years since Ellingtons birth, the organisation brought together 500 high school jazz musicians from all over the nation last month for the fourth annual ‘Essential Ellington’ High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival.

Other events scheduled by Lincoln Centre include collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School, and the Film Society of Lincoln Centre.

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra also will perform concerts and lead educational programmes in more than 50 cities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In so doing, the orchestra will “illuminate why (Ellington’s) artistic development was one of the most spectacular in the history of music,” says Marsalis.

“We hope that audiences will understand exactly why Duke Ellington was one of the most gifted musicians who ever lived,” Marsalis argues.

Jazz experts have no doubts that Ellington was one of the foremost jazz composers, if not the major US composer of the century, for his vast range of works – from short pop songs like ‘Take the A Train’ and ‘Satin Doll’ to later symphonic works like ‘Black, Brown and Beige’ and ‘Harlem’.

Born in 1899 in Washington, D.C., Ellington composed between 1,500 and 2,000 works and at least five times as many recordings during his lifetime: music for the ballroom, the comedy stage, the nightclub, the theatre, the concert hall and the cathedral.

In late 1917, Ellington formed his first group, ‘The Duke’s Serenaders’. Afterward, he ran his own big band for almost 60 years, until his death in 1974.

“I regard my entire orchestra as one large instrument, and I try to play on that instrument to the fullest capabilities,” Ellington wrote in 1942. “My aim is and has always been to mold the music around the man.”

Ellington’s big band boasted many distinct individual voices, from the growling trumpets of Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams to the elegant saxophone of Johnny Hodges. Guest vocalists like jazz diva Ella Fitzgerald also lent their talents to the Ellington band over the years.

At the centre was Ellington, whose distinct compositional gestures coaxed a diverse array of sounds from his band, from stomping, horn-based romps to quiet woodwinds and the subtle accompaniment of Ellington’s own piano playing.

Few jazz bandleaders offered as rich a range of tones as that of the dapper, sophisticated composer known as ‘the Duke’.

Many of Ellington’s best-loved works arose from the close collaboration between the bandleaders and the members of his orchestra, many of whom came to live near each other – in New York’s Harlem neighbourhood – for most of their lives.

‘Take the A Train’, adopted as Ellington’s signature song from 1941 until the end of his life, was a case in point. The song was actually written by young arranger Billy Strayhorn as he rode the ‘A’ train subway to Harlem – following Duke’s directions – on his way to try to secure a job with the group. Ellington liked the song, and hired Strayhorn on the spot.

Other songs reflected Ellington’s desire to spotlight individual group members, such as ‘Concerto for Cootie’, a rousing number featuring the growling style of Cootie Williams.

Although Ellington received his greatest fame for his big-band tunes of the 1930s and 1940s, he continued to write innovative longer pieces – such as ‘Such Sweet Thunder’, a near-symphony based on Shakespeare’s ouevre – and to work with the top jazz talents of later eras, including singer Frank Sinatra and saxophonist John Coltrane.

Marsalis likes to point to Ellington’s big band as a dramatic example of a successful musical democracy, incorporating individual talents in a group effort. That jazz democracy, now in its second century, is still going strong.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, the elegant jazz composer and pianist known as ‘the Duke’, produced so much of the best US music of the twentieth century that it is fitting that the century’s end includes a commemoration of his work.

US classical and jazz musicians alike have began a seres of performances and restrospectives of Ellington’s work to honour the 100th anniversary of his birth on Apr. 29, 1899. The trubutes are scheduled to continue through the end of the year.

By the time Duke Ellington died in 1974, he had written more than 1,500 compositions, ranging from three-minute pop ditties like ‘Take the A Train’, the theme song of his big band, to an entire, rarely-performed suite dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.

“Ellington is our Shakespeare, Goethe, and Cezanne,” says Rob Gibson, executive producer and director of Jazz at Lincoln Centre, which showcases jazz compositions at New York’s most prestigious musical venue.

Jazz at Lincoln Centre will celebrate ‘The Ellington Centennial’ with more than 400 concerts, lectures, films and educational programmes.

Recently, the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, conducted by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, joining forces with classical conductor Kurt Masur to present both Edvard Grieg’s ‘Peer Gynt’ suite and Ellington’s jazzy variations on the composition.

The contrast showed both how Ellington borrowed from symphonic forms and departed from them to make his own musical language.

To mark the 100 years since Ellingtons birth, the organisation brought together 500 high school jazz musicians from all over the nation last month for the fourth annual ‘Essential Ellington’ High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival.

Other events scheduled by Lincoln Centre include collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School, and the Film Society of Lincoln Centre.

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra also will perform concerts and lead educational programmes in more than 50 cities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In so doing, the orchestra will “illuminate why (Ellington’s) artistic development was one of the most spectacular in the history of music,” says Marsalis.

“We hope that audiences will understand exactly why Duke Ellington was one of the most gifted musicians who ever lived,” Marsalis argues.

Jazz experts have no doubts that Ellington was one of the foremost jazz composers, if not the major US composer of the century, for his vast range of works – from short pop songs like ‘Take the A Train’ and ‘Satin Doll’ to later symphonic works like ‘Black, Brown and Beige’ and ‘Harlem’.

Born in 1899 in Washington, D.C., Ellington composed between 1,500 and 2,000 works and at least five times as many recordings during his lifetime: music for the ballroom, the comedy stage, the nightclub, the theatre, the concert hall and the cathedral.

In late 1917, Ellington formed his first group, ‘The Duke’s Serenaders’. Afterward, he ran his own big band for almost 60 years, until his death in 1974.

“I regard my entire orchestra as one large instrument, and I try to play on that instrument to the fullest capabilities,” Ellington wrote in 1942. “My aim is and has always been to mold the music around the man.”

Ellington’s big band boasted many distinct individual voices, from the growling trumpets of Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams to the elegant saxophone of Johnny Hodges. Guest vocalists like jazz diva Ella Fitzgerald also lent their talents to the Ellington band over the years.

At the centre was Ellington, whose distinct compositional gestures coaxed a diverse array of sounds from his band, from stomping, horn-based romps to quiet woodwinds and the subtle accompaniment of Ellington’s own piano playing.

Few jazz bandleaders offered as rich a range of tones as that of the dapper, sophisticated composer known as ‘the Duke’.

Many of Ellington’s best-loved works arose from the close collaboration between the bandleaders and the members of his orchestra, many of whom came to live near each other – in New York’s Harlem neighbourhood – for most of their lives.

‘Take the A Train’, adopted as Ellington’s signature song from 1941 until the end of his life, was a case in point. The song was actually written by young arranger Billy Strayhorn as he rode the ‘A’ train subway to Harlem – following Duke’s directions – on his way to try to secure a job with the group. Ellington liked the song, and hired Strayhorn on the spot.

Other songs reflected Ellington’s desire to spotlight individual group members, such as ‘Concerto for Cootie’, a rousing number featuring the growling style of Cootie Williams.

Although Ellington received his greatest fame for his big-band tunes of the 1930s and 1940s, he continued to write innovative longer pieces – such as ‘Such Sweet Thunder’, a near-symphony based on Shakespeare’s ouevre – and to work with the top jazz talents of later eras, including singer Frank Sinatra and saxophonist John Coltrane.

Marsalis likes to point to Ellington’s big band as a dramatic example of a successful musical democracy, incorporating individual talents in a group effort. That jazz democracy, now in its second century, is still going strong.