what i did on 9-11

Maybe then realizing it or not realizing how it would also commemorate that day, I went out this September 11th to a benefit show for the Democracy Now program. Along with Suheir Hammad’s impassioned poetry and Dar Williams’ touching songs and a few sage words of perspective from victims of terrorism in Africa, there was Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra (in a taped interview before the show, the legendary jazz bassist spoke of how grateful he was to work with such gifted musicians). While he usually favors re-arranging folk songs and revolutionary music, one selection he favored us with was “Amazing Grace.” While it seems like an obvious selection, its tone was both somber and defiant, even joyful at times when Haden took a bass solo or when Curtis Fowlkes (also of the Jazz Passengers) took a trombone solo.