Sunday, August 12, 2018

John Malveaux: Ed Bland's music for Maya Angelou CD will air Sun. Sept. 2 at "End of Summer Celebration" in L.A.

Ed Bland

Maya Angelou

John Malveaux of 
writes:

Composer Ed Bland was born on the South Side of Chicago 1926-2013 . His father was a postal worker but also a self-taught literary critic with illustrious friends such as Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. Ed Bland studied at both the University of Chicago and the American Conservatory of Music on the G.I. Bill.
Among his compositions is a concerto for electric violin and chamber orchestra. He composed scores for the TV play A Raisin in the Sun (1989) and the film A Soldier's Story (1984). Another notable work is Sketches Set Seven for piano.
He also wrote, directed, and produced the 1959 film Cry of Jazz. In the 1990s, this documentary was rediscovered by scholars and celebrated as an early example of independent black filmmaking. It was soon restored and reissued on DVD in 1996, and in 2010 the Library of Congress added it to its National Film Registry collection as “a historic and fascinating film that comments on racism and the appropriation of jazz by those who fail to understand its artistic and cultural origins.
Ed Bland composed jazz interlude music for the original recording of Black Pearls: The Poetry Of Maya Angelou before Maya Angelou great rise to popularity. The FIRST public airing of the recording is scheduled Sunday Sept 2, 2018 during the free END of SUMMER Music & Cultural Celebration, Exposition Park-Christmas Tree Lane, Los Angeles presented by 59th district state assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyers See pic 1-Maya Angelou and pic 2-Ed Bland

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