Jazz from death row is a fact that will materialize today and, at the same time, it is an initiative that fights against the death penalty and tries to prevent the execution of Keith LaMar, who has been in solitary confinement for 28 years awaiting his execution in an Ohio jail. And one of the ways is in the form of a jazz concert with the participation of the convicted person.
The question reaches these latitudes because behind the concert is the Catalan pianist Albert Marquès, who has lived in New York for a decade. He learned of the Keith LaMar case at the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement, got involved, met him personally and decided to record an album with him. Conceived, produced and recorded between 2020 and 2022 in Girona and Brooklyn, the album Fredoom first began in fact in 2020 with a series of concerts with dozens of musicians on the streets of New York, interpreting the jazz standards that LaMar heard in prison and that had helped him survive all those years. The inmate would intervene live on the phone between the songs.
LaMar himself acknowledges from an Ohio prison, in a videoconference with the Barcelona press last week, that “music is very important to me because without it I would not have been able to maintain humanity and mental health. And it is also very powerful because it unifies, it allows us to overcome language and cultural barriers to fight together for common causes, such as freedom of expression and the right to life”.
And today it will be possible to relive that concert-experience in Barcelona, specifically in Paral·lel 62 (7:00 p.m.) and within the brand new Iridia Fest. An evening entitled Freedom First: jazz from death row, and which, as Marquès explained in the presentation of the event last week, will feature LaMar, who will recite his poems in real time from an Ohio jail and which will give musical life –in collaboration with the Taller de Músics– Albert Marquès on piano, Erin Corineen (voice and flute), Manel Fortià (double bass) and Marc Ayza (drums). As LaMar himself said in the aforementioned presentation, and from a distance, “this concert will be a great opportunity to amplify my voice and raise awareness, because what happens to me could happen to anyone. In the United States, it is a reality that blacks have been killed in the streets for decades and, if we do not do something, these unfair situations will continue to be repeated.
In fact, these concerts that have already been held in the United States and also in Catalonia and Europe are part of the Justice for Keith LaMar campaign, which fights against the death penalty and tries to prevent LaMar's execution, which is scheduled for 16 November of this 2023. The convicted man, accused of killing five inmates during a prison riot, has always defended his innocence and is now hopeful because now "it has been known that the prosecutor who accused me used the same evidence in other cases and the lawyers are working to get a retrial." In addition to the music, those attending the Barcelona concert today will be able to purchase the book by Lamar Condenado, recently translated into Spanish.
This Freedom First: jazz from death row is part of the new Iridia Fest, which will be offered today and tomorrow in the aforementioned Paral·el room. A solidarity call organized by Iridia with the collaboration of Say it Loud and which, according to Valentina Lazo, its head of culture, "commits to the development of culture as a defense of human rights".
In addition to the unloading of conscientious jazz, the festival will offer trap, kuduro and reggaeton by Pongo, Hip Horns Brass Collective, Las Ninyas del Corro, Rodrigo Laviña, Ana Tijoux, Escandaloso Xpósito and La Bellaquera Sessions. As Anna Cerdà, director of Paral·lel 62, summarized, “it will be two days of awareness and celebration. Being the physical space for this project is part of our mission.”
