THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For Black History Month 2022, Jamaaladeen Tacuma paid tribute to Paul Robeson with a reimagining of his compositions from his 1983 album Renaissance Man in the two-part series Renaissance Man Reloaded.
This album was recorded at WRTI studios in February 2022 during Part 2 of the series and features the Black, female-led, Philadelphia-based ensemble Eboni Strings, along with Tacuma on bass guitar and electronics, percussionist/conductor Rob Zollman, drummer Nazir Ebo and multi-instrumentalist Marshal Allen of Sun Ra‘s Arkestra.
To better understand this work, you should first know about the inception of the original 1983 album that was released on Gramavision Records. The 1980s were a formative period for Jamaaladeen; he had just released his first solo project Showstopper after working with Ornette Coleman since 1975. While Jamaaladeen was touring with Ornette, his world had opened up; he was spending time in Europe for the first time as a young black man, and his experiences were not unlike other black musicians that found a new freedom and outlook outside of the U.S.A.
One day he was hanging out watching TV in N.Y.C. with his bandmate Denardo Coleman, and a PBS special came on about Paul Robeson, the American bass baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, football player, lawyer and activist. Jamaaladeen was immediately furious that a Black historical figure so important to the entire world had been silenced during the McCarthy era, which had lasting affects to this day. Adding insult to injury was the fact that Robeson had been living in Philadelphia, Jamaaladeen’s home town; he might have walked right by his home and had no idea about the great man that lived inside.
He began to research and learn more about him, and then Jamaaladeen decided to make his second recording project on Gramavision Records a tribute to Robeson in order to shine a light on an underappreciated African-American historical figure who changed the world.”
