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Port
Chicago tragedy still strikes angry chords
Marcus
Shelby tunes into history of the deadly East Bay blast
By
Andrew Gilbert
TIMES CORRESPONDENT
Posted on Sun, Feb. 19, 2006
While
bassist/composer Marcus Shelby is releasing his new album "Port
Chicago" in the midst of Black History Month, he doesn't
want anyone to think the topic of his extended jazz suite is a
subject confined to the musty archives.
For
Shelby, the most deadly stateside naval disaster in U.S. history
and the mutiny it sparked in the summer of 1944 are part of America's
ongoing struggle to come to terms with a legacy of discrimination
and injustice.
"This
is history that's still very much still alive," said Shelby,
who brings his 15-piece jazz orchestra into Yoshi's on Tuesday
for a two-night stand. "The men who were convicted of mutiny
have never been exonerated or pardoned. It's an ongoing political
movement, and I'm using the music as a way to highlight this story."
While
the Port Chicago mutiny has gained some attention in recent years,
with an NBC television movie and a book by Robert Allen detailing
the World War II tragedy, the story remains somewhat shrouded.
Perhaps it's because events stem from the paradox that the Good
War was fought by a segregated U.S. military, in which black soldiers
were often consigned to dangerous, low-status positions.
Located
just north of Concord on Suisun Bay, the Port Chicago Naval Munitions
base was rocked by a devastating explosion on July 17, 1944, that
destroyed two transport ships. The blast killed more than 300
people and injured hundreds more; the vast majority of the casualties
were black. The ships were being loaded with munitions for the
war in the Pacific, and the black seamen were untrained for the
hazardous task.
Many
of the seamen had volunteered for the Navy expecting to fight
on the front lines. After undergoing segregated boot camp, many
applied for training schools and graduated as full Navy seamen.
Still, the dangerous munitions-loading duties were assigned exclusively
to Port Chicago's African-American sailors.
When
they were ordered to go back to work after the explosion without
safety training or revised protocols, 258 black seamen staged
a work stoppage to protest their segregated and life-threatening
working conditions. A highly publicized court martial led to the
convictions of 50 young black sailors in the largest mutiny trial
in U.S. naval history. But public pressure and future U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's defense of the sailors led to
a major civil rights victory, as the Navy began the process of
desegregation. The seamen, however were never exonerated. There's
an ongoing effort by U.S. Reps. George Miller, D-Martinez, and
Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, to pass legislation clearing their records.
"As
far as scope and breadth and depth of the suite, it's the most
ambitious thing I've worked on," Shelby said. "For the
composition itself, I had the opportunity of employing various
approaches, from straight ballad tempos and swing in the tradition
of Ellington and Basie to Afro-Latin rhythms and neoclassical
approaches. I wanted to organize the music in a way that is faithful
to the story, with integrity for the men who lost their lives
and the men who faced convictions of mutiny, who have lived the
rest of their lives with this shame and guilt on their records."
Commissioned
by the Equal Justice Society in 2002, "Port Chicago"
premiered at Oakland's African American Museum and Library on
July 31, 2004, 60 years after the work stoppage. Based on a libretto
written by Val Hendrickson, which was inspired by Robert Allen's
book "The Port Chicago Mutiny," the work was originally
conceived as a collaboration with the Oakland Ballet. Before a
choreographer could be found, however, the beleaguered company
announced it was folding.
"Port
Chicago" is Shelby's sixth release on Noir Records, and it
adds to his impressive resume, which includes film scores for
features (John Singleton's "Higher Learning" and Desmond
Nakano's "White Man's Burden") and documentaries ("Ralph
Ellison: An American Hero"), and numerous ballet scores.
His primary vehicle is the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, which
he created in 1999 and has kept stocked with some of the region's
finest improvisers, such as trumpeters Mike Olmos and Darren Johnston,
alto saxophonist Gabe Eaton and clarinetist Rob Barics.
In
addition to playing excerpts from "Port Chicago" Tuesday
and Wednesday, the orchestra will also explore works associated
with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. The band has developed a
compelling book of original music that Shelby continues to expand,
driven by his passion for history.
While
teaching orchestration and composition at Stanford University
this semester, he's taking advantage of the school's resources
to develop an extended piece exploring the life of Underground
Railroad leader Harriet Tubman.
"A
large part of my interest is in history, and in particular African-American
history," Shelby said. "There are these great stories
out there, some we think we know about, like Harriet Tubman, and
some we don't, like Port Chicago."
The
full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/13911477.htm
(c) 2006 ContraCostaTimes.com and wire service sources. All
Rights Reserved.
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