Blackanomics by Marc Cary

If Washington, D.C. could be only one musical instrument, it would be drums. And drums play a vital role in the city’s indigenous music, best known as go-go. Often powered by an arsenal of trap drums, congas, roto-toms, and timbales, numerous go-go ensembles such as Trouble Funk, EU, Rare Essence, Mass Extinction, Little Benny and the Masters, and course Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers created propulsive Caribbean/Afro-Latin-tinged music that singed with insistent polyrhythmic friction, energetic call-and-response banter, entrancing grooves, and indefatigable energy. That fire continues to heat up D.C. streets and neighborhoods.

It’s go-go music’s enduring legacy that acclaimed pianist, keyboardist, composer, and bandleader Marc Cary proudly toasts on Blackanomics. Since its emergence in the mid’60s, the genre has withstood various other popular black-American music trends, the crack-cocaine epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s, and more recently, the vicious gentrification in Washington, D.C.

As a jazz artist, Cary is both a torchbearer and a fire starter. From playing with titans such as Art Taylor, Clifford Jordan, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Dizzy Gillespie, he’s absorbed expansive jazz acumen. Beginning in the mid-’90s, when he started his solo career, he also collaborated with a galaxy of musical talent that includes jazz contemporaries such as Roy Hargrove and Stefon Harris; deep house heavyweights such as Ron Trent, Joe Clausell, and Little Louie Vega; and hip-hop royalty such as rapper Q-Tip. Cary deftly reconciles those idioms and genres into a singular, identifiable voice. He attributes part of his original voice to his involvement with go-go music while growing in Chocolate City.

“Go-go is in my sound; it’s the music that got me into jazz,” Cary explains before mentioning that he formed his first go-go band, High Integrity, when he was 14-years-old. He recalls the band’s humble beginning as the members started out playing on pan cans and buckets instead of conventional percussion. “Then we got donations from different churches,” he explains. “As we became more proficient on our buckets and cans, we modulated to timbales and roto-toms, congas, and drums, keyboards, and horns. It just started building into a real group.”

High Integrity won many battle-of-the-bands throughout Washington, D.C. After mid-school, Cary enrolled at the District’s famed Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which led to him performing in the Dizzy Gillespie Youth Orchestra. After that, he studied with veteran pianist and composer Walter Davis and trombonist Calvin Jones while attending the University of the District of Columbia. After two years in college, he moved to New York in 1988.

Within Cary’s fascinating discography, go-go’s polyrhythmic pulse is most noticeable on his three albums with his Indigenous People ensemble – Unite, Captured Live in Brazil, and N.G.G.R. Please. On Blackanomics, however, Cary recruits for the first time some of the District’s most respected go-go musicians to deliver a 21st-century masterpiece. The rhythm section includes percussionist Go-Go Mickey Freeman, and drummers Domo Youngman Lee, Kenny Kwick, Duane “Poo” Payne, and Russell Carter – all established go-go musicians. Blackanomics features a phalanx of go-go vocalists too – MC Mello, Donnell Floyd, MC Naba Napalm, NYC open mic legend Ron Grant, and DC’s Alison Crockettand Dennis Jeter.

“I wanted some of the original go-go players on this album,” Cary says. “I look at all the other Indigenous People albums as practice sessions for this one. I’ve always wanted these musicians on my records. But I didn’t have any of these musicians in my groups. I also wanted to present some original compositions. You don’t get too many original compositions in go-go music. Go-go bands do a lot of covers.”

The other musicians on the album are organist Matthew Whittaker; bassists Nate Jones, Tarus Mateen, and Rahsaan Carter; guitarists Flavio Silva, Teddy Crockett, and Ahmad Cary; singer Alison Crockett; and the Chops horn section. In addition to keyboards, Cary joins the percussion section by playing cowbell and timbales.

Blackanomics is not just an homage to Cary’s childhood soundtrack, it’s a love letter to the culture’s community-based economy that helped nurture many young talented musicians, producers, and sound engineers. “Go-go performances kept the dollar circulating within communities for well over two weeks after certain concerts. That empowered a lot of musicians to have to not leave D.C. in search of work,” Cary says.

Cary credits former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry – who served four terms (1979-1991 and 1995-1999) – for facilitating the infrastructure for go-go music and culture to flourish, particularly through Barry’s Summer Youth Employment program, his Modern Music program, and his creation of various recreational centers throughout the city. “He enabled us to travel around the city on a city-funded stage that was pulled by a truck,” Cary recalls. “We would pull up in different neighborhoods and perform. That was just part of the summer Modern Music program. Throughout the year, pretty much every five or six nights a week, you could find many go-go performances in all four quadrants in D.C.”

The album opens with a soulful tribute to D.C.’s late mayor on “Owed to Mayor Barry,” on which Cary delivers a pithy piano improvisation over a sauntering mid-tempo groove that evokes the District’s hazy, late-summer days in which go-go music enlivened multiple neighborhoods. From there, Blackanomics’ underlining themes of black economic and political power carry on such mesmerizing originals as the Brazilian-tinged “Black House” and the Mizell Brothers-shaded “Black Dollar.”’

Cary gives shout outs to a few of D.C. notable neighborhoods. For the city’s iconic U Street entertainment district – once referred as Black Broadway because it contained so many venues such as the Howard Theatre, the Lincoln Theatre, and Bohemian Caverns, where some of the nation’s top black Americans artists performed – he offers the haunting “U Street Lights.” There’s also the swaggering “The Emery Park Socket” and the snazzy horn-filled “Barry Farms.”

Cary explains that Emery Park – located in the District’s northwest quadrant near Georgia Avenue – was the epicenter for free live, outdoor performances during his teen years. “D.C. celebrated all kinds of music, but go-go was always on the set,” he recalls. “[The concert presenters] brought a lot of different bands to travel to D.C. The concert presenters paired those bands with go-go bands. There were a lot of go-go bands in that area of the city too – the Peacemakers, the Busey Brothers, and Backyard. Those outside events were beautiful because you could move around. The sound system was cranking. And you could hear that music from miles away, which brought people to the set. I used to run four miles to get up there.”

As for Barry Farms – located in the District’s southeast quadrant across the Anacostia River – Cary goes back to Mayor Barry, who revitalized the once impoverished community by building a recreational center, affordable housing, and community-based job opportunities. It was there at Barry Farm that the sensational go-go combo, Junk Yard Band, formed in the early-’80s. “Marion Barry provided a big touch-up for the community,” Cary says. “After the 1968 riots in the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, many things needed to be rebuilt. Communities needed to grow. And Marion Barry represented the communities. Barry Farms was very significant in that way.”

Cary even toasts Charm City – sometimes considered D.C.’s twin city – with the reggae-tinged “Baltimore,” which features Alison Crockett singing lead. Cary recorded the song right after the 2015 tragic death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the Baltimore Police Department, which ignited major protests throughout that city. “I cried when I saw what happened to Freddie Gray,” Cary says. “Watching how he died just broke my heart. So, I really wanted to do something that gave recognition to the people of Baltimore and their struggles.”

Blackanomics contains more vocal-centric gems – the simmering “Sober Tones,” featuring MC Naba and MC Mello, and the sensual ballad “Feel,” showcasing Ron Grant’s impassioned baritone lead vocals. And of course, no go-go album would be complete with some carefree party jams. And Cary delivers those too with the infectious “It’s Right Here” and the glimmering “Styles.”

“I want people to understand the symbiotic relationship between jazz and go-go music,” Cary says. “Both allow freedom to express yourself. Both involve antiphonic communication and crowd participation. And you can’t get away with copying somebody else’s style in neither jazz nor go-go music. In both musics, it takes time to develop your own voice. And because copying someone’s style is a big “no-no” in go-go music, we’ve created so many unique versions of go-go within a community that’s only 12 square miles.”
— John Murph

John Murph is a Washington, D.C.-based music journalist and DJ. He’s written regularly for TIDAL, JazzTimes, Down Beat, JazzWise, NPR Music, The Root, and Washington City Paper.

Electro-Acoustic keyboard wizard Marc Cary (#1 Rising Keyboardist in DownBeat’s 2014 Critics Poll).

MarcCary.com
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