Was up early. First morning with the early routine. And then, all day long, in the afternoon, I was feeling good about not having to go to the gym, about already having gotten the day’s exercise done, before the dawn Over at the gym I wound up with “Doriela Du Fontaine” on the random mix and enjoyed Lightening Rod primarily, in a way that was different from when one focuses on Jimi’s remarkable, infinitely varied performance. When he says he was “standing in the square,” I joined him in Washington Square Park and tried to consider from which street the “super 98’ Olds” arrived.
Back home I confirmed the name and tried to place him within the Last Poets: Which face? Which voice? Which name? Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, a.k.a. Alafia Pudim, a.k.a. Lightning Rod sings “Wake Up Niggers Or We’re All Through” on that early release that I know best. He’s the voice of “Sport” in the “Hustler’s Convention”, an album from 1973. I spent some time on line considering that journey that must have been involved for the hand that penned Doriela Du Fontaine in 1969, to the revolutionary clarity of 1970, to the world wise funk of 1973 on “Huslter’s Convention.”
It takes some time, searching on line to break down all the voices I’ve otherwise known for so long but never properly attributed to faces, names and there are a lot of songs attributed incorrectly. It is Umar Bin Hassan, then who sings the magisterial “Niggers are Scare of Revolution” and Abiodun Oyewole, is the voice behind “When the Revolution Comes.” And now it’s clear that Jalal Mansur Nuriddin is the voice on “Jones Coming Down.” Listening this time I’m struck by how distinct and complementary each voice is. What a remarkably fertile and competitive environment that must have been, to produce three such voices.
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin passed this year. (Oyewole and Bin Hassan are still with us.) I did not take the time when he did to do the online sleuthing to tie him from Lightening Rod to the his particular tracks on the first Last Poets album, but I’m glad I did today. And it has me thinking of the ferocity of the 1970 revolutionary climate in both New York and Beijing, and what a sad come down either place was left with immediately thereafter.
Monday 01/07/19
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