- Archie Shepp - sax
- Dave Burrell - piano
- Hakim Jami – bass
- Beaver Harris – drums
- Ted Daniel – trumpet
- Juma Sultan – congas
- Ali K. Abuwi – percussion
This performance, recorded as part of the first New York Musicians Festival, was done in the same year as Archie Shepp’s landmark Attica Blues and The Cry of My People recordings. “During the 70’s,” says Juma, “we were always politically conscious. We were always socially conscious, and I think that the music and also the musicians, could not help be affected by all the (social and political turmoil).”
“Most of us weren’t prejudiced. But we were conscious…. (w)e were not prejudiced, because we played all over the world and we saw how well you could be treated in other countries, different from here. Because you go to Europe and you’re treated as hierarchy. You hung out with the counts and the dukes and all the various people because they loved the music.
Here, you’d come here and you’ve gotta return to the ghetto and down south be spit on, stepped on, get in the back of the bus, and all of it still in America.”