Author, composer and trumpeter Jacques Coursil held Ph.D.’s in linguistics and applied science and taught literature, linguistics, and the philosophy of language. A polymath.
Coursil was born in Paris, France in 1938, moved to Africa in 1958 spending three years in Mauritania and Senegal, moved back to France to teach, then to NYC in 1965 to pursue a career as a musician, drawn to the free jazz movement. He landed in lower Manhattan where he called drummer Sunny Murray and saxophonist Frank Wright neighbors, eventually recording with both musicians on the ESP-Disk label.
Coursil released two records on BYG as co-leader in 1969/1971 and did stints with the Sun Ra Orchestra and Bill Dixon’s University of the Streets Orchestra and it was through working with Dixon that he developed his own voice, a version of serialism. In 1975, he went back to France to teach, largely leaving music behind before returning to recording and performing in 2004, releasing Minimal Brass on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records.
“The music was still there… I never left the instrument. It was part of my well-being, my breathing. If I don’t have a trumpet I might just have a stroke. So I kept on playing. It’s like a subterranean river that suddenly reaches the surface.”
Trails of Tears was recorded in 2007–2009 and released in 2010 on Sunnyside Records (on CD) but its origin dates back to Coursil’s time with the Sioux Indians in South Dakota in the 1970s:
“I was there during the birth of the American Indian movement and I was deeply impressed by the seriousness of those people, who don’t talk much. But when they say something, it’s heavy. There are a lot of books about this [the Trail of Tears], but that is nothing compared to people telling me things bit by bit. The musician always translates into music what they see and hear and smell and experience, so instead of making a theory out of it, I made music.”
…
“The genocide of the [American] Indians is the history of the world… not just the history of the Indian or the black. The Middle Passage is not the story of black people; it’s the story of the world… It’s a common story, as much your story [or] my story.”
The lineup:
Jacques Coursil (trumpet)
Mark Whitecage (alto saxophone)
Perry Robinson (clarinet)
Jeff Baillard (keyboards and Fender Rhodes)
Bobby Few (piano)
Alex Bernard (double bass)
Alan Silva (double bass)
José Zébina (drums)
Sunny Murray (drums)
Listening through this record is a deeply moving experience for its sheer beauty, heavy heart, and enduring spirit. It also sounds lovely. [footnote 1]
1. this album appeared in the ongoing feature Great Album Great Sound for TM Patrons, where I highlight great albums that sound great
