On Friday, the American University Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Professor Will Smith, paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through an annual concert called "Reflections of the Movement." The concert was part of a weeklong commemoration of the civil rights activist that began on Jan. 15, King's birthday.
This year's show theme was "Be Part of the Dream," which urged people not only to remember King's teachings but to incorporate them into their lives and continue his work against social injustice.
Smith said he believed the yearly commemoration of King's life is important because the event "keeps [him] on people's minds" and gives them an "appointed time to reflect" on all that he accomplished. Smith also said that through these events, people "get to see the relevance ... of King's philosophies and the way he approached life ... in [their] present lives."
The concert included songs such as "Equinox" and "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane, "Down by the Riverside" by Oliver Nelson and the third movement of the suite "Three Black Kings" and "All the Things You Are" by Duke Ellington.
The title of the piece "Giant Steps" suggested King's many marches, Smith said. Although that was not Coltrane's original intent, it worked as a fitting tribute to the man who made such great strides for the civil rights movement and racial equality.
The third black king of Ellington's suite, Smith said, was Martin Luther King Jr. The other two are the King of the Magi and Solomon.
"Ellington was one of America's greatest composers," Smith said. "It's pretty fitting that he would write a piece about MLK."
"Down by the Riverside" was chosen, Smith said, because it was a spiritual, a genre very important to King, who was a minister. Its lyrics, "Gonna lay down my sword and shield/Down by the riverside," he said, are also related to King, as he eventually "became an outspoken critic ... against the Vietnam War."
Coltrane and Ellington, like King, were "very spiritually centered," Smith said.
"Ellington had sacred concerts and Coltrane did a lot of spiritual music," he said.
The show was well performed, and it was a moving and poignant tribute to the civil rights leader. At one point in the concert, Smith played an excerpt of one of King's sermons titled "Drum Major Instinct." The speech, he said, "was [King] reflecting on his life and that's what [the concert did]."
In his speech, King expressed that when he died, he wanted people to look back and say he "tried to love and serve humanity." Through events such as the Jazz Ensemble's commemorative concert, the memory of King's dedication to the service of humanity will certainly be remembered.
