Hampton Hawes (1928-1977): Raise Up Off Me Alley

 

In honor of Hampton Hawes (1928–1977), whose birthday falls on November 13, we'd like to draw attention to a unique tribute you can find at the SFJAZZ Center.

The loading area and passageway on the west side of the building is named “Raise Up Off Me Alley” in tribute to the West Coast jazz piano great and his incendiary autobiography Raise Up Off Me. The memoir chronicles Hawes’ meteoric career that included the 1956 DownBeat award for New Star of the Year and work with Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Dexter Gordon, as well as Hawes’ struggle with heroin, his five-year imprisonment on drug charges, and his ultimate redemption with an Executive Pardon by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. He lived in the Bay Area in the 1970s, and died of a brain hemorrhage at age 48.

"When I Die I Will Go To Jazz" — Ishmael Reed Art Installation

"When I Die I Will Go To Jazz" at Raise Up Off Me Alley

Last week, SFJAZZ Poet Laureate Ishmael Reed's poem "When I Die I Will Go To Jazz" was installed on the north gate of Raise Up Off Me Alley (named to honor jazz legend Hampton Hawes) at the SFJAZZ Center. Come by the Center and have a read!

Ishmael Reed was a clear choice to fill the new SFJAZZ Poet Laureate chair. An acclaimed poet, playwright and novelist known for his polemical works about American political culture and social oppression, as well as the jazz-like rhythms accented through his language, Reed resides in Oakland after retiring from a UC Berkeley professorship.

Ishmael Reed on being the SFJAZZ Poet Laureate:

"Jazz has given so much to me; maybe now I can give something back."

The SFJAZZ Poet Laureate chair was created to celebrate the connection between poetry, jazz and spoken word, and to inspire young poets and musicians to further their craft and contribute to the global conversation of art. Reed curated the 1st Annual Poetry Festival earlier this year, presenting many of California's great poets in Joe Henderson Lab. Reed continues this dialogue between word and sound at the 2nd Annual Poetry Festival, April 3-6, 2014, as part of the SFJAZZ Center's Season 2, currently underway.

If you're keen to see Reed's poem, drop by the SFJAZZ Center, or find his New and Collected Poems 1964-2007. For more information on the 2nd Annual Poetry Festival, visit sfjazz.org.