New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Musician, producer and educator Dana Murray has shared a new video for his track "Suite Kaepernick." An expansive and kaleidoscopic work, the video provides a subconscious visual analogue for the unresolved racial tensions in
America today. The video is currently streaming via Okayplayer. Murray released his socially conscious album Negro Manifesto via Ropeadope Records on 4/20/18. Blending jazz, hip-hop, spoken word and more the album seeks the true roots of the system that creates and perpetuates injustice.
Not a tidy story with simple answers - Murray's latest release is a noisy and deep chasm of universal struggle. Negro Manifesto stands as a summary of history and a challenging artistic piece, touching on racism and sexism in the capitalist paradigm. It evokes artists from Gil-Scott Heron to Hip-Hop activists The Goats, from Coltrane to Philip Glass. Social justice movements need more than just tough stories and hopeful mantras. Dana Murray delivers for us a testimony of truth, challenge, with a call to engagement.
"The purpose of the album is to motivate constructive dialogue between people who might otherwise not cross paths," says Murray. I want to bring people together from different ethnic backgrounds, religions, sex, political affiliation, tax bracket, etc. Most people find that they actually have more in common than they do differences. So, why is so much energy spent on defining those differences? These are questions I think about every day. Through open honest discussion people can develop the ability to empathize with each other....This, in my opinion is the path to evolution. These are difficult conversations...but have them we must. 'Negro Manifesto' is MY reality....it is a collection of thoughts from someone that has always asked the question 'why?'"
After a brief move to
Boston to attend the Berklee College of
Music on scholarship, Omaha native, Dana Murray moved to New York City on the advice of jazz legends Max Roach and Victor Lewis. Becoming heavily involved in the jazz scene, he toured the world with
Wynton Marsalis and began gigging and recording with the likes of Donald Byrd, Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Hargrove, Sherman Irby, Marc Cary and Russell Gunn, among others. As a producer, he has worked with local and commercial labels as well as Blue Note Records releases. He collaborated with Eric
Revis on his 2017 album "Sing Me Some Cry" as well as industry heavyweights Aloe Blacc, Caron Wheeler, Orrin Evans,
Oliver Lake, Nasheet Waits and more. Murray has held teaching positions at several schools in the Omaha area including the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and founded the Dojo Percussion and it's parent company DMgroove Drum Dojo, which aims to reach the masses through the power of music and percussive art.
Murray will embark on a national tour to perform the music and discuss the issues. He will be joined by many of the players on the album including, JD Allen (Tenor Sax), Andrew Bailie (Guitar),
David Hawkins (Percussion/Turntables), Reg Wyns (Rapper) and other special guests.
Negro Manifesto
1. Intro
2. In The Beginnning
3. Comfort
4. The System
5. Comfortable Discomfort
6. Stand By Your Man (Lady Liberty)
7. Suite Kaepernick Mvt 1
8. Suite Kaepernick Mvt 2
9. Suite Kaepernick Mvt 3
10. Temptation
11. Ballad of Lies
12. Dead Wishes
13. Alice Mae
