Lectures and Talks
Celebrating Black Futures | Opening Celebration and Film Screening: Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
Thu Feb 8, 2024 | 6:30 PM
VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street
Book TicketsThis February, the Gallery has partnered with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) to present Celebrating Black Futures, a series of film screenings that speak to the future of Black and African cinema. Selected by Kika Memeh, Public Programs Assistant at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and Tom Charity, VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer, each film presents a contemporary snapshot of the multilateral nature of African, African American, Caribbean and Black Canadian culture and cinema. Find out more »
This month-long programming series will begin on Thursday, February 8, with an evening of live jazz, performed by the Feven Kidane Sextet at VIFF, followed by a screening of Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro’s documentary, Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (2023).
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Trumpeter Feven Kidane brings a dynamic group of six to play a specially commissioned set featuring the music of Max Roach in honour of his 100th birthday and Black Futures Month. Kidane is delighted to bring aboard Quincy Mayes on keys, Nebyu Yohannes on trombone, John Nicholson on sax, Bella Fedrigo on bass, and Edmonton’s Biboye Onanuga on drums.
ABOUT THE FILM
Born in January 10, 1924, Maxwell Roach would become one of the defining percussionists of his era. A pioneer in bebop, he played with game-changers like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. He led a sublime quintet with Clifford Brown in the 1950s and continued to reinvent his sound, explore free jazz and even delve into hip-hop. Roach was a political animal, and his music was inextricably linked to his activism. With his wife Abby Lincoln, he recorded We Insist! in 1960, a seminal protest record at the advent of the Civil Rights Movement. Based on interviews recorded with Roach by co-directors Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro in the 1980s, The Drum Also Waltzes is a landmark celebration of a colossus in African American music.
Runtime: 82 minutes