Kwesi Mensah Wali
Description
Wali was born in Panama, but moved to Brooklyn with his family at the age of 13. His earliest memories of jazz in his everyday life include living in walking distance from club Continental, the Blue Coronet, Baby Grand, La Marchal, and the Arlington Inn. Around 1967, he met Jitu Weusi & Al Vann around the Oceanhill-Brownsville teacher’s strike, when a new curriculum was created for African-American youth at the East. It was right around the time that he was in highschool, and he became involved as a book-agent for artists that performed at the East. He also eventually ran the center’s co-op. He talks about some of the artists that he brought in – Leon Thomas, Eddie Gale, James Spaulding, Sam Rivers, and Sun Ra.
Oral History
Willard JenkinsWeeksville Heritage Center
August 23, 2010
From Collection
Lost Jazz ShrinesRecord Contributed By
Weeksville Heritage CenterKeywords
- African American Jazz Musicians
- Ammons, Gene
- Bartz, Gary
- Blackwell, Ed
- Blakey, Art, 1919 1990
- Bobo, Willie, 1934 1983
- Davis, Miles
- Dolphy, Eric
- Dorham, Kenny, 1924 1972
- Erasmus Hall High School
- Gale, Eddie
- Garnett, Carlos
- Guyana
- Hayes, Louis, 1937
- Henderson, Joe, 1937 2001
- Hubbard, Freddie
- Jazz
- Jazz Musicians
- Mingus Big Band
- Mixon, Danny
- Ntu Troop (Musical Group)
- Ousley, Harold
- Panama
- Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Priester, Julian
- Puente, Tito, 1923 2000
- Rivers, Sam
- Roach, Max, 1924 2007
- Rodríguez, Tito, 1923 1973
- Rollins, Sonny
- Sanders, Pharoah
- Santamaria, Mongo
- Sharrock, Sonny, 1940 1994
- Shepp, Archie
- Silver, Horace, 1928 2014
- Spaulding, James
- Sun Ra
- Thomas, Leon, 1937 1999
- Tjader, Cal
- Vann, Albert, 1934
- Waldron, Mal, 1925 2002
- Washington, Dinah, 1924 1963