Music Reviews

Sep 25, 1999 - Watts Prophets' Stunning at Nightingale

By Jack Neal

The social commentary of The Watts Prophets never misses hitting the injustices of American life dead center.

Born out of the ashes of Watts, the Los Angeles black ghetto that exploed into rage during the '60s, the devastatingly accurate "act," or "entertainment," or "soul," or penetrating, from-the-heart poetry of this superb ensemble of black poets and musicians is never anything less than a searingly revelatory walk through the hates and shortcomings of America.

The Watts Prophets appeared in Reno at Nightingale Concert Hall on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, Wednesday night (9/22/99). It's my guess that no one in the audience who heard what poets Anthony "Amde" Hamilton, Otis O'Solomon and Richard Anthony Dedeaux had to say could have left the hall unmoved by what they heard.

A fusion of poetry recitations in counterpoint with jazz and dance, the impact of words was underlined and heightened by the Watts Prophets' total experience. Dancer Martina Young was an added plus for Reno audiences. Ms. Young, a one-time dancer with the Lula Washington Dance troupe out of Los Angeles who is now intricately involved with dance at UNR, reconnected with The Watts Prophets during the company's week-long stay in Reno working with students on the art of expressing ideas (a project sponsored by the Sierra Arts Foundation). Ms. Young brought her unique style of dramatic dance expression to the evening in what must be called, if this lovely but overworked phrase can ever be used, poetry in motion.

The Prophets' musicians, Mark London Sims, bass, Marcus Miller, drums, Michael Hyde, keyboards, enhance the poets' conversational pieces with pungent musical commentary of their own that is a perfect fit of word, rhythm and music. The tightness of this performance ensemble is extraordinary. The interplay between ideas, musical utterances, lighting and the acceptance of all those parts by an involved audience of listeners and participators must be - is - exactly what these prophets are striving for.

"Hey world! Man's goin' crazy trying to kill God! Wake up world!" O'Solomon's words set the concert in its flight from dispair to hope with chilling directness. "Evil rascist world will never be right. So I put another log on the fire and all I did was intensify hate." Dedeaux's reaction to the frightening escalation of the Watts riot from an insider's view was profound in its insightfulness. As is his 'I Remember Watts': 'To light up New Orleans, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, New York and most major cities of the world it takes millions and trillions of watts. To light up Los Angeles it took one. I remember Watts. Lots and lots of cops... treating us like fools... that's what lit Watts.

Hamilton's "Me Today, You Tomorrow" is a powerful statement of what happens when no one takes action:"To those who oppress, and in particular, to the feel-safe looky-loos of life who help the liar and cheat beat the naive, poor and weak. To you I say Me today and You tomorrow. You watch the world's war, hunger, pain horror with no sorrow. Me today, You tomorrow."

The Watts Prophets are succinct reminders of a world that's changed at least somewhat for the better. "People long for the good old days," a friend once told me, "because they've forgotten how bad they were." The Watts Prophets are deeply humane writers who remind us of America's bad-old-days past and her not-as-good-as-it-should-be present. Their words encourage change, reconciliation and hope, never hate.

Sadly revealing of the all-too prevailing 1960's thinking was a comment made to me by a white woman of an older generation, when the Watts riots were in progress: "What's wrong with our black people," she said, "they've always known their place." Those words echo across the years. In her favor, the one who uttered them was immediately stunned by the horror of what she had said. The Watts Prophets not only offer a superb evening of theater, they offer a way out of the abyss of bigotry that surrounded and still surrounds us.

The Performing Arts Series continues with the Faustwork Mask Theater on November 17. Pete Fountain in Concert is a special program in memory of Leon Nightingale. The Leon Nightingale Memorial Concert with Pete Fountain will be October 22. All Performing Arts Series concerts are at Nightingale Concert Hall on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno. For information call 775 784 4046 or check out the series website at www.dce.unr.edu/arts. For tickets call 775 784 6847.

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