Requiem for Jazz is a 12-movement suite composed and arranged by Angel Bat Dawid, inspired in part by dialogue from Edward O. Bland’s 1959 film “The Cry of Jazz”. Classic black double vinyl edition.
The original form of the music was premiered at the 2019 edition of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago, where Angel conducted a multigenerational fifteen-piece instrumental ensemble (all Black musicians from Chicago"s creative music community) alongside a fourperson choir (featuring singers from Black Monument Ensemble), dancers, and visual artists in performance. Angel mixed and post-produced recordings from the performance - adding interludes, vocals and additional sounds, as well as transcribing a piece from "The Cry of Jazz" film. The final movement of Requiem for Jazz features Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Their contributions were recorded remotely at the historic Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra in Philadelphia in late 2020.