The Gathering: Jesse Sharps & Fundi Legohn, a 60 year legacy of healing music in Los Angeles

Enjoy the Soul Force interview with musicians Jesse Sharps & Fundi Legohn discussing the historic spiritual lineage of creative black music in Los Angeles.  Jesse and Fundi unpack this inter-generational legacy, the healing power of the art and the impact it continues to make on younger jazz musicians today.  The interview is interspersed with musical excerpts from Horace Tapscott's 'Freedom's Sweet', an upcoming large ensemble release of immense importance.

Like Sun Ra’s iconic work in New York and Philadelphia and the Art Ensemble of Chicago which grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the windy city, the Pan African People’s Arkestra of Los Angeles is due for equal recognition for their vision and contribution to creative black jazz and the unique sound that emanated from the musicians, poets and composers of this lineage.

The Gathering is a multicultural music collective founded in 2005 by composer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Sharps. The mission of the Gathering is to preserve and feature the extensive compositions of Los Angeles composers of the Pan African People’s Arkestra, of which Jesse was an early composer and soloist. Jesse worked extensively (since 1967) alongside Horace Tapscott; founder of the Arkestra and UGMAA (Union of God’s Artists and Musicians Ascension) and helped to shape LA’s own African American creative Jazz scene around Watts and South LA.

Contribute your support to the upcoming Gathering release in 2022, a historic recording of Black LA Creative Jazz:  For more info visit: http://thegatheringleimertpark.com/lacpapa/

2020 will be the 60th anniversary of The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, with plans to feature several iconic works. The project includes Lester Robertson's In Times Like These and Horace Tapscott's epic The Ghetto Suite, last performed in early 70s and has never been recorded. We hope to record several additional compositions by some of the most vital and under-recognized local composers such as Jesse Sharps himself as well as Nate Morgan, Linda Hill and legendary Watts poet Kamau Daáood.