About this ebook
In the early 1960s, pianist Horace Tapscott gave up a successful career in Lionel Hampton’s band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to found the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts group that focused on providing community-oriented jazz and jazz training. Over the course of almost forty years, the Arkestra, together with the related Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movement in Black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists—musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists—passed through these organizations, many ultimately remaining within the community and others moving on to achieve international fame. In The Dark Tree, Steven L. Isoardi draws on one hundred in-depth interviews with the Arkestra’s participants to tell the history of the important and largely overlooked community arts movement of Black Los Angeles. This revised and updated edition brings the story of the Arkestra up to date, as its ethos and aesthetic remain vital forces in jazz and popular music to this day.
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5.0
2 reviews
Ray Straughter
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September 11, 2023
Very Enlightening...this book give The Big Picture to the Artist Music ....as An Explosive " Real Talk UGMAA & Shows Mr Horace Tapscotts Revelatory & Selfless Life of Giving & Teaching...." Culture Unity Love "This Book The Dark Tree....A WONDER...written in Pristine Selfless Clarity: By The Great UGMAA Professor Mr. Steven L. Isoardi....* After reading Mr Isoardi "Works_ Music"....I too Soar Their: Congrats Sir Steve....Job "Well Done" Aseh...Ahlahlah🥰 Jah Jairah.." And blessings too All Comrade Artist ( The Tapscotts Family I Soar thee...You SOAR DHI...OH LIGHT DIVINE...FOREVER " THE PAN AFRIKAN PEOPLES ARKESTRA ". Unified by THE GODS DIVINE...BARUK RUPA ASEH...Ever-Thankful RESPECT!!! ONE LOVE ! Bro. Sham Ray L. Straughter The Celestial Symphony Orchestra. Thank You Ancestors....San-Koh- fish IFA.....SANGO🪘🎶🏹🕉️🛐☯️UNITY L.A. WORLD STAGE....YES BELOVEDS HARI!!!
Michael Wilcots
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April 7, 2025
great reading
About the author
Steven L. Isoardi is an independent scholar; editor of Songs of the Unsung: The Musical and Social Journey of Horace Tapscott, also published by Duke University Press, and Jazz Generations: A Life in American Music and Society; and coeditor of Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Music Finds a Way: A PAPA/UGMAA Oral History of Growing Up in Postwar South Central Los Angeles.
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