From June through November 2019, my band, Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids, toured and performed for thousands of audience members at major festivals, clubs, and cultural events throughout Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The tour began in Pisa, Italy, then went to Pescara, Ravenna, and to Bologna…now a ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic!
Those summer days, barely four months before Italy’s world came crashing down, were filled with unforgettable joy, rousing and enthusiastic audiences, carefree strolls through the crowded cobblestone plazas and streets, lounging and swimming on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in Ravenna, and nights of delicious Italian cuisine. In October we played for the anniversary celebration of a 100-year-old building in the center of Madrid, and on Nov. 20 our last show was in the City of Lights, Paris, at Le Petite Halle. In the middle of the tour in early November, for a stunning 10 days in London the band recorded our third album, Shaman!, for Strut Records.
I returned home to San Francisco a day before Thanksgiving with nothing but an aura of happiness and a stride of pride and accomplishment regarding these months of artistic being. How could I have known what was to come? That all of the wonderful places I toured and performed in would be under siege from COVID-19? It hit the world with a surprise of cataclysmic consequences. Then again, in the studio in London, the lyrics of my song, “When Will I See You Again?,” seem in retrospect to have presaged what was to come.
Freak storm comes
Freak storm comes
You better hide, you better run
A hole opens in your heart
When too soon a loved one parts
One moment calm seas, bright sun
A blink of the eye
You gotta run
Young and old die before their time
Smiles turn to grief we all do find
A motherʼs gone. A sister too
A brother…a father…a dear friend
Who you saw one moment, next one gone
You saw one moment, next one gone
Shaman!, which is scheduled for release in June, resonates with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family, salvation, and global identity delving into the inner space of our souls, spirits, and consciousness. It is my homage to all of my years performing in the theatrical realm with my company, Cultural Odyssey, and my artistic partner, Rhodessa Jones. As I labored over the mixing of this transatlantic collaborative album in January and February 2020, the “freak storm” did indeed come! The virus itself became transatlantic, paying no heed to the “walls” Trump has tried to erect to keep out our “undesirable” neighbors to the South. Corona hopped and skipped and flew across the Atlantic (and the Pacific) on the breath and hands of travelers of all hues, religions, and persuasions. This microscopic migrant does not care if you are Black, white, green, yellow, or purple. Whether you are rich, poor, deaf, or blind. It attacks mercilessly all kinds.
On Monday, March 9, my comrades from the African American Theater Alliance for Independence (AATAIN) called me to an emergency meeting at our home in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, the African and African American Art & Complex. We were upset that the city’s mayor, London Breed, had issued a proclamation prohibiting events with audiences in excess of 50 patrons. We were mad at the time. We found this move callous, considering the cancellation of major art events many of us were producing in the next couple of weeks. The money we would lose! All the time and effort we put into the productions! My compositions from my new album were to be featured in a multidisciplinary collaboration with the wonderful PUSH Dance Company, featuring choreography by artistic director Raissa Simpson and live music by my band. We were barely two weeks from opening at the Bayview Opera House here in San Francisco! And now canceled?
Well, thank goodness it was. This, it seems now, was just the beginning of the mayor’s prescience. London also was the first mayor to mandate “sheltering in place,” as well as a curfew from midnight until the early morning for all San Francisco residents, all to help to ensure “social distancing.” My early misunderstanding has subsided to respect and pride for London’s actions, which may help turn the tide of this vicious virus.
It is appropriate that here in San Francisco, where we believe “all things are possible,” the first battle to defeat COVID-19 may be won. I will spend my days for the next weeks isolated in my dear apartment here in the Fillmore going over and over my scales. Enjoying the company of my girlfriend, Cheryl. Playing my favorite tunes—“Half Nelson” by Charlie Parker, “Forest Flower” by Charles Lloyd, “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane—as we take some giant steps to combat this menace. And of course my own compositions, like “Eternity”:
Meet me in Eternity
Homeward we all journey
Trane playing my favorite things
With Momma is where I want to be
Ancestral chants welcome all
Mothers fathers sisters brothers
Meet me in Eternity
Homeward we all journey
Idris Ackamoor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, tap dancer, producer, administrator, director, and artistic director of the world music/jazz ensemble the Pyramids.
