Horace Tapscott & The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | The scene at I.U.C.C.

Immanuel United Church of Christ, 85th & Holmes, Los Angeles | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra was at Immanuel United Church of Christ for nine years(1). The last concert at this location was August 30, 1981. The first time I ever attended was January 30, 1977 — my field notes say the Arkestra was 17 musicians that day. (I have a private recording from that afternoon.) The origins of the tradition of Last Sunday of the Month free community concerts goes back to the U.G.M.A. days of the 1960s. These at I.U.C.C. commenced at 4pm located in south-central Los Angeles at 85th & Holmes.


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with George Goldsmith on traps | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

“Pro-active” would be the word we would use today to describe Horace’s work in the 1970s. I’m not sure the term pro-active was in vogue back then. In those days the word was “self-determination”(2). In other words: Horace made things happen.


Michael Session? soprano; Ufahamu Uweizi, alto; Fundi LeJohn, Fr.horn; Herbert Callies, alto clarinet; Sabir Mateen, tenor & conducting | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace was a lot like Duke Ellington, in that, he celebrated Black American life. And he was devoted to Los Angeles which he pronounced Los Angle-eez, in the manner of the older generation.


Horace Tapscott | April 26, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace’s scene always seemed slightly subversive. Certainly, it was underground, as we used to say, and under the radar, even for the Black community. Horace was dealing in very strong statements. Inequalities to be reconciled — he seemed to have been born with a very strong social awareness, and strong commitments. He loved the history of jazz in Los Angeles and knew the entire scope and ramifications. He was politicized — the first time I ever heard the word “Reagonomics” was when Horace invoked it.


JuJeGr watches Horace Tapscott | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

It was certainly subversive in terms of the status quo and the pervasive conformity that has always kept Southern California in a vice grip.


Linda Hill | September 23, 1984 | Photo by Mark Weber |

I keep hoping Linda Hill’s notebooks will surface someday. I heard that they disappeared after her death. Linda in a lot of ways was co-leader of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. At least, during the years I was around. (Horace lists as a member of UGMAA in his autobiography.) She kept very precise, careful, notes of concerts and listed every musician who participated at every performance, rehearsal, recording session, and social gathering. A treasure of information. You’d see her sitting beside the stage with her notebook (spiral bound lined 8×10″) writing in her beautiful flowing cursive script.

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | June 28, 1981 | Horace Tapscott (leader/piano), Fundi LeJohn (Fr-h), Ufahamu Uweizi (as), Lous Spears (cello), David Bryant (b), Fritz Wise (d), Gary Bias (as), Sabir Mateen (ts), Arthur Wells (ts & fl), Herbert Callies (alto cl.), Adele Sebastian (fl), Linda Hill & Cortnee & JuGeGr (vocals), Oises Obligicion (conga), Dr James “Jimmy” Benson (ts–glasses, beard, & Berkenstock sandals), Ernie Roberts (b-cl). My field notes say that Lester Robertson was there that day but didn’t play, and that Robert Crowley (p) sat in | Photo by Mark Weber

The extraordinary drummer from Detroit was staying in Los Angeles that year — George Goldsmith — he’s on Horace’s Sextet CD from the Lighthouse in October 1979 and I believe he stayed through the summer of 1980 — he was at Horace & Cecelia’s place many times that I dropped by and we’d all sit for hours in Horace’s den listening to tape recordings of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. I have always wondered when these tapes are going to become available. Horace had a lot of recordings of his bands. George had lost a son recently in gang activity in Detroit and had come to the coast to weather out his grief. And now he’s recently departed. Horace was legendary as a good person to be next to when the weight of the world was upon you. Horace had a lot of charisma.


George Goldsmith | July 5, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

For the longest time I always thought Sabir Mateen’s name was Sabia. He might have changed it somewhere along the line. In the days of these photographs he would make his own incense sticks and sell them on the street and at concerts. Sabir moved off to NYC  in  1989 and has made a name for himself in jazz.


Sabir Mateen | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

When Horace & Cecelia were visiting Albuquerque they spent the day here (February 15, 1998) at 725 — my wife Janet, and Roberto Miranda, and Cecelia, went shopping and Horace and I sat around the house talking (that’s Horace playing my piano in the photo on Vol.9 solo session on Nimbus West Records). He was so pleased to see my file cabinets full of P.A.P.A. photographs all kept safe — which are now housed at UCLA special collections. Horace also left an empty pack of Viceroys (cigarettes) on one of my LP shelves, which I left there as a talisman still to this day, but about 3 months after his visit I happened to turn the pack over and unsurprisingly found a roach he had saved inside the cellophane! [ Roach: the end of a marijuana joint.] Horace was in New Mexico for a few concerts — at Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, and also in Santa Fe.

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | June 28, 1981 | Horace Tapscott (leader/piano), Fundi LeJohn (Fr-h), Ufahamu Uweizi (as), Lous Spears (cello), David Bryant (b), Fritz Wise (d), Gary Bias (as), Sabir Mateen (ts), Arthur Wells (ts & fl), Herbert Callies (alto cl.), Adele Sebastian (fl), Linda Hill & Cortnee & JuGeGr (vocals), Oises Obligicion (conga), Dr James “Jimmy” Benson (ts– glasses, beard, & Berkenstock sandals), Ernie Roberts (b-cl). My field notes say that Lester Robertson was there that day but didn’t play, and that Robert Crowley (p) sat in | Photo by Mark Weber


Horace Tapscott & his mother @ I.U.C.C. | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Horace Tapscott & his mother @ I.U.C.C. | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Horace Tapscott’s mother, Reverend Edwards, Marla Gibbs | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Michael Session? soprano; Ufahamu Uweizi, alto; Fundi LeJohn, Fr.horn; Herbert Callies, alto clarinet; Sabir Mateen, tenor & conducting | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Linda Hill, piano; David Bryant, bass; JuGeGr & children choir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Linda Hill, piano; David Bryant, bass; JuGeGr & children choir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto sax; Ufahamu Uweizi, flute; Linda Hill, vocal | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Immanual United Church of Crist, Watts | April 26, 1981 | Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto sax; Ufahamu Uweizi (sitting) alto sax; Funi LeJohn, French horn; JuJeGr, vocals | Photo by Mark Weber


Kamau Daaood (center) | 1980 | I.U.C.C. | Photo by Mark Weber


Left to Right: David Bryant, Horace, Billy Hinton, JuGeGr, Linda, Kamau, Ufahamu, Sabir, Fundi | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Linda Hill | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and film crew | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Fundi LeJohn, French horn, Herbert Callies, alto clarinet; Horace; Ufahamu, alto sax | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Aubrey Hart, flute; George Goldsmith, drums; Sabir Mateen, tenor saxophone | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


George Goldsmith | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


George Goldsmith & Billy Hinton | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | w/ drummers Billy Hinton & George Goldsmith | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Ufahamu, Fundi, and Sabir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Fundi LeJohn, flugelhorn | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Herbert Callies | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Nate Morgan sits in with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Linda on piano; David & Al on basses; Fritz on drums; “Sabia” on soprano; and that looks like the Reverend Edgar Edwards in the pew far left, “He was a hip old man,” say Horace in autobiography, page 167 — this was his church | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Nate Morgan switches off on piano with Horace Tapscott | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


The magnificent Nate Morgan sits in on piano with P.A.P.A. w/ David Bryant & Al Hines, drums; Fritz Wise, drums |January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | Horace Tapscott, piano; David Bryant & Al Hines, basses; Adele Sebastian, flute, Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto; Ufahamu, alto, Fundi, French horn |November 30, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber


Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | November 30, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | June 28, 1981 | Horace Tapscott (leader/piano), Fundi LeJohn (Fr-h), Ufahamu Uweizi (as), Lous Spears (cello), David Bryant (b), Fritz Wise (d), Gary Bias (as), Sabir Mateen (ts), Arthur Wells (ts & fl), Herbert Callies (alto cl.), Adele Sebastian (fl), Linda Hill & Cortnee & JuGeGr (vocals), Oises Obligicion (conga), Dr James “Jimmy” Benson (ts– glasses, beard, & Berkenstock sandals), Ernie Roberts (b-cl). My field notes say that Lester Robertson was there that day but didn’t play, and that Robert Crowley(p) sat in | Photo by Mark Weber


Horace Tapscott | circa 1979 with grand piano @ I.U.C.C. this must have been one of the Nimbus Records recordings as Tom Albach rented a grand piano for those dates | Photo by Mark Weber

Harbor Freeway & Los Angeles smog | August 31, 1979 | view from Bonaventure Hotel | that’s the freeway you take from downtown Los Angeles to I.U.C.C. It shows the scene and area | Photo by Mark Weber

SONGS OF THE UNSUNG, Horace Tapscott/Steven Isoardi (Duke Univ. Press, 2001) pp 165-167. See Bobby Bradford interview in my essay The Early LP’s Of The Free Jazz Scene in Los Angeles (September 2009)

Mark Weber | April 20, 2012

13 Comments

  1. mike johnston

    beautiful, great photo documents, i can hear the music. thanks for organizing all of this history.

  2. Bill Payne

    Hi Mark,

    I sure am glad that you were out there documenting this stuff…

    Your work (then and now) is really important.

    Cheers

  3. John Litrenta

    A wonderful pictorial essay on a great musical organization!
    Thanks for putting this together.

  4. steve isoardi

    Mark — Another outstanding, invaluable effort on your part. Such a treasure of photos and observations! many, many thanks. Just two comments: (1) You query the identity of a soprano saxophonist as Michael Session. And he appears in some subsequent photos as well. I think it’s Kafi Roberts. Kafi liked playing soprano, but in later years, Horace asked him to play flute mostly. Nice to have the photos of him on soprano. (2) Regarding Linda Hill’s notebooks, I was told that they were all tossed in a garbage bin by her estranged husband in the 1980s. What a loss! A criminal act! — best, Steve

  5. Lenny Tischler

    You captured the spirit, the depth and power of the music. These fotos are beautiful. Thank you, as always, for your great work, Mark.

  6. Rhea Madison

    I ran the pews of this church while my Dad practiced with the Ark. My roots. Thank you.

  7. Mark Weber

    I wonder if I have photographs of Rhea Madison? There were always children at the church concerts. Her father is William Madison who is one of the drummers on the P.A.P.A. album FLIGHT 17. I have my photos of him behind his trapset. We’ll get those out to show as time goes by.

  8. Mark Weber

    R.I.P.
    Nate Morgan
    fellow traveler
    got away from us November 21, 2013
    (diabetes and ultimately heart failure)
    in Los Angeles
    much too soon —
    (Wikipedia has his birthdate as “1964” but I’m sure
    it was more like 1954 as me & Nate were almost
    brothers of the same age)

  9. V.Kali

    MY GOODNESS, THIS BRINGS ME ALL THE WAY BACK!!!
    THIS IS QUITE EXTRAORDINARY!!! THERE’S EVEN AN UNEXPECTED PHOTO OF MY CHILDREN’S FATHER IN THE BACKGROUND THAT THEY WILL ENJOY~PEACE BE UPON HORACE, ADELE SEBASTIEN AND NATE MORGAN.

  10. Barbara McCullough

    Dear Mark, A friend send my a link to your site. My film, “Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot” will be completed this summer. I shot Horace and the Pan African People’s Arkestra starting in 1977 or 78 to his first performance at the Village Vanguard in 1993. Great to see your photographs.

  11. Mark Maxwell

    Hey Mark, it was good meeting and talking to you at the Blue Whale last Sunday! I just happened to be doing some casual research and stumbled across this excellent page. I suppose there are no coincidences. Anyway, thank you very much for this!

  12. Bob Shuttleworth

    Thanks for the documentation, I just found some old notes of min. I remember going to IUCC with John Breckow and according to my notes I was there on July 27, 1980. Absolutely overjoyed to see your pics from that day, and all the others. Be glad when we can get out to see music again, back to World Stage etc.

  13. Angela Edwards

    Thank you for documenting the contributions Edgar Rollins Edwards made to his community. Today is birthday and he would have been 111 years old. Edgar Rollins Edwards was born June 6, 1909 and died Jan 31, 1985. He was like a grandfather to me but was actually my grandfather’s brother. I was close to him because I grew up in Altadena, California and as a young girl in the 1960-70’s, my parent’s drove to Los Angeles to visit, attend his church and share Sunday dinners. I love the photos you have here and have shared them with other family members. I have fond memories of being inside his church. He even let me translate a sermon into Spanish for his congregation once. I stood in awe of his love and light as a human being, minister and community organizer. If you know of anyone that has more photos or oral history please let me know. Thanks you so much. Angela Edwards

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