What a Good Time for a Kent State

Annotation

A very experimental jazz album (Atlantic # SD 1576) from Freddie Hubbard and Ilhan Mimaroglu, it tackled the themes of war, violence, and Civil Rights, and included spooky monologues and Vietnamese poetry recited by Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca. The title of the album referred to the mass killings of Vietnamese civilians in two hamlets in the village of Song My, known at the time as the Massacre at Songmy, currently called the My Lai massacre. The front cover is Pablo Picasso's painting "Massacre in Korea" (1951), which protested American involvement in that conflict and was a strong anti-war piece. Recorded September 14–16, 1971, at Regent Sound Studios, New York City. The song "What a Good Time for a Kent State" (Atlantic # SD 1576) began with sparse piano playing with a poem. Then the trumpets and saxophones entered with a bang, and a choir sung the names of those killed at the Kent State demonstration - as mentioned above, only a few other tracks did this.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: When you say two don't be so happy to exist by killing one time and again / William Knox Schroeder / Allison Krause / Jeffrey Glen Miller / Sandra Lee Scheuer / Words are better than bullets

Notes

Section of the side-long "Sing Me a Song of Songmy" suite; a choir sings the names of the four Kent State dead. Recorded July-August 1970, Regent Sound Studios, New York.

About the artist

Freddie Hubbard - born 7 April 1938, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Died 29 December 2008, Sherman Oaks, California, USA. İlhan Mimaroğlu - born 11 March 1926, İstanbul, İstanbul, Turkey. Died 17 July 2012, New York City, New York, USA.

Themes

Anti-War · Kent State · My Lai · Anti-Calley

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Jazz Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]