Horace Tapscott

Solo piano. Recorded November 15, 1982 at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara. A Steinway piano and one man's soul, nothing else. Producer Tom Albach believed the solo sessions were the most important music Tapscott ever made. Between 1982 and 1985, over thirty hours of solo piano were captured - Albach made it his life's mission to release them all. This is volume two, and it cuts deep.

The centerpiece: "Struggle X, An Afro-American Dream" - nearly twenty minutes of Tapscott wrestling with the unfulfilled promises of the civil rights movement. He builds the piece in stages, starting in tranquil serenity cloaked by unrest, moving through disillusionment into near-anger, the piano becoming explosive as he hurls volatile statements against the dream gone astray. Then - transformation. Frustration becomes hope. This is not entertainment. This is testimony. "Many Nights Ago" closes the session on a quasi-romantic note, the weight of a heavy heart hidden beneath a lighter, at times lilting, theme. The man who founded UGMAA, who chose to stay in South Central LA when he could have left, who built a community instead of a career - here he is alone with his instrument, his thoughts, his history.

Essential document.