Happy Birthday Always Go with the Feeling Hannibal Lokumbe

🍾Hannibal Lokumbe (aka Marvin Peterson), born November 11, 1948, is a composer and jazz trumpeter. Over the past 4 decades, he has composed classical works for symphony orchestras relating to the African-American historical experiences. His works have been commissioned and performed by The Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra “Can you hear God Crying?”, conducted by Dirk Brossé, 2012; The Detroit Symphony Orchestra “Dear Mrs. Parks”, conducted by Thomas Wilkins, 2005; and The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra “God, Mississippi and a Man Called Evers”, conducted by Dr. Leslie Dunner, 2002. While residing in New York City, Hannibal has played with Gil Evans, Roy Haynes, Pharoah Sanders, Roland Kirk, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and Elvin Jones. He recorded the self-released album Children of The Fire with the Sunrise Orchestra. Release by Sunrise Records in 1974.

Hannibal is the founder and director of the Music Liberation Orchestra, a program that teaches music, genealogy and writing to incarcerated men around the country.. In 2014, Hannibal completed “Trilogy Freedom Dance Cycle,” a narrative about the murders of three men — James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — they were kidnapped and murdered while helping to register African-Americans to vote in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer Campaign in 1964.

Hannibal’s notable awards and recognitions: Harlem Jazz Hall of Fame Lifetime Inductee; Bessie Award; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Lifetime Achievement, 2011; United States Artist Award in Music, Peter Cummings Fellow, 2010; Joyce Award, 2011; Texas City Independent School District Hall of Fame; and The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, La., SweetArts Award.

So you don’t know Hannibal Lokumbe?, or you do! — checkout this video on the cultural giant: Jazz Video Guy Live – Who is Hannibal?

Photo: Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons