First Listen – Ledisi’s Protest Moment

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    First Listen – Ledisi’s Protest Moment

    (October 27, 2016) It’s scary how routine a horrific phenomenon can become. How soon an event that was all consuming can later feel behind you in the rearview. The murder of Eric Garner by New York law enforcement on July 17, 2014 stunned a nation, even the world. Depending on who you ask, Garner was murdered for being a Black man illegally selling loose cigarettes as an underground worker trying to survive or he was murdered for resisting arrest for that minor crime by Officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. What is not in dispute is that Garner repeated the haunting words “I can’t breathe” 11 times while being placed in an illegal chokehold during the commencement of his arrest and was ignored, even mocked. And, all of it was caught on video to remind us how little some voices seem to matter even as they lay dying.

    First Listen – Ledisi’s Protest Moment

    (October 27, 2016) It’s scary how routine a horrific phenomenon can become. How soon an event that was all consuming can later feel behind you in the rearview. The murder of Eric Garner by New York law enforcement on July 17, 2014 stunned a nation, even the world. Depending on who you ask, Garner was murdered for being a Black man illegally selling loose cigarettes as an underground worker trying to survive or he was murdered for resisting arrest for that minor crime by Officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. What is not in dispute is that Garner repeated the haunting words “I can’t breathe” 11 times while being placed in an illegal chokehold during the commencement of his arrest and was ignored, even mocked. And, all of it was caught on video to remind us how little some voices seem to matter even as they lay dying.

    One voice that refuses to let us forget those voices or that moment is jazz and soul singer-songwriter Ledisi. Her heartbreaking performance is as emotionally resonating as one can get in socially conscious music. It also comes at a time when people are demanding more substance in their music to reflect the socially and politically restless times we live in as in the early ‘70s and again in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Similar to the approach taken on her most recent acoustic project, Ledisi strips away everything but her voice, the key work of pianist Keith “Butta” Justice, and the channeling of our collective pain. Written by Angel Lea Higgs, it’s the kind of grand, moving composition that feels like it belongs as the theme song for an Academy Award nominated film, maybe a documentary on #BlackLivesMatter or the life of victims like Garner. Similar to “Be Free” by J. Cole, especially when sung by Faith Evans, Ledisi’s devastating “I Can’t Breathe” also feels like a terribly necessary song to help people heal and deal with feelings they sometimes have nowhere to place without rage and violence. However one feels about the death of Eric Garner, one thing is clear, with people like Ledisi keeping his terrifying last words in the forefront of our minds, his voice won’t soon be forgotten.

    By L. Michael Gipson

    Ledisi - "I Can't Breathe"