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The Civil Rights Movement was a principal fight during the turbulent 1960s. In turn, many artists took up the mantle of progress and/or revolution. Three of the most righteous voices in jazz music were vocalist Abbey Lincoln, drummer/composer Max Roach, and composer/lyricist Oscar Brown, Jr. Their defiant music on We Insist!: The Freedom Now Suite and Percussion Bitter Sweet remains as poignant and topical today as it was upon release.

Vocalist Christine Correa was introduced to the music of these three icons by her mentor Ran Blake upon her arrival from Mumbai, India. The music had visceral effect on her that has remained to this day, especially as the parallels of the Civil Rights and the Black Lives Matter movements have become more and more focused. Correa’s new recording, Just You Stand and Listen with Me, revisits the powerful music of Lincoln, Roach, and Brown to remind listeners that their struggles are still very much alive.

Correa came to Boston from her native India in 1979 to attend the New England Conservatory of Music. NEC is where she met the pianist and jazz sage Ran Blake. During their studies, Blake brought the music of Lincoln and Roach to Correa’s attention. Correa was stunned by Lincoln’s conviction and honesty in performance along with her ability to evoke joy, pain, and anger, which added such emotional depth to Roach’s dramatic writing and to Brown’s resonant texts.

Over sixty years since the recording of Roach and Lincoln’s quintessential albums, Correa realized that the musical content and texts still speak to the truth of the present realities of American racial politics. The 1960s performances of this material were these artists’ forms of protest, highly visible ones at that. Correa believes that it is important to deepen the awareness of the impact of these artists and this music. To do this, she recorded a program of this essential music with a tremendous quintet.

Correa hand-picked the musicians to accompany her on Just You Stand and Listen with Me. All involved have engrained themselves in the African American musical tradition of jazz and have the utmost respect for these stylists and their songs. Drummer Michael Sarin has been a longtime collaborator with Correa and has truly absorbed the nuances of Max Roach’s playing and songs. Soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome was a new collaborator but proved to have the right depth and character to perform these pieces. Pianist Andrew Boudreau and bassist Kim Cass construct a perfect harmonic support for the ensemble.

The recording was done at a single session at Big Orange Sheep recording studio in Brooklyn, New York in November 2021.

The program begins with “Driva’ Man.” Brown’s stark lyric about the vileness of slavery is read forcefully by Correa over tambourine, then plodding blues rhythm. Brown’s “When Malindy Sings” was inspired by the poetry of Paul Dunbar, wherein the title of the recording also appears. Newsome and Correa add spice to the melancholy over a walking bass line provided by Cass. Roach and Chips Bayen’s “Mendacity” is blunt with its message of lying politicians led by Correa’s vehement delivery, while the ensemble provides a tensely minimalist setting for Maya Angelou’s poem on “Caged Bird.”

Boudreau’s thoughtful piano intro leads into Mal Waldron’s “Straight Ahead,” which features powerful lyrics by Lincoln over a sparsely swinging accompaniment. Roach’s propulsive “All Africa” addresses evolution of the tribes and nations of Africa and is powered by Sarin’s drums and Newsome’s counterpoint to Correa’s call. “Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace” is presented as three separate wordless duos wit Sarin: “Prayer” features Correa, “Protest” features Newsome, and “Peace” features Cass, all mirroring the incredible and raw performance Lincoln gave them in the original recording.

Lionel Bart’s “Who Will Buy” was originally written for the musical Oliver and was arranged by Roach for We Insist! Roach’s “Tears for Johannesburg” was written for the victims of the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, Correa’s wordless vocals expressing more lament than text could provide. The buoyant “Garvey’s Ghost” is a bright tribute to political activist Marcus Garvey, who encouraged a sense of pride and self-worth amongst the people of the African diaspora. The program concludes with “Freedom Day,” an intriguing piece that weaves between moods to demonstrate the difficult conception of what freedom actually means.

The powerful message of the music that Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Oscar Brown, Jr. made together is undeniable. The fact that their message remains so visceral speaks to its triumph and the world’s failure. Christine Correa realizes this and chooses to use their music as a tool to educate, and resist, on her album, Just You Stand and Listen with Me.