January 2nd: Today's Feature

January

Malik Al Nasir: Part I

born Mark Trevor Watson (born 1966, Liverpool, England) is a British author and performance poet, born to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. Malik is the band leader of Malik & the O.G’s. Spurred by an interest in the early black footballer Andrew Watson, he began to research his family ancestry, discovering both enslaved and slave-owners in his lineage.

Early Life

Mark T. Watson was born in 1966, one of four siblings to a white Welsh mother and a black Guyanese father. Liverpool, a major port city, was poor and racism was rife; the Toxteth riots shook the city in 1981.

His father worked as a merchant seaman and a security guard; his mother worked in a factory. When Mark was nine years old, his father became paralysed and, believing that his mother could not cope, the local authority took Mark and one of his brothers into their care. (Reynold became "politicised and well-read"). There he faced neglect, racism and physical abuse, until he was discharged from the system at 18, functionally illiterate and without connections.

Many years later, he successfully sued the local authority, and received a substantial payout and a public apology from the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. He spent ten years in litigation, during which time he pursued educational qualifications in order to better research his own case. He was represented by Allan Levy QC, a noted children's advocate who co-chaired the 1990 public inquiry into pin-down, a punitive technique used in children's homes.

Poetry

At 18, he was introduced by photographer Penny Potter to Gil Scott-Heron, who had a profound effect on his life. Scott-Heron was an African-American poet-musician, part of the Black Arts Movement and best-known for the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". (His father, Gil Heron, was, like Andrew Watson, a Scottish footballer from the Caribbean.) Scott-Heron supported the young man over many years, encouraging him to learn to read fluently and to write poetry, and developing his understanding of Black consciousness.

Recordings, Publications, and Media Production

Eventually Watson compiled the writings of his late teens and twenties, both poems and explanatory prose, into a book entitled Ordinary Guy. It was released in 2004 by Fore-Word Press, the publishing house he had founded.[6] The book was written in tribute to Scott-Heron & The Last Poets, and includes a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin.

In 2006, Al-Nasir co-founded Dubai-based production company MediaCPR and its record label MCPR Music. Conceptually MediaCPR wanted to develop clean content in mainstream music, that could entertain listeners without being offensive or explicit.

Malik and his team of music producers pioneered a new genre of music which they called "Drum Fusion". The idea was to unite traditional rhythms with contemporary song arrangements and apply positive lyrical content to produce a new style of music, which could be applied to any genre. The drum fusion formula involves developing a full organic sound composition derived exclusively from the use of drum, percussion, the human voice and natural sounds such as wind, rain, running water etc.

The first album released using this formula was Drumquestra (2009), by Jamaican master percussionist Larry McDonald (percussionist), who wanted to showcase his 50-year recording career.

The concept was developed collaboratively between Al Nasir, as executive producer, Larry McDonald, and producer Sidney Mills from Steel Pulse. One of the tracks, Set the Children Free, was recorded for the album by Toots & the Maytals. A dance remix by Lenny B demonstrated that the "Drum Fusion" formula could cross genres and be relevant to the young, as well as the old traditionalists.

Al-Nasir co-wrote two tracks on Drumquestra: "Peace of Mind" (which he co-produced with Sidney Mills featuring Shaza) and and "Crime Or Music" (featuring veteran ska musician Stranger Cole and reggae drummer Sly Dunbar). Additional percussion on this track was provided by Sticky Thompson of The Wailers and Bongo Herman.

Al-Nasir featured in Word Up – From Ghetto to Mecca (2011), a documentary about performance poetry. It was produced by UKTV's commissioning editor Shirani Sabaratnam and included Scott-Heron, The Last Poets and Benjamin Zephaniah. Fore-Word Press screened the film at the Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, as part of the 2011 Black History Month events, sponsored by Leicester City Council.

Al-Nasir wrote and produced two albums of his poetry and songs, Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol. 1 & 2, 2015, featuring Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, LL Cool J, Stanley Clarke, Swiss Chris, Rod Youngs, Larry McDonald, and Ms Marie Labropolus. The albums were recorded at Sarm Studios in Reading, Mercredi 9 Studios in Paris and Wyclef Jean's Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York. Mixed by Serge Tsai and mastered by Chris Gehringer at Sterling Sound New York.

Continued in Part II