Seize The Time

Description

Elaine Brown has led a distinguished life. Appointed in August 1974 by Huey Newton from his exile in Cuba to be the one and only woman at the helm of the Black Panther Party, Elaine has pursued a career in community service that continues to this day. But her first album, Seize the Time, released in 1969, leaves one wondering what might have happened if she hadn't put her music career on the back burner. She was first discovered as a performer while singing "Precious Lord" by Thomas Dorsey at the funeral of Panther Bunchy Carter. Subsequently, the Panthers' chief of staff, David Hilliard, auditioned her while accompanying herself on piano. This session led to the adoption of her composition "The Meeting" (about a meeting with Eldridge Cleaver) as the national anthem of the Black Panther Party, and to the commissioning of an album. Elaine enlisted the Los Angeles jazz legend Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra to arrange and support her, and Seize the Time was born, which the Black Panther Party newspaper called "the first songs of the American revolution." Blending influences ranging from Bob Dylan to classical music, and anchored by Elaine's power in her deeply felt lyrics, this album will stir your blood, whether you agree with its politics or not. Today, with the cooperation of Elaine Brown herself, Seize the Time sees its very first American LP reissue, featuring original "uni-pak" packaging that includes the lyrics and liner notes, as well as an insert with new liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975.