When Martin Luther King was shot, I called Harry Belafonte who was a very, very, close friend of Martin Luther King. At the time, I was doing a concert in Kansas and I had two shows to do. I found out that Mart had been shot before the first show. I was depressed, and as I was listening to the news all kinds of thoughts ran through my mind. Thoughts which particularly had to do with the racial problem in America. Thoughts of who had done it, why, etc., etc.
During the first show, I was in good mental shape - I performed and finished the show still feeling slightly depressed. But, nothing so heavy that I couldn't finish the show or get ready for the second one. I placed a call again to Harry. I had then found out that Martin was dead, and then started to question very seriously whether I should stop the show and just go home, or what - But, the reason why I continued the show was, because I remembered when John Kennedy was killed, how depressing everything was for me, when I wanted to escape from such a heavy, heavy four or five days.
I looked towards the television set to help me to have something on that would help me to escape. But every channel was covering the funeral... each going back and forth over the details... and it was very depressing the whole time, and to go out on the streets was very depressing. All the people were depressed, the concerned people, that is. I went to a movie to escape such a horrible reality... I was looking for some form of entertainment. I remembered that, and I felt that the place in the hall I was playing, was packed. I then wanted to go out and perhaps try and forget my own state of depression, and give to those who may be at this point depressed and wanting to escape for a little while, and give them some entertainment. Well, I went on, but every space, every minute, every pause that I took, the thought of Martin being dead... being shot... the chaos going on in this country... who did it, etc., etc., kept seeping in and just running over, and it became heavier and heavier to the point where, after perhaps 40 minutes into the show, I just stopped and I explained to the people that I could no longer go on and I think the greatest thing about it was that they understood. They really gave me a standing ovation, which I am sure was 99% more for Martin, and I left.
I then spoke to Harry Belafonte again on the telephone. Harry was deeply depressed, as a matter of fact, he was crying. He was very, very bitter, and I told him whatever he needed and if he needed or wanted me to be with him at any particular time, all he had to do was call.
I had planned to go to Atlanta for the funeral... I don't like funerals... I never have. When I was ready to go to Atlanta, Bob Culp called me and said he wanted to go so the I SPY team hopped a plane for Atlanta. We arrived and went into a meeting with Harry and most of the people from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The next day, Bob and I flew into Memphis, Tennessee for the march in Memphis. After the march in Memphis, we flew back and then the next day was the day of the funeral... and that is what this particular piece is about. The haunting theme holds the feelings which all of the people had, the thought of Martin and how great a human being he was for men of all colors, all races and religions, and all the thoughts, and we rode on buses, the entertainers did, and they put us about a block away from the church. People like Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. Ossie Davis, Diahann Carroll... little Stevie Wonder was with me, we sat in the back of the bus... Lena Horne and Hazel Scott. Entertainers, ball players, Cazzie Russell, with the New York Knicks was there, and we waited for our group to move into the procession.
Now, with the theme going on the piano, the vamp, da, da, da, da, that is the basic feeling without seeing Martin, or the casket, or anything, that was hanging there in Atlanta. You could see the church half a block away. As they turned the corner, we then lined up or they lined us up, and there were waves that went by. First of all, you know, the people who really, really know Dr. King, and who really marched with him all of the time. People who followed him, his disciples, came by in a wave and then they brought our wave on, and that will be represented by the timbales and a regular trap drum. The big, booming drum you hear, which is played by "Big Black," represents the depressed feeling of the people having lost a great leader. The timbales also will represent different conversations going on between the people in the procession. Some people treat depression or try to heal their depression in different ways... they talk, they laugh, they chatter... they do things to escape.
It was a long, long walk, I remember, and the different moods which are brought about will give you a feeling of the pacing. There were also passages which do not particularly sound beautiful, but will hold some form of hostility or anger. This was brought about when we went by certain buildings which some people said that Lester Maddox was up in there, and you know, rumors spread around that Lester said this about Dr. King, and so forth and so on there. Some people within the funeral march said things like, well, we should go up and get him and do certain things to him and - blah, blah. Then there are happy moments and some beautiful moments and you'll listen and you'll feel. Also, some moments where the sun came down and hit very, very hard. Some people even passed out during the march... some people dropped off.
It ends with a fade out, because when they got to the last place which was at the university, Dr. Benjamin Maze was going to speak, and I looked up and I saw all these politicians who were sitting up there, I did a face, because at the time I sort of felt that this was not the place to have any politicians sitting up front, to be seen by the people, because as you know, politicians need votes.
"HYBISH, SHYSISH"
Hybish, Shybish is exactly what you mean to say... You say, "well, how do you pronounces it?" Hybish, Shybish, it'll take you a while to catch on how to say it. It doesn't mean anything important. As a matter of fact, you just say, "hybish, shybish" and your friends will look at you and say, "what?". And, you say "oh , nothing, wasn't saying anything in particular." "Hybish, Shybish" is nothing in particular - it's just a tag. It's a 4-note vamp which is set up for a soloist and it has a "break" and shoot a cat into a hole, and he blows in the hole and then you got back into a 4-note vamp tag. So, hybish, shybish is a game of tag... musical tag. Hybish, shybish... tag. The musicians dig it, mainly because they don't know who I'm going to point to next, who will be the next victim of "plugging up the hole" so they're all ready, and they're all tense, and they go.
Now, thus ends these notes on "Hybish, Shybish."
I would like to thank quite a few people for making this album possible. From UNI RECORDS, Russ Reegen, OJ Rodin (??) of course. I'd like to thank them because, so you all know I'm a comedian and I sell records telling jokes. As you all know, human beings will be human beings, and there are certain things that they like to do which they are not really "qualified" at or are not really accepted by the public as being known to do certain things. I do not read music, and I know a whole note mainly because of my high school days, and the teachers saying this a whole note, and I would say thank you very much. But, like most people, I do hear. I've been listening to the music of Miles Davis, and all of the great musicians, Sonny Rollins, etc., etc., since I was 9 or 10 years old, or whenever the radio could play it. It has been my music... when I say my music, music which I preferred over all music. This particular music is the music which I used to stand on corners, in front of the drug store in North Philadelphia, with the boys, and we would hum, memorized solos of certain artists like, J.J. Johnson or John Coltrane, and talk about how bad somebody was when he did this on the record, and isn't this part groovy. There was also a time when you'd sit in your living room, or somebody else's living room, and listen to a record, and each man or person sitting there would sing while the record was playing. Now, dig this part, dig this part here, man, here it comes now, dig this... and everybody would shut up and that part would come and the cat would play it, and you would just fall on the floor, man, because it was just so bad, it was just so bad, and everybody would just feel groovy about it. As these musicians and this music has given such great pleasure to me and still does, and that's why I would like to thank those musicians for making this possible, because if I had no interest at all, I would have never thought of this particular album. And I must say, I also hope to do many more. The most influential person as far as I am concerned, with this album is Miles Davis. Especially Miles' latest ventures, I happen to be really interested in this new - you will hear - Miles concept, which I've laid into the Bunions Bradford Band. I would also like to thank Charlie Mingus. You will hear quite a few Mingus-type arranged things especially with the drummers rhythm and, especially at times, the sheets of sounds that I send out. I would also like to acknowledge a little bit of Duke Ellington, along with Mr. Gil Evans. I would think this would show my strongest regard for these particular musicians, at this particular time. If given more of an opportunity, which means, if people like what they hear, and they buy what they like, and if it means Bradford's Band is the band they like and they will buy, and UNI can make money on this album, more Bunions Bradford albums will come out. I doubt very much if we will ever appear in person, because this is a recording band. There are too many things to set off, to isolate, to edit down, so that it sounds what I want it to sound like.
So, I thank you, the listener, for first of all, reading these notes and I hope you enjoy what you're listening to, and I would appreciate you telling your friends about it so that Bunions Bradford Band can stay alive and record, and the UNI folks can be proud and happy. I do not mean to run them into the ground and spend thousands and thousands of their dollars to satisfy my own ego. So, if records do not sell, then there will be no Bunions Bradford Band. Just one old Bill Cosby walking around humming his little tunes.
I thank you very much on behalf of all the musicians who inspired yours truly.
- Bill Cosby
