Keith Lamar & Albert Marquès

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Image courtesy of Mas i Mas Festival.

African-American poet, writer and social activist Keith Lamar has been on death row for 27 years for a crime he claims he never committed and for which he was convicted in a trial full of irregularities. Far from sinking, however, Lamar has survived all these years cultivating his great passion: jazz. Two years ago, the Catalan pianist Albert Marquès, resident in New York and one of the big names in the local jazz scene, launched a campaign in support of Keith Lamar, "Freedom First," which gave rise to a record with great names of jazz in New York and in Spain. Roy Nathanson, the O'Farrill lineage, Marc Ayza, Manel Fortià and a long list of others joined the project. Keith Lamar himself also speaks, reciting his own texts. The work includes pieces by Coltrane, Freeddie Hubbard and Jason Moran which Keith Lamar listens to from his cell. "Freedom First" is a song about freedom and is strongly against the death penalty.

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