San Francisco Frontiers - 'Impossible dream' of death row inmate and Catalan jazz artist collab

Catalan musician Albert Marques and Keith LaMar, who performs over the phone from a maximum security prison in Ohio, debuted their new work "Live from Death Row" at a gathering in New York last Friday.

On death row since 1995 after he was convicted of a crime he insists he did not commit, LaMar's execution is scheduled for January 13, 2027.

The album, which coincides with LaMar's 56th birthday, chronicles the civil rights struggle of Black people like himself.

It features compositions by Marques with lyrics by LaMar, alongside classics such as Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and "Alabama" by John Coltrane.

LaMar said that music "saved his life" during solitary confinement, particularly jazz tracks like those on Coltrane's 1964 album "A Love Supreme."

"Music is the vehicle through which I've been able to resurrect my bid for freedom," he told AFP.

"I love it when a plan comes together, when the stars align to bring to fruition a dream that didn't seem possible. That's what this live album is -- an impossible dream."

It follows 2022's "Freedom First," which turned into a clarion call for a fair retrial that could ultimately lead to LaMar's release.

"This music is about trust and faith (and) about stepping out even when you can't see the stairs and believing that your foot will find something solid to stand on," LaMar told AFP by email.

- 'This crazy thing' -

Marques, who is convinced of LaMar's innocence, said "we have done this crazy thing at the highest possible level."

After staging concerts worldwide in recent years and "showcasing that we have done everything we could, we need help" to take the fight "to another level," said Marques, a Brooklyn high school music teacher.

"We may be tired, exhausted, but we cannot throw in the towel."

In 1995, an all-white jury found LaMar guilty of the deaths of five out of nine inmates and one guard killed during one of the worst prison riots in US history.

During the incident, which happened in 1993, LaMar was already serving a sentence for the murder of a former friend during a drug dispute in his native Cleveland.

LaMar, as well as recent journalistic investigations, claimed that exculpatory evidence was hidden at trial and destroyed, and other prisoners were rewarded with sentence reductions for implicating him.

Ohio's governor had postponed LaMar's execution, originally scheduled for November 2023, due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to supply the components needed for lethal injection.

However, the situation could change following President Donald Trump's January 20 executive order directing the US attorney general to ensure states can access the necessary ingredients.

Nineteen inmates have been executed so far this year, compared to 25 in all of 2024.

O.Green--SFF