Sunday Concerts for Assange with Rick DellaRatta

Every Sunday Only on Youtube!

Every Sunday at Noon PST/15h EST/20h GMT on Assange Defense, Stella Assange, we will be premiering concerts from musicians around the world in support of my husband, Julian Assange.

An eclectic mix of never before streams on Youtube, the series will include live, acoustic and home studio music sets from musicians including James Kennedy from the Underdogs, Adelchi & Jes, David Rovics, Ben Mitchell, Mark Chadwick from the Levellers, Gabriel Moreno, Alabama 3, Siobhan O’Brien, Jessie Grace and many more.

This series aims to spread awareness about Julian Assange's case in preparation for the New Public Hearing that will be on Tuesday-Wednesday, 20-21 February, 2024 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Please check our Toolkit for more resources and info.

Every week we will be premiering a music set with weekly priority actions and other information on how you can join the fight and help Julian.

WEEKLY PRIORITY ACTION

Premiering Tonight! 20 Saturday at noon PST/3pm EST/8pm GMT on my YouTube!

This week’s Sunday Concert is with Rick DellaRatta

Watch it now on Youtube.

Tracklist:

1. Little Song

2. Free J.A. Today

3. Wille is a Sheep

4. Free J.A. (This was the 132nd unique performance of Free J.A. Dating back to July 11, 2021)

5. The Jazz for Peace Poem

6. Free J.A. Today

7. Willy is a sheep

Music Available here.

You've decided to join the fight and speak up for Julian in an industry where many may find it expedient to keep silent. What do you think formed your political perspective and activation?

This is a great question and I think it is answered fast in this excerpt from my new book on Amazon along with the last sentence which I have just added as follows:

Excerpt From the NEW BOOK:  “Rick DellaRatta: Paving the Path for Peace Through Music”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jazz for Peace, like many organizations, faced challenges in gathering people for their concert series. However, they adapted to the circumstances and found new avenues to spread their message. They decided to embark on podcasting as a way to reach out to their audience and continue promoting the power of jazz music. Through their podcasts, Jazz for Peace aimed to raise awareness about the importance of music, share inspiring stories, and connect with listeners who were unable to attend live concerts. By embracing this digital platform, they were able to keep the spirit of jazz alive and continue their mission of promoting peace through music, even during these challenging times. It was at this time that the tremendous interest in the “Amazing Story of Jazz for Peace!” along with the chance to hear Rick perform live in a virtual setting began to grow in ways that we had never seen before prompting Rick to try and tie in all of the performances both live and virtual together via a single song that could make a statement both Musically and through social justice and advocacy. He decided to remove the last 2 letters from the Avant Garde musical term “Free Jazz” due to information about the original spelling of  “Jass” that he learned from a previous concert in Haiti where he was greeted with a large sign that said “Welcome JASS FOR PEACE!”

Jazz and "jass" refer to the same genre of music, but the term "jass" was an early spelling variant that eventually evolved into the widely used term "jazz." In the early 20th century, particularly in the 1910s and 1920s, the term "jass" was commonly used to describe the emerging style of music that would later be known as jazz. However, as the genre gained popularity and spread across the United States, the spelling changed to "jazz" to better reflect its pronunciation. So, while the spelling may differ, there is no substantive difference between "jazz" and "jass" in terms of the music itself.

With this new found knowledge, Rick took the last two letters off of the name of the musical genre called “Free Jazz” and in the middle of the pandemic on July 11, 2021, came up with the catchphrase “FREE J.A.” which allowed him to stand for such important qualities as freedom of speech, journalistic integrity, and the rights of innocent civilians during wartime in his efforts to free Julian Assange. This extraordinary project coupled with the incredible demand for the Story of Jazz for Peace™ to be told by him with both words and live music on a variety of different podcasts led to a combined total of over 150 performances of his freely improvised composition “Free J.A.”performed both in concerts from New York City to Nigeria and in his podcast interviews from New York to L.A. to Spain to Jordan to Canada and everywhere in between. See and listen to them all at www.jazzforpeace.org/freeja.pdf.

Just as we started to set our sights on a new goal of 150th performances, I was excited to learn that Stella Assange, the wife of Julian, was starting a concert series and naturally I was honored to have the opportunity to participate!

This Sunday Concert for Assange marks the 132nd performance of “FREE J.A.” for what I truly hope will be exoneration and freedom for Julian.

How did you come to care about this cause?

On July 11, 2021, after coming to the conclusion that something was either seriously wrong, seriously flawed, or seriously inadequate, and if not more strongly and successfully addressed in the kind of fashion that would wake the populace and achieve results could lead to OTHER humanitarian crises all over the world (which it has), I embarked on a series of performances of my freely improvised Jazz piece “FREE J.A.”, dedicated to freedom of speech, the preservation of journalistic integrity, the rights and safety of innocent civilians during wartime activities, and everything else that Julian Assange stands for including his own individual, civil and legal rights.

And what's the most important thing you'd like people to understand about Julian's case?

I would like people to understand that just a few months ago in the summer of 2022 I was in Abuja, Nigeria with JAZZforPEACE and can be seen in this video telling people that if we continue to persecute those who report about the bombing of innocent civilians, then there will be no one left to protect the innocent and a day will come where women children and other unarmed civilians will be bombed and killed like no one has ever seen:

And already we have exceeded the words of my warning on that day.

How much more disintegration of our rights to freedom of speech, journalistic integrity, protection of innocent civilians, and so many more do you want to see happen before you wake up at such stage that it will be too late to save what little we have left?

This matter should've been addressed long ago by the common people of the world taking a stand and justice must prevail as quickly as possible in order to avoid even worse than what we are already seeing.

For more about Rick DellaRatta check out his website here.