A jazz concert in the halls of London's Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, features Spanish pianist Albert Marques and Keith LaMar, a death row prisoner joining from his cell via phone call at a maximum state prison in Ohio. Supporters of LaMar are calling for his release and an end to the death penalty in the United States.
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00:00Music will not go in front of a judge to convince him or her that a person is innocent.
00:27What music does very well is to create a feeling, a vibe that will help you empathize with someone.
00:39Thanks to that feeling, then we have made so many connections that I do believe that
00:44it will lead to his liberation.
01:14There are usually not that many people whose voices come into our homes or just in public
01:39events the way that Keith has, so I think what makes him special is that we actually
01:46hear directly from him.
01:48We don't hear from his lawyers.
01:49We don't hear about him just from me or from somebody who knows him.
01:53We hear directly from Keith.
02:08When you make an album with someone in prison, you have to do it via phone.
02:29When you do that, there are many challenges.
02:32The prison can stop the phone call, there is a delay, what he hears is not great, the
02:37sound that he hears is not great.
02:39What jazz and particularly improvisation allows us to do is be able to react and when anything
02:46happens, the band, the musicians can change gears and go to whatever direction we think
02:54that will work to always empower his words and help the audience empathize with him.