Trails of Tears (Jacques Coursil album)

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rdf:langString Trails of Tears is an album by trumpeter and composer Jacques Coursil. It was recorded during 2007–2009 in Martinique, France, and the United States, and was released in 2010 by Sunnyside Records and Universal Jazz. The album deals with the forced migration of Indigenous North Americans during the early 1800s (the "Trail of Tears") as well as the transatlantic slave trade. Coursil conceived the piece during the 1970s when he visited the Sioux in South Dakota during the early stages of the American Indian Movement. Regarding his time there, Coursil stated: "I was deeply impressed by the seriousness of those people, who don't talk much. But when they say something, it's heavy. There are a lot of books about this, but that is nothing compared to people telling me things bit by bit. The musician always translates into music what they see and hear and smell and experience, so instead of making a theory out of it, I made music." He reflected: "The genocide of the [American] Indians is the history of the world... not just the history of the Indian or the black. The Middle Passage is not the story of black people; it's the story of the world... It's a common story, as much your story [or] my story."