Marvin Peterson

Biography

Hannibal Lokumbe (born Marvin Peterson on November 11, 1948) is an American composer and jazz trumpeter.

Career

A native of Smithville, Texas, United States, he is sometimes known by the name "Hannibal". He attended high school in Texas City, Texas. In the late 1960s, he attended North Texas State University for two years, then moved to New York City and went on tour with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He became a member of the Gil Evans orchestra, an association that lasted through the 1980s, and worked with Roy Haynes and Pharoah Sanders. As the leader of the Sunrise Orchestra, he played koto and trumpet. His debut solo album, Children of the Fire, was released in 1974.
Lokumbe coauthored a biography of his life with the author, artist, and cultural anthropologist Lauren Coyle Rosen, called Hannibal Lokumbe: Spiritual Soundscapes of Music, Life, and Liberation (Columbia University Press, 2024). The book has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
He has also published three volumes of poetry: The Ripest of My Fruits; Trilogy: Freedom Dance Cycle; and Love Poems to God.

Awards and honors

Fellow Award in Music from United States Artists, 2009
Harlem Jazz Hall of Fame, Lifetime Inductee

As leader

Marvin Peterson and the Soulmasters in Concert (Century, 1969)
Children of the Fire (Sunrise, 1974)
Hannibal (BASF/MPS, 1975)
In Antibes (Enja, 1977)
In Berlin (MPS, 1977)
Naima (Eastworld, 1978)
The Light (Eastworld, 1978)
Live in Lausanne (Eastworld, 1978)
The Tribe (John Hammond World of Jazz 1978)
Tribute (Eastworld, 1979)
The Universe Is Not for Sale (Smackdab, 1980)
The Angels of Atlanta (Enja, 1981)
Poem Song (Mole, 1981)
More Sightings (Enja, 1984)
Visions of a New World (Atlantic, 1989)
Kiss On the Bridge (Ear-Rational, 1990)
Crossing (Ear-Rational, 1991)
One with the Wind (Muse, 1994)
African Portraits (Teldec, 1995)
Dear Mrs. Parks (Naxos, 2009)
Can You Hear God Crying? (Naxos, 2014)