One of my favorite collaborators and the bassist of the MJ New Quartet, Marcus Shelby is a force to be reckoned with as a composer, creator, and social justice advocate. His composition and performance in playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith's latest creation Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education has been nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk award for Outstanding Music in a Play. The docu-drama dissects the conveyor belt from school to incarceration for African Americans in the United States with Deavere taking on 17 roles based on scores of interviews.