[NewMusic] The Saga Continues. . .

[Phillip Greenlief]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of David Slusser
To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] The Saga Continues. . .

On Jun 1, 2007, at 12:46 PM, Matthew Goodheart wrote:
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/01/
> MNGVOQ5TTP1.DTL

I hope you're referring to the black jazz article (I only linked to  
the home page).

Of course there's a Berkeley element, which is home base for this  
kind of protest.

PG:

Fair enough (on the Berkeley angle), but I am SO tired of people whining
about not being represented. It's been a DIY game for years now - and if
you haven't figured that out and you're still sitting around waiting for
the phone to ring, you have no one to blame but yourself if you're not
working/playing.  This is mostly because I used to be one of those
people and then I figured it out - if I want to play, I need to do
something to make that happen beyond composing and practicing and
rehearsing and making recordings.

You don't like who's on the 2007 XWWVOMVBYWN Festival? Start your own!

It's so easy to play the race card. Howard Wiley is getting out there
and playing quite a bit these days. He didn't bother to mention that he
was a featured artist at the Zipper Festival and that The Jazz House
produced a CD for him. In contrast, take Marcus Shelby - I'm not a huge
fan of his music, but he's really worked hard and I admire him; he's
written a lot of grants, he gets his group out and they WORK. I didn't
notice him complaining. This is not to say that there are not race
issues in America. This is not to say that many African Americans are
disadvantaged economically and that keeps a lot of things out of
balance. This is not to say that the haves will always try to keep the
have-nots "in their place". We have enormous race issues in America, but
I'm not convinced the lineup at the Berkeley Jazz Festival is the heart
of those problems.

Like Slusser, I have been on the "not appropriate" list at Anna's Jazz
Island for years. The Lost Trio tried and tried to get a gig there -
many packages, many phone calls - forget it - she never called us back.
Should I run to the Chronicle and complain that Native American Jazz
artists are being discriminated against or should I put energy into
booking the group somewhere else and get on with it?  I don't hold a
grudge against Anna - it's her club. She should book whoever she wants
to book. It would be nice if she tried to represent a larger "cultural
fabric" that has emerged from "jazz", but again, it's her club. She's
going to book who she wants. More power to her.

I've known Susan over at the Jazz School for many years, pretty much
since I arrived in 1979 and I know that racism is not a part of her
agenda. She's worked with countless musicians from just about every
cultural background over the years and she's sacrificed her career as a
player in order to run the school. She has my respects - she's a good
musician and a kind human being: period. I always thought they wouldn't
be interested in us, but when Dan sent a Lost Trio CD she said that she
had wanted to book us for a long time and didn't know how to contact us.
She gave us a gig right away and attended our concert and was super kind
and supportive. If she would have said, "I don't think your group is
right for the school", I would have accepted that and went on my way and
looked for a gig somewhere else.

We all get to the point where we feel we're not getting represented.
It's easy - we spend countless hours and countless years honing our
craft. No one seems to care. 

That reminds me of something a professor said to me during my first year
of music study in college:

"Nobody listens, nobody cares".

He told us that if we could embrace that idea and get on with it we
might actually stand a chance surviving a life in the music "business".

That's probably the best advice anyone ever gave me.