[NewMusic] Thought Crime

[Tim Perkis]

The whole topic of racial politics and jazz is a disturbing and 
depressing one.

It's just too far out of the racist American worldview to see jazz as 
the multicultural/multiracial  product it is, in which black artists 
have provided the leadership. Where's the political constituency that 
would support that view of it? It's actually one of the few successes in 
US race relations, a real composite cultural product.

But for some reason, since it's unacceptable on some deep level  to 
accept black leadership of something that involves all the races, the 
whole subject is fraught with contradictions and evasions.

Of course now that much of the current activity called jazz is really 
some kind of museum-piece nostalgia trip, it's not that surprising that 
the racial make-up of the current practitioners and fans doesn't match 
the racial balance among the innovators.

T


David Slusser wrote:
> On Jun 1, 2007, at 3:34 PM, Henry Kuntz wrote:
>   
>> Following from my last post, I'll go ahead and open up the can of  
>> worms and
>>     
>
> The saga is on the front page of the Chronicle again this morning.  A  
> cowering
> Yoshi's pulls its all white CD, and will go to the expense of  
> securing the rights
> to recordings more representative of ....?....its bookings?....the  
> critics...? the
> complainers...?  I was glad to have Orin Keepnews brought into the  
> discussion.
> He basically said it was just a dumb mistake and a terribly small  
> deal.  Most
> non-record companies that produce a small promotional batch of CDs  
> try to
> do so as cheaply as possible, and you can see just how that happened  
> at Yoshi's.
> An upshot of this is that Yoshi's is concerned enough about their  
> reputation to
> spend money to make a better impression in the market.  This may be  
> good news
> for jazz fans, for that's an indication of someone in for the long  
> haul.  If the CD
> ends up including ersatz commercial tracks, that's also an indicator.
>
> At the end of the article, it also indicates that Muscarella only has  
> half the
> festival booked at this point.  Give us a break!  Obviously the super  
> efficient
> white nerds got their gigs lined up early, and set off the alarms.   
> Again, what
> this is doing on the front page of the Chronicle has me mystified.   
> Are they
> trying to get more black people to pick up the paper?  I'm glad PG  
> pointed
> out that (vocal critic) saxophonist Howard Wiley has not lacked in  
> major public
> appearances lately.  (I actually like his playing and concepts.)
>
> Whatever the Chronicle's motives, we have issues of race and culture  
> on the
> table again (and let's not leave out class).  Does jazz belong or is  
> exclusive
> to one race (if you believe in the myth of race)?  People confuse  
> race and
> culture, but if the overwhelming majority of music I heard in my  
> formative
> years was jazz, R&B and blues, how is that not inherent in my culture?
> (Jazz started as a MIXTURE of cultures, and has had all kinds of  
> participants
> from its earliest days.)  Can music be intellectual property?  How  
> can you keep
> your brain from absorbing it? Am I committing a THOUGHT CRIME when I
> spontaneously break into something jazzy in my head or on stage because
> of my race?  That's as reactionary as the NeoCons policing your bedroom.
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