A note to the jazz world. People need to understand something about this music. So please listen and listen carefully. The music we so comfortably label as jazz was produced by human beings who invested every ounce of themselves into painting a reality that was in essence far different from the one they lived in. This music is first and foremost a music of adversity, hardship, unrewarded sacrifice, and, in many cases, deep human suffering. This music did not come from privileged conditions. It was not created with the absolute certainty that things would ever change, just the hope and conviction that as long as they were alive, musicians would spend every passing day striving to express the greater possibilities that COULD be achieved and experienced by people in this world. If you are going to call yourself a jazz musician, whether you like the term or not, or if you are going to make a living playing this music but think that your only duty is to make money and a name for yourself, then you have completely missed one of the most fundamental principles that motivated its greatest contributors. And that is: Concern. If you are not concerned about people, about the state of the world, about the injustices and suffering endured by other human beings, by the planet, by life on earth in general, then you have entirely side-stepped one of the most critical ingredients that makes a true artist what he/she is. I can tell you that one of the primary motivations behind the pursuit of innovation and an original form of spiritual expression for Woody Shaw was unquestionably his deep and heartfelt CONCERN for his fellow man and for the state of the WORLD. The same goes for John Coltrane and so many other visionaries whose greater contributions have unfortunately so often been reduced to encyclopedic references of commercial recordings and musical transcriptions. Without any sense of the larger social and human responsibility that these musicians assumed and LIVED UP TO in developing their artistry as a medium for positive social transformation, it is entirely impossible to ever understand the true depth or to embody the character of a Jazz Musician - a designation that used to be one of the highest honors in the world to have, despite what anyone feels about the term, and despite how jazz musicians are characterized today, either as broke freelancing artists or as suited-up dudes playing shiny instruments cashing on their Brooks Brothers endorsements. The second reason this is important is because those who did truly care about others, about the future, about their community, have been some of the most neglected, disregarded, and under appreciated people in our communities, and they deserve far more respect from us. Just think of how we as a society treat our elders, the way we treat our parents and grandparents. Do we really honor them? I mean, do we really reflect on the magnitude of what our elders have endured to create a better world for us to live in? The same question needs to be asked of musicians and especially the younger generation of so-called rising stars so ready to promote their new album but too reluctant to investigate the conditions and struggles of musicians during the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s - conditions that perpetually threatened to destroy an entire art form due to the almost total lack of economic infrastructure, lack of legal justice, the overt, systematic racial discrimination that kept some of the most brilliant and inventive musicians from working and teaching in positions that they deserved, and the often dehumanizing social decay of urban communities in which they were often forced to live and work. So where is the honor and the respect for where this music comes from and for the pioneers who fought to keep it alive at all costs? All this talk of jazz as the highest form of democracy and what do we get? Another trickle down theory. More grandiose pomp and circumstance with some political posturing that benefits a very small minority of musicians and personalities while virulently excluding the larger creative community. So what happens to those artists whose lives and music embrace and represent levels of complexity not congruent with the canons of social and aesthetic conventions that jazz has come to be used as an ideological tool for? They are omitted and forgotten. Yeah, we allow the true veterans of the art to die off without a word of thanks, without healthcare, often without a goodbye, and we let the architects of the culture be totally forgotten while we shamelessly play their licks, write books about them, and call them our heroes. Honor at its utmost. So let me leave you with a bit of enlightened weight to bear. If you do not appreciate the indignities that musicians had to endure, their dedication and unwillingness to give up in order to ensure that YOU would have an art form to play, to listen to, to be inspired by, and make a living from, then you are not representing the culture of this music. You are only representing yourself, which is fine, and which is very American, but it aint jazz, because selfishness dont swing..... And we all remember what what Duke Ellington said about swing, right? The true champions of this art form are the ones who gave their blood, sweat, and tears, and who often had the most taken away from them without ever being properly rewarded for what they shared, who they helped, or for the profound influence they had on others. If that is something you are indifferent to and are comfortable accepting and remaining silent about, then you should probably reconsider your relationship with this heritage and your seriousness about being identified as a jazz musician. This IS a sacred tradition, jack, in that thousands of people lived for and died fighting to keep this alive throughout its history, and on behalf of a vision that extended far beyond any one of their individual interests. Now, does that mean you need to worship these people? No. Does it mean they were all perfect and that you should aspire to be like all of them? Of course not. But it DOES mean that you need to respect where this comes from. If you are going to have anything at all to do with this music, then yes, you need to have some serious respect for the people who created it and think very seriously about how you can contribute to what they left behind, not just keep taking from it without giving something of yourself back. It is an honor for anyone to be associated with this music. It is no ones entitlement. -Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 23:40:46 +0000
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