Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Mária Takáčová
Reflection of Jazz Music in American Racial Past and Present
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
2016
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A., for his kind guidance and valuable advice. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their endless support.
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
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Author’s signature
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...... - 5 -
2. Historical Legacy ...... - 8 -
Cry for Freedom ...... - 8 -
Roar for Freedom ...... - 12 -
Max Roach: Freedom day ...... - 13 -
Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam ...... - 14 -
John Coltrane: Alabama ...... - 18 -
Charles Mingus: Fables of Faubus ...... - 19 -
3. The 21st century Legacy: Hands Up! ...... - 21 -
Christian Scott: Ku Klux Police Department ...... - 22 -
Terence Blanchard: Breathless ...... - 25 -
Matana Roberts: Black Lives Matter/ All Lives Matter ...... - 27 -
Tributes ...... - 30 -
Ambrose Akinmusire ...... - 30 -
Robert Glasper ...... - 31 -
4. Conclusion ...... - 33 -
Works Cited ...... - 35 -
Resumé (English) ...... - 41 -
Resumé (Czech) ...... - 42 -
1. Introduction
The concept and the notion of races were defined and gained greatest anthropological attention at the end of the 18th and during the 19th century. The work of
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach on division of human species into five races had become a scientific milestone. His concept was based on shape of the human skull because
“color (of skin) cannot constitute species or a variety” (Blahopal). Interestingly, the color happened to be a key factor determining segregation in the aftermath of abolition of slavery and the term “colored” was first adopted to define African Americans exclusively. Scholars Christine Clark and Teja Arboleda argue on the topic of race as:
The term “People of color” was revived from a term based in the French
colonial era in the Caribbean and La Louisiane in North America: gens
de couleur libres applied generally to people of mixed African and
European descent who were freed from slavery or born into freedom. In
the late 20th century, it was introduced in the United States as a preferable
replacement to both non-white and minority, which are also inclusive,
because it frames the subject positively; non-white defines people in
terms of what they are not (white), and minority frequently carries a
subordinate connotation. (17)
However, minorities have always struggled in society. Every single minority, whether religious, gender, racial or age, that survived until nowadays mirrors its harsh history in the present. In case of the most important and the largest racial minority in the
US, African Americans, black political activist W.E.B. Du Bois defined the struggle as
“To be a poor man is hard but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships” (Of Our Spiritual Strivings, para.10). After the state of Georgia ratified the
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Thirteenth Amendment1, abolition of slavery was completed only in a constitutional sense. It was impossible for white population to change their attitude towards black people at the same time. The Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished slavery in the
US but did not and could not force white people to treat blacks equally after generations of white society were used to the lowest inhumane form of their treatment.
On December 18, 1865 was put an end to the one cruel and dishonoring period for African Americans but the doors opened for another one. The era of segregation has begun. It has passed more than half a century since from the Civil Rights Act was signed. In 2008 Barack Obama was elected as a first African American president in the
US history, yet in the following decade of the 21st century, black America is struggling again. Historical wounds of African Americans have never been healed and remain until nowadays. Nevertheless, the bleak times of slavery gave birth to the most significant manifestation of African Americans which later become their fundamental cultural heritage. Manuel Zabel claims that “Jazz– as the very organ of all parties involved– had inevitably been used to the benefit from the promotion of a changing state of affairs concerning the relations between ‘black’ and ‘white’ Americans”(8). It has created and persists creating soulful theme tune of a movement for freedom but furthermore, jazz is blurring the borderlines of racial prejudices among people.
The aim of the thesis is to show how the work of the contemporary jazz musicians continues reflecting the ongoing issues in the US society as well as it also extends the cultural heritage of African Americans. The thesis also concentrates on cultural and self-reflective analyses in order to find key factors that formed the musicians creating jazz music both in the past century just as well as in the present, 21st century.
1 To obtain more information see Amendment XIII on www.constitutionus.com.
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First chapter of the thesis deals with historical overview of the socio-political changes of the 20th century. It begins with lynchings, predominantly of African
Americans in Southern states, what is significantly reflected in Abel Meeropol’s mournful poem “Strange Fruit”, performed and internationalized afterwards by Billie
Holiday. Then follows realms of racial segregation, oppression, civil rights activism and how Nina Simone, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Charles Mingus (to name only a few) reacted and contributed with their powerful musical artwork to the development of turbulent times for African Americans, especially on injustice of certain governmental acts.
The second part discusses the 21st century social issues of American society which contemporary African American jazz musicians reflect in their work. Especially, the urge to draw attention to the persisting moral, racial and other socio-political problems is present in the artwork of the contemporary jazz musicians, namely at the compositions of young trumpet player Christian Scott, saxophonist Matana Roberts and trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Very significant are contributions on this topic by pianist
Robert Glasper and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. These two musicians are considered for their innovative approach to be the most influential jazz musicians of the
st 21 century. All of them, however, continue in the tradition of aforementioned 1960s jazz musicians and are as well considered to be the new wave of jazz musicians
“contributing to the evolving soundtrack of new early 21st century movement
#BlackLivesMatter.”2
Finally, the thesis provides characteristic instances of how jazz became an inter- connector of socio-political realms and how the two influenced one another in its following development.
2 See www.blog.berlinerfestspiele.de/soundtrack-of-a-movement/ for John Murph coment on contepomrary jazz .
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2. Historical Legacy
Cry for Freedom
To be born black in the US before 13th amendment was established, most likely meant to be born slave. But even long after the abolition of slavery, majority of black
Americans were perceived as submissive creatures, barely treated as humans. After the assassination of the first president who was in opposition slavery of African Americans not only in terms of morality but also economy and politics, Abraham Lincoln, the new president became Andrew Johnson. He declared: “This is a country for white men and as long as I'm president, this will be a government of white men” (Anderson). But what freedmen wanted, the very fundamental right every white American citizen had and took for granted was a piece of land to work on and a chance to live a decent life there.
However, after over two hundred years of slavery, ruling white Americans were not able to treat freedmen equally.
A fictional character Jim Crow, born during slavery, became more real after its abolition. Jim Crow was performed by a white man painted in black and acting out an offensive parody of an African American slave. The performance included famous
“Jump Jim Crow” dance and a song that was created to imitate black people. On top of that, Jim Crow became a symbol of racial discrimination of African Americans:
By 1838, the term “Jim Crow” was being used as a collective racial
epithet for blacks, not as offensive as nigger, but similar to coon or
darkie. The popularity of minstrel shows clearly aided the spread of Jim
Crow as a racial slur. This use of the term only lasted half a century. By
the end of the 19th century, the words Jim Crow were less likely to be
used to derisively describe blacks;
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instead, the phrase Jim Crow was being used to describe laws and
customs which oppressed blacks. (Pilgrim)
Between 1865 and 1870, Reconstruction era adopted another two amendments–
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments granted African Americans voting rights on the paper but they were not guaranteed in reality because these amendments were ignored by white Americans who still perceived themselves as superior race. This state of racial inequality reflected into all aspects of social life of African Americans.
However, in the field of culture, minds of whites started to open. Some evidence can be seen a few decades later. In the article of The Wall Street Journal, called “How
Jazz Helped Hasten Civil Rights Movement”, is described that in December 1938, a new jazz club called Café Society (well-known as “Wrong Place for Right People”) was opening. Its owner, Barney Josephson, wanted the club to be a place where blacks and whites worked together behind the footlights and sat together out front. According to his view, there was no such a place in New York or in the country, which would allow unsegregated conditions in public. But he did not know about Boston's Savoy Café. It was the only place in that city where blacks and whites were regularly on the stage and in the audience. This led police occasionally to go into the men's room, confiscate the soap, and hand the manager a ticket for unsanitary conditions. There was no law in
Boston against mixing the races, but it was frowned on in some official circles
(Hentoff). These were first two clubs playing jazz music that independently created place for the white and black musicians to gather in order play together without racial restrictions or discrimination of any kind.
And it was one of those ordinary evenings, in March 1939, on the West 4th
Street, New York City, in above mentioned club Cafe Society, when one of the most powerful and influential songs of the century was introduced. The song is called
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“Strange Fruit” and was written and published by Jewish-American teacher Abel
Meeropol in 1937 as a protest poem against lynching executions of African Americans in Southern states. The lynchings increased dramatically as a consequence of abolition of slavery and predominantly after former slaves gained their right to vote. Statistics say that “Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United
States between 1882 and 1968, mostly from 1882 to 1920.”3 Meeropol, who also scored music for the poem, was inspired by a particular depiction of a lynching execution.
According to Pelisson, Meeropol felt “very disturbed at the continuation of racism in
America, and seeing a photograph of a lynching sort of put him over the edge” (Blair).
In the photograph (Beitler), there were two young male African Americans hanging from a tree, surrounded by white citizens watching the execution. Even though the word
“lynching” is not mentioned, the lyrics are obviously referring to it:
Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop. (Meeropol 1-12) The tree usually represents the fertility, birth or life itself. The Tree of Life is a generally know concept based on archetype in various mythologies and religion tradition. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, there is vertical and horizontal
3 “Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968.” University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved July 26, 2010. Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
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tradition of tree of knowledge, which was later called the tree of life. In the horizontal tradition “the tree is planted at the center of the world and it is the source of terrestrial fertility and life” (Britannica). In the lyrics of “Strange Fruit”, the symbolism of the tree is reversed. In this case has the tree meaning of death and homicide. Therefore, the harvest of these trees is “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze”. This line is referring to the South and abundant number racially infused lynching executions.
Lynchings were public and so many whites came not only see justice to be done but also to entertain. Campbell Robertson claimed in of the articles dedicated to lynchings that in “Kirvin, where three black men, two of them almost certainly innocent, [ … ] and, under the gaze of hundreds of soda-drinking spectators, were castrated, stabbed, beaten, tied to a plow and set afire…” (para.3). It proves that the horrific occasions of lynching were for white Americans enjoyment on the level of cultural event. Moreover, to some of the executions they brought even children to watch.
As it was mentioned before, the most common were lynchings in the Southern
United States, so magnolias are yet another natural symbol that refers to this area.
Mississippi and Louisiana have magnolia as a state flower, because of their abundance in these countries.
The song “Strange Fruit” was later introduced internationally and was praised for its aesthetic value as Dorian Lynskey writes in Guardian article saying “Up to this point, protest songs functioned as propaganda, but Strange Fruit proved they could be art” (qtd. In Lynskey, para.22). Also, the soulful performance of Billie Holiday and the very message of “Strange Fruit” was an agonizing call for social change which could finally find its way raising public awareness about illegal lynching executions as for the audience at Café Society was mostly white but the jazz music they were coming to listen was mostly black. “Strange Fruit became a huge hit, reaching No. 16 by July
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1939. Due in part to its unprecedented popularity—a protest song had never before made it onto the Billboard charts—Strange Fruit is credited with a major role in raising white consciousness for the nascent civil rights movement” (Kolodzey). It was this particular song with its strong lyrical content and context that introduced the Civil
Rights Era.
Roar for Freedom
Billie Holiday performed publicly “Strange Fruit” for the first time in 1939. Not only it attracted attention of the white society but it also triggered activity of other
African American jazz musicians. Many of them started to refer on injustice of segregation in their music, too. This chapter is dedicated to the four pieces of various jazz singers and instrumentalists whose music is interconnected by the same motive— strong, angry and in some cases savage tunes were directly proportional to the boisterous struggle African Americans had to overcome. When Archie Shepp was told that he and his fellow players create angry music he responded “We are not angry men.
We are enraged. You can no longer defer my dream. I'm gonna sing it. Dance it. Scream it. And if need be, I'll steal it from this very earth” (qtd. in “Jazz”, Burns) To emphasize
Shepp's determination, speaking for the whole jazz community, he is later questioning
“Don’t you ever wonder, just what my collective rage will [...] be like, when it is- as it inevitably must be— unleashed? Our vindication will be black as the color of suffering is black” and “Here” Kofsky describes “speaks the new radicalism of black jazz musician” (5). Also, Nat Hentoff mentions Stanley Crouch, important jazz music critic and historian, who claims that:
Jazz musicians were determined to provoke the change and they were
successful. Once the whites who played jazz and the listeners who loved
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it began to balk at the limitations imposed by segregation, jazz became a
futuristic social force in which one was finally judged purely on the basis
of one’s individual ability. Jazz predicted the civil rights movement more
than any other art in America. (qtd.in “How Jazz Helped…”, para.14).
Max Roach: Freedom day
Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we're free. Rumors flyin', must be lyin'. Can it really be? Can't conceive it, can't believe it. But that's what they say. Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n' chains away. Everybody that I see says it's really true, we're free.
Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we're free. Rumors flyin', must be lyin'. Can it really be? Can't conceive it, don't believe it. But that's what they say. Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n' chains away. Everybody that I see says it's really true, we're free.
Freedom Day, it's Freedom Day. Free to vote and earn my pay. Dim my path and hide the way. But we've made it Freedom Day. (Brown 1-14) In autumn 1961, jazz drummer Max Roach created work that triggered series of intense jazz protest songs. In an interview, Hentoff claims: “Ours are individual voices.
Listening intently to all the other voices, and creating a whole from all of these personal voices. Since then, when I hear a debate on whether ours is a “living” Constitution, Max comes to mind” (Hentoff 111). Roach's album called “We Insist!” with the cover photograph (Candid Records) commemorating the student lunch counter sit-ins that began in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 is making explicit, through visual means, the link between the fight against segregation and the subject matter of the “Freedom
Now Suite” (Monson). The album's cover — photography of African American
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musicians being served by a white waiter —is referring to the sit-ins4. This album was not only an explosion of Roach's musical genius but also a pivotal piece for early 60's
African American protest movement conveying tenacious message. The structure of the album is an overview of black people’s history. At first, drawing attention to outrageous two hundred years of slavery and then giving reminiscence of the origins of black people by infusing traditional African rhythmic forms into jazz approach, Roach created a milestone in cultural heritage, marked by one of the greatest social crisis in the US.
“What Max had created was in real, raw time—for all time” (Hentoff)
The track called “Freedom Day” depicts the events of the Juneteenth
Independence Day, also called Freedom Day. On the 19th of June, 1865 was officially announced the abolition of slavery in Texas. Even thought it was emancipation of last remaining slaves in the US some slaves could not believe that they are finally officially freed.(Gates) There were rumors before, coming from the north of the US, people only whispered about the abolition, just like Abbey Lincoln is reminding on the track. At the end of the track the Freedom day is connected to the expectation of the “new” freedom day to come. That day came 5 years after the album was recorded. In 1965 president
Lyndon B. Johnson signed Voting Rights Act5 which canceled special requirements
(like poll taxes) that restricted African Americans right to vote. But the question of black freedom did not end even after that.
Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam
In 1964, another jazz musician, singer Nina Simone created remarkable piece of work depicting revolt of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. In one of her live
4 Four African American students came to the dinner and sat patiently, in a protest for being refused to be served unlike all the other white customers. See more on www.ushistory.org/us/54d.asp.
5 See more about a historical background of the Voting Rights Act on www.history.com/topics/black- history/voting-rights-act.
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performances, she introduced song “Mississippi Goddam” as: “This is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet” (Simone 1). She ironically pointed out that the show had already been performed during assassination of Edgar Evers in 19636, one of the civil rights activists from Mississippi. Naming the states, Mississippi, Alabama,
Tennessee, she also points out how persistently South resisted the abolishment of segregation. Considering Alabama, she refers to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, where four little African American girls lost their lives while attending regular Sunday school.
When Simone sings “Do it slow”, she refers to the case of a first black student
Autherine Lucy entering the all-white university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1956, two years after Brown vs. Board of Education7 was established, she got suspended, for her own protection, because her admission to the school caused riots in campus. Autherine got the issue on court with the help from Thurgood Marshal, chief counsel for the
NAACP. He was told that African Americas are moving too far too fast, following the decision of Supreme court and was advised to let things move along gradually for a while (Williams). Even though Lucy eventually won the case, the Board of Trustees expelled her from university. In addition to that, Mississippi's senator James Eastland argued the decision of Supreme Court, saying “All the people of the South are in favor of segregation. And Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, we are going to maintain segregated schools down in Dixie”(qtd. in Eyes on Prize, Williams).
Furthermore, in the lyrics, Simone uses continuing repetition of the verse “Do it slow” in AB CB DB form (33rd -50th verse) and guides listeners though the slavery era, highlighting the physical and psychical pain that slaves had to overcome. In the 61st
6 See more on the circumstances of Edgar Evers' murder: www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers- 9542324#fighting-against-discrimination.
7 See more about the decision of court on:www.supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483/
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verse is a straight reference to the “Sister Sadie”, which is a fictional character, wife of a runaway slave, known from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which later became another racial stereotype. Simone is pointing out that whites used to call black women “Sisters Sadies” despite the aims to approve their social status (“talk real fine like a lady”), considering the desegregation era. Moreover, Sister Sadie is a name of piece written by Horace Silver in 1959, which later became a jazz standard. In the following verses (from 66th to 79th), Simone depicted the ongoing fight for liberation of
1960s from chains of segregation. Their battle was long and many innocents were killed. The pressure from the activists was great, yet white Americans disdained. This was enraging for Simone and using another ironic feature, the upbeat tempo, she highlighted the absurdity of the resistance.
Even though Nina Simone created another 16 protest songs that “symbolized her love-hate relationship with America”, Mississippi Goddam was critical for her career.
She performed it in front of some thousand crowd after Selma to Montgomery March.
On August 6th 1956, less than five months after the March, President Johnson signed the
Voting Rights Act, that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. The results were that:
“By the end of 1966, only 4 out of the traditional 13 Southern states, had less than 50% of African Americans registered to vote. By 1968, even hard-line Mississippi had 59% of African Americans registered. In the longer term, far more African Americans were elected into public office” (Trueman).
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The name of this tune is Mississippi 50 "do it slow" Goddam Where am I going And I mean every word of it What am I doing Alabama's gotten me so upset I don't know Tennessee made me lose my rest I don't know And everybody knows about Mississippi Just try to do your very best Goddam Stand up be counted with all the rest Alabama's gotten me so upset For everybody knows about Mississippi Tennessee made me lose my rest Goddam 10 And everybody knows about Mississippi I made you thought I was kiddin' Goddam 60 Picket lines Can't you see it School boy cots Can't you feel it They try to say it's a communist plot It's all in the air All I want is equality I can't stand the pressure much longer for my sister my brother my people and Somebody say a prayer me Alabama's gotten me so upset Yes you lied to me all these years Tennessee made me lose my rest You told me to wash and clean my ears And everybody knows about Mississippi And talk real fine just like a lady 20 Goddam And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie This is a show tune 70 Oh but this whole country is full of lies But the show hasn't been written for it, You're all gonna die and die like flies yet I don't trust you any more Hound dogs on my trail You keep on saying "Go slow!" School children sitting in jail "Go slow!" Black cat cross my path But that's just the trouble I think every day's gonna be my last "do it slow" Lord have mercy on this land of mine Desegregation We all gonna get it in due time "do it slow" 30 I don't belong here Mass participation I don't belong there 80 "do it slow" I've even stopped believing in prayer Reunification Don't tell me "do it slow" I tell you Do things gradually Me and my people just about due "do it slow" I've been there so I know But bring more tragedy They keep on saying "Go slow!" "do it slow" But that's just the trouble Why don't you see it "do it slow" Why don't you feel it 40 Washing the windows I don't know "do it slow" 90 I don't know Picking the cotton You don't have to live next to me "do it slow" Just give me my equality You're just plain rotten Everybody knows about Mississippi "do it slow" Everybody knows about Alabama You're too damn lazy Everybody knows about Mississippi "do it slow" Goddam The thinking's crazy That's it! (Simone 2-97)
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John Coltrane: Alabama
Along with Miles Davis, John Coltrane was one of the most influential and important personas of the 1960s jazz innovators. In 2007, he gained “a posthumous special citation, for his masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz” (Murphy) by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Coltrane was never identified with Civil Rights Movement although he was politically engaged.
Coltrane wrote piece called Alabama as a reaction on the Ku Klux Klan bombing the
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church one Sunday morning in 1963 when there were four little girls (14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson and 11- year-old Denise McNair) after Sunday school were preparing for morning's worship
(Birmingham Church Bombing)8. According to some authors, Coltrane wrote the melody of Alabama based on the Martin Luther King’s eulogy for the girls, just two months after the bombing:
These children — unoffending, innocent, and beautiful — were the
victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated
against humanity… The death of these children may lead our whole
Southland, from the low road of man’s inhumanity to man to the high
road peace and brotherhood. They did not die in vain. Good still has a
way of wringing good out of evil. Good night, sweet princesses. Good
night, those who symbolize a new day. And may the flight of angels take
thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you. (King,Jr)
Nevertheless, his tenor saxophone leading melody during whole track could be powerful memorial on the loss of young and innocent souls.
8 More about the incident on www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing.
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Charles Mingus: Fables of Faubus
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em tar and feather us! Oh, Lord, no more swastikas! Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!
Name me someone who's ridiculous, Dannie. Governor Faubus! Why is he so sick and ridiculous? He won't permit integrated schools.
Then he's a fool! Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists! Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that's ridiculous, Dannie Richmond. Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight: They brainwash and teach you hate. H-E-L-L-O, Hello. (Mingus 2-17)
As a final evidence, Charles Mingus recorded “Fables of Faubus” in 1959, mocking of the political statement of governor Orval Faubus who had used the state's
National Guard to prevent nine African American teenagers to be integrated by Little
Rock Central High School in 1957 even though according to the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was this action unconstitutional. Ultimately, the Justice
Department sought and granted an injunction against Faubus' order, and the governor had to withdraw National Guard troops. But the move offered little protection for the students or assurance that the community would not riot or bar them from school. So on
September 24th—20 days after the incident's start—President Eisenhower finally federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the army's 101st Airborne Division to
Little Rock enforce integration and safeguard of the African-American students
(Myers). The song was originally accompanied with lyrics which emphasized satirical tone of the track, but they were censored by recording company Columbia Records because of being considered controversial and so first release was only instrumental
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version. He put out the full version on smaller label called Candid Records (Burns). In the lyrical section, Mingus gave attention to the awakening nationalism that was drastically radicalized through actions of Ku Klux Klan. Mingus even mentioned swastikas to compare collective supremacy of white Americans that was rising at the time, to Nazi Germany ideology of Aryan (white German) race superiority. Mingus also reacted on what mobs, consisting primary of white students, were chanting at Little
Rock in 1957- “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate”. The uniqueness of this song was it rough mockery with clear statement drawing attention on political action (not only encountering the very name of the song).
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3. The 21st century Legacy: Hands Up!
“Oh, Lord, don't let 'em shoot us!
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em stab us!” (Mingus1-2)
When Charles Mingus wrote his famous piece “Fables of Faubus” in 1959, the situation in the US, particularly in the streets of Southern states, was a melting pot of continuing Civil Rights Movement actions and the ceaseless discrimination and segregation of blacks. White society was constantly unwilling to acknowledge African
Americans as equal human beings. Then the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was adopted to dismiss oppression of any kind. However, in the second decade of 21st century, Mingus' legacy is more than accurate because the racial struggle continues with the phenomenon of multiple police shootings and abuse of unarmed African Americans.
This chapter analyses various contemporary jazz pieces, which refer to the increasing number of violent acts by police forces towards African Americans. Since the declaration though music instrument has broader range of expression, most of contemporary jazz musicians omit the lyrical part and therefore vocalist. However, some of some of them use the technique of narration, what differs from the 1960s when singing expression was a key element.
The chapter also introduces a new movement, called Black Lives Matter, that aims to alert the US government and general public to this urgent problem. The thesis focuses on those jazz musicians, who try to draw the attention to particular acts of violence on unarmed blacks, especially on African Americans who were killed by police officers. Furthermore, it shows artworks of particular musicians who reflect on tensed atmosphere and continuing racial problems of the 21st century American society with musical rawness and vigor at least as accurate as it was during boisterous 1960s.
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Christian Scott: Ku Klux Police Department
According to the oldest and most significant American jazz journal DownBeat magazine, Christian Scott's expression “drew from his own humanity—as a musician and a black man—to illustrate his vision of pushing the art form forward”(Stan). In his, thus far short career, he recorded at least sixteen albums as a bandleader and some as a sideman. Scott, African American trumpet player, composer, producer and Grammy-
Award was born in the New Orleans, Louisiana, where he still lives and performs on concerts. He is one of the composers who collaborates in his music only with instrumentalists, because some of the emotions are inexpressible. The piece selected for analyzation describes Scott's experience with the police inadequate treatment when he was once “pulled over at 3 a.m. driving home from a gig in his home city. In a flash, he had nine cops pointing guns at him. There was no charge, and Scott escaped physically unharmed, but he came away seething inside: „My first thought was to go get my .45, go back to Claiborne Avenue, and just wait.” Instead, he channeled his frustration into writing a composition about the incident” (Mlynar). To his album from 2009 called
“Introducing Christian Scott”, he included track called Intro to K.K.P.D. (what stands for Ku Klux Police Department). On this track, he is giving a testimony monolog:
K.K.P.D. is a song that was composed from an experience that I had in
New Orleans with the group of police officers. They pulled me over one
night for no reason, they attempted to emasculate me. I remember
looking into the rear view mirror, and this officer has his gun pointed to
the back of my head. He told me to get out of my vehicle, pull my pants
down around my ankles and to lie down on the ground. Now I hadn't
done anything wrong, so my reply to him was that I was not going to do
those things because I had not done anything wrong.
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Then Scott explains how this type of police command had been a typical strategy for past decades in the South as “This tactic of pulling your pants down your ankles is something that they employ in the South in places like Louisiana or Alabama or
Mississippi and Texas, because they have such a prolific history of killing blacks for no reason that the initial reaction for most blacks when they get stopped is to run.”
Scott continues by stating:
I told this officer that I wasn't going to do those things and you know,
which something that incensed him greatly is and he told me that he was
the authority and I was supposed to do as I was told. To which I replied
that I had paid my taxes and as far as I was concerned I was his boss, he
need to let me know why he pulled me over. This was something that
also greatly incensed the man and I remember him then becoming
enraged. […] At that point the conversation took a turn, and we began to
scream really belittling and pejorative things back and forth, it eventually
got the point where they called me the n-word and a number of other
racial epithets and continued to threaten my life. Eventually, a captain, an
older officer, showed up and realized what was going on and told me that
I was allowed to go home and to not worry about this situation. I
remember getting home that night and thinking about going back there
and doing something that would’ve been disastrous to my life and my
career and disastrous to those officers. After thinking on it for a few
hours, I realized that the best way to deal with that dynamic was to write
a composition as a means of illuminating to the world the fact that these
type of things still happen all over the world. (Scott)
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Christian Scott's testimony is one of the brightest and most authentic instances of how jazz composers and musicians are again (or rather still) respond through the medium of jazz to the new way of the oppression of blacks in the streets. Just as John
Coltrane composed exclusively instrumental pieces to express his attitude, Christian
Scott also reveals his manifestation throughout the instrument. Scott later introduces the
K.K.P.D. during the session for NRP declaring that
The reason that I tell the story and the reason that we play this song is not
to build derision or hate it is actually to make sure that we reach
consensus on how to move forward because … We all have a really great
opportunity to profound an opportunity in front of us to be able to create
the reality that we all about. No one is saying things that in two years
Washington DC. or New Orleans Louisiana or Harlem is going to be a
utopia. But at the end of the day the type of word that requires to actually
walk hand in hand together to reach that has to start now and if it doesn't
start now than your children and my children are going to inherit this
issues. (Scott)
Scott is here accurately depicting the reason of ongoing racial issue: racism is inherited affliction passing from generation to generation and until these days is incurable. The Intro To K.K.P.D. is followed with purely instrumental composition named K.K.P.D. Almost eight minutes long song is drifting on the same wave as the rest of the tracks on the album. Scott is incorporating the experience of his past musical ancestors and at the same time is creating something new. As a result, he comes with an authentic expression. Very remarkable about the composition is its expression of personal experience. That is reflected in the way how the piece is created. Each instrument is interconnecting with the leading melody of Scott's trumpet, which has
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deep savage emotional tone, in one point as if it was crying out of hurt and in the other as it was angry enraged howl.
“I grew up in New Orleans in the Ninth Ward, where most people who have been there could argue that it’s basically a third-world country,” Scott continues,
“because of that, I’ve seen how, based upon circumstance and
misallocation of resources, and being ineligible for certain resources, a
lot of people are forced into a way of life that they wouldn’t necessarily
choose if they knew that they had options. It’s a complicated dynamic.”
(Scott)
Terence Blanchard: Breathless
As was mentioned above, in the context of socio-political American issues, the beginning of the second millennium may be considered as a renaissance of the ancient boisterous years of struggle for freedom and equality that faced segregated black society in 1960s. The Black Lives Matter movement can be seen as a reborn Civil Rights
Movement. Black Lives Matter movement was created in 2012 by African American writer and activist Alicia Garza. The main impulse was the trial of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, who had shot dead a 17-year-old
African-American Trayvon Martin in February. Martin had been unarmed, on his way back from a store. The Black Lives Matter movement attracted attention of people internationally, when in 2014 organized two street demonstrations after another two similar cases of death of African Americans, a teenager Michael Brown in the city of
Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in the New York City.
Eric Garner was a 43-year-old African American, placed in a chokehold for 15 to 19 seconds by a white police officer on the sidewalk of Staten Island, New York, in
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July 2014. Garner can be heard on mobile phone video footage saying, “I can’t breathe” at least 11 times, when emasculated by the officers, and was pronounced dead in hospital an hour later. The video posted on YouTube website went viral. (New York
Daily News) Garner's last words “I can’t breathe” became a totemic phrase for Black
Lives Matter protesters and this act of police violence found its way to be reminded in jazz music as well.
This tragic event had a strong impact on Terence Blanchard, multiple Grammy
Award-winning trumpeter and composer and artistic director of unique non-profit organization Thelonious Monk Jazz Institution. In 2015, he released his 20th album, as a bandleader, called “Breathless” and the album was nominated for Grammy Award. As the title indicates, the piece was dedicated to the memory of Eric Garner’s death. One of the first tracks on the album, called “We Can's Breath”, is explicitly referring to
Garner's last words. Replacing personal pronoun with the plural form, Blanchard is evoking the idea that the local problems with increased police abuse against African
American is not just a struggle of minority but the burden of collective responsibility of the entire American society. In his own words he claims that “The whole “I can’t breathe” movement to me itself is a huge statement about a huge issue that has been going on far too long where people just simply feel like they’re not being seen for who they really are. That's why we have a tune on CD called See Me As I Am...” (Blanchard)
The motive of reminding necessity to acknowledge equal human dignity to African
Americans also occurs in many pieces of contemporary jazz musicians. In an interview about his inspiration on his latest album he expressed the urge to react on this topic, when he claims:
These incidents keep recurring and I felt that I needed to do something,
to say something. The more we started to work on the music as a group,
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the more apparent it was that this was going to be our statement that can
hopefully change some minds and some hearts. And let me be clear
about this: for me it is not about a discussion or opening up a dialogue.
I am so sick of that. We’ve been having dialogues for far too long with
no action, no change.
Blanchard continues on account of police “The whole idea of being a public servant is a noble idea. But in practicality, it has become one of the most non-respected entities in our country. And you would think that people would be shamed into just walking the straight and narrow, but they’re not” (Watkins).
Matana Roberts: Black Lives Matter/ All Lives Matter
Another significant but far more extraordinary persona on the contemporary jazz scene is saxophonist, singer and composer Matana Roberts. Except for being all that, she also works in many other contexts such as experimental theatre, dance and poetry.
Improvisation is her quintessential instrument in creative process and it occurs in all her live performances. On December, 2015 at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn NYC,
Matana Roberts gave a performance dedicated to the racial struggle of black America.
She premiered on this particular topic with the experimental piece of work “in progress” as she described it, called Black Lives Matter/All Lives Matter. Via the title of composition, Roberts brought into the focus equality and importance of all people rather than only emphasizing black people.
The performance includes instrumental music that has a free, tuneless, experimental, jazzy and avant-guard form. But at some point, it reveals for example the melody of is the national anthem of the United States of America with the percussions in the background, which are evoking the march past. In contrast, during this particular passage, there is as well gloomy harmony tune in the background, which created the
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tension. Matana Roberts also used a video projection. In her own words she describes the choice of a visual background scene of the performance: “The Video Score is created around imagery of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and etc...” and continues “the entire score, paper and video combo, is based on the grand jury testimony of Darren Wilson and Dorian Johnson as well as various modes of astral numerology and ecological coordinates as related to Ferguson Missouri and the murder of Michael Brown”
Furthermore, in this haunting, almost one-hour long composition, Roberts steps from the saxophone and reads some relevant fragments from the article called 5
Disturbing Facts About Police Militarization in America, drawing attention the problem with increased militarization of police in the US by claiming:
The ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) estimates that 500
local authorities now own mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles...
heavy armored personnel carriers are designed to withstand a roadside
bomb blast in Iraq or Afghanistan...In 2007, 27,000 were built to deploy
to Iraq at a cost of $50 billion and now that the wars are over, the crafts
are being handed out courtesy of the Pentagon's 1033 program. They're
potentially heavy enough to crush bridges, though it's hard to imagine a
situation where small-town cops would need to deploy what's essentially
a tank. In Ferguson, police deployed a smaller vehicle known as a
Bearcat, which was scary enough.
Roberts continues with information that with the police forces being more equipped with military tools, they tend to act in more abusive way and therefore be more violent as she quotes
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The ACLU's data backs that up, showing that police predictably act with
more swagger and force when using heavier equipment, especially on
drug raids. SWAT teams were 14 times as likely as regular officers to use
flashbangs on drug raids and forcibly entered in more than 60% of drug
searches…(qtd. in Soundcloud)
In addition, the chorus statement Roberts is giving in the song after naming the facts is that: “Black lives matter...Black lives matter...All lives matter! All lives matter!”
With first term she is referencing to the contemporary American movement, but she finishes exclaiming “All Lives Matter” as if she was creating new movement or at least she is referring to the peaceful way of solving the problem. In any case, Roberts emphasizing necessity of awareness that every live is threatened under the circumstances of the new phenomenon of police militarization.
In Ferguson, Mo., when the cops get rolling with their high-powered new
gear, they mostly point it at black and brown people. The ACLU
estimated that 61% of SWAT-style raids involved black or Latino
suspects. Of those, an astonishing 68% were for drug searches, as
opposed to only 38% of raids on white suspects. In every single agency,
black people were disproportionately more likely to incur the wrath of a
SWAT team than whites — despite well-documented evidence that white
folks use drugs at more or less the same rates as black people (….) For
what is more, 79% of SWAT-style raids were carried out on a search
warrant. When those teams are called out to bring extreme force on
suspected criminals, tragedies like the flashbang that severely burned a
two-year-old boy or the raid on the wrong house in Miami that injured
two children are inevitable.(qtd. in Soundcloud)
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New statics proved that there has been a massive rise in both a number and the use of police department SWAT teams. “The number of SWAT rate have gone up since
1990s and estimated fifty thousand places every year.”
The problem of increased police militarization could be considered as one of the main domestic crises of contemporary US policy. Thousands of unarmed people, predominantly African Americans, had been shot dead as an outcome of inadequate police interventions.
Tributes Ambrose Akinmusire
Predominant part of the second studio album Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to
Paint by trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire was created during the overwhelming media boom of Trayvon Martin case. Therefore, Akinmusire dedicated a composition
“Rollcall for Those Absent” to all victims of the inadequate police interventions.
Akinmusire created one other composition called “My Name is Oscar”. The piece is instrumental with Muna Blake (the young daughter of drummer Johnathan Blake) reading the names of numerous people killed by police — or by vigilante action, as in the prominent case of Trayvon Martin, whose name is in the composition repeated numerous times along with the names of the “absent” such as (in order of appearance):
“Ousmane Zongo (†2003), Timothy Standsburry (†2004), Sean Bell (†2006), Manuel
Loggins (†2012), Kimani Gray (†2013), Thimothy Russell (†2012), Kendrec McDate
(†2012), Thimothy Russell (†2012) , Orlando Barlow (†2003), Travares McGill
(†2005), Aaron Campbell (†2003), Victor Steen (†2009)” (Akinmusire)
Those are all men of unarmed African American descent that were shot death by various police officers during first two decades of the 21st century.
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A composition of Arkinmusire's first studio album When the Heart Emerges
Glistening is called “My Name is Oscar”. Its lyrics are very simple; Akinmusire is only naming words, vaguely defining circumstances of the Grant's death: “My name is
Oscar, Apology, 19 days, An Adoration; My name is Oscar, Don't shoot! Auckland,
Live, we are the Same, I am Grant, I Grant, My Name is Oscar Grand” (Akinmusire)
Essential for this song is the instrumental part. Ambrose Akinmusire composed this tune only for percussion instruments, which are not creating melody in this case only rhythmic section that serves as an evolving reference to the tense situation and shooting themselves.
Robert Glasper
In music of piano player Robert Glasper and trombonist Ambrose Akinmusire is reflected the necessity to respond to the dreadful results of continuing violence and abuse in the streets of the US. The two musicians are considered to be most influential jazz musicians of the 21st century. “Glasper underscores the music with a lulling melody and a lithe samba rhythm. Still, he contrasts that by having his 6-year-old son, Riley, and a group of friends enumerate the litany of black Americans killed by the police – many of whom were mentioned in I'm Dying of Thirst”(Murph)
I am Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, John Crawford, Rekia Boyd, Aiyana Jones, Oscar Grant the Third, Timothy Stansbury Jr, Ramarley Graham, I am... Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Danroy Henry, Jonathan Ferrell, Shantel Davis, Alanda Barlo, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Thickorus Deen, Kendrec McDade. I am... Jordan Davis, Wendell Allen, Ronald Madison. I am... Yvette Smith, Renisha McBride, Kimani Gray I am... I really enjoy that we're all different people that are really special. I feel proud to be brown every day. I enjoy being brown especially if my skin rips, I am thinking about brown. And I'm thinking about what color I am but I have to be myself. You have to be happy of who you are… (Glasper, Jr.)
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In the last paragraph, Glasper indicates that one's descent should not define live full of fear. He emphasizes the importance of realizing racial diversity as something to be cherished not threatened.
Finally, both Robert Glasper and Ambrose Akinmusire let their child offspring to participate in the compositions. Presumably, one of the intentions was to use child voices to refer to the number of young and innocent African Americans killed by the police. Another meaning has more timeless importance- now as they have their own kids; they have come to realize that as them being the part of the present generation, they hold responsibility towards the future generations.
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4. Conclusion
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”(King, Jr.).
Martin Luther King, Jr. looked upon the importance of color and for the further future expressed hope that racism will be suppressed. The Civil Rights Movement fought its way to assert the Civil Rights Act of 1968 that prohibited racial discrimination. Unfortunately, more than a half a century after the House passed the legislation, the problem of racism against African Americans is still present in
American society of the 21st century. When the fatal violent action of police officer
George Zimmerman against unarmed teenage African American Trayvon Martin resulted unpunished, new movement to protect lives of African Americans Black Lives
Matter took action. Since 2013 it regularly organizes street protests and marches to draw attention to this continuing phenomenon of racism and in addition to that, to the police brutality launched especially against African Americans. Injustice did not stay unnoticed and it were the voices of jazz musicians that substantially contributed to hasten struggle for freedom of African American minority.
Billie Holiday was a first jazz singer to introduce a protest song against racism and segregation when she performed “Strange Fruit” and so drew public attention to the lynchings which were particularly executed in Southern states. The song was a mournful springboard for the turbulent 1960s filled with marches, protests and rebellion that burst into passionate freedom howl of jazz musicians. However, Max Roach commented on one of the tracks called Freedom Day (of revolutionary album We
Insist!) as “we could never finish it, because freedom itself was so hard to grasp: “we don't really understand what it really is to be free. The last sound we did, 'Freedom
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Day,' ended with a question mark” (Monson). And this feeling transcended into 21st century presents resembling nature and power. New musical freedom riders were formed in order to accomplish what their ancestors were pursuing in the 1960s. The sophisticated performance “Black Lives Matter/ All Lives Matter” by Matana Roberts, personal testimony in composition called “Ku Klux Police Department” by Christian
Scott and an album Breathless by Terence Blanchard laid foundations of a soundtrack that contemporary African American community essentially needs as a present heritage to continue to call for a social change. In addition, trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire and pianist Robert Glasper contributed with the dazzling tributes for the absent innocent victimized souls of the African American descent. These two musicians are considered to be leading influential personalities of contemporary jazz scene what spreads their message beyond the black community.
Consequently, the legacy of contemporary jazz musician referring with their composition is relevant in the present as it was the 1960s with the leading jazz personalities attracting the attention of the public on American struggle with race.
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Resumé (English)
The main focus of the bachelor thesis is analyzation of selected jazz compositions from the middle of 20th century in the context of African American Civil
Rights Movement and how jazz musical artwork from the second decade of 21st century reflects the same American struggle with race. In addition, the thesis examines reciprocal relation of jazz music and tumultuous racial discourse in the US. First chapter provides analysis of Abel Meeropol's poem “Strange Fruit” along with the commentary on the courageous performance of Billie Holiday that draw public attention to racial injustice, particularly on lynching executions of innocent African Americans.
Furthermore, the chapter concentrates on four compositions by Max Roach, Nina
Simone, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. All of them reacted very passionately thought out jazz music on various events in connection to the African American Civil
Rights Movement, what hasten its development. The following chapter compares the
21st century state of racial tension in American society with the boisterous 1960s.
Mainly, it focuses on the increase of militarization of police offices which are consequently more violent during administration of justice. Besides, new movement initiated by African Americans called Black Lives Matter is presented here. This chapter also introduces specific compositions of contemporary jazz musicians, namely
Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard, Matana Roberts, Ambrose Akinmusire and Robert
Glasper. In order to attract public's attention on the raised number of killings of unarmed African Americans by police, they created several important artworks.
Consequently, the outcome of the thesis is that the social acknowledgment of African
Americans in white American society is still very fragile and that this stigma of racial discrimination is passed from generation to generation.
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Resumé (Czech)
Hlavním cílem této bakalářské práce je analýza vybraných jazzových skladeb z poloviny 20. staletí v kontextu Afroamerického hnutí za občanská práva a jak jazzová hudební tvorba z druhého desetiletí 21. století odráží stejné rasové problémy v Americe.
Práce taky zkoumá vzájemný vztah jazzové hudby a bouřlivý rasový diskurz probíhající ve Spojených státech. První kapitola podává analýzu básně “Strange Fruit” od Abela
Meeropola spolu s komentářem na téma odvážného vystoupení Billie Holiday, které přitáhlo pozornost veřejnosti k rasové nespravedlnosti, zvláště k lynčování nevinných
Afroameričanů. Kromě toho se kapitola dále zaměřuje na čtyři kompozice Maxe
Roacha, Niny Simone, Johna Coltrana a Carlese Mingusa. Všichni zmínění reagovali velmi zaníceně na různé události spojené s Afroamerickým hnutím za občanská práva skrz jazzovou hudbu, což taky přispělo k urychlení vývoje tohoto hnutí. Následující kapitola porovnává rasové napětí v americké společnosti v 60. letech 20. století se situací v 21. století. Soustředí se zejména na zvýšenou militarizaci policejních důstojníku, která způsobuje nárůst násilnosti při výkonu spravedlnosti. V téhle kapitole je taky představené nové afroamerické hnutí zvané Black Lives Matter a taky specifické kompozice současných jazzových muzikantů, a to Christiana Scotta, Terence
Blancharda, Matanu Roberts, Ambrose Akinmusire a Roberta Glaspera. Za účelem upoutání pozornosti veřejnosti na zvýšený počet zabití neozbrojených Afroameričanů policií, vytvořili zmínění hudebníci několik významných děl. V důsledku je výsledkem této bakalářské práce to, že sociální uznání Afroameričanů v bílé americké společnosti je pořád velmi křehké, a že stigma rasové nesnášenlivosti se i nadále přenáší z generace na generaci.
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