Freedom, Jazz, Democracy
There was a time when giants walked the land—when syncopated rhythm, mixed with the blues changed the world. It was a revolution in swing, democratic by nature and egalitarian by birth. If you could play, the bandstand was wide open, black or white, male or female; you just had to prove that you could hang. If you couldn’t, you were free to sit and listen for the price of a drink. Royalty could be found at the local watering establishment. Counts and Dukes served up stream of consciousness melody, against a backdrop of altered harmony and strutting cadence. It was peculiarly and singularly American. It proved that rhythm was more important than race, and the need to groove trumped the artificial line in the sand.
If you want to know why individuals, not governments, are the foundation of freedom—and why government is always slow to catch on, look at the history of jazz. Better still, listen. When people want something bad enough, they’ll find a way to get it. That’s why jazz didn’t happen in Europe, or even Africa. It’s why the best laid plans of government and their cronies so often fail.
It always starts the same way. A grass roots movement that makes its way, one by one, into the minds, ears and hearts of individuals. Not as collective action, but, as a one step at a time transformation. Only then do governments and corporations alike take notice.
The same phenomenon has happened countless times. A couple of Polish-Jewish immigrants, with a feel for business—some Southern black musicians, eager to slip the bonds of Jim Crow, having recently migrated across the Mason-Dixon line, converge to make history. That was the beginning of Chess records. It wasn’t some enlightened bureaucrat with good intentions that was the prescription for freedom or integration, but, individual initiative and ambition. Stax records in Memphis, Muscle Shoals in Alabama, Sun and Atlantic Records, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, blues, country, bluegrass, be-bop, soul, gospel, that is a partial list of American music in the last 75 years. Nothing, even remotely comparable happened anywhere else in the world during that same period.
European rock and roll, by comparison, was thoroughly rooted in American vernacular music. The Beatles and the Stones simply gave us back our own music, with a British accent and a page boy haircut.
Freedom has a downside mind you. It means that if you really want something bad enough, you may have to really sacrifice to get it. But once you've made that sacrifice, you own it. It’s yours and no one else’s. Conversely, if you're unwilling to make the necessary sacrifice, you might be inclined to demand that it’s your right to own it anyway. And then demand that someone go and get it for you. It will never really be yours; it will be on loan, until someone else determines you should give it up for the next protected group that has voted themselves your property.
That’s why if you really love jazz and blues and all of the other music that is uniquely American, and you have the inclination to play like the masters, you have to be free, bad notes and all—struggle, hard work and scuffling at gigs is your heritage. Not government subsidies or even Public Radio. Admittedly, I listen to a lot more NPR than traditional AM or FM radio. On the other hand, for the music to thrive it needs a healthy dose of freedom and an audience that continues to hear it expressed in their own way, alive and changing. Not as some museum piece, protected by beneficent politicians with good intentions.
In the end, that’s how we got here, the music simply reflects that. Even the musicians tend to forget this. Maybe they never really knew it to begin with. We don’t always know how we got here. We don’t have to. Why? Because, democracy, like the bandstand is never about just one player, not the soloist or the rhythm section—every musician is there because they choose to be, playing the way they want, what they want. And if they don’t like it, they can find another place to play, and make it their own!
Mark Magula
If you want to know why individuals, not governments, are the foundation of freedom—and why government is always slow to catch on, look at the history of jazz. Better still, listen. When people want something bad enough, they’ll find a way to get it. That’s why jazz didn’t happen in Europe, or even Africa. It’s why the best laid plans of government and their cronies so often fail.
It always starts the same way. A grass roots movement that makes its way, one by one, into the minds, ears and hearts of individuals. Not as collective action, but, as a one step at a time transformation. Only then do governments and corporations alike take notice.
The same phenomenon has happened countless times. A couple of Polish-Jewish immigrants, with a feel for business—some Southern black musicians, eager to slip the bonds of Jim Crow, having recently migrated across the Mason-Dixon line, converge to make history. That was the beginning of Chess records. It wasn’t some enlightened bureaucrat with good intentions that was the prescription for freedom or integration, but, individual initiative and ambition. Stax records in Memphis, Muscle Shoals in Alabama, Sun and Atlantic Records, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, blues, country, bluegrass, be-bop, soul, gospel, that is a partial list of American music in the last 75 years. Nothing, even remotely comparable happened anywhere else in the world during that same period.
European rock and roll, by comparison, was thoroughly rooted in American vernacular music. The Beatles and the Stones simply gave us back our own music, with a British accent and a page boy haircut.
Freedom has a downside mind you. It means that if you really want something bad enough, you may have to really sacrifice to get it. But once you've made that sacrifice, you own it. It’s yours and no one else’s. Conversely, if you're unwilling to make the necessary sacrifice, you might be inclined to demand that it’s your right to own it anyway. And then demand that someone go and get it for you. It will never really be yours; it will be on loan, until someone else determines you should give it up for the next protected group that has voted themselves your property.
That’s why if you really love jazz and blues and all of the other music that is uniquely American, and you have the inclination to play like the masters, you have to be free, bad notes and all—struggle, hard work and scuffling at gigs is your heritage. Not government subsidies or even Public Radio. Admittedly, I listen to a lot more NPR than traditional AM or FM radio. On the other hand, for the music to thrive it needs a healthy dose of freedom and an audience that continues to hear it expressed in their own way, alive and changing. Not as some museum piece, protected by beneficent politicians with good intentions.
In the end, that’s how we got here, the music simply reflects that. Even the musicians tend to forget this. Maybe they never really knew it to begin with. We don’t always know how we got here. We don’t have to. Why? Because, democracy, like the bandstand is never about just one player, not the soloist or the rhythm section—every musician is there because they choose to be, playing the way they want, what they want. And if they don’t like it, they can find another place to play, and make it their own!
Mark Magula
Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln: "Freedom Now Suite" Wynton Marsalis and President Bill Clinton
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