Introduction
The following pages describe the contributions toward social justice made by several prominent jazz musicians. These pages are by no means comprehensive; many musicians worked to further the rights of minority peoples in large and small ways. In fact, every time a black performer steps onto a stage to play, he or she is promoting equality and justice simply by presenting themselves as a performer who has the right to publicly play their music as an equal to all other performers, their race or ethnicity having no place in that societal judgment. It wasn’t always so; musicians (Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald, for example) were regularly arrested for, or simply barred from, playing in front of white audiences.
While these pages are largely about social action, make no mistake: it is the music that matters. From the very beginnings here in our country, Gospel music and the blues were the healing music, created by slaves, that gave strength and resilience to the oppressed. The source of that healing is twofold: spiritually, in the deep feeling that gave it its place in the world of the oppressed workers of the slavery-based plantations, and, esthetically, in its sheer beauty. The tones created by Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and so many others are fully as musically masterful as any other work in our musical lexicon. In fact, it is often said that jazz is America’s music.
In his book, “Music: A Subversive History,” Ted Gioia describes the timeless arc of music emerging in the outer edges of societies’ cities, towns and gathering places as expression of a deep common feeling, then gradually being absorbed and reshaped to fit into the confines of the dominant culture because of its inherent appeal . Here, it was used in its altered form to promulgate the dominant culture’s purposes. The evolution of jazz, from its cotton-field and church origins to the stages and studios of mainstream America, both exemplifies and challenges that cycle: jazz remains today as an ongoing bed of creativity, where musicians express themselves in their own voice every time they play. If , as some say, popular, big-stage jazz can be seen as accommodating to some degree to the demands of the culture and its marketplace, just take yourself to the small clubs and local performance halls, and listen to the joy, pain, pride, and dismay of the cats who stand there and just play. If you can listen to what’s really going on, you’ve got to be moved by its beauty and spirit.
In terms of civil rights and social justice, the relationship between music and the injustices perpetrated on peoples of lower standing began early in the history of mankind. For us, we know that slaves on plantations and their families sang and chanted about their mistreatment behind the backs of their masters, and even in code when the whites were around to listen. The early blues singers were the same- their sociological and economic plights played right along with love, sex, and violence to fill the air in the evenings, when the work was done and people gathered to unwind.
In the 1920s, Louis Armstrong spoke out by changing the lyrics of a popular show tune; then, as swing and bebop came on the scene in the 30s, musicians began to become emboldened to make their public stands. Benny Goodman was the first prominent white bandleader to hire black players for his groups- maybe he was the Branch Rickey of jazz- and people like Duke Ellington refused to take the stage where blacks were not allowed in the audience. As the civil rights spirit emerged in society, prominent musicians like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and so many others began to speak out despite white producers and audiences who did not welcome their comments. With the leverage that their celebrity and music gave them, these men and women, and now many more who have followed in their musical footsteps, took on the responsibility of success and risked their standings in the marketplace with messages about racial equality and social justice. It seems their courage matches their talent in intensity- and importance.
This series, Jazz and Social Justice, presented by the Santa Fe Branch of the NAACP, is intended to provide enjoyment for those attending our meetings, help to foster a spirit of collaboration and continuing commitment to the goals of NAACP through the shared experience of listening to these courageous artists, and, at the deepest level, to keep feeding the fires of our movement burning in all of us through the power of music. Segments of various performances and recordings will play in the few minutes before each meeting, and the media link to the full performance and other works by the artists, as well as some historical commentary on the artist’s social action, will be posted on the NAACPSFNM website, under the menu heading “About,” and the listing, “Jazz and Social Justice.”
Take heart and courage in the actions of these wonderful people, and enjoy their music.
Lou Levin, November, 2023
November 2024
Etta James
Etta James was another of those artists who pushed the boundaries of music and talent into the murky and complicated mix of America’s struggle with racism, inequality, and injustice. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice). Rolling Stone ranked her as one of the greatest singers of all time.
She stands out as a reminder of what music could be when it was rooted in passion, desire and possibility rather than in the corporate playbook version that has all but killed the kind of sound she produced. This theme, of mainstream corporate America, taking the authentic and blanding it down for popular consumption, is discussed at length in Ted Goia’s Music: A Subversive History, and is very much worth reading for any music fan.
Etta James died on 20 January after battling leukemia.
Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton gave a rousing speech about her rise from poverty and drug addiction to make music that crossed racial divides.
He read a statement from US President Barack Obama, who praised her part in “our nation’s musical heritage”.
In his eulogy, Rev Sharpton described Etta James as a “bridge of American culture that changed the culture of the world”.
“Etta James helped break down the culture curtain of America before the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” he said. “She was able to get us to sing the same rhythms and melodies.”
He began the two-hour service by reading the statement from President Obama, who danced at his inaugural ball to Etta James’ most famous song, At Last.
“Etta will be remembered for her legendary voice and her contributions to our nation’s musical heritage,” Mr. Obama said.
Another of Etta’s memorable hits is “I’d Rather Go Blind,” which recorded by herself and then with Dr John, in a stirring video in which the lyrics, the singing, and the virtual musical dance carry the passion, connectedness, and vicissitudes of life itself.
When President Obama had Beyonce perform At Last for he and Michelle to dance to at his inauguration in 2009, Etta’s fiery response was, “She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol’ president day, gonna be singing my song that I’ve been singing forever,” said James.
Once you see her video with Dr John, you will be seeing, hearing and singing it forever.
I’d Rather Go Blind, with Dr John: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVvtb71y6PE
October 2024
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye, enormously successful as a pop singer, is a striking example of how musicians used, and risked, their popularity to speak out in hard-hitting social critique. His 1971 album, “What’s Going On,” went beyond entertainment, bringing social advocacy into the realm of pop music. On this album, he wrote directly about social and economic disenchantment, openly naming the Vietnam War and police brutality (“What’s Going On”); environmental injustice (“Mercy, Mercy, Me” or “The Ecology Song”); and economic disparities and systemic racism (“Make Me Wanna Holler” or “Inner City Blues”).
Gaye’s music and style inspired activism in the 1970s, and his work is an inspiration for today’s artists who use their platforms to make effective social and political statements
In the song “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”, he depicted life in the ghettos of inner-city America, a poignant commentary on the systemic issues that plague inner city communities. The lyrics illustrate a tapestry of despair and disillusionment, set against a backdrop of a system seemingly indifferent to the plight of its people.
By using his skills and successes in this way, Gaye joined the ranks of those who believe that art can embody, carry, reflect and promulgate the human spirit’s capacity for hope.
What’s Goin’ On: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M
September 2024
Norman Grantz
This month, we honor a white man, Norman Granz, who committed his talents and energies toward improving conditions for black artists.
Granz was a white producer and agent for musicians who fully saw the value of jazz, and music, as a tool for social change.
As a child of Ukranian Jewish immigrant parents, he suffered first hand as a target of prejudice. When, as an adult, he took his black date to dinner and there suffered race-based antagonism, he fully recognized what discrimination was and how it plays out in every-day life.
In 1944, Granz launched his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concert series, that brought together artists such as Lester Young, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald. Here, he worked to facilitate desegregation in that prestigious institution.
This was a move away for jazz from nightclubs to concert halls, and the live recordings that came from the concerts were a major factor in bringing jazz to the general public, and making it accessible to everyone. Granz donated the proceeds from the first JATP concert to assist the young defendants in the racially charged Los Angeles “Sleepy Lagoon” murder trial.
Throughout his work with musicians, Granz steadfastly fought to get the various venues he brought his musicians to treat them fairly and respect them. When a patron complained about sitting next to a black person, Granz gave him his money back but wouldn’t change his seat.
Music: While he supported many artists, I’m posting Ella; well, because she’s Ella.
Ella Fitzgerald, Summertime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU
Article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-history/2021/04/29/norman-granz/
August 2024
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz, born in Baltimore, attended Julliard, then became a very highly regarded saxophonist who played with people like Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln. His career took off after he subbed for a sax player in the Jazz Messengers at his father’s club in Baltimore. Blakey immediately hired him for the Messengers. His presence on the jazz scene is another example of the pursuit of civil rights through the power of artistry and accomplishments. While his performances and recordings are masterful representations of his musical genius, his work “I’ve Known Rivers,” is one that focuses in a directed musical way with the black experience.
Based on the Langston Hughes poem, Bartz uses it as a sonic depiction of the heritage and experience of Black life. A highlight of the album is the song, “Uhuru Sasa,” a song of liberation and self-determination. .
Joshua Quddus, writing for the project, Harmony 4All, says,
“Bartz’s saxophone echoes the ebb and flow of the mighty rivers that have shaped the collective consciousness of the Black community,” and calls him “a griot whose tales are woven into the fabric of American culture.”
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Music: Uhuru Sasa (Freedom Now, Swahili) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsxht79qbMc
July 2024
Sarah Vaughan
“Sassy,” “The Queen of Bebop,” “The Divine one.” Sarah Vaughan was, along with Ella and Billie, everything musical a jazz singer was supposed to be. She was totally in control, and musical perfection itself. Also, instead of separating herself from the band when the music was over, she ate, drank, smoked with them. She was, truly, “one of the boys.”
With her $125,000 contract for Mercury records in 1956, she became the first black woman to stand on the same ground as her white contemporaries, and paved the way for black performers, especially women. Along with her jazz, she recorded overly commercial tunes like “Make Yourself Comfortable,” and, in so doing, opened avenues for blacks that were previously occupied entirely by white singers.
She openly discussed racial issues, referred to slavery in the context of how black performers were treated by record executives, and was forthright in conversation of these issues- even on national television e.g., the Dick Cavett Show, in ways that many performers shied away from in fear of reprisal.
This open-ness became the inspiration for both her contemporaries and the next generation of black performers to refuse to shy away from bringing them forward. She helped her contemporaries see that by using their popular platform to express advocacy for social justice they could, and clearly should, make a positive difference in the world.
Over her career, she won four Grammy Awards and a posthumous induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy, and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She also won the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, the highest honor bestowed by the NEA, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to jazz. Additionally, Vaughan was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors.
Music: Lullaby of Birdland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cFdZyWOOs
Google Sarah Vaughan Misty and take your pick!
June 2024
Miles Davis
The Conductor of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement
Miles Davis music is known virtually around the world as a major representation of American jazz. His album, Kind of Blue, has been the highest-selling jazz record of all time. Even though his playing went through a number of stylistic changes, he consistently played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. As a musical genius, innovative spirit, and a man deeply committed to racial equality, he is a crucial figure in the midst of a turbulent time in our history.
Miles was born in 1926 in Alton, Illinois, and showed an early aptitude for music. He started playing the trumpet at a young age and eventually moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music.
In the 1950s and 1960s, while the United States was grappling with racial segregation, social injustice, and the fight for civil rights, jazz became, because of the efforts of Davis, the several performers in our series, and so many others, powerful medium for the voice of the struggle. Miles Davis used his music as a platform for social commentary, addressing the issues of racial injustice and inequality. His compositions and improvisations were a reflection of the times, capturing the frustration, resilience, and hope of the African American community.
is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
In 1963, during the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, Davis performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His presence and performance symbolized the unity of the arts and the Civil Rights Movement.
Beyond his musical contributions, Miles Davis spoke out against racial injustice, refused to play in segregated venues, and actively supported African American causes. He also became a vocal advocate for the rights of black artists, demanding equal treatment in the music industry.
Miles Davis’ legacy extends far beyond his musical achievements. His courage, creativity, and commitment to social justice have left an indelible mark on the history of the Civil Rights Movement. By using his art to address the challenges of his time, Davis became not only a musical icon but also a symbol of resistance and change.
Through his talent, activism, and refusal to accept racial inequality, he was trailblazer showing future generations of African American musicians to use their art as a tool for social change. As we celebrate his musical legacy, it is essential to recognize the enduring impact of his commitment to justice and equality.
Music: All Blues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-488UORrfJ0
May 2024
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack was a wonderful singer who crossed over between jazz and pop with songs like “The First Time Ever I Saw your Face,” winning Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, the number one hit in the US with “Killing Me Softly,” and “Compared to What,” which contains lyrics against the Vietnam War and President Lyndon B. Johnson with lines such as: “The president, he’s got his war / Folks don’t know just what it’s for / Nobody gives us rhyme or reason / Have one doubt, they call it treason.” Les McCann, jazz pianist and vocalist, also did a very successful version of this tune.
In addition to what she brought to the music world as proof that a Black woman can rule the charts, Roberta was also a dedicated humanitarian, educational activist and purveyor of social conscience. In that regard, she established the Roberta Flack Foundation to support aspiring young creative people and the many racial and feminist causes she cared so much about.
In July 2019, her foundation’s provided a significant grant to the organization Shelectricity, a first-of-its kind, digitally-enabled ecosystem to empower adolescent girls of color in the U.S. to reach their full potential and thrive. Shelectricity uses technology, culture, and community to create safe and nurturing online and in-person environments for girls to learn, grow, innovate and lead. Its founder, Anasa Troutman, says, “It is my highest aspiration that our girls continue to grow into the kind of women that Ms. Flack is: wildly creative, deeply compassionate and intimately involved in the creation of culture with an impact that will reverberate for generations to come.”
Also, along with educator/filmmaker Carol Swainson,she created a film to help white parents teach their children to realize and deal with the racial narrative that is often found in our music and other media. Carol Swainson, Roberta’s partner in many endeavors, founded and ran the International Peace and Art Center, which promotes peace and social justice through the arts.
Roberta never forgot that, as a young girl, she was provided the support that her foundation aims to foster. Growing up in rural Black Mountain, North Carolina, she was mentored by her family, teachers, church members, choir directors and many others who helped her realize and actualize her talents and dreams. She always maintained the importance of nurturing young people to realize their dreams through education and mentorship, the cornerstone of The Roberta Flack Foundation.
Reflecting on the healing power of music, Roberta said, “I’m deeply saddened that many of the songs I recorded 50 years ago about civil rights, equal rights, poverty, hunger and suffering in our society are still relevant in 2020 and I hope that people will hear these songs in a new way as they connect to their lives today, to this pandemic, to the growing economic disparities, to Black Lives Matter, to police brutality, to activism versus apathy, and the need for each of us to see it and address it. I will continue to use my music to touch hearts, tell my truth, and encourage people always to do whatever they can, however they can, to make the world better.”
Music: Compared to What https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDUk9Lsy_yQ
April 2024
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington had an enormous impact on the popular music of the late 20th century. Today his recordings remain among the most popular jazz of the big-band era. He is considered to be one of the greatest jazz composers of all time.
in 1927, as his career got underway, Ellington’s band was booked at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. This was a major turning point for him because of the club’s enormous popularity as a centerpoint for the new emergence of jazz. However, the Cotton Club catered to a largely white clientele, and discrimination was so blatant that black performers were made to enter through back doors and were not allowed to interact with the white customers.
Disgusted with, and not being able to change that policy, Ellington left The Cotton Club despite its extreme popularity. But the brilliance of his music carried his career forward. By 1961, he included non-segregation clauses in his contracts and refused to play before segregated audiences when that was ignored. In Baltimore, for example, he took the band off the stage when he came out on stage and saw that the room was segregated.
Ellington contributed to the mission of the NAACP as early as the 1930s, speaking out publicly on various issues in his customary elegant and quiet manner; he also held benefit concerts for racially victimized people like the Scottsboro Boys, nine black adolescents falsely imprisoned for rape in 1931.
In 1939, Billy Strayhorn joined the band as an arranger, composer, and sometimes pianist. Strayhorn’s contribution to Ellington’s achievements at the time were significant, and even some of their most popular tunes (such as “Take The A Train”) were written by Strayhorn.
In addition to the still well-recognized tunes, such as “Satin Doll, ”It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing,” “Mood Indigo,” and so many others, Ellington wrote virtually symphonic pieces such as “Black and Tan Fantasy” a masterful work combining the speaking traditions of black preachers with the humor and rhythms of black life, challenging the popular belief that black music was just “jungle music.” In the first movement, “Black,” pays homage to American slaves, beginning with a work song and swaying into a heart aching hymn of longing. The second section, “Brown,” follows the emancipation of slaves into the Jim Crow era, and all the way through the two world wars. The third section, “Beige,” Ellington explained, is about the Black Americans who “still don’t have enough to eat or a place to sleep, in spite of the progress that’s been made.” Ellington’s hope for the composition was that it would educate and unify. He was seeking to show, through music, that black life that was both beautiful and complex. In accompanying essays, consisting of 29 pages of text, he wrote “The music of my race is something more than the American idiom. It is the result of our transplantation to American soil, and was our reaction in the plantation days to the tyranny we endured. What we could not say openly, we expressed in music.”
He was attempting, in his thoughtful, elegant presentations, to challenge listeners to grapple with the segregation and violence that Black Americans continued to face, and reminded them that the fight was far from over and that the voices of Black America would not be silenced.
In his more than fifty years as a professional musician, Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, awarded a doctor of music degree from Yale University, given the Medal of Freedom, and, most importantly, built the foundations from which much of the best American music consequently grew.
Take The A-Train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6mFGy4g_n8
March 2024
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson was born in 1925, into an integrated neighborhood in Montreal. Despite his enlightened surroundings, overall in Canada social justice was not an established, consistent reality. In fact, Oscar Peterson’s path to become one of the finest pianists in the history of music had everything to do with his identity as a black man in a highly racialized society. His father, a follower of Harlem’s Marcus Garvey reminded him to be purposeful.
Even in jazz clubs, which were not officially segregated, black performers encountered discrimination in booking. Radio stations featured no black artists; when Peterson rose to prominence as a jazz musician, announcers, though glowing in their reviews of his artistry, used racist, insulting comments. This led Peterson to determine that he was going to use his success to get where he could affect racial cultural attitudes.
So he chose music as his response to social and racial injustice, and began writing and performing music that directly spoke to racial issues. For example the “Africa” suite was directed toward the struggle for human rights in apartheid South Africa, featuring “Nigerian Marketplace,” as was “Peace,” for South Africa, and “The Fallen Warrior,” composed for and dedicated to Nelson Mandela.
One of his film projects, Fields of Endless Day (CBC, 1978), recounts the story of slaves using the Underground Railroad to escape from the United States to Canada
This work culminated in the beloved “Hymn to Freedom,” written in 1962, dedicated to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was composed spontaneously in the studio while he was recording the very successful album “Night Train,” produced by iconic jazz impresario Norman Granz- whose name appears often in these pages.
On this beautiful hymn, he “Tried, to the best of my ability, to recall the various church renderings of numerous Negro spirituals that I grew up with, and within this form I attempted to construct the melodic and harmonic first chorus.
“After I finished the first chorus, I looked up at Ray [Brown] and Ed [Thigpen] and nodded for them to join me on the tune. They did so, with Ray taking a two-beat approach to the bass line, and Ed joined in softly with his brushes… I glanced up at the control room glass, and could see Norman with his eyes closed and his head buried in his hands.”
in Aachen, Germany, the Deutsche Welle Choir of Fifty Voices sang the Hymn to Freedom as Peterson was awarded the UNESCO International Music Prize
Video: In The Key Of Oscar (NFB, 1991) Music: Hymn to Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCrrZ1NnCuM
February 2024
Billie Holiday
With an absent father, and a mother who left her with relatives while she worked on trains, Billie had dropped out of school by age 11, was subject to a rape attempt at 14, and was soon on the streets and into prostitution.
Then, her remarkable talent emerged, and her musical career began to unfold. Along the way, she had relationships with various men, including the saxophonist Lester Young, who she met in Count Basie’s band; they gave each other their famous nicknames: ‘Lady Day’ and ‘Prez.’
At one point while visiting her mother, she asked for some money. Her mother refused. Billie stormed out of the room muttering “God bless the child who’s got his own.” The comment was overheard, and became the song we all know.
After leaving Basie, she sang with Artie Shaw’s orchestra as one of the first black women to sing with a white band. On tour, she received hostile racist treatment in the South, where Shaw stood up for her, and in New York, where she was required to use the service elevator and enter through the kitchen so as not to offend white customers.
Abel Meeropol, writing as Lewis Allen, had written a poem called “Bitter Fruit” after seeing a photo of 2 Black Teens being lynched. Billie heard it sung in Café Society in New York- the first integrated bar in New York- and, after some hesitation because she thought she knew what to expect, she began closing out her performances with it. She would have the waiters quiet the room, and only a single spotlight to light her face as she sang. The room went dark when she finished; when the lights came back on, she has gone from the stage.
However, after her label, Columbia records, refused to record the song fearing adverse reaction, Billie recorded it with Commodore Records in 1939. It eventually sold 1 million copies, was named “Song of the Century by Time Magazine, and has been covered by artists like Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Billie was posthumously given many Grammies, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Audra McDonald played Billie’s drug-ridden performance in the 2016 play, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” for which she was awarded a Tony. She accepted the award on Billie’s behalf, saying, “I want to thank all the shoulders and brave courageous women that I am standing on… and, most of all, Billie Holiday: You deserve so much more than you were given when you were on this planet. This is for you.”
From, The Day Lady Died, by Frank O’hara:
“and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing”
Movies: Lady Sings the Blues,with Dianna Ross playing Lady Day; The United States vs. Billie Holiday, with Andra Day
Music:
God Bless the Child https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m7WAQE1SOs&t=33s
Strange Fruit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bckob0AyKCA
January 2024
Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock is one of the giant figures in American jazz ‘s movement away from the more traditional styles of previous generations of jazz. While he was fully capable of playing in the be-bop fashion and the next stylistic modifications, he was a fore-runner in taking jazz to new, developing sounds.
As barriers to housing, education, employment and services began to be broken down by the passing of Civil Rights laws, many things began to change throughout the country, and Herbie was a leader in the movement in which African American jazz musicians wanted jazz to be more of a reflection of their African roots.
After Dr King’s death, he made the following statement in his honor:
“I don’t think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.“
As black consciousness expanded following the civil rights movement and musicians began to adopt African names, Hancock chose Mwandishi, which meant teacher or leader in Swahili.
Herbie was part of the official US delegation led by MLK III to “The Living Dream” concert in New Delhi, celebrating 50th anniversary of MLK’s 1st visit to India. Among other pieces, he accompanied Chaka Khan and Dee Dee Bridgewater as they sang “We Shall Overcome.” In his remarks at the concert, he said:
“Music brings people together. In our tradition, the freedom tradition, if Gandhi and MLK were with us today they might have told us that we shall overcome but maybe in some degrees we have overcome. We are celebrating the meeting of two great visionaries whose vision resulted in the first black president to America.”
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a nonprofit education organization which preserves jazz as a global art form, and utilizes it as a means to unite people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities through its educational and performance endeavors. Its programs are provided free of charge, using music as the medium to encourage imaginative thinking, creativity, a positive self-image, and a respect for one’s own and others’ cultural heritage.
The following statement was presented by the Institute in support of the Black Lives Matter movement: (permission granted by Herbie Hancock Institute to use this quotation)
“This is an extraordinary moment in our history. We, the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, are proud to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter global movement for justice and accountability, to root out the systemic racism that has been embedded in American life for centuries. Similar crimes against marginalized people all over the world can no longer be ignored.
Music heals! Gospel music and the blues were the healing music, created by slaves, that gave strength and resilience to the oppressed. …Jazz is about freedom!
In spite of a longtime legacy of racism and injustice, Black Americans have continued to make advances in human rights through courage and tenacity, never giving up the fight for equality, and have continually contributed as a major influence on American and world culture in music, dance, language, fashion and sports. Still, Black Americans have consistently been subject to poverty, inadequate schooling, insufficient health coverage, racism, and the fatal abuses of civil rights by the very people whose role is to protect us…all of us.
We, at the Institute, stand firmly united with these efforts to finally make America truly the land of the free.“
Maiden Voyage is a very popular album recorded in 2009. Here’s a selection form that album:
Dolphin Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB2Z2DY17yQ
November 2023
Mary Lou Williams
Music: Dat Dere– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRWgNYwSLM
Mary Lou Williams was a swing and bebop icon, who is regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists, composers, and arrangers of all time. She played piano out of necessity at a very young age; her white neighbors were throwing bricks into her house until Williams began playing the piano in their homes.
She was called “The Lady Who Swings the Band.” While her prominence as a musician was the central part of her life, she also recognized her greater obligation to society. She devoted herself to aiding musicians suffering from addiction and illness, even offering her apartment as a rest home for those in need, as well as teaching about jazz’s rich African American heritage; for example, she recorded The History of Jazz, a mixed album of music and speech.
It was important to Williams that jazz’s African American heritage not be erased. In 1970, She distributed the “Tree of Jazz,” an illustration that showed the history of African American music from contemporary swing and bebop back to antebellum spirituals.
In 1975, Mary Lou played the first-ever jazz mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City before more than 3,000 people. While there were objections to the jazz flavor of the mass, Mary Lou felt that jazz was a sacred form of African American expression. She told the New York Post,”…Jazz is healing for the soul. It should be played everywhere — in churches, nightclubs, everywhere.”
After her retirement as a performer, Mary Lou became Duke University’s first-ever “artist-in residence,” a position she held until her death in 1981. While there, she created The Mary Lou Williams Center For Black Culture, a hub for community-building, learning, exploration, and black identity development. The Center’s continuing mission is to provide a safe and affirming space that supports the diverse needs of Black-identified people at Duke University. The Center promotes racial understanding, community building, and appreciation of the black experience in America by developing and presenting knowledge about African American people, history, culture, and contributions of the African diaspora.
A midlife convert to Catholicism, Mary Lou turned her creativity toward liturgical music, combining it with jazz in masterpieces such as “Black Christ of the Andes” (1964) about the black Peruvian St. Martín de Porres Velázquez.
Williams opened thrift stores in Harlem to benefit impoverished and addicted musicians and put on giant benefit concerts, such as Pittsburgh’s first jazz festival in 1964 at the Civic Arena.
Looking back at the end of her life, Mary Lou Williams said: “I did it, didn’t I? Through muck and mud.” Known as “the first lady of the jazz keyboard”.[35] Williams was one of the first women to be successful in jazz.[36]
– Lou Levin, November, 2023
October 2023
Ella Fitzgerald
When 17 year old Ella Fitzgerald sang at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for her first public appearance, it was said that her sound was so perfect that the entire theater went silent.
Already, of course, she had already faced severe racial discrimination. After her mother’s death when she was 13, her acting-up led to her being sent to a reform school. There, black girls were segregated into crowded and dilapidated parts of the reformatory and were frequently beaten by male staff. There was a fine music program at the school, but was it all white so she was excluded. Eventually, Fitzgerald escaped from the school, and for several years slept on the streets of Harlem .
After her Apollo debut, she was quickly enlisted by major bands and soon became a huge sensation. But she was still treated like a criminal. For example, she was arrested in her dressing room because she sang at an integrated show in Houston. But she rose above the ugliness with poise and grace —though the toll it took on this quiet star must have been enormous.
Fitzgerald clearly understood how deeply entrenched racism was. She recognized that there were some minds that would never change. In 2018, an interview with New York radio host Fred Robbins emerged that had been recorded In 1963. Robbins had promised Fitzgerald that the interview would air “all over the world.” Instead, for obvious reasons, it was shelved and forgotten until it was discovered 45 years later.
In the interview, she had said: “Maybe I’m stepping out of line, but I have to say it, because it’s in my heart. It makes you feel so bad to think we can’t go down through certain parts of the South and give a concert like we do overseas, and have everybody just come to hear the music and enjoy the music because of the prejudice thing that’s going on.”
Despite her reticence to speak out, Fitzgerald was grateful for that interview opportunity, even if it might end up costing her. “I really ran my mouth,” she said, worrying, “Is it going down South? You think they’re going to break my records up when they hear it?”
Throughout her career, her manager Norm Granz was fighting for Civil Rights by keeping the shows clean and with no signs of discrimination. During Ella’s time on tour, they both made sure that the labels that had writing representing segregation were either cleaned of that material or taken down.
During her life, Fitzgerald was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award, as well as many other honors that celebrated her talents and accomplishments both in the jazz world and in the civil rights movement. She received honorary doctorates from Yale, Dartmouth, and several other universities.
Fitzgerald was seen as an inspiration. Her drive pushed her career forward, and by using her talent and help from her friends, colleagues, and her manager, she was able to break down seemingly impossible barriers simply by courageously doing what she did: sing her heart out with stunning tone and clarity, no matter what the circumstances . She is seen in the Black community as a magnificent icon with her transformative powers through jazz. She is seen in the jazz and music communities as one of the best who ever stood in front of a microphone.
Aside from music, Fitzgerald was a child welfare advocate and regularly made donations to help disadvantaged youth. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan in 1987.
Go to Youtube with “Ella Fitzgerald.” You can’t go wrong with any tune you choose, but here’s a couple if my favorites—
All of Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_EX9Ppfjw
Misty: https://youtube.com/watch?rv=POLakkBlj8
– Lou Levin, October, 2023
September 2023
John Coltrane
This coming Friday, September 15, is the 60th anniversary of the horrific bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, in
Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
In August of that year, Birmingham had hosted the “Salute to Freedom” concert, where musicians like Ray Charles, Nina Simone, and Ella Fitzgerald performed at Miles College to celebrate the Birmingham Campaign’s protests of segregation in the city.
A few weeks later, On September 15, the Church, a hub of the anti-segregation action, was bombed by four members of the Ku Klux Klan. Fifteen timed sticks of dynamite, placed under the front steps of the church, exploded.
Denise McNair, 11, Addie Mae Collins, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesly, 14, were killed. The girls were
attending Sunday School when the explosion took their lives.
Three days after that tragedy, Martin Luther King spoke in the sanctuary of the church. The service opened with the
hymn ‘Onward Christian Soldiers,’ and when the huge audience stood to sing, voices outside the church joined the
swelling chorus; it was said that “a mighty ring like the glad echo of heaven itself” was heard in that vast chorus.
King’s words and the deep expressions of mourning, prayer and hope among the grieving congregation and so many others inspired the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, who then wrote the mournful ballad, ‘Alabama.’ The rhythms of his composition were patterned on King’s speech.
After his successful battle with drug addiction, Coltrane had come to see his music as a pathway to the divine. Among his later compositions was ‘A Love Supreme,’ the purpose of which was to capture the essence of God in music.
Three songs were written in the wake of the bombing from 1963 to 1964:
Coltrane’s “Alabama:” www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5R0susntk
Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam:” www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM
Joan Baez’s “Birmingham Sunday:” www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE
– Lou Levin, August, 2023
JULY 2023
Thelonius Monk
ca. Sept. 1947 8William P. Gottlieb 06241)
Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist during the ‘50s through the ‘70s, whose focus was on breaking the rules of the jazz idiom. He played with all the greats, and made his mark playing in a somewhat rough, thick, highly punctuated style. His sound is immediately recognizable to even the non-expert. If you’re a casual listener, you won’t know exactly what’s going on, but you’ll surely know something’s different about the sound of that piano.
While Monk was not a vocal crusader for civil rights, he answered the call by playing in settings whose political intentions were clearly pronounced. For example, on Sunday afternoon, August 7, the New York chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized “Jazz Sits In,” a fundraiser in support of the “southern student movement;” Monk played the gig gratis. The next month, he played at Carnegie Hall to participate in “A Salute to Southern Students,” a huge benefit concert for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), commemorating the third anniversary of the sit-in movement and to raise money for SNCC’s ongoing work.
On another occasion, Danny Scher, a Jewish 16-year-old jazz fan, wanted to book Monk for a benefit performance at his high school auditorium in Palo Alto, California, a predominantly white town 40 minutes outside of San Francisco. It was 1968, a time of riots over racism and social inequality. The Vietnam War had no end in sight. MLK and Robert Kennedy had just been assassinated—the country was being torn apart at the seams. The Monk Quartet agreed to play. Posters were hung in East Palo Alto, a predominantly African-American community, and the Monk’s performance brought the two towns together.
It was recorded by the janitor, whose only compensation came when he asked Monk to tune the school piano!
Here’s a link to one of his signature tunes, Blue Monk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRUWtrgTpcs
JULY 2023
Sonny Rollins, Freedom Suite
In 1958, four years after Brown v Board of Education, Sonny Rollins wanted to speak his voice for the struggle for equality and the then newly developing Civil Rights Movement.
The liner notes were unapologetic and blunt:
The piece, a series of variations on fairly simple melodic material, caused a sensation, but Riverside Records decided it was too incendiary and pulled the recording, reissuing it under the title Shadow Waltz, the name of another track on the recording. Orrin Keepnews, the producer and part-owner of Riverside Records, wrote a new set of liner notes that stated Rollins’ intentions much less succinctly:
“Here I had all these reviews, newspaper articles and pictures,” Rollins later said. “At the time it struck me, what did it all mean if you were still a nigger, so to speak? This is the reason I wrote the suite.”
At this time, making direct statements like this was still a radical thing to do, particularly for people who were seen as “successful“ in the public view. But the tragedy of little rock was still very fresh in people’s minds, and the national consciousness was just beginning to the crime of discrimination, though there was little action to match the growing intensity of the outcry. This statement was open, forceful, and direct, and it came from a man profoundly introspective and intelligent, who had previously only expressed himself through his playing.
While it may not appear to be terribly radical or groundbreaking today, given all that has passed in the 65 years since, it was, at the time, a shocking and dangerous statement, and Rollins made it in the knowledge that he was inviting backlash and censorship to the highest extent. In fact, that is what happened (see Riverside Records, above). That fact that Rollins courageously continued his music-making, and his voice, is further tribute to the giant of the jazz world.
Listen to The Freedom Suite here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN1GmUhHr1M
– Lou Levin, July 4, 2023
JUNE 2023
Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln
Max Roach, considered to be one of the all-time great jazz drummers, and his wife, Abbey Lincoln, a highly regarded jazz vocalist, created an album titled, We Insist! as a direct statement about Civil Rights and the place of Jazz in the struggle. This was a work very different than anything anyone else had done previously; it was fiercely expressive and emotive, personal, uncompromising, and, like his playing, strong, direct, and blatant. Inspired by the rising anger about the plight of the black people in America, it was far from the pacifist, complaining politics of the mainstream civil rights movement of the time. Roach explained that it was a prayer of preparation for struggle that was then starting to build in intensity. It was seen as a rallying cry for equality rooted in the history of blacks in this country.
The music was first performed at New York’s Village gate, in a concert sponsored by the Congress For Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.); it was also presented at the NAACP annual convention in Philadelphia, and at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Max’s wife, vocalist Abbey Lincoln, was equally vociferous about civil rights. “There is no such thing as jazz,” she said. “There’s only a song and your spirit and your ancestors.” “I, Abbey Lincoln, sing about what is most important to me, and what is most important to me is being free of the shackles that chain me in every walk of life that I live. If this were not so, I would still be a supper club singer.”
In our presentation, Ms Lincoln sings “Driva Man,” in front of Max’s quartet, which features Coleman Hawkins, one of the great saxophone players in jazz history. To listen to the piece in its entirety, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF6q6XKKrik
– Lou Levin, May 23, 2023
MAY 2023
Louis Armstrong
Listen to Louis Armstrong perform “What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jscvpihVAoQ
In 1929, Louis Armstrong recorded “(What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue?)”, a song from a popular musical written by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf. However, he had re-written the lyrics and made them into a commentary about social injustice. The lyrics include the phrase:
My only sin
Is in my skin
What did I do
To be so black and blue?
This was a furiously defiant and risky commentary on racism as he saw it, in an age when the issue was clearly not to be openly discussed. When it was first written in the show, the song was a humorous comment on a black women’s lonely love life. But Armstrong changed the lyrics to accentuate the social meaning of the song and make it a powerful social commentary. The lyrics, “I’m white, inside / But that don’t help my case / Cause I Can’t hide / What is in my face,” are an example of Armstrong’s deepening the impact of the text.
His work on this song is typically seen as one of the first times the problem of racism in the United States was brought to so public a setting as popular music. Armstrong, respected by both whites and blacks, used his position to make an attempt to bring the problem of racism in the American society.
Close to 30 years later, as he witnessed the turmoil around the desegregation of public schools, Armstrong was again very outspoken, unafraid to be critical of his country. When, in 1957, the National Guard prevented nine Black students from entering a high school in Little Rock, he canceled a tour to the Soviet Union, and said publicly, “the way they’re treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.”
– Lou Levin, May 26, 2023
APRIL 2023
Nina Simone
The second selection in our series, Jazz and Civil Rights, features Nina Simone singing this tune, written by Billy Taylor, jazz pianist.
Nina Simone was the perfect voice to sing “I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free”. She was an extraordinary talent as a pianist and a singer, but early in her career was denied opportunities because she was black.
She didn’t let it stop her, but decided to take it on and did- very directly. She performed songs with direct messages about racism like Mississippi Goddam, her response to the murders of Medgar Evers and the church bombing in Birmingham that killed 4 young black girls, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, and “Four Women”, about the lives of Black women and the way they suffered self-hatred because of their race.
Nina herself took no grift from record executives. She actually shot at a record company executive when she thought he was cheating her out of royalties. Her comment on the incident? “I wish I was a better shot!”
She improvised with the lyrics of tunes, turning their message of hope into positive affirmation like a gospel preacher: “I know how it feels/Not to be chained/to any race/to any face”. Freedom, for her, was No Fear.
As a result of her unflinching directness, she took on a reputation for being difficult. I don’t think it bothered her.
In addition to her legacy of music, there are documentaries and films about her life; one very popular one is titled, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” narrated by her daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, available on Youtube.
“I wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”. Listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDqmJEWOJRI
March 2023
Horace Alexander Young
The first selection in our series, Jazz and Civil Rights, features Horace Alexander Young playing saxophone, then reading Dr King’s speech on this topic at the Berlin Jazz festival in 1964. Mr. Young is a jazz player and singer who was the chair of the music department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design until its closing a few years ago, and frequently performed in Santa Fe. He now lives in Houston.
This selection, recorded by Mr Young in his studio, is only available on our website; it was not submitted to youtube. Please see our website for more information about Dr King’s speech. Please also feel free to contact me with questions, comments, etc, at loulevin@yahoo.com
“Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties.” Those words were spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964. There can be little doubt about Dr King’s appreciation and high esteem for the contribution of jazz performers to the cause of civil rights, and the incredible spirit and force Black musicians have brought in order to create under intense racial unrest and hatred. For our purposes, scientific studies have now confirmed what we had already known- that music brings people together, in struggle, joy and community. Growing up in Baltimore, and spending many hours in its jazz clubs and music halls, it was remarkable to me to see and feel the spirit that was present in these settings, and how the Miles Davis’, John Coltranes, Jimmy Smiths, and so many others all brought and heightened the essence of community to the audiences they performed for. Music is universal and feeling and connecting to sound and lyrics is something we all do. The emotional and musical impact behind the Blues is something we all have felt. The same for jazz. Just listen and let the sound of it take you.
Lou Levin, March 13, 2023
Please note: The music and other material in this series are not presented for any financial or editorial purposes. The purposes of the series are (1) to provide enjoyment for NAACP members attending our meetings, and (2) to help foster a spirit of collaboration and continuing commitment to the goals of NAACP through the shared experience of listening to these artists who were courageous enough to use their talent in the service of civil rights.