Last Thursday, while I rocked out in Greenwich Village to the white-people music known as Van Halen, Philadelphia-based pianist Orrin Evans–recipient of the $60,000 Pew Fellowship for the Arts–was a quick ride up the A-C-E in Hell’s Kitchen at Birdland. Note that I did not refer to Evans as “Philadelphia-based jazz pianist” as I would have in 2011. This is because Evans has decided that he no longer plays jazz. He plays Black American Music.
At Birdland, Evans sat on a prestigious panel of musicians who had congregated for the Inaugural Black American Music (or BAM) conference. (If you’ve got an hour-and-a-half to kill, you can watch a video of the panel here.) Though he’s been far more vocal on his Facebook page, where he makes it quite clear that “‘jazz’ is a perfect word for some peoples music just not mine,” he didn’t get much of a word in at Birdland, where his verbose co-panelists set the tone by comparing their business to the “plantation system” and being careful to use “the j-word” whenever they were referring to that old, racist word, jazz. They theorize that black audiences have largely turned away from the genre because of the word itself.
The whole thing started back in November, when distinguished trumpeter Nicholas Payton, also on the panel, posted a manifesto of sorts, in which he declared: “Jazz is a lie. America is a lie … Playing Jazz is like running on a treadmill: you may break a sweat, but ultimately you ain’t going nowhere. I am Nicholas Payton and I don’t play ‘the j word.’ I play BAM.”
Apparently, Payton didn’t make the point strongly enough in that post, so he ran a follow-up in December: “I am not dissing an art form. I am dissing the name, Jazz. Just like being called Nigger affected how Black people felt about themselves at one time, I believe the term ‘JAZZ’ affects the style of playing. I am not a Nigger and I am not a Jazz musician … ‘Jazz’ is an oppressive colonialist slave term and I want no parts of it.”
Phew. Who knew?
“That word [the j-word] has such a negative connotation to it,” Evans told me when I reached him on his cell this morning. “From where I’m at, the best way to say it is Black American Music. It’s the image, not the music. The name itself is limiting audiences. I understand why some of the white musicians don’t see it as an issue. That’s because when they turn to the audience, they see themselves. When a white guy walks into an all black strip club and it’s all black young people, trust me that white guy is going to feel a little different. Nobody looks like me. I’m not saying I don’t want to see y’all [white people] no more. But can we sprinkle some pepper in there?”
One veteran Philadelphia jazz musician (who is not white) sees it this way: “While I think that dialog around the issues of jazz’s legacy and jazz’s future is vital, I take issues with some of the figures involved in this most recent dust-up who, in my estimation, are mostly about creating a cult of personality and who leverage identity politics in the service of same. However, the issue is important, explosive and one that must be addressed—and to whatever degree possible, resolved—if jazz (in America—it thrives elsewhere, mostly liberated from this whole ‘who owns the tradition and has a right to play it’ argument) is to have anything approaching a vibrant future.”
So, anyone want to check out Chris’ Black American Music Cafe this weekend?
January 10th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
January 10th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
That’s like them trying to redefine slave to mean a forcefully employed black man. Blacks weren’t the only one to be slaves and they aren’t the only one to make jazz.
January 10th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
January 10th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
I have enjoyed instrumental Jazz for decades. I intend to continue to enjoy it. I cannot tolerate the noise emitted from radio stations and TV channels that play what is utter noise to my ears. This noise is a battle between non-talented people banging on their instruments and non-talented vocalists who repeat the same unintelligible words for 3 minutes. Then there’s those who must perform burlesque, sexually arousing movements while they yowl. It’s not that I dislike the show, but it is not music.
I second the motion stated by phalo1o1.
January 10th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
January 10th, 2012 at 6:27 pm
January 10th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
January 11th, 2012 at 8:36 am
January 11th, 2012 at 10:52 am
January 11th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
The term “Jazz” has been a racist term since it’s inception.
You should be surprised no-one’s still calling it “Nigger music”………
January 12th, 2012 at 4:11 am
January 12th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
attitude Americans have towards the j word. Jazz is loved in Europe and in much of
Asia. It is disappearing from our popular culture. Literally. The best jazz festival in North
America is in Montreal – a city with a vibrant jazz culture. Americans don’t have the
patience and attention span for jazz. I don’t know why. Then there’s the oppressive
and oft times boring neocon jazz movement. Payton could accomplish just as much by
banning the words “Wynton Marsalis” as the word “jazz”. Payton gains little by denigrating Kind of Blue- he should be so lucky. The 3 M’s rule until I hear otherwise-
Miles Monk and Mingus.
January 12th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
You also have links to Payton’s blog postings and the video of the panel discussion from the conference. Please, have a look for yourself. If there are members of the movement who don’t like the way BAM is being portrayed in the media (and I know there are, because I have heard from more than a few of you), maybe it’s time you get a new spokesperson.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
or read things Wynton Marsalis has said about Miles, Ornette, Anthony Braxton
and even the music of New Orleans- his native city. And I did watch the video of
the conference. I love the music too. Modern Jazz began to die in the 80′s and
it’s just sad. Much of the adventurous stuff is being played by old guys. How can
this be? The aforementioned innovators would not have wanted this.
January 12th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
January 12th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
http://nicholaspayton.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/bam-is-for-people-of-all-races-sexes-cultures-and-colors/
January 12th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
landmark pretty good. When Ken Burns made his doc it was you know who’s face
plastered all over it as the uber authority on all things jazz and we all know the
backlash at that from some excellent musicians. For years-decades now- he issues his
decrees on what is good and proper in music and the lazy media eat it up.
Bartz refers to musicians field house and free- an obnoxious reference if ever there was
one and that no one on the panel called him on it I don’t know what to say. I guess
that would make the late Sam Rivers house – down there in Orlando doing what he
had to do. Ha! No I would look closer to Lincoln Center.
January 13th, 2012 at 9:29 am
From Pete Simon in Colorado…
Insightful-though-painful article.
Heartbroken and unsure what to say. After reading your article, I thought of Ron Miles with Bill Frisell; Jim Hall with Sonny Rollins; and Bill Evans with Miles Davis. They have constructed and performed beautiful, timeless music. They provide(d) musical-spiritual building blocks for a better planet. Getting hung up on labeling, and obsessing over the historically-unfair music industry, should only be a sidebar to the joy and inspiration that all kinds of music provides. Can you imagine a world without that beauty?
This type of conflict and bitterness isn’t new. In the Big Band era, it was Jimmy Lunceford’s creativity and orchestral mastery given short shrift over the Dorsey Brothers. Then after the atomic bomb exploded the most adventurous African American musicians were involved with a new vehicle called Be-Bop, a far-more complex form of chord structure and innovation, which was eventually played by black and white musicians. By the early 1970’s much of what Nicholas Payton is echoing now was heard amongst musical innovators and young poets like Gil Scot-Heron and The Last Poets. I heard the message directly from Gil Scot Heron at a concert at McGonigle Hall on the campus of Temple University on Father’s Day 1971. He was placing the world on notice about racial exploitation, not just in the day-to-day strife of everyday people, but in the world of music. Intense criticism lasted for a few years, then seemed to be drowned out in the late 70’s by disco.
When you look at musical history, just since 1940, Payton’s new proclamation is not surprising, but it is shocking. In a political sense the divisive message at hand couldn’t have come at a worse time. And personally, after hosting all sorts of jazz, Caribbean, African, and Brazilian music shows over the radio for 35 years, it feels like I’ve been hit by a truck. But I will get up again.
Pete Simon
Arvada/Denver, CO
I grew up in Wilmington, worked at WHYY in 1979 – 81, and have spent most of my professional life in public and community radio in Delaware, Philadelphia, and across Colorado from 1974 to 2011, the last 12 years as a volunteer jazz host on kuvo.org (on hiatus since August 2011).
January 13th, 2012 at 11:21 am
A thoughtful response to the article and comments. From Philadelphia-based trombonist Ernest Stuart.
A Response to “The Word Jazz…”
As American’s we are all conditioned to react before thinking. Newspaper and magazine covers are cleverly designed to take advantage of this uncontrollable need to, well, react. When a recent article about the “Black American Music” (BAM) movement was posted on Philadelphia Magazine’s blog many people reacted and it got ugly. The article, much like the movement, suddenly became very divisive among readers due to a general lack of effort towards gaining understanding. This behavior is anything but new. If we see a man standing on a corner, for instance, screaming at the top of his lungs at someone who’s not there we immediately use a blanket term and label him “crazy”. Never mind that he is homeless and can not afford the proper medication to subdue his mental illness. In the responses to the BAM article, I noticed a similar application of the blanket term “racist” being thrown around on both sides of the aisle. Blanket terms are an unfortunate side affect of people attempt to explain something without the proper knowledge to do so. Besides that, they’re really annoying. As an open minded musician I have to admit that I have been avoiding “conversations” about Nicholas Payton’s BAM movement because I’m tired of hearing people reacting thoughtlessly and trying to pass it off as an opinion. Now, I’m ready to add my two cents and possibly unify members of both sides of the argument by using two statements by Payton himself.
In his writings, Payton NEVER asserts that Black people are the only people with the rights to the music. Instead, he explains the history behind the term “jazz” and how early Black American music received it’s moniker:
“The Original Dixieland [Jazz] Band
In 1917 The O.D.J.B. recorded the first [jazz] record. To start with, their name is an insult in itself. First of all, nothing is “Original” about them. They didn’t create this music, they stole it from Black musicians. Dixieland is an obvious homage to the colonialist sensibilities of the Confederate south. And the [Jazz] part is a slap in the face to the serious music that our Black ancestors created. [Jazz] music was the White man’s blackface version of the virtuosic Black traditional music of New Orleans.
The idea that any Black man would be OK with his music being associated with this type of negative historical image in 2011 is baffling.”
So, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, it’s 2012. Why should we change Jazz’s name? It doesn’t even mean that these days. Those day’s are over and have nothing to do with the music being created today.” All valid points, but in a separate post, Payton explains why this way of thinking maybe incorrect:
“Life is not linear, it’s concentric. Life builds upon itself layer after layer like rings in a tree. Our life doesn’t move away from us as we age, the core essence remains the same. The potential of who we are to become always exists. Our 5-year-old self has the ability to commune with our 50-year-old being, and our 50-year-old being can still access the inner 5-year-old.”
Ok, so follow me here. Normally we see life’s progression as beginning and ending in two opposing points along a timeline. We actually think linearly about many things, not just life. For instance, while we acknowledge where culturally, geographically, and politically jazz began, we consider it to have now progressed to a different point along a “jazz timeline”. That’s not how Payton sees it. He believes musical (and life) progression is circular and not linear just like trees. While looking at the rings of a tree, we consider the scope of it’s progress in it’s entirety and can see how the core informs every preceding ring. Payton would like to get away from the term “jazz” because of it’s history; a history of bigotry and hate that is not simply behind us, but indeed closer to the center.
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Payton’s points are very serious and deserve consideration. I understand how inflammatory his comments can be and how difficult it is to show restraint by not immediately reacting adversely to them. I merely want to offer an opportunity to understand Payton’s views without the use of a panel or conference and without being shrouded in the type of useless rhetoric that can only serve to obscure meaningful ideas.
Ernest Stuart
January 13th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
January 13th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
I am going to go out on a serious limb with this statement (black readers, PLEASE feel free to correct me if I am wrong): black kids don’t listen to jazz. Considering that this genre of music in America is so integrally tied to the black community, isn’t it sad that future generations of the black community wouldn’t listen to it because of a name? The closest kids will come to listening to jazz is probably Q-tip or Talib Kweli. BAM might actually get kids interested. Again, seriously stepping out on a limb I probably have no business being on, but I thought it was relevant.
However, for proponents of BAM, I would say that think about how your suggestions are affecting other lovers of jazz. Here’s a style of music that people have been devoted to for a long time, and now someone is trying to change the name. For instance, you’ve been playing piano for years and someone now says, “You need to start calling it the white-black key machine.” That would probably be really frustrating. You’ve called it a piano this entire time. You have spent countless hours at the piano and have endured more jokes of being a “pianist” than you care to remember. Now someone wants to change the name? No way. And also, while continued us of “jazz” ignores the colonial history, “BAM” seems to forget the contributions of artists and devoted fans from other ethnic groups. Of course, if we could poll those artists, they might have seen the idea that they were playing “Black American Music” as glorious infamy.
All in all, BAM is pretty American-centric view of the genre, but undoubtedly the issues that are raised by “jazz” are probably exclusively American problems. So do we stick with “soccer” when the rest of the world says “football?” Sure! We’re Americans! But seriously, if BAM got more people thinking Orrin Evans than Kenny G, I’d use it. Maybe the j-word has got too much dust and Spyro Gyra on it.
January 14th, 2012 at 3:38 am
January 14th, 2012 at 11:53 am
January 14th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
bassist/composer
Ben Wolfe
January 14th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Passed by the 100th Congress of the United States of America
Introduced by the Honorable John Conyers Jr.
Whereas, jazz has achieved preeminence throughout the world as an indigenous American music and art form, bringing to this country and the world a uniquely American musical synthesis and culture through the African-American experience and
1. makes evident to the world an outstanding artistic model of individual expression and democratic cooperation within the creative process, thus fulfilling the highest ideals and aspirations of our republic,
2. is a unifying force, bridging cultural, religious, ethnic and age differences in our diverse society,
3. is a true music of the people, finding its inspiration in the cultures and most personal experiences of the diverse peoples that constitute our Nation,
4. has evolved into a multifaceted art form which continues to birth and nurture new stylistic idioms and cultural fusions,
5. has had an historic, pervasive and continuing influence on other genres of music both here and abroad, and
6. has become a true international language adopted by musicians around the world as a music best able to express contemporary realities from a personal perspective;
Whereas, this great American musical art form has not yet been properly recognized nor accorded the institutional status commensurate with its value and importance;
Whereas, it is important for the youth of America to recognize and understand jazz as a significant part of their cultural and intellectual heritage;
Whereas, in as much as there exists no effective national infrastructure to support and preserve jazz;
Whereas, documentation and archival support required by such a great art form has yet to be systematically applied to the jazz field; and
Whereas, it is now in the best interest of the national welfare and all of our citizens to preserve and celebrate this unique art form;
Now, therefore be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that it is the sense of the Congress that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.
Passed by the House of Representatives September 23, 1987 Passed by the Senate December 4, 1987
January 14th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
January 14th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
So again:
…If Nicholas feels that non black musicians can’t play or should be excluded from this music, why was I invited to be on the panel and why does he call me for gigs?
Bassist/composer
Ben Wolfe
January 15th, 2012 at 5:31 am
January 15th, 2012 at 7:42 am
January 16th, 2012 at 12:40 am
January 17th, 2012 at 2:15 am
January 18th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
January 26th, 2012 at 11:32 am
March 30th, 2012 at 8:59 am
March 30th, 2012 at 8:59 am