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Jazz is to America what the pyramids are to Africa. Both are classic expressions of black cultural genius. Yet to this day, many people remain hesitant to admit the African roots of both Jazz and the pyramids.
America has always had a love/hate relationship with so-called Jazz music. So it was not surprising that weeks ago some bigoted, inhumane being scribbled a racist statement on the bathroom chalk board at one of Oakland’s popular Jazz & Blues night spots, Cafe Van Kleef. Once made aware of this heinous act, owner Peter Van Kleef refused to ignore what had happened. He stopped the Blues Band and called on the scribbling coward to step forward. Of course no one did. However, kudos to Peter Van Kleef for making it clear that racial ignorance and racism are not welcomed at Cafe Van Kleef, located at 1621 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA (www.cafevankleef.com).
Although the racist comment (“Happy N____ Day!”) was quickly erased from the bathroom board, it is bigoted behavior like this that gives Blacks the Blues. It’s a fine psychosis that allows one to listen to great Black music, while harboring deep animosities for the creators of that music.
While Jazz is America’s only thriving, indigenous art form, the very word was meant to be insulting. People were urged to “cut out that mess” or “cut out that jass” because jass was synonymous for mess. Over the years, many words have been used to mislabel Jazz and devalue the African-American/Black inventors and innovators of this musical art form. The word Bebop, an onomatopoeia, has been used to describe some aspects of Jazz. Avant-garde, a French term, has also been used to identify some forms of Jazz. At the turn of the century, the term Ragtime was applied to the syncopated music of Scott Joplin and other African-American artists because the timing of the rhythm was considered ragged. Hard-Bop, Cool Jazz, Fusion, Latin Jazz, Jazz Funk, American-Classical Music, and Great American Music, are some of the words and phrases that have categorized this music. However, none of these terms acknowledge the social significance or identify the Black creators of this music.
Jazz is the classical music of the Africans terrorized under racism in America. It is constructed along the conventional guidelines of traditional African music in that it is syncopated, it has breaks, and it incorporates elements of improvisation. Thus it is African-American Classical Music. It contains the chords and cadences of traditional African music, played with European instruments on the violently colonized landscape of Indigenous American soil.
Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddamn, and John Coltrane’s Alabama are just a few examples of both the liberating and healing capacities of this Great Black Music. In fact, African-American Classical Music is so powerful that it is not played outside major metropolitan cities and is relegated to the remote zones of the radio dial when it is given air time. In spite of such all-too-common discriminatory practices, this musical phenomenon destroyed racist stereotypes globally while standing firmly on the frontlines of Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements nationally.
Alas, American culture remains unwilling to admit the social power, historic significance, and cultural origins of America’s only true indigenous art form. The Chicago Art Ensemble called it Great Black Music thereby acknowledging the Black innovators behind the music. Unfortunately, that’s why the conspiracy to distort the history of African-American Classical Music is as evident as the nose upon the face of Africa’s Great Sphinx; it is there, yet it is not..
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