Is This Jazz?: Social Music For Social Change

I’ve often said that jazz is social music; however, I haven’t explained how it plays into the current musical landscape. The country appears to be in a state of flux, so perhaps now it is imperative to consider the history of jazz and the way it reflects the culture and the forces that shape it.

When I was 11, I realized how illuminating jazz can be when I heard Billie Holiday sing “Strange Fruit.” I was a young, white male living in a small, suburbanized farm town. I was just starting to learn about the darker edges of America’s history in school, and I had little concept of lynchings and racism toward African-Americans. When I first heard the scenes she describes, my perception was shattered. The imagery in Abel Meeropol’s poetry is haunting, while the sparse arrangement forces you to sit inside each phrase as Holiday’s voice carries a weight that is both indescribable and inescapable. She sings not only with heart-wrenching purpose to vividly describe this horrifying reality, but also with a cold resignation to the possibility that these atrocities may never end. It would take time for me to grasp even a small fraction of these truths, but the starting point of my understanding was the lesson I received from this chilling, moving song.

Even the performance of a specific tune can be as much a protest as the composition itself. There’s a famous story of one such occasion in 1971 involving Charlie Haden on a European tour with Ornette Coleman’s quartet. The quartet was to perform in Portugal, which at the time was under an authoritarian dictatorship and in the midst of the Portuguese Colonial War taking place in Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique. Along the tour the group had been playing Haden’s “Song For Che,” which was written for his politically charged Liberation Music Orchestra. When it came time to perform it on the Portuguese stop as a means of protesting the Estado Novo regime, Haden announced the song would be dedicated to the black peoples’ liberation movements that were working to stop the systematic elimination of their race in Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique. The next day he would be arrested at the Lisbon airport and interrogated by the Portuguese secret police, but his dedication energized the people. Although the regime wasn’t overthrown or another three years in the Carnation Revolution — and though it would be speculative to suggest that Haden’s actions were responsible for the coup — the act of using music as a means to stand up for the rights of others and to ignite the passions of revolutionaries who helped lead the charge should not be overlooked, especially with the clarity we have now.

Modern musicians have continued this tradition of truth-telling and protest in their works. Trumpeter and social activist Christian Scott’s album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow is a direct response to a slew of issues that have plagued our country for generations. As he told Downbeat magazine in 2010, “The impetus behind the [album] was to illuminate the fact that the same dilemmas that dominated the social and musical landscape of the ‘60s has not been eradicated, only refined.” Over the album’s 10 tracks, Scott and his band take on racial profiling, Proposition 8 and anti-abortion efforts. The majority of this collection is a spotlight on the difficulties we face not only as a nation, but as a global people. In this way, Scott doesn’t provide any answers, but instead puts himself in the forefront of the dialogue, ready to face the challenges head on.

We live in a divided nation that looks radically different from when this music first came into being, but continues to suffer deep scars and renewed obstacles. We are faced with caustic realities that either went ignored or overlooked, and have shown themselves to be reckoning forces that must be attended to with resilience. But the success of jazz bares a striking resemblance the successes felt in this country. A multi-cultured group of individuals with vastly different backgrounds work across barriers to devise a system that works by and for the people, regardless of their stature, and continues to grow with the people who define it. If we continue to be aware, reflect and act in service to our shared goal — be it melody or social justice — then we will guide this ensemble toward a more prosperous, unified harmony.

Happening Around Town:

The John Allmark Jazz Orchestra; Mondays @ The Met (Pawtucket)

Is This Jazz?; first Friday, bimonthly @ AS220 (Providence) isthisjazz.tumblr.com

Joe Potenza; Fridays @ Rosmarin (Providence)

Groove Merchants; Mondays @ Fifth Element (Newport)

Jazz Jam;Tuesdays @ Ten Rocks (Pawtucket)

Groove E Tuesday;Tuesdays @ Murphy’s Law (Pawtucket)

Parlour Jazz Jam; third Sunday each month @ The Parlour (Providence)

Matunuck Beach Hot Jazz Party; Thursdays @ The Ocean Mist (Matunuck)

To add your listing please email isthisjazzri@gmail.com.

Ben Shaw is a local composer, performer, writer, and podcaster. Dig into his works at ahueofshaw.tumblr.com or find him on Twitter @ahueofshaw.