START-N-JAZZ TO BREAK DOWN THE RACISM IN MUSIC/Tony Adamo

START-N-JAZZ TO BREAK DOWN THE RACISM IN MUSIC/
"Never stop telling about racism in jazz.Who will step forward now?
DOWNBEAT?
JAZZTIMES?
JAZZIZ?
You?
Me?" TONY ADAMO

"On the list of topics most white jazz musicians would rather not be talking about, I think issues of race in jazz fall right behind their parents’ sex lives or when the biopsy results are due back. It’s uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons, which is why most of us choose to avoid getting into it if at all possible. It tends to explode the happy illusion that the jazz scene is a harmonious colorblind family where musical achievement is the only metric that matters. If it is discussed, it’s usually among friends in a non-public setting where good faith can be assumed and people can accept some basic facts as givens:" IAN CAREY

that jazz is a music that came out of the African-American community and is a deep part of that culture’s historical identity;
that great respect is due to the black masters who shaped it;
that those masters were on the receiving end of vicious racial animosity for much of the music’s history;
that white musicians unfairly profited from discrimination against black musicians by audiences and the music industry;* but
that white musicians also played a role in the development of the music; and
that America isn’t yet over these wounds, and people, especially musicians, ignore this to their own detriment.