Some blog stuff

...Call me crazy man, (...Okay, thank you!) but I still would like to see you do some kind of music annex thing!

I know you’re an aggressively political-minded brother and truth be told, politics is probably THE number one issue people of color need to get their minds wrapped around today, but you ALWAYS end up coming back to the music tip in a round about type way!

(...Granted, if you know of someone you think could do it better, let me know. But I don't think there's too many folks that can connect the dots the same way you can and do!)

Once upon a time, the discourse on politics in music was almost the norm, be it Jazz, R&B, Blues, take your pick.

(…Nina Simone quickly comes to mind.)

Music did (…And still does, albeit positively and / or negatively, in a lot of respects!) go a long way in helping to shape political thinking.

If you go way, way back, even the plantation field hollers the workers cried out were an outrage at the politics of the times.

You, PT and a hand full of other well versed heads know this stuff almost as an after thought, but yet, there are a ton of folk who could really benefit from the shared wealth of knowledge that may never even come close to grasping what’s out there.

I finally got to watch Jazz On a Summer’s Day this past weekend all the way through.

(...I’ve only owned for what? Close to two years now!, I think)

I’d primarily gotten it originally because Thelonius Monk was in it, but I found the whole movie, within the context of its time, pretty extraordinary.

(…The interracial audience, according to the movie notes, was considered pretty risqué for the late 50’s. So much so that reportedly, the movie couldn’t be screened in certain parts of the south.)

Not long after, I somehow found myself listening to a song by Alana Davis titled ‘Somewhere Under the Rainbow’

~

Hey genius, tell me what you see
Is it everyone around this girl or is it just me
Your martyr, I will never be
Because I'm willing to fight for all of the rights
You've wrongfully taken from me

And somewhere under the rainbow
There's sunlight maybe a sprinkle of gold
I've been waiting, seems like a lifetime
For someone to take all this rain off my mind

~

And I thought to myself that lyrically and philisophically, that this was exactly what music used to be like before everything became extremely commercial and all anyone was trying to do was get paid.

(…And that’s not say there’s NOTHING good going on in today’s music, it’s just that There’s so much MORE!)

I found out not long ago that Walter Davis, who’s playing style has been sighted in some circles as very much in the style of Thelonius Monk, is the father of Alana Davis.

Not that that connection, in and of itself is musically relevent or even cohesive, but I think that the true common thread is that these are all artisit that were and are intent on creating true art.

If mass success and acceptence is found along they way, then great.

But if not, the art still remains.

THAT kind music.

Like when Curtis and the Impressions (…And Donny Hathaway!) Could make you believe in a better tomorrow…

~

If you had a choice of color
Which one would you choose my brothers
If there was no day or night
Which would you prefer to be right
How long have you hated your white teacher
Who told you, you love your black preacher
Do you respect your brother's woman friend
And share with black folks not of kin
People must prove to the people
A better day is coming for you and for me
With just a little bit more education
And love for our nation
Would make a better society