Our ongoing Independent Ear dialogue on the black audience for creative music (wherefore art thou?) continues with contributions from two readers responding to question as well as previous posts. Stay tuned, shortly we’ll be posting our public interview with Nicholas Payton from last weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival.

Our first response comes from Jackie Harris, director of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp in New Orleans, a former administrator at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, former cultural commissioner of the city of New Orleans, and a keen observer of black culture and the overall cultural scene.

Classroom work at Jackie Harris’ Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp at Loyola University in New Orleans

Twentieth century Jazz artists and supporters are unfortunately leaving us. We – boomers and generation x’ers – did not fight hard enough to keep music education in the schools of our children and grandchildren. Every generation will support the music of its era. Therefore, young people are always going to listen to what they create and what appeals to them. They will not look for what they know nothing about. Therefore, we must expose and teach.

We – boomers – were immersed in the music of the R&B greats – Stevie, Gladys, Patti, The O’Jays, SOS, Temptations, and many other groups. However we were also a part of the Jazz community. Jazz was played in our homes, we heard it and saw the joy and excitement as we sneaked a look into the neighborhood bar while walking home some evenings. That time has come and gone. Jazz is now taught in the classroom, in summer and after-school programs. Many young parents do not know nor are they able to see the advantages of having their kids enrolled in arts education. They are embracing the hype of more academics to pass standardized testing as justification to exclude music education.

We said “it takes a village.” Let’s be the village that makes the commitment to support and help parents in our school districts advocate for music education in their schools. Let’s insist the music taught in our schools include Jazz instruction. Where is the Jazz audience? The Jazz audience is in remote non-urban communities in middle and high schools, universities and colleges. These communities are not heavily populated by African Americans.

As for BAM [editor’s note: i.e. New Orleans’ own Nicholas Payton] that is up to my homeboy. He can call it whatever he wishes. I respect his wishes. As for me, it will always be Jazz, the art form that was created by African Americans in New Orleans – “The Birthplace of Jazz.”

A voice from a younger perspective…
Jackie Harris, as is the editor of The Independent Ear, is of the so-called baby boomer generation. Another reader, Atane, contributed the following to our dialogue.

These conversations about the lack of a black audience for jazz (BAM) are always the same circular discussion that rarely, if ever, puts the blame squarely where it belongs, the older generation. They have failed us. Our parents failed us. It’s not “the black community” in total, it is the stewards of the black community, the elders. The older generation needs to squarely look in the mirror and understand that the problem exists because of them. Young kids are a product of their environment. No one grows up in a bubble. So if we see that the audience continues to dwindle, why are obvious reasons (guardianship/parenting/education/access) not the focus of the conversation?

I’m a young man who was fortunate enough to have grown up exposed to music, but I can’t say the same for most of my peers. Why didn’t the older generation champion this music to us? When inner-city schools were being decimated by cuts to music education programs, where were our parents to make a stink about it? Why didn’t they raise hell? Why wasn’t this seen as valuable to them? How else will young black kids gain exposure to the music if one of the main avenues is always on the chopping block? Where were the initiatives to fight this? Meanwhile, as this was going on to poor black kids, jazz education for the people that can afford it is big business and continues to grow. So, why are we shocked when fewer and fewer black kids are getting involved?

Also, while the black audiences are smaller, the narrative that black people have turned their back on the music is simply not true. I have no delusions that this will ever be popular music for the average black person, but it is quite insidious to continue this meme of black people not coming out to see this music. It’s not true, or at least not in NYC. The problem is how jazz is covered. In the NYC press, the jazz worlds does not exist above Lincoln Center. There is absolutely no coverage of the happenings above there [editor’s note: apparently the writer is referring to uptown, north of Lincoln Center]. Everything is either the clubs downtown or midtown (Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Birdland, Iridium, Jazz Standard) and Lincoln Center; all venues frequented largely by whites. If those were all the places I went to, I’d think blacks didn’t care for the music also. In all this, it’s almost like the clubs in Harlem don’t exist; clubs where there are black patrons! The Shrine, St. Nick’s Pub, Lenox Lounge, Smoke to name some. What about them? I guess if there is no Winter Jazz Fest happening there, then it’s not important.

Why is there little to no coverage of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival (http://www.centralbrooklynjazzconsortium.org)? It is mostly attended by black folks. I won’t hold my breath for coverage from the major jazz publications, but it is painful that the black press ignores it entirely also. Young folks aren’t running media companies, so why won’t the older black people with clout come out and show support, or those with influence make sure [jazz] gets coverage? How will people know about it, if no one covers it? Who is at fault there? Part of the problem is that no one is exposed to these happenings. I’m glad that outfits like Revivalist (http:///revivalist.okayplayer.com/ at least focus on many of the black musicians still dedicated to the craft. Lord knows NPR, DownBeat, and JazzTimes, etc. won’t cover half these guys grinding away in obsurity.

To reiterate my point, our parents failed us. That’s why we are in the precarious situation with the music today. They didn’t lead by example.

Cuyahoga Community College’s new Center For Creative Arts; a case could be made for this being the House that Tri-C JazzFest Built

Tri-C JazzFest (TCJF), produced by Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), will celebrate it’s 33rd anniversary festival April 19-28 as the Cleveland metro area’s most enduring and important annual jazz-based event. (See our complete 2012 lineup elsewhere on www.openskyjazz.com or visit www.tricpresents.com/jazzfest/. The festival was originally conceived by the late Dr. Reginald Buckner and our director emeritus Dr. Thom Horning, primarily as a catalyst for development of a jazz studies program at Tri-C, and also as part of the college’s commitment as a partner in the ongoing development of the downtown Cleveland Playhouse Square theaters. Those four theaters – the State, the Palace, the Allen, and the Ohio – have been a TCJF lynchpin ever since, today serving as the festival’s bookend major weekend concert component. The Playhouse Square theaters are an excellent example of a successful urban recovery story. They were classic old downtown movie houses, with seating capacity ranging from approximately 950 to over 3,000. Such grand old theaters are no longer fashionable in the movie business, and that coupled with Cleveland’s unfortunate and ongoing downtown retail malaise resulted first in their being vacant hulls, and later in the decree that they be demolished. At the 11th hour they were rescued from the wrecking ball by a combination of the late U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum’s intervention and a newly developed not-for-profit whose mission was to save the theaters, the Playhouse Square Foundation; a classic case of vigorous civic and social activism. Sidebar: my great friend Dr. Larry Simpson, former Tri-C Provost and current Berklee College of Music Provost, and I served on the original TCJF organizing committee as representatives of the Northeast Ohio Jazz Society, which we’d founded in 1977.

The inaugural Tri-C JazzFest featured a burgeoning education component at its core, along with weekend concerts at a Playhouse Square theater featuring the likes of McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Mann. Since then the festival has grown its education component to close to an entire week of clinics, masterclasses, and high school jazz band (non-competitive) performances and adjudications; the concert component now encompasses approximately ten days. Out of Tri-C’s jazz education efforts have come such promising young players as the trumpeters Sean Jones, Dominick Farinacci, and Donald Malloy. The first step in growing our concert component was the presentation of performances at Tri-C’s attractive and very accommodating 800+ seat Metro Campus Auditorium (Tri-C has 3 campuses: Metro (just east of downtown, right across the street from the nation’s oldest public housing project), Eastern Campus, and Western campus), and secondarily in the smaller 300+ seat Metro Campus Theater. Tri-C JazzFest has always had a mission of presenting concerts throughout the Greater Cleveland community, including what has become a significant concert component in some of Cleveland’s traditional African American communities.

TCJF built this component with such venues as East Cleveland Public Library (East Cleveland, OH is an urban African American community just east of Cleveland), the historic black theater Karamu House, Mt. Zion Church, Olivet Baptist Church, and Antioch Baptist Church. TCJF’s highly successful series of presentations at East Cleveland Public Library were part of the catalyst which energized the library’s visionary, now-retired CEO Gregory Reese to raise $10M to build a gorgeous 270-seat chamber hall on-site as a home for jazz. For the most part, Karamu, Mt. Zion, Olivet and more recently Antioch have been venues for special (often themed) presentations of some of Cleveland’s finest artists, sometimes augmented by visiting special guests, ala young vocalist Charenee Wade (backed by Farinacci’s band) as part of a Betty Carter tribute and Columbus, OH B3 ace Bobby Floyd for an organ summit with Cleveland’s B3 king Eddie Baccus last April.

East Cleveland Public Library

East Cleveland Public Library has long been the scene for presentations of some of our visiting artists-in-residence, including NEA Jazz Masters Bobby Hutcherson and Randy Weston, as well as such stalwarts as Cecil Bridgewater, Marcus Roberts, Bobby Watson, Lesa Terry, Cyrus Chestnut, Mulgrew Miller, Winard Harper and a raft of other recording artists. Mt. Zion, and now Olivet, have been the scene of our annual Women in Jazz concert, and last April Antioch hosted our first Gospel Jazz concert.

The crux of this commentary relative to our ongoing Independent Ear dialogue on the black audience question is that each of these venues is based in Cleveland’s African American communities, so the great majority of our audiences at these presentations is black folk. Every concert we present in these venues, which per festival typically average anywhere from 4-5 concerts, is blessed with energetic – bordering on raucous – SRO, turn-away crowds. The longest standing of these, at East Cleveland Public Library and Karamu House, witness audiences which line up in the street hours prior waiting for the doors to open. And lest one think black folks only show up for black artists, we’re talking across-the-board SRO audiences here. A couple of years ago we launched our own resident ensemble, the multi-racial TCJF SoundWorks for annual thematic programming. Their first performance, an evening of their arrangements of McCoy Tyner’s music to celebrate our 30th anniversary, was met with the same SRO audience at East Cleveland Public Library, the same amen corner. SoundWorks second concert featured special guest, and that year’s artist-in-residence, NEA Jazz Master Charlie Haden and his Liberation Music Orchestra music. Here I should emphasize that these have always been FREE concerts.

This April will mark my 18th as the festival’s artistic director. Several years ago, largely in response to the growing number of young artists who communicated about the possibility of being presented at the festival in spite of the fact that they had no discernible track record of performance in our market, we created our Debut Series. This afforded us an opportunity to present young artists who had not previously played the Cleveland market in their festival debut. The Debut Series has been a very successful venture, presented largely at the East Cleveland Public Library, and on several occasions at Nighttown, an intimate supper club in nearby Cleveland Hts. which under Jim Wadsworth has become the area’s most vibrant venue for visiting and touring artists.

Some of our Debut Series artists have included pianists Helen Sung, Gerald Clayton, and Jonathan Batiste, saxophonists Eric Person and Tia Fuller, The Barber Brothers (Rahsaan & Roland), drummer (and Cleveland native) Neal Smith, trumpeters Theo Croker and Maurice Brown, and vocalist Sachal Vasandani. Our 2012 Debut Series will present bassist Ben Williams and saxophonist Marcus Strickland and their bands.

One of the hippest circumstances at all of our African American community venues for these free concerts is the level of audience involvement. There is absolutely nothing like an engaged black audience, responding to the music with great vigor, energizing the artists with their interaction, again that amen corner feeling. More than one of our visiting artists has delightedly asked our community series concert audiences if they could pack them up and take them on the road. These are deeply appreciative audiences which always sell-out the artists’ CD stock post-concert. Last April’s Olivet audience went positively nuts for Charenee Wade, and we expect a similar response to our other Debut Series artist this April, Canadian vocalist Kellylee Evans, who’ll pay homage to Nina Simone.

These audiences and their enthusiasm for our artists strongly suggest that there is certainly an African American audience out there for this music, but one wonders how much of a Field of Dreams factor there is to that equation – an if-we-build-it-they-will-come mentality, given that each of those venues is in one of Cleveland’s black communities. And I can’t emphasize enough that heretofore these concerts have been FREE of charge. Besides TCJF its been my experience in other parts of the country that if jazz artists are presented free of charge – particularly if they’re African American artists and there’s a black community in the vicinity of the venue – the African American audience will be significant. Witness the annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival and Silver Spring Jazz Festival, presented in my home community of the Washington Metro area; and in that community they sure didn’t need George Clinton to sing about the DC area being Chocolate City to know that. Despite the fact that those festivals, both featuring robust talent rosters neatly balancing resident artists with touring artists, are presented on the same fall Saturday afternoon, and each enjoys large African American audience participation. Not sure if it matters much, but it should also be pointed out that most of the TCJF Debut Series concerts, as well as the Rosslyn and Silver Spring events, are all matinee performances.

So the question becomes, are we dealing here with a purely economic issue? I can’t really co-sign that because from my own audience observations – and I serve as MC of TCJF concerts and have been a frequent MC at the Rosslyn Jazz Festival through WPFW, affording an up close & personal audience viewpoint – these are decidedly not audiences comprised of economically-deprived black folks. Remember, I characterized this installment as a case study. What are we to make of the twin phenomena of presentations either in or near large pockets of black populace, presented free of charge, and their resulting in at or near capacity audiences? Let me tell you, a real test case is coming at TCJF in 2012. Current harsh economic realities have compelled the Cuyahoga Community College administration to determine that we must charge a nominal fee ($10) for our Debut Series this April (Ben Williams and Marcus Strickland). Thankfully that’s not the case with our Women in Jazz presentation of Kellylee Evans’ tribute to Nina Simone at Olivet, but it will be quite interesting to compare these three separate audience results for artists who are being introduced to our Cleveland community.

What’s your take on this black audience conundrum? Next installment we’ll include reader responses to the overall question of Where’s the Black Audience for Jazz?, and you’re welcome to be part of the dialogue. Hit me back at willard@openskyjazz.com. Also forthcoming is master saxophonist and conceptualist Greg Osby‘s take on this issue. As we say in radio, stay tuned…

I have no idea who adjudicates the MacArthur Foundation’s annual Fellowships, aka the “Genius” awards, but if you do… please recommend an eminently worthy candidate: pianist-composer-educator Danilo Perez. What Danilo has done in his native Panama in the name of music education for disadvantaged children is nothing short of miraculous. And that doesn’t even take into account what he has done to enrich his home country’s annual cultural calendar with his Panama Jazz Festival. But calling that event Danilo’s festival sells it short as the event is truly a family and friends labor of love, including his vivacious Chilean wife, a burning alto saxophonist in her own right, Patricia Zarate, who is the hands-on executive director of the festival, and Danilo’s parents who are quite actively involved in the Danilo Perez Foundation – which has initiated, supported and operated the pianist’s selfless music education enterprise. Danilo (pictured below on the cover of his latest release “Providencia”) is quick to tell inquisitors that this is not about him or his artistry. In fact if you visit the festival’s website at www.panamajazzfestival.com, you have to search to find the humble pianist.

By any estimation – as a longtime sideman with Wayne Shorter, as a recording artist (currently Mack Avenue) and bandleader himself, or as an educator at Berklee College of Music – Danilo Perez is one of our leading musicians. But all those lofty stations pale by comparison to the incredible work he’s doing in his home country. Using the Panama Jazz Festival, which recently celebrated its ninth running January 18-21, as an excellent springboard, Danilo has channeled his teaching affiliations with New England Conservatory and Berklee, plus forged a relationship with Princeton University, to build a music education program that has far-reaching implications for Panama and for the visibility of its subsequent musicians on the world stage.

As with many prominent jazz festivals, the Panama Jazz Festival is built on a serious music education for youngsters platform. One difference is the fact that this event is the first and only one of its kind in this agreeable, tropical nation. As members of the press and guests visited sites around the country we were impressed at the robust atmosphere of building and development. One evening the first in a series of festival-sponsored receptions and galas took us to the Miraflora Locks of the Panama Canal. And what an engineering marvel the Panama Canal remains. We were fascinated by a video presentation on the development and history of the Panama Canal, which as it turns out was designed principally by the engineer who designed Egypt’s historic Suez Canal.

We viewed with great interest the video details of a forthcoming new lock system that will increase and streamline ship travel through the Panama Canal, impressed at how this development will further boost Panama’s economy and enhance the country’s burgeoning growth. When you consider that ship transfer through the Panama Canal is pretty much a 24/7 proposition, and that each vessel which makes the journey pays tariffs that start at $60K per ship, one begins to mentally tally this country’s bright economic future. On yet another evening the U.S. Embassy hosted a party in honor of Danilo and the festival, again demonstrating how the event and its founder have been embraced. And in a high class touch, as we entered the U.S. Embassy and shook hands with the very gracious ambassador (she also showed up the night of the State Dept.-supported performance of the Jed Levy Quartet played the festival, stayed for all the other bands, and had a great time), her aides passed out copies of Dr. Martin Luther King’s now-famous speech on jazz at the Berlin Jazz Festival… in Spanish!

Back to the energetic Danilo, he and Patricia were each a constant, working presence at the festival, particularly in overseeing the festival’s auspicious music education efforts. At each reception and gala we were entertained by joyous bands of children and young adults, and be they from a folkloric or student jazz perspective they were delightful and quite promising musicians. Danilo and his foundation’s endeavors have brought music to children who study music with a proud zeal and a thirsty attitude. You see evidence of that at the daily clinics and music education classes during the festival as well as at festival performances. Danilo and Patti have parlayed their affiliations with NEC, Berklee, and Princeton to the tune of awarding over $1.5 million in scholarships to deserving Panamanian youngsters. Danilo will eagerly grab you by the shoulders and point out some young saxophonist or drummer of impressive early prowess and illustrate how this or that youngster came from extremely humble means, no instrument or music instruction in sight; all made possible through efforts spurred on by the festival. Press colleagues from NPR and Billboard magazines told stories of Danilo taking them to urban neighborhoods or rural landscapes of deep deprivation to meet youngsters who have been transformed by this music ed opportunity.

The festival itself annually honors a deserving Panama jazz elder, and this year that elder was saxophonist Carlos Garnett. Stateside and on the world stage folks recall Carlos Garnett for his work around New York in the 1970s and 80s, including a series of fine dates for the Muse label. Garnett was at the time part of a coterie of Brooklyn-based musicians who operated in a kind of post-Coltrane spiritual and black consciousness raising wing of the music, often to be found onstage at the legendary Brooklyn cultural center known as the East. He returns to Brooklyn on occasion to play gigs at places like Sista’s Place [both the East and Sista’s Place were previously profiled in The Independent Ear; check our archives].

Garnett’s honorific included two concert performances with his New York rhythm section, including the crafty bassist Brad Jones. Carlos performed on Thursday evening at the convention center ATLAPA, closing his rewarding set with a hilarious, over-the-top vocalese performance of the familiar even in Central America Flintstones theme. Garnett reprised that performance, with the art of the improviser’s variance, on Saturday at the festival’s culminating free, all-day blowout on the plaza in Old Panama City. Other highlights included the opening Wednesday evening gala, a touching duo performance at the graciously aging Teatro Nacional opera house by the Cuban masters pianist Chucho Valdes and vocalist Omara Portuondo.

Trombonist Luis Bonilla, who teaches at New England Conservatory, gave two robust performances alongside an exceptional ensemble of NEC students who were on hand with teaching assignments.

A student ensemble from Berklee that is part of Danilo Perez’s and Marco Pignataro‘s Global Jazz Institute at Berklee, acquitted itself very well in two performances. Puerto Rican trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda, who delightedly told the surprised audience that he’d trimmed off 80 lbs since they last saw him, gave a tight and expansive quintet set with his group The Turnaround, and the U.S. State Department-sponsored quartet led by tenor man Jed Levy gave an excellent account of themselves as part of the Rhythm Road project.


And John Scofield displayed his usual brilliance in trio with bassist Ben Street and drummer Bill Stewart. Salseros got their due from two well-received performances by Tito Puente, Jr. leading a skilled Panamanian horn section, demonstrating the high level of professional musicianship of the country. Vocalist Teri Roiger and her partner bassist John Menegon rounded out a finely balanced roster of festival artists.

Throughout the festival youngsters audition for a plethora of scholarship opportunities. One of the true delights of the event came at the free Saturday afternoon plaza performances when Patricia announced the scholarship and instrument winning recipients. The joy of the youngster who won a brand new tenor saxophone spilled out all over the plaza. You cannot help but leave the Panama Jazz Festival deeply heartened by these wonderful endeavors and the zeal and humility with which Danilo, Patricia, and their family and associates spin out their humanitarian efforts.

Nnenna Freelon – with Lois Deloatch – sings an impromptu tribute to Jazz Griot Donald Meade at the JEN conference

At last month’s very successful Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference (1/5-7) in Louisville, one of the more heartwarming programs was bassist-educator Larry Ridley‘s Jazz Legacy performance. The music was rich, and specific to Ridley’s Indianapolis roots. Following the performance two vocalist sister-friends, Nnenna Freelon and Lenora Zenzalai Helm joined other celebrants, including JEN’s own founding member Mary Jo Papich and vocalist Lois Deloatch, in paying homage to Jazz Griot Donald Meade. Apropos they bestowed the Meade Legacy Jazz Griot Award on Donald. The distinguished, folksy Donald Meade is someone I’ve seen for years and chatted with occasionally at the old IAJE conferences, who now supports JEN with zeal. Always in the company of one great or another, whether it was the ancestor and drum master Ed Thigpen, or NEA Jazz Master Clark Terry, Mr. Meade seemed to always be holding court, dropping wisdom on various folks in the music, be they grizzled vets or callow youngsters, his quick wit always at the ready. Since Nnenna and Lenora traveled to Louisville specifically to honor Donald Meade, I asked them to reflect on what he means to them and why they inaugurated this Meade Jazz Griot Award on this most deserving gentleman and namesake. Here’s what Lenora wrote in response.

Basically, Poppa (Donald Meade) is considered a Jazz Griot because he tells the stories we ought to know about jazz history as it was being made, but tells us the missing components about how lives were impacted in the midst of those stories. To read about Ella Fitzgerald‘s career being pivoted for the better under Norman Granz’s influence is one thing, but to have Poppa tell you how Ella REALLY felt about it (because of his conversation with her in the moment), and Norman Granz, was quite another thing. To hear him recount what Ella would say to her musicians backstage, or how she felt compelled to sing 25 – 30 numbers a night in one concert – is a deep treasure; in what history book would I get that?

A Griot tells us stories for the protection of the owners of the history, so that things withheld (whether inadvertent or deliberately cloaked) are made transparent, and in that transparency, clarity comes, THEN ownership IS protected. Poppa gave me an understanding of the inner workings of how jazz history, as we see presently, is discussed and documented in the media and how it is impacted by a jazz musician’s decisions. The decisions we make as jazz musicians about repertoire, personal and social politics, from the very small creature comforts of how we live, to how all of those decisions are perceived – so that we take nothing for granted, so that we don’t miss anything as we scrutinize our decisions.

So, so many times, Poppa has been my personal crystal ball. He has been a father, brother, friend, confidante and mentor. He was at my father’s funeral and told each of my siblings that he would “look after me” after my dad’s passing. In the almost decade that I’ve known him, I’ve discussed each personal, musical and career decision I’ve wanted to make, prior to making it. That’s why I got on a plane to be there when he was honored – and I had no previous intentions to be at the JEN conference. I was there for Donald “Poppa” Meade. He’s encouraged all of us – Nnenna (Freelon), Lois (DeLoatch) and I, to continue being a part of the JEN conference – to not be derailed by the machinations that surround the jazz music industry. He impresses upon us the importance of staying in the conversation, and being at the discussion table, no matter how frustrating or political those machinations have become – basically to not give up our rightful seat at that table – but stay focused on being honest to the music. To do that, we only have to remember the time he took – hours of phone and in-person conversations, getting on a plane to be at our life events (marriages, births, deaths, concert performances, career events), and the promise he asked of us to keep to pay it forward to the next generations of jazz musicians and students – and audiences.

[The following account of the JEN program honoring Donald Meade with the Meade Legacy Jazz Griot Award originally appeared in the site polyrhythms.ning.com.]

Louisville, KY, Jan. 5th: It was the best of times at the 3rd Annual Jazz Education Network Conference with the diligent support of Past President, Mary Jo Papich, as Larry Ridley & the Jazz Legacy Ensemble sponsored by the African American Jazz Caucus made time for his friends and the Universe to honor noted jazz historian Donald Meade as the first recipient of the Jazz Griot Award. (See attached) This annual award which will forever bear his name was made before an excited throng thrilled to pay homage to one of the most knowledgeable jazz historians of our time.

What is a Griot?
The Griot emerged from West African traditions as a storyteller, historian, chronicler and keeper of the timeline. The Griot in short, remembers through word and song all of the important events and experiences of a particular community. He holds sacred the collective memory, preserving for future generations.

Donald Meade is a timeless treasure. His life parallels the evolution of jazz music and culture. His love for music extends far beyond mere knowledge of facts and important figures. Meade brings to the conversation reflections on the origins, dynamics and byways of jazz music. He includes more than just an intimate familiarity with the people that inhabit the landscape, but a thorough knowledge of how these artists mirrored and informed the development of the American culture at the time. His first voice stories embrace the social, political and cultural realities that shape and created musical truths. He was in fact there when what we refer to as “history” was being made. One cannot argue with living history!

Meade, born December 8, 1928 in Joliet, Illinois, was raised in Joliet and later in the Watertown area of East Moline, Illinois, during the time when jazz was coming of age. Meade speaks fondly of growing up musically in the time of Duke Ellington, Nat Cole, Pat Patrick, Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry and many other pioneers and innovators of the day. He has been a life-long friend and confidant to many of the jazz legends and innovators, and has traveled extensively with jazz giants such as Ed Thigpen, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, the Heath Brothers, Art Farmer, and Ella Fitzgerald to name a few. “At one time jazz was the popular music” he says.

The son of a revered labor leader, Alfred (Mule) Meade, Donald Meade remarks: “The history of some aspects of the culture in this country cannot be explained without first understanding the country’s labor history.” As a former laborer at John Deere Harvester Works and later a TWA baggage supervisor, Meade comments: “Were the opportunity to work not here, all of those musical influences from New Orleans to New York, would not have gravitated and uniquely jelled here.” We have all heard versions of the history of this music, but rarely in the context of the symbiotic relationship of arts and labor. It is an insightful view of life and music unique to Mr. Meade.

The history of jazz has often depended upon the reports of witnesses regardless of how far removed. A supremely valid history of jazz is on the lips of those who were there. Meade’s retelling of first-hand accounts has influenced jazz education and generations of young people.

It is fitting that Donald Edward Meade be honored as the first recipient and namesake of the 1st Annual Meade Legacy Jazz Griot Award. Recognized internationally by top jazz musicians, loved and respected by the jazz community, Donald Meade has been a faithful steward of the oral history of this music we all love.

The latest from vocalist-educator Lenora Zenzalai Helm

Our dialogue on the black audience for creative music, which began with filmmaker-educator Natalie Bullock Brown, vocalist-educator Alison Crockett, and vocalist Angela Stribling, has stimulated some very interesting follow-ups. The first comes from an old friend, the distinguished writer, editor and author Robert Fleming. Robert and I grew up on the East side of Cleveland and I can remember many an hour spent in Fleming’s hothouse 3rd floor walk-up spinning the latest jazz sides and postulating on the music and musicians. Giving full credit where it is due, Robert Fleming is one of those responsible for shaping my sensibilities where this music is concerned. As fledgling writers one of our greatest joint thrills was our two-hour interview encounter with Miles Davis during a kinetic week at the old Smiling Dog Saloon, back in our days of endless contributions to various so-called alternative weekly papers around the area.

The second contribution in this installment comes from the young aspiring DC-area singer-jazz presenter Chad Carter. I’ve been mightily impressed with Chad’s zeal to learn this music and its interior elements from several perspectives. Some months ago I encouraged Chad to attend the Jazz Education Network conference in Louisville earlier this month. Everywhere I turned at the conference there was Chad, soaking up the knowledge, meeting & greeting people from all walks of the jazz life, seizing the opportunity with a refreshing thoughtfulness. In addition to developing his recording and performing career as a singer, Chad and his equally zealous father Ted – with invaluable encouragement and assists from his mom – has turned Monday nights into jazz nights at the Silver Spring, MD restaurant Vicino’s, crafting a steady and rewarding schedule of performances by many of DC’s finest, and several ringers from Harlem as well. In turn he has also performed at the Lenox Lounge.

ROBERT FLEMING

The African American audience for creative music is there, yet small in number but just as passionate. Stats and those responsible for them only count audiences as those between ages 15 to 40. Very few of that age group goes to anything but concerts of rap music. In that age group, I think some of those folks would go to concerts if they were not priced out of their budget. If it was a toss-up between Christian McBride and Missy Elliot, or Sonny Rollins and Snoop Dogg… then the rap representatives would win.

Not only are the young people priced out of these concerts, but all of us as well. Even the boomers. Going to see Keith Jarrett at Carnegie Hall or Cecil Taylor at Town Hall costs an arm and a leg. Exposure to something new is vital, especially when one is young. When I was a sprout, I saw Satchmo at the Home and Flower Show, and George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra doing Mozart and Brahms in a free concert sponsored by my junior high school. Exposure meant seeing Luis Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” and Truffaut’s “400 Blows” in high school with Mr. Mucha, my Spanish teacher.

Those who own the venues are greedy and will do anything to make a profit. As long as tickets go up and up, it will be only an elite, white audience who will witness our music and culture. At some point, those who have the means will have to pull back their thirst for profits and dividends and allow our music and culture to survive. I’m saddened by your situation at your festival in Cleveland. [Editor’s note: Earlier I related how Tri-C JazzFest struggles to engage African American audience members for ticketed shows, but has no problems attracting a robust black audience for our free concerts component. We’ll expound on that in an upcoming installment of this dialogue.]

If there is ever a dire time in our communities and so many downhearted people in need of reasonable, refreshing entertainment, this is it. Keep up the good fight.

CHAD CARTER

This is a discussion that’s been needed for so long and is needed often. I recall reading a piece in JazzTimes back in 2003 by Ron Wynn that asked the same question about where the Black audience is for Jazz. Here we are 8 plus years later asking the same question. As a jazz artist and jazz presenter, this is an issue that I know exists all too well.

Here’s an additional idea to go along with Brother [Nicholas] Payton‘s BAM acronym. I’ve coined the term or acronym BLUHM – Black Unabridged History Music (pronounced Bloom), aka Jazz. I’ve always felt that since before, but particularly during and after slavery, that our music has been the most accurate accounting of our history as a people in the United States of America. Through our music, we have always addressed our happiness, fears, sorrows, dreams, struggles, and our triumphs… our stories. For a people who were stripped from our culture and homeland, our music has sort of been our USB memory stick, our unofficial, official record of our experience in the world as told by us, through us, for us and ultimately for the world. Another term to call our music could be TORIG – The Original Music – since we come from the continent of the origin of humankind; it makes sense to refer to the music in kind.

The question Willard poses about the Black audience is an interesting one. This issue in many ways underpins the greater question of our “community” as a whole. I believe sisters [Natalie Bullock] Brown, [Alison] Crockett, and [Angela] Stribling have all hit on things that are part of the complex equation of regaining OUR community. When segregation ended and integration began, we gave birth to the beginning of the erosion of OUR COMMUNITY. The mistake we made was as the song by Mercer and Bloom says, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and so I come to you my love, my heart above my head…” As human beings, we yearned for love and acceptance in America. We wanted the American dream. When we were “accepted” we ran for the brass ring at the expense of the brass rings we forged in our own community. One of those brass rings was our oral history through song, jazz in particular. To have access to “things” is one thing but nothing can ever replace the wealth we shared as a community. We did not survive all those years of slavery and torture through dumb luck. There was pride, ingenuity, love, wisdom, ambition, etc., etc… On some level we failed to protect the strengths we developed through our survival of slavery to the end of Jim Crow. Our resolve got watered down… spread out and shared among others not of our own community. Thus our collective strength has been tremendously weakened. It goes back to the simple but true statement of “Together we stand, divided we fall.” Well, we might not feel like we are falling but some would say we are going down slow and slow is relative depending on one’s perspective on what “slow” means.

We must accept our own diversity and embrace it, nourish it, and acknowledge ALL of it, good, bad, and ugly as OUR COMMUNITY. There have been numerous attempts to form our community via the internet and black business directories, etc…. but until we really get a centralized method of coming together, it will remain a truly daunting task, infighting and fear of corruption exists in any and every community. Therefore, as twisted as this may sound, if there is going to be corruption, and generally speaking, there is, why not have the corruption take place within our community, try to minimize it and at the end of the day that which does not exist, at least the money and resources are staying in our community… at least we hope so. Herein lies the problem with integration, integration created outside community opportunity and nourished greed outside of the community too. However, on the flipside, I can honestly say that it is White audiences that come out to support jazz in consistent numbers, whereas Black patrons are hard to come by with any frequency. Some point to the inequality in economics. Though that still exists, I submit to you that our people are simply choosing not to come, and instead choosing something else. So, all parties in OUR COMMUNITY would have to put the community first before individual gain or at least before the integrated community at large, unless that person or persons does their part to give back to the community.

I would like to point to the Jewish community as an example. This is nothing new, but their sense of community is not just an ideal. I know for a fact that there are “COMMUNITY” books that are provided to a person in our community by a kind of primary identification key or serial number if you will. This book is provided based on where someone moves and settles down. It could be a young man going off to school in another state or a young man moving for a job and career opportunity. Where ever he or she moves, they are provided a book with names, numbers, for any resources for living that one might need. Those contacts are all within their “COMMUNITY” and those contacts take care of their brother or sister because they are a member of that community. My folks raised me to understand that when possible, try to spend your money in your own community, not as a slight to other communities, rather as a support to your own culture and survival of your heritage and people. Unfortunately we are all forced to have a race label in this country and world. I happen to claim African American, and I claim that proudly. However, I’m what I like to call an international Omelet. I’ve got a little bit of this, and a little bit of that in my lineage as so many of us do. I could ask for one of those books legitimately if I wanted to but I’m not sure I’d be provided one.

The Black community has this too but we do this in much smaller numbers or self-insulated bubbles, which cuts us off from one another. The Church used to be our strongest traditional community and still is in many places around the country. However, that has eroded as well from where it was some time ago.

So, to reclaim jazz, perhaps that is the better question as daunting as it sounds, the question of regaining our entire cultural community sounds even more daunting. Perhaps if we figure out how to reclaim jazz and get the Black audience back for jazz, then we just might have an avenue to getting our COMMUNITY back as a people.

One idea I had for regaining our COMMUNITY audience for jazz is to assemble an ongoing All-Star cast of major mainstream artists who have a heavy influence and respect for jazz. This cast of stars would tour in addition to their already packed schedule, interspersed with those major acts would be major stars within the educated jazz audience community. Let me explain by giving an example.

The all=star cast of performers and entertainers would be Pop artists and celebrities who would have concerts and host smaller outreach initiatives to expose kids, particularly African American kids to jazz and show why it is cool, why it is important and why it is their music to claim and share with the world. However, for them to share it, they have to know about it, know its cool, learn that its fun, know that its a major art form that grows out of their heritage and that it is something for them to be proud of being the first in their family to earn a college degree and all that it implies achieving that accomplishment in the context of their history as a people. The message does not have to be overly complex nor should it be “dumbed down” to the point where the significance is lost, it just simply has to be relatable, fun and approachable.

Here’s a list of artists I think would work for this effort.
Note: Each of these artists would meet certain criteria for the purpose of greatest impact socially, economically, musically, educationally, and sustainability.

Sample All-Star Cast-
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will I Am, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Trombone Shorty, Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Benet, Clint Eastwood, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, Common, Queen Latifah, Mos Def, Cee-Lo Green, Tyler Perry, George Lucas, Janet Jackson, Esperanza Spalding… and the list would go on and on… (there would of course need to be the involvement of several existing jazz masters in some shape or form so as not to send the wrong message to the existing jazz audience that is already educated most likely a bit more than the masses.) However, it would also be up to the production efforts of such a project to address these kinds of concerns to the established jazz audience too. Obviously, though the goal is to cultivate new listeners for the music, we would not want to disenchant the existing audience either.

Ultimately, a full blown production would need to be established in grand fashion, ala Michael Jackson style… meaning bigger than life, thinking outside the box to present the music while still being very classy with it. The event would need to be sold as a blockbuster, worthwhile, fun experience to be embraced by mainstream popular culture. From this effort, records would need to be pressed and actual jazz artists on the jazz scene today would need to be brought into the fold in creative ways to make them relatable to the mass population of young people.

The stars listed above would also need to take an active role in contributing to creative ways to pull this effort together. They would be traveling ambassadors for America’s music, jazz, but they would be traveling primarily within the United States. A certain percentage of the proceeds from the concerts would be slated to fund jazz music programs at some of the schools and communities that are being exposed to the music. I would also suggest having a plan already laid out to provide tools for the kids to learn the most popular songs that come out of the tour. For them to learn jazz, they have to like it and relate to it. Once they are fans, people tend to be fans for life and thus they become interested more and more in its origins, and like most music, they will dig deeper to whatever degree fits them. Any degree is good and healthy for the future of jazz and the future of jazz in the African American community and audience rebuilding effort. That’s my two cents for the moment. This response was jazz-inspired, total improvisation!