Hi,
I watched your program with Billy Taylor and I kept seeing please
write
us about five or six times on the TV Tube. So, I thought may
be you are serious about this?
Think Tank wanted to read this on their show, but I ask them not
too incase they
quoted only part of the review and not the entire review. I am not
trying to hurt anybody just trying to bring out some facts.
* Well, to put it simply
when you talk to a black jazz
artist
you will get a bias viewpoint pointing to a black
jazz artist.
They have a marketing promotional
conspiracy
pointing to the fact that they are jazz
musicians
and white musicians only steal from them. And
you will
never hear a black artist mention a white
artist.
I wonder what they do with a brown artist?
But somehow
I do not think they have a sense of humor
about
this subject. This attitude has gotten beyond belief.
I was visiting Toronto for a funeral last week (Alfred
Schmielewski) and I called an old
musician friend and he goes to the clubs to see the groups from
the states and one of his
friends ask the bass player if he would like to get together and
play during the day. The
bass player did not say no he said, "I do not play with white musicians."
* Billy Taylor is an
old tired musician and should stay in
his school
environment where he belongs and not be out in
public
promoting his racist musical ideas.
I would like to define racist for you so you will not get upset. (1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. 2. discrimination or prejudice based on race. Mr. Taylor in his interview said he was bias so you should not be upset by this statement and point me out as a racist whiich I am sure will happen.)
I would hope that music would be beyond race, but I say it cannot
because
of the low moral character of most musicians. This is why
classical music has such a
high level of morality in the music because the music is written
down note for note and cannot
be changed my the performing artists like it can be in jazz.
And classical musicians just cannot compose music and there is so much
music for them to perform that the performer knows that if they play a
certain piece of music they know so many people will come and listen and
make their concert successful.
* JAZZ: The black race
did not invent the harmony, song
form, musical
instruments, improvisation, or
orchestration.
This all came from white musicians as
they call
us. I would say that they may have invented
the song
form of the blues. The harmony came from hymns
that they
sang in Christian Churches. So what part of
jazz is black
jazz and what part of jazz is white jazz?
* I would say the the
drumming or rhythm of jazz comes from
a certain
tribe in Africa and this rhythm was used to
communicate
from village to village like a language
would.
So this was a very precise way of speaking not so
much a free
for all that we have in jazz with the rhythm
now.
I believe a few people in South America still know
this tradition
of speaking with the drum. They had a
forum at
the UN with this demonstration, but I do not
remember
what tribe. There are many rhythms that came out
of Africa
and one of those rhythms came from a black tribe
not the whole
black race. What about all the Afro-Cuban Rhythms
for an example
of this idea of one tribe with one thythm.
* Jazz is a mixing of
the races and cultures from both the
black races
and the white races. So to say that jazz was
a black art
form is really silly. But we have so many
egos out
there and people taking positions for economic
gain.
The blacks want the present whites to pay for the
mistakes
of the past. Which to me is extremely bias and
unforgiving,
but that is what we have. I never knew a
black person
until I went to college. Does this mean I
am guilty
of all the crimes against the blacks?
Can a white man get up and call Al Sharpton a racist? Can a
white man
get up and call Billy Taylor a racist? But a black man can
get up and call any white
man a racist. I believe that the white race should get up
and make a stand about this name
calling that is going on.
Some how this wild talk by the communities has to be gotten under
control!
About your show with Billy Taylor, I thought it was a terrible show
because Billy Taylor is so fixed in his mind about his music that
new ideas or new musicians
are not there. His piano playing sounded so tired and the
sound of the
piano was terrible. I do not know who your sound man is, but you
should get a new one or
take more care in the sound presentation.
To conclude: It is the over all lack of respect for music
in general
that is the problem. The Conductor of the Met got convicted
of child
molestation and is on probation. Does this reach the public?
Why is
Strawberry so persecuted and not the Conductor of the Met?
Two major Conservatories of music closed in Chicago in the last
15 years due to
lack of support. Is this the kind of America we want?
I do not think
so, but it is the kind of America we are getting. Having people
on your
show dividing the races and promoting bias opinions is not a
way to
promote a better and freer America.
A personal note, music is an art form that is said to be closes
to God. "I wonder
what God would say about choosing musicians because of race?"
Greg Waters
Music Critic, artists of music in classical and jazz