in praise of community organizers
Remember four years ago, when Obama was running for president and Sarah Palin mocked the very notion of a community organizer?
The New Orleans-New York connection is so vital that while down in New Orleans for a jazzfest trip, I'll end up missing one of NOLA's best players here in my own backyard.--saxophonist Donald Harrison at Symphony Space later this month. But I'll be back in time for the New Orleans Piano Kings Celebration at Dizzy's, spanning three generations with Ellis Marsalis, Henry Butler, and Jonathan Batiste. Meanwhile, when I'm in New Orleans, I'll continue my research into the fates of the communities that have long been the hothouses for the culture these pianists represent.
What does a community mean to a musician?
Last week I interviewed Geri Allen for a forthcoming Wall Street Journal piece; she talked about the nurturing environment she came up through in her native Detroit, and the one she found upon relocating to New York in 1982, in Brooklyn, not far from where I live today. Alto saxophonist Yosvany Terry recalled for me recently the musical "experiments" he and colleagues including drummer Dafnis Prieto began in the quartet Columna B in Havana, where they met within the community of conservatory students; Terry's thrilling current music is evidence of a vital and innovative community of Cuban musicians (and those of Cuban or Afro Latin lineage) now in New York.
I recall interviewing saxophonist Steve Coleman a decade ago and he told me this:
I play a community music. I go home, and my family is pretty naive about what I do. They're like, "Can you take out your horn and play that record you just did?" I try to explain to them that it's really not that kind of music, that if I play just a single line on my horn, you'll have no idea what it sounds like. They'll be saying, "Why not? Can't you play it? Don't you know your own music?" But it's a communal thing. You have to be there. In the community.
April 16, 2012 2:32 PM
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