New Day Jazz
Justin Desmangles
It is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story. It is a story which otherwise has yet to be told and which no American is prepared to hear . . .
The story of the Negro in America is the story of America - or, more precisely, it is the story of Americans. It is not a very pretty story: the story of a people is never very pretty. The Negro in America, gloomily referred to as that shadow that lies athwart our national life, is far more than that. He is a series of shadows, self-created, intertwining, which we now helplessly battle . . .
This is why his history and his progress, his relationship to all Americans, has been kept in the social arena. He is a social and not a personal or a human problem; to think of him is to think of statistics, slums, rapes, injustices, remote violence; it is to be confronted with an endless cataloging of losses, gains, skirmishes; it is to feel virtuous, outraged, helpless, as though his continuing status among us were somehow analogous to disease - cancer, perhaps, or tuberculosis - which must be checked, even though it cannot be cured. In this arena the black man acquires quite another aspect from that which he has in life. We do not know what to do with him in life; if he breaks our sociological and sentimental image of him we are panic stricken and we feel ourselves betrayed. When he violates this image, therefore, he stands in the greatest danger (sensing which, we uneasily suspect that he is often playing a part for our benefit); and, what is not always so apparent but is equally true, we are then in some danger ourselves - hence our retreat or blind and immediate retaliation.
James Baldwin, 1951
Painting, pictured at right, by
Beauford Delaney
Dark Rapture (James Baldwin)
1941
Oil on canvas, 34 x 28 in.
Genre
Blues & Classical & Experimental & Jazz & Poetry & Literature
Missed the Show?
Artist | Song | Album | Label | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hank Mobley | No Room For Squares | No Room For Squares | Blue Note | |
Joe Henderson | Short Story | In 'N Out | Blue Note | |
Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis | Do You Think | Celebrations & Solitudes | Strata-East | |
Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis | Making It | Celebrations & Solitudes | Strata-East | |
Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis | So Long | Celebrations & Solitudes | Strata-East | |
Thelonious Monk | Work | Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins | Prestige | |
Art Blakey & Thelonious Monk | Rhythm-A-Ning | Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk | Atlantic | |
Airbreak | ||||
Mildred Anderson | That Old Devil Called Love | No More In Life | Bluesville | |
Al Smith | Don't Worry About Me | Midnight Special | Bluesville | |
Ike Quebec | Brother, Can You Spare A Dime | Heavy Soul | Blue Note | |
Lionel Hampton Orchestra featuring Little JImmy Scott | Everybody's Somebody's Fool | Hamp's Golden Favorites | Decca | |
Billie Holiday | Detour Ahead | Shades of Blue | Sunset | |
John Coltrane | Central Park West | Coltrane's Sound | Atlantic | |
John Coltrane | Like Sonny | Coltrane Jazz | Atlantic | |
Airbreak | ||||
Sonny Rollins | Surrey with the Fringe on Top | Newk's Time | Blue Note | |
Jackie McLean | Lets Face the Music and Dance | Swing Swang Swingin' | Blue Note | |
Duke Ellington Orchestra | Smada | Monologue | CBS - France | |
Duke Ellington Orchestra | Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note | Monologue | CBS - France | |
Duke Ellington Orchestra | Snibor | Primping for the Prom | CBS - France | |
Oscar Brown, Jr. | One Foot in the Gutter | Tell It Like It Is! | Columbia | |
Louis Jordan | Wha'ts The Use of Getting Sober (When You're Going to Get Drunk Again) | The Best of Louis Jordan | MCA | |
Louis Jordan | Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens | The Best of Louis Jordan | MCA | |
Louis Jordan | Beans & Cornbread | The Best of Louis Jordan | MCA | |
Airbreak | ||||
Elvin Jones / Jimmy Garrison featurng Charles Davis | Half & Half | Illumination! | Impulse | |
Gil Evans (Cecil Taylor) | Pots | Into the Hot | Impulse | |
Eric Dolphy | Love Me | Jitterbug Waltz | Douglas | |
Eric Dolphy & Richard Davis | Come Sunday | Jitterbug Waltz | Douglas | |
Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis | 3 Day New York Blues | Celebrations & Solitudes | Strata-East | |
Bessie Smith | Backwater Blues (excerpt) | Black Man in America | Credo | |
James Baldwin & Studs Terkel | James Baldwin on Bessie Smith | Black Man in America | Credo | |
Alberta Hunter | Workin' Man | Remember My Name | Columbia | |
Airbreak | ||||
Julian Cannonball Adderley | One for Daddy-O | Somethin' Else | Blue Note | |
Bobby Bland | Black Night | Ain't Nothing You Can Do | Duke | |
Marlena Shaw | You, Me & Ethel - Dialogue | Who Is This Bitch, Anyway? | Blue Note | |
Duke Ellington Orchestra | Boogie Bop Blues | Primping for the Prom | CBS - France | |
Duke Ellington Orchestra | Walkin' & Singin' the Blues | Primping for the Prom | CBS - France | |
Airbreak | ||||
Sarah Vaughn | Slow Hot Wind | Sarah Vaughn Sings the Mancini Songbook | Mercury |