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Beautiful piece, much to taste and digest

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Sep 19, 2022Liked by Free Black Thought

Terrific piece, beautiful thoughts beautifully stated. Thank you.

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Sep 20, 2022·edited Sep 20, 2022Liked by Free Black Thought

I'm a jazz nut - have been since seeing Count Basie at the San Diego Zoo in one of his last performances in 1983. I've written about jazz for almost four decades now. But discovering jazz after growing up on the typical hits of the 1970s - Eagles, Commodores, Steve Miller Band, Ohio Players - led me ever further afield, into structured improvisational musics of all types.

So while I disagree with nothing here, I do take exception to the notion that jazz is superior to other improvised American forms: blues, bluegrass, country, gospel, zydeco, Cajun. These are ALL facets of improvised American music, and all have borrowed heavily from one another since they each began coalescing from earlier folk forms at the turn of the last century.

When I interviewed the late violinist Papa John Creach, who gained his greatest fame with Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, he pointed out that when he was starting out in the 1930s, all musicians - white and black - had to know the full repertoire of popular American music. As he told me, if he was playing a speakeasy and someone requested a song by country pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, he better know how to play it!

So jazz borrowed from country which borrowed from gospel which borrowed from the blues which borrowed from Appalachian folk which borrowed from light opera which ... well, you get the idea.

I love this song from 1930, when Rodgers had Louis Armstrong on cornet and Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano, for one of his early hits, "Blue Yodel #9" - https://youtu.be/EA9Y9FkxJZo. It perfect encapsulates American music - and perfectly illustrates the argument put forth in this wonderful essay.

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Sep 20, 2022Liked by Free Black Thought

Thank You, M. Thomas, for interesting essay. A lot to take in, all of it fascinating. Always enjoy learning about Jazz and appreciate finding out about Kenneth Burke. Also TY to M. Smith for introduction. TY again.

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Sep 19, 2022·edited Sep 20, 2022Liked by Free Black Thought

Here are my two cents. Yes, there's a lot of truth and vision here. But the first record I bought was Sh-boom by the Chords. I just downloaded Maybelline by Chuck Berry. It was not Eric Dolphy. So, I have to engage those other musical threads that are about being on the dance floor rather than sitting in a club listening. Rock'n'Roll, R&B, Trap needs to be in the room of American identities. I've appreciated it all (or much of it) and love the metaphor. However, here's another question. When I began anthropology, the metaphor of the 'web of society' was popular. But to actually describe a society I needed to operationalize it -- so I used network analysis to find how it all worked. So, I'd like to read more -- with all the details -- of how this plays out. The jazz (including acid jazz), the rock'n'roll, the R&B, the trap.

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