No Room for Squares by Hank Mobley is a great song. I can’t think of anywhere worthwhile where “squares” add any value. Squares don’t uplift, they destroy. Squares don’t liberate, they censor. Squares don’t empathize, they judge. The sole purpose of the square is to curtail everything they don’t like, and what they don’t like forms quite the long list.
I usually don’t post about politics, but I have to in this instance. You see, every once in a while, I encounter the walking contradiction that is the staunch republican/conservative jazz fan. I met a “birther” at a music festival in Harlem of all places, complete with a “No Bama” t-shirt. This is America, and everyone is certainly entitled to their beliefs, but facts are facts, and they are undeniable. Although facts don’t seem to matter for the birther crowd, as they continue to promulgate the lie that our President is not an American.
The fact remains that right wing politics have been a thorn in the side of jazz music (the arts in general) for time immemorial, and the music has been fighting the right in one way or another from the start. Jazz was protest music, and the musicians certainly weren’t protesting hippies. Conservatives are no friends to jazz and the art world. The obstacles put in place of the growth and prosperity of this music like cutting school funding and music education programs (particularly in the inner city) are always at the behest of conservative leadership. The complete disregard for the institutions and models that gave us the legends of yesterday have all been decimated.
Which brings it back full circle to people like the man at the festival, and others like him I have encountered online and in real life. They indeed might love the music, but it perplexes me why they can’t recognize that their attitudes & mindset don’t sustain the art they claim to love. In fact, it destroys it. You can’t tell me you love Bitches Brew, then champion trickle down economics & Ronald Reagan. Do you think Ronald Reagan supported art like Bitches Brew? What did his policies do to foster the next generation of jazz musicians? What effect did it have on jazz education, particularly in the inner city? Why don’t conservatives ever ask these questions? Do they care? If they don’t care, then why don’t they? If they don’t care, then how much do they actually love this music? Do they see the correlation with the decimation of music education and the access inner city school children have to instruments with the waning interest by young people in the music? You can’t complain about the dwindled interest in something if you support the elected officials who systematically remove the avenues of learning available to young people. It goes hand in hand.
For the past few years, the death of jazz has been a hot topic for writers. Everyone loves to proclaim the death of the music, sometimes with what seems like glee. They will parrot the false notion that once jazz music stopped being “danceable” and became bebop it somehow died. Of course there is little nuance to that assertion, and facts tend to make that point invalid since the best selling jazz records came after bebop and not before, but who has time for facts in a debate? Certainly not conservatives. When in doubt, blame the musicians for destroying their art, and not the political and social constructs that routinely destroy the avenues that foster growth for the arts. Critics and writers rarely go in depth as to what in fact “killed” this art form. It certainly wasn’t Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing bebop.
Anytime I encounter these folks, Hank Mobley’s No Room For Squares always comes to mind. So please, if you are a self-identified “jazz conservative”, spare me the lectures on Reaganomics, liberalism, socialism and every other ‘ism’ you probably don’t understand. I am the product of the big city. I know first hand what conservative policies do to people like me. I can’t think of anything squarer than someone who claims to love jazz, but fails to see what side of the political aisle has been hell bent on destroying it. It’s definitely not the left. Whether you agree with that is irrelevant. It’s the truth.
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Heh – you don’t usually post about politics, I don’t usually read about politics. I’m also not normally one to get much from generalized statements, but I suspect you have a point here.
And, it’s always good to hear some Hank Mobley, so thank you for that!
These ideas may hold true for Jazz (depending on the sub-genre) but it certainly does not hold true for all music, nor art in general. Oddly, those with money seem to be the primary benefactors of the arts and healthcare (tax breaks not withstanding).
Perhaps different in the US, but up north in Canada, our richest (mostly conservatives) are the largest patrons of the arts as a whole, particularly classical music and jazz. They are the ones who dole out large sums to keep various projects going: programmes for kids, tweens and teens. They also single handedly keep orchestras and ensembles alive not just with out and out donations, but also in season tickets. Artists need to eat and they don’t fair all that well simply providing lessons to hopefuls.
This is also the case for healthcare. Despite wily methods of tax evasion/sheltering, the conservative rich are the largest donators to health care in Canada. It is a well known fact that “telethons” and the like provide about 5% of the overall donated budget in any given year. The rest? Private donations, mostly anonymous by very wealthy benefactors. I suspect this is true for the US in at least some form.
If there is any sliver of hope for humanity, using whatever metric one would like to evaluate survival, music will be a significant factor and at no point should anyone be made to feel as if they “don’t get it” simply because they are wearing a t-shirt. Perhaps this fellow wore the shirt as a fine FU to the establishment? Of course the establishment is variable and in this case, it was a group of “liberals” listening to jazz. I recall a fine interview by O’Reilly on Fox News (I don’t watch TV usually but this was sent to me) speaking with Marilyn Manson. MM couldn’t have been better spoken and O’Reilly acknowledged this. When questioned regarding what the purpose of the “shock” was, MM responded (paraphrasing): it is my job as an artist to shake things up, to force people to examine what they know and believe in, to get people moving and active, in days gone by we had Elvis and the like, I use a more aggressive shock but it amounts to the same thing.”
A t-shirt in a given environment can certainly have the meaning you interpreted, or it could have been something more akin to Mr. Manson, shaking things up in an otherwise homogenous environment. Jazz is about shaking things up for better or for worse and even lowly conservatives have that capability all the while enjoying a superior form of music. To be clear, I’m a staunch moderate with leanings slightly left or right, depending on the topic but I’m 100% all in for jazz or almost any type.
Zanth,
Thanks for the response, but I will respectfully disagree with you on several points, and my response is earnest and sincere, but what you are saying simply ignores factual matters that I simply cannot ignore. I cannot ignore it because it affects the people around me. Matters that I know of firsthand that your post neither addresses, acknowledges and/or invalidates. In fact, most of your response isn’t really relevant.
First and foremost, the US and Canada are not parallels. Being a conservative in Canada is not the same as being a conservative in the US. Let’s make that distinction very clear. Furthermore, the social conditions (not to mention history) is very different between the US and Canada.
What is undeniable here is the systemic destruction of education and funding in inner city schools across the US. Complete removal of music programs, instruments and just abysmal education opportunities for communities populated by people of color. Some schools don’t even have textbooks for students to take home. These standards are not applied to schools in all districts, certainly not in the schools of the constituents of conservatives here. When you become cognizant as to what is happening, only someone intentionally being dense will fail to recognize that this systemic problem is real and intentional. It’s always done under the guise of “budget cuts”, but overwhelmingly, these cuts only affect the programs and schools in the inner city. Many of the same places that gave birth to the artforms we celebrate (or claim to) today like jazz. We have to look at the people who continue to destroy, and it is always conservatives. Always. In fact, they champion it, and their supporters wink and nod in approval. I really don’t have time for people who feign ignorance of this. We have to be honest about it, and telling me about the benevolent conservatives north of the border who contribute to the arts does not change or address what is going on here, particularly in the inner cities across the country. It’s akin to someone telling you they got assaulted by a man in a blue jacket, and that the man in the blue jacket has a long history of assault and has assaulted many people prior. Instead of addressing the issue of the blue jacket assaulter, you in turn talk about the friendly fellow you know in another country who wears a blue jacket and is polite. While that may be true, it does not address the very real assault that happened at the hands of the man in a blue jacket in the other country. So what exactly does telling the victim of the assault or someone who knows the victim of the assault about the nice guy who also wears a blue jacket do? Think about it for a second.
Furthermore, I will disagree with you with respects to that t-shirt. Here is something you don’t do at an African music festival in Harlem of all places; you don’t wear a t-shirt championed by vehement liars and racists. Sorry, that’s idiotic, and will not fly. It says a lot about that type of person. The sheer audacity and gall is appalling. It all boils down to common sense and respect. He’s free to do as he pleases, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Free speech protects someone who wants to wear nazi paraphernalia, but we can all agree that someone wearing it to a Jewish gathering is an idiot and a fool. Dressing up in tea party garb at an African/jazz music festival in Harlem tells me all I need to know. You certainly don’t respect the people, the culture or the art there. Not to mention the politicians they support don’t want festivals like this happening. Whether they like the art or not is irrelevant when they support people who destroy the community.
As an aside, if a person is a birther like the man with the t-shirt, they are indeed an idiot and a supporter of liars. They won’t get a pass from me as having an opinion when their entire platform is promulgating lies, deception and obscuring the truth. What exactly is a birther? What are they about? What do they do? What are their goals? If you can answer those questions honestly and still think they are a legitimate group, then we have nothing to discuss. We need to call a spade a spade and stop the people obfuscating their hatred with their “platforms” in our mist. I have family in the south (Texas), so I know where the conservatives there firmly stand. They aren’t ambiguous about it and will openly tell you. At least I know where they stand. It may just be an opinion to you, but my livelihood depends on it. I’m not so laissez faire about people who want to destroy my community and care little for people like me. Sorry. That community includes the schools and the arts here.
Excellent post Atane. If nothing else, I would hope that someone attending a jazz concert in Harlem would have enough respect and/or awareness for the people and venue in which the concert was being held to not wear a shirt like that. It not only screams out to the world of their personal ignorance, but also that they have zero respect for the music, venue and those in attendance.