Each
day when I crawl out of bed in the morning, I have two choices of media with
which to help ease the transition from slumber to wakefulness. Both by today’s standards could be
considered antiquated and anachronistic, but that only should be considered in
terms of popular culture.
Fortunately as academic institutions have proven, knowledge, ideas, and
resulting processes do stand the test of time. I have mixed feelings about traditions. Certainly a core liberal arts education
could and would be a substantial basis upon which to grow one’s own life. Conversely as I graduated from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I wanted nothing more than to
escape four years of UNC’s traditions.
Unlike many of my classmates who remain diehard Tarheel fans, I felt an
intense need to continue academic growth in a different geographical area with
different people. Traditions are
necessary for civilization. We as
human beings need ethical, moral, and Christian models upon which to pattern
our lives. The concept that
emerges with this decision to change is growth. How can one continue to grow when one’s environment is
staid?
A
striking realization occurred to me recently when visiting one of my former
alma maters. It had been
twenty-three years since I left Columbia, South Carolina after completing a
Masters degree in music composition at USC. Since then I have completed the course work for a Doctorate of Musical
Arts in Composition at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Also since then I have worked
as a professional pianist in the cruise industry for ten years. That is two very large chapters of my life that have been
lived since I graduated from Chapel Hill or the University of South
Carolina. What was startling upon
visiting Columbia was it had not changed.
Twenty-three years of history and as the world around us has continued
to evolve, expand, and influence, Columbia had not changed. It became clear to me the reason. It was because of the university.
Columbia, because of its university, was a city of tradition. Strikingly also it is a city of
tradition because of the Civil War.
Although I had passed through South Carolina and Georgia to embark ships
in Florida, I in twenty-three years never had stopped to give the historical
traditions of these states another thought. For the same reason I wanted to leave Chapel Hill, I wanted
to leave not only Columbia but the entirety of the American South. After living in Columbia for five
years, it became apparent that there was an underlying dictating
infrastructure. It is ensconced at
the root level of Southern society.
I realized that “Old Money” controlled the South. Consequently there was very little
financial mobility available without first recognizing and then interacting
politically with this organization.
I chose growth and once again left for another area and new people. It seems this type of growth and thus
lack of it markedly has affected the growth of America. There is no greater metaphor for this
process than the two choices of media I face each day when I awake. I can choose the local FM jazz radio
station or the local FM classical radio station. While it may not be readily apparent how this choice
personifies the growth of America, it is startlingly accurate. This choice incorporates race,
nationality, politics, government, and institution. The unnerving conclusion is that radio is racist. Because I have studied the history of
music at the doctoral level, I never have drawn boundaries around particular
musics based on skin color. Music
is one of the few transcendent art forms that allows for the blurring of these
human biases. It will be clear to
some of us that radio always has been segregated. Two seminal music figures influenced the watershed of blurring
race on the airwaves. They were
Elvis Presley and Barry Gordy.
Elvis was white but sang like a black man thus presenting him with
musical opportunities not afforded to the original Negro artists. Barry Gordy Jr. similarly shaped the
music of original Negro artists into a form that was deemed palatable by white
American radio. It was called
Motown. While his record label was
a success for the music industry, I always have felt it was a disservice to the
original artists. I am different
because I am a musician. I do not
draw racial boundaries around music. There was an American consensus that Negro
culture from Africa was too intense for the more conservative Caucasian
sensibilities. Fundamentally this
cultural idiosyncrasy could be the talking point of a plethora of issues
fundamentally affecting Americans, but has been blurred by a more recent social
concept. Instead of recognizing,
examining, and celebrating our cultural differences, instead in America we are
attempting to blur these differences by fabricating a likeness of humanity with
little to no historical precedence.
By blurring gender we are in a sense attempting to eradicate thousands
of years of relevant human culture driven by it. The male female relationship is what has driven the world
since its inception. This has
changed.
Ignoring
the racial bias of radio, there are many concepts being represented by the
simple choices of music to be played publicly. With the recent seeming extinction of traditional record
labels due to the shift of music consumption on the internet, the organizing
and thus reinforcing of these cultural differences is ebbing. Instead we are being pushed into a
homogenous indeterminate group of consumers with very little artistic
sensibility.
Simply
the choice of the classical radio station is better. As a staunch purveyor of jazz music, still I have evolved to
believe the European traditions of music have proven more tangible. Without trying to disparage America’s
only indigenous art form, “If it is not on the page, it is not on the
stage.” When I began my composing
career it revolved around the jazz idiom.
I studied jazz performance for many years, and as a ship pianist
continued to evolve as an improvising musician. It is a very high art form that never should be looked down
upon. The difficulty today is,
America has changed. The
traditional driving forces of humanity subtly are being challenged and changed
thus rendering ineffective our cultural heritage. How is it possible that jazz is dead? It is because the principles of our
modern day life do not relate to the principles of jazz. Since Hip Hop, an indigenous, artistic,
socially conscious music form was pushed off the shelves in lieu of
pre-packaged pop offerings, nothing has emerged in the field of music that
accurately can summarize America’s mainstream. We do not have a mainstream. We have become a diluted, disparate, desperate lost culture
looking for the once available incentives provided by both government and
merchants. They no longer are
there. Without the traditions of
academic institutions it is plausible this culture could be lost forever.
As
a jazz musician I try to listen to the local jazz radio station. Nine times out of ten I cannot. It is disappointing as an academically
trained musician that I cannot put faith in the programming of this
station. The reasons are the
same reasons that are predicating our lives today in America. The programming is a façade as has
become our governmental and socioeconomic policies. Neither is relating to America at the grassroots level. That level has become so disguised by
the conscious efforts of a select few that our existence has become a
distortion of reality. We are not
operating candidly face to face on a Christian level. Instead we are enjoying the process of distortion for
entertainment reasons. When the
pure cultural heritage of a society becomes cloaked, then the rules become
changed. This is how Republicans
traditionally have won when they can’t win on the playing field. Instead they change the rules of the
game in favor of themselves.
Who
is benefiting from this distortion?
When what calls themselves a jazz radio station fails to play the
seminal catalog of recorded jazz that has been amassed and studied academically
for decades, what conclusion can be drawn? They are a façade that is operating for covert reasons. If the programming they choose is
devoid of the artistry, wisdom, soul, and inspiration capable in music, then
they are emasculating their listeners with tepid, superficial, selfish
music. It is not new. The robbing of power from the people
began with George W. Bush’s presidency, and it continues.
The
programming of a radio station as a metaphor for our struggle for economic and
social success in America easily can be exemplified by Time/Warner’s systematic
hoarding of America’s popular music.
When such an entity brazenly purchases and hides America’s history, what
conclusion can be drawn? How in
modern times can the roots of America’s civilization have been plucked and
hidden from us? It is because we
are operating in a façade, not America’s once reality.
Music
is and always has been embraced for its sheer power to move the human condition
through emotion and intellect. If
you want to dumb down your population your rob them of the fundamental tools
they use to evolve and grow as human beings. Music and public education are two of these fundamental
tools. I can’t expect to turn on the radio and hear authentic
representations of America’s only indigenous art form. Art is too powerful for the masses, as
we continue grossly to underestimate the sensibilities of the American
population.
The
classical station is the better choice, because although there is unsuccessful
music in this repertoire also, it at least has a tried and true process of
checks and balances. It has
sustained the test of time, and this test has empowered this music to become
stronger and even more tenacious against imposters. What is being played on this particular “jazz” radio station
merely is pop music, and I assume God is the one who makes the determination of
whether you prefer art or sugar for your musical preference.
