The Loyal Order of the White Hairs and Jazz

Having been interested in and having studied jazz music and its history most of my life, it was perplexing to sit at Fayetteville's Botanical Garden and listen to transcriptions of authentic early jazz.  The arrangements were accurate, well chosen, and well played.  Possibly it was the best live brass sound ever I have heard. One must tip a hat both to doctors of music and orchestrally-trained trumpet players.  It even seemed to swing, "In Its Own Sweet Way."  After hearing the concert I began to feel it had been a little too sweet.  Sweet sound is good, but is it realistic?  That is an odd question.  What exactly is a dirty sound?  Jimi Hendrix could explain it with his own playing.  The presence of distortion or dissonance might constitute the definition of a dirty sound.  So could a flatus.  In any event the music was of quality, and like a 'Chopped' judge's cant, "Sounded good, looked good, and reminded me of early jazz."  Sweet could mean not exactly representative of reality today.  The world in which we live is not sweet.  On the contrary it is brutal.  I'm not sure it is brutal everywhere.  Certainly we are reminded, that in Europe they are dealing with the worst migration problem since World War ll.  Terrorism in Syria is driving citizens across borders into poverty.  This is not representative of life in America.  Is it necessary for us to see this in our newspapers and on television newscasts everyday?   This is not representative of our lives.  We should remain abreast of world events, but the campaign of fear and intimidation which has been raging since George W. Bush has run its course.  Americans are beginning to realize we cannot trust either our media or our elected officials.  President Obama is doing the right thing, but he will be moving on shortly.  "Wouldn't It Be Nice" to see a positive news story for a change?  Wouldn't it be nice to see news stories related to our own meager lives?  That no longer seems possible of because who has come to own our news agencies.  If one examines our news, obviously it becomes clear it is propaganda.  It is propaganda, and it is propaganda against the poor and middle class.  Let me rephrase.  It is propaganda in favor of the wealthy ruling class.  If you analyze it further, you could come to understand that that this wealthy ruling class could be considered oligarchic.  It is obvious this group of wealthy earners is not concerned with the majority of America.  They treat us with contempt.  Only they care for themselves.  Wow!  I believe that is unchristian, but this group has been trying to eradicate Christianity for a decade.  Eradicate Christianity?  That sounds like Extreme Islam, Jihad, Al Quaeda, or the Taliban.  It sounds like this group who have been raging holy war on America, but they are here.  They are controlling America from the inside.  My conclusion is America no longer belongs to Americans.   It is not a problem of Mexican immigration.  It is a problem of foreign businesses purchasing American companies.  Rupert Murdock is an example.  The American media never may recover.  It is not good.  Leave it to me to concoct a musical metaphor for this dichotomy.  Popular music could represent the oligarchy, and jazz music could represent the republic.  The republic continually has been quashed in the last decade to what it seems like a point of no return.  Jazz music, the republic, is one of America's true art forms if not her best, and it is nonexistent on both radio and television.  Without that reinforcement, exposure, or education jazz cannot survive in American lives.  We are too busy trying to make ends meet.  The voice of America, her soul and her history in music of the last one hundred years, is quiet.  The oligarchy effectively has pushed jazz to the side making way for their self-indulgent, shallow, immediate gratification.  It is true, and that statement is not a delusion.  I have come to realize in the past weeks that this oligarchy truly are those who do not understand or care to acknowledge jazz, jazz representing America's real voice and soul.  Instead they prefer Jimmy Buffet.  We must conclude that "Margaritaville" does not a national anthem make, but the oligarchy would have you believe it.  Popular music in some mystical way has brainwashed a large segment of the American population into believing that it is the only music.  It seems to have the hypnotic power of Adolph Hiter injected with methamphetamine.  It is interesting that the Nazi party declared jazz music an enemy of the state.  It was a music that had the power of infusing people with positive spirit.  What?  Music that has the power to empower?  Popular music does not do that.  Instead popular music glorifies itself, and yet we as a country have become junkies.  It is easier I suppose, gazing mindlessly at Miley Cyrus rather than searching for more uplifting music in our own music libraries.  I am faced with the task each day when I awake.  Do I rely upon WCPE to feed my soul with music, or do I make my own decisions?  Making your own decision about to what you will listen is more difficult.  You must think.  One does not have to think to turn on the radio.  While WCPE often does play music that enriches my soul, often it plays music from the classic period that in my perception reinforces classism.  The classic period was a time of court and nobility, and for the most part I do not want to be reminded of the constraints of that class system.  The music is quality, but it is laced with compliance and system.  I prefer my music to swing.  Swing?  I prefer the music to which I listen to acknowledge things other than itself.  I prefer for it to be plural.  I have enough trouble not overdosing on my own karma.  If I do take the time to choose my own music, rarely am I disappointed.  Lately it has been the piano preludes of Scribian, and they gloriously are refreshing.  I enjoy the freshness and independence of contemporary music.  I require it, because American society does not recognize this spirit.  As a whole American society has not evolved.  Still we are operating on a level of civil war.  Because society in America still is not equal and fair, confederate terrorism continues.  Possibly murder in America is a plea for recognition, respect, and opportunity.  Upon watching John Cassavetes film "She's So Lovely" it became clear to me that mental illness is a sane Christian's plea for sanity in an insane world.  Our country has become so aberrant and oligarchic that a humble God worshipping schmuck can't process it.  Instead they become artists and interpret the anarchy through their own creative minds often ending in an utter defense of their own sanity.  We can't win, so ultimately we kill our enemy.  It is a tragic state of affairs, one which Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn represent quintessentially.  My heart ached with compassion for their tormented souls and for the return of a sane America.