50 years of black music

Ebony, Nov, 1995 by Quincy Jones

Without a doubt the best business to be in after your country wins a world war is the music business, although a good argument can be made for the business, if the year is 1945 and the magazine is Ebony.

I was 12 years old in that magical year, and the only thing on my mind was exploring music. Fifty years later, it's still on my mind, and I'm still exploring. But as I look back and forward, I am still amazed at bow a simple musical scale of 12 notes has kept me, a nation and a world engrossed for the k& five decades, evoking laughter, tears, romance, anger and every other emotion imaginable.

After all, it's only 12 notes.

But these notes have given Blacks power no other medium has. Not television. Not film. Not theater. No other form of communication has had the transcending power of music, with its chameleon-like ability to connect itself to everyone and everything. It has tremendous power.

In 1945, music, particularly Black music, even had the power to heal the wounds of America after World War II. For when the gunfire stopped, the music started, and America was innocent %again. Soldiers, girlfriends, wives mother, fathers, sisters and brothers danced, danced, danced everywhere. It wag an incredible time, and even now it seems like one of the best times, if not the best time, for Black music. It was a fairly tale.

I was in Seattle during that time, just starting my musical career and having a ball. There was no cross-country tour then, no MTV and not much variation. Our band would usually start playing at 7 p.m. for the ritzy tennis clubs downtown. We played that quiet dinner music until 10 p.m. Then, we'd rave over to the rhythm-and blues clubs, like the Rocking C6&, and am until about 2 am. These were Black clubs in Black neighborhoods, and Black musicians were all over the place Wed leave there and go down to Jackson Street, to the red-light-district and the Elks club, and play be-bop all night for free. and do the same thing the next day. Be-bop was just emerging and that was the music we loved. But I loved all kinds of music, then and now. I loved Ellington, Basie and other big-band music that wa popular during that time. Be-bop was the new baby, and part of a small subculture that wa breaking through with musicians lie Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker They weren't popular at least not yet. In the beginning, many of the be-boppers, in fact, came from swing bands. Dizzy came from Cab Calloway's band and Parker, one of the kings of be-bop, came from Jay McShann's swing band.

Lionel Hampton, for example, was big during that time, but he was a mixture of rock `n' roll and swing. When he got on top of those tom-toms and put an audience under his spell, be was the essence of what would later become rock 'n' roll. But when be performed "Hey-Bop-A-Re-Bop" and "Hamp's-Boogie-Woogie," that was swing through. Then there was Billy Eckstine's band, which was the real spawning ground where all types of music came together.

I moved to New York in the '50s, just as rock `n' roll and television were exploding onto the scene. Even though over time rock music has amazingly become a White bastion and Whites have attempted to put their sump on it, Blacks created rock. It's ludicrous that today Black rockers continue to have to almost apologize for being involved with the rock `n' roll music we created.

The Little Richards, the Bo Disneys and the Chuck Berrys: those were the real creators of rock British musicians like the Beatles, imitated these artists during their U.S. "invasion." They would even go by the houses of Black rockers and hang out with them, really getting the flavor of their music. They knew what the real goal was and they went after it, imitating Black artists and using them as a springboard to their success. White American rock 'n' rollers failed to do that They imitated the imitators, many copying the English instead of going to the black source. Elvis Presley was one who copied Black musician and as as result became the "Great White Hope" and was designated to carry the rock banner for all Whites.

Even so, Black music has been downplayed and historically considered a low class of music. White Americans didn't, and still don't, have much respect for it, or understand what Blacks really have contributed and have to offer the world with our music. We created the only pure American art form. We gave music soul, a lot of feeling and a lot of imagination. But White Americans have taken it for granted, probably because of its abundance.

But Blacks are no better. The one thing that has puzzled and upset me, maybe more than anything else, is how Black artists tend to treat our music as a disposable item. There are genres, and as soon as we get past one genre, we leave it and move to the next, instead of bringing it forward. That's what happened Co blues and jazz music. Musicians let jazz greats like Miles Davis and blues legends like B.B. King carry the rich art forms by themselves.

I have always preached that Black musicians should mine their own ore and bring everything forward. Why leave anything behind when you're dealing with the black music, the best music in the world? The foremost musicians, like the the Stevie Wonders, the Donny Hathaways and the Marvin Gayes, brought all the the music forward. its not easy to do. You first have to understand Black music, do your homework and go back and learn what the roots are. Most Black musicians don't know where their art form came from, so it's hard for them to know where they're going. They don't make that mistake in classical music. Classical beginners have to study what the matters did before they can go into the deeper water on the other side.