What makes "jazz" the revolutionary music of the 20th century, and will it be revolutionary for the 21st century?

African American Review, Summer, 1995 by Fred Wei-han Ho

The carrier of the music (the musician) must not violate the ethical bond between the music and the people (i.e., a bond of merit, of excellence, of meaning, of purpose, of significance in the people's aspirations and efforts to be free). The musician bears a responsibility that transcends careers, critical praise, conservatory training, and cash to affirm the music's fundamental celebration of humanity, and to remain committed to the liberation of an oppressed nationality - African Americans - in an age of internationalized commodity production and exchange.

"Jazz" was born amidst the contradictions of our epoch. The music changes just as the people, the society, the world change. African Americans in the 20th century have been the largest and leading oppressed nationality of U.S. society. Their political, social, and cultural impact has been revolutionary. By the 21st century, Spanish-speaking oppressed nationalities will become numerically the largest group of oppressed nationalities. Asian/Pacific Islanders are proportionally the fastest growing oppressed nationalities. And indigenous peoples facing the most extreme and desperate conditions are resorting increasingly to armed struggle (c.f., Chiapas, Mexico) to defend their land and way of life. In the years to come - it has already begun - a new music will arise, rooted in all that has come before, yet moving with greater volatility, altering and exploding time and sound, and thereby changing music itself.

The petty machinations which attempt to "institutionalize jazz," the reactionary "back to the tradition" (tradition is not something one can or should go back to, but move from), the business-suited corporate and government recognition which legitimizes "jazz"and makes it acceptable - all of these violate the spirit, the sacred bond between culture and people, the ethics of the aesthetics. The appropriation of oppressed peoples' culture and history for the service of Yankee imperialism is antithetical and inimical to creative development. Whether "jazz" comes to be the vital, transformative, revolutionary music of the 21st century that it has been in the 20th century depends on how this struggle plays out. A new "jazz" - maybe something that won't use this term because it has become so co-opted and reactionary - will affirm and attest to the revolutionary heritage that began in the 20th century: that the music of all oppressed peoples fighting imperialism is indeed Jazz.

An Ethical Mandate Among the Music, the Musician, and the People

1. Speak to the People. The music has to and will embody messages, either explicitly (in the form of lyrics and/or song titles) or implicitly (in the sound and in its spirit). Some examples have been, but are certainly not limited to, "Strange Fruit" (composed by Lewis Allen, and popularized by Billie Holiday), "A Tone Parallel to Harlem" (Duke Ellington), "A Love Supreme" (John Coltrane), "Things Have Got to Change" (composed by Calvin Massey, and performed by Archie Shepp), "Remember Rockefeller at Attica" (Charles Mingus), etc.