By Donald True Van Deusen
Watching Ken Burns generally marvelous 10-part PBS documentary "Jazz"
several weeks ago brought me back to a night at the Apollo when I heard Louis
Armstrong (appearing there following his famous 1947 Town Hall Concert) put
down reverse racism. A Black newspaper writer had criticized Louis for using
a White man (the magnificent trombonist Jack Teagarden) in his band. Louis
said in a steaming reply to the largely Black audience in this Harlem
theater, "Who am I to tell Jack where he can play?" The audience, burst
into applause.
What prompted this memory was the regrettable implied undercurrent in the
Burns program commentary that African American musicians and singers were
"inherently" better than their White counterparts. Artie Shaw was in it just
for the money, Benny Goodman's band got blown away in a contest with Chick
Webb. Bix Beiderbecke never got to play with the great jazzmen--Black
musicians. This growing tendency to put White musicians "on the back of the
bus" as second class citizens in the world of jazz has become something of a
major discord in the music during the past 40 years. It did not just start
with Ken Burns production.
Richard M. Sudhalter, a trumpet player and major jazz writer wrote about
this pernicious proclivity in a January 3, 1999 New York Times article. He
wrote about it at length in his book, "Lost Chords, White Musicians and
Their Contributions to Jazz 1915-1945." that same year. He cited a growing
tendency of too many critics and musicians to create a racial divide by
labeling jazz as exclusively African American music.
Roy Eldridge, the great Black jazz trumpeter (who achieved much of his
world renown playing with the White Gene Krupa) once bet noted jazz critic
Leonard Feather that he could tell whether a musician was Black or White just
by listening to him. He lost the bet and did not even come close.
Clearly, the vast majority (I've estimated as much as 80-90 per cent) of
great jazz was created by African Americans. Excluding or downplaying White
pioneers and participants is, however, inherently divisive and harmful to
everyone involved. Jazz is, after all, America's, not Africa's, one truly
indigenous art form.
Lonnie Johnson, the very fine African American guitarist-blues singer
worked with Eddie Lang, the South Philadelphia, Italian American, and first
internationally known jazz guitarist. Johnson said: "Eddie was a fine man.
Lang could play guitar better than anyone I know. The sides I made with him
were my greatest experience." Lang recorded with Johnson under the name
"Blind Willie Dunn" probably because few thought a White man could play the
blues. Lang also worked with his boyhood chum, Italian American Joe Venuti,
the world's first world renowned jazz violinist. Both these South
Philadelphia boys helped write jazz history in that "B. C." (before
Coltrane) era.
Despite widespread prejudice, even in music, White and Black jazzmen have
been working together since its inception. Pianist-bandleader Jelly Roll
Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz (modesty not being his strong
point) sat in for a recording session with the all-White New Orleans Rhythm
Kings featuring such top White musicians as George Brunies on trombone as far
back as 1923 in Richmond, Indiana. Tenor sax titan Coleman Hawkins, who was
African American, worked with Eddie Condon and Red McKenzie, who were White,
in 1929 on the now classic recording of "One Hour."
Benny Goodman added Lionel Hampton to his band in 1936 along with Teddy
Wilson, both Black, extending the opportunity for Black and White men to work
together in that time of still prevalent prejudice against African Americans.
I recall attending a concert at the Academy of Music in 1986 when Hampton
tearfully paid tribute to Goodman (shortly after his death) for his role in
breaking down race prejudice in music.
There is, of course, an ironic tragi-comedy aspect to this tendency to
act as if African Americans are the only ones who can play jazz. It is
almost as insulting as the old cliche, "them black folks sure got rhythm." I
recall a Black friend of mine who played trumpet in the Air Force band,
saying, "I don't mind White folks thinking that, but there are too many
tone-deaf Blacks getting up to sing and play who think it as well."
One of the most exciting jam sessions ever recorded was the famous 1947
Carnegie Hall Jazz At The Philharmonic concert featuring Illinois Jacquet and
Flip Phillips in a blistering tenor sax battle on Perdido. Illinois, of
course, was black and Flip, white, but it was the music that mattered. Echoes
of that great jazz exchange can be heard in Philadelphia today when Bootsie
Barnes (black) and Larry McKenna (white) play. As Bootsie noted to me, it's
not competitive, it's fun.
The only thing that really matters is how you play--blues, dixie, swing,
mainstream, bop, fusion, Black or White. As Eddie Condon noted in his book
and song--WE CALLED IT MUSIC!
