Post-Bop and Avant-Garde Jazz Saxophonist Keith Gamble: Music and Politics During The Black Arts Movement

Post-Bop and Avant-Garde Jazz Saxophonist Keith Gamble: Music and Politics During The Black Arts Movement:       Let me begin by stating the obvious - as musicians we love to play music. Do we get involved in music to fulfill a political agenda? w...

Music and Politics During The Black Arts Movement

      Let me begin by stating the obvious - as musicians we love to play music. Do we get involved in music to fulfill a political agenda? well, I suppose some do, but generally speaking musicians play music for musics sake; we love to play. Not all musicians during the Black Arts Movement were motivated by political and social issues, but were expressively creating and experimenting with innovative approaches to improvisation, sounds, and interpretation as a canvass for new music at that time.

     Creative musical expressions from African American musicians of jazz avant-garde in the 1960s was viewed as authentic artistic blackness. Authentic artistic blackness was seen as a way to fight against racism and oppression, while maintaining a self - determination for black identity. Authentic artistic blackness meant no separation from art and life, and black identity and struggle. "Black music as black identity" (The Challenge of the Changing Same: The Jazz Avant - Garde of the 1960s, the Black Aesthetic, and the Black Arts Movement - Jason Robinson, University of California, San Diego) is a repeating theme of authentic artistic blackness. This idea of authentic artistic blackness also extends to Christianity and the black church.

     In Dr. James Cone`s book - A Black Theology of Liberation, published in 1970, argues "Christianity and Black Power were not only compatible, but were critical for continued Black-American survival, resistance, and liberation" (pg. 207, The Aesthetics of Blackness: Theology, Aesthetics & Blackness in the Black Arts Movement Western Aesthetics and Blackness, by Damon Powell, Ph.D. - The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 11, no. 6, April 2018). Music of the Black Church serves as a starting and departure point for many in the African-American community. As black music evolves it moves away from church. However, Amiri Baraka`s argument maintains "the new jazz" (or jazz avant-garde) is conscious regarding religion. For example, John Coltrane`s A Love Supreme.

     A connection has been made to suggest Black Art is aesthetically and spiritually linked to concepts of Black Power. This was an African-American led movement centered around activism and art, with a message of black pride. Jazz avant-garde contains three pillars - the press, writers of the Black Arts Movement, and musicians performing jazz avant - garde music. Did every African-American musician performing jazz avant - garde buy-in to the tenets of the Black Arts Movement? Some did, but not everyone.

     John Coltrane`s discussions with music critics during this period spoke of his music in technical and expressive elements, not nationalistic terms. In his letter to Down Beat magazine in 1967, Ornette Coleman stated that we "get off this war - jazz, race - jazz, poverty - jazz, and b.s. and let the country truly become what it is known as (GOD country)" (The Challenge of  the Changing Same: The Jazz Avant - Garde of the 1960s, the Black Aesthetic, and the Black Arts Movement - pg.18). These comments demonstrate not everyone was embracing the Black Arts Movement as a political and social stance, also, not simply performing music for musics sake, but to proclaim technical and expressive components. It all goes back to musicians love to play.