[Dixielandjazz] African-Americans in Jazz

[Charlie Hooks]

on 7/21/03 5:10 PM, TCASHWIGG at aol.com at TCASHWIGG at aol.com wrote:

> there are plenty of Black musicians in Jazz, you
> just can't find them in all white neighborhoods where no one will hire them
> because they might bring in more blacks to the establishments.

    That may well be the case in some white neighborhoods, but I don't
personally know of any here in the Chicago area.  My own band of 6 always
had a black pianist and a black bassist for years until the bassist died at
86 and the pianist retired at 85.

    I replaced both with white players because there were at that time no
black players who knew the tunes, played well, and were available.  I liked
using black players--two, rather than one token--because it gave a strong
signal: black people are welcome in this place.   I never had the slightest
bit of trouble from white audiences anywhere; on the contrary, they enjoyed
the black guys even more than the white guys.  I'm sure Jim Beebe had the
same experience.  He used a black bassist for years and often a black
trumpet as well.  Jim and I feel pretty much the same about this.

    Young blacks don't like, don't relate to, therefore don't play OKOM.
They regard older blacks who do as Uncle Toms, OKOM as pre-civil rights
music, Ofay music.  And most of the older blacks who do play it are dying
off.   That's the simple reason there aren't black OKOM bands.

Charlie