Jazz as a racist term? That’s rich. African-Americans provided the world with one of the most vibrant styles of music ever created. Almost immediately, musicians of every possible race and permutation have adopted it in a wonderful variance of ways, from Latin to Soviet. That someone of the musical caliber of Nicholas Payton can say something like this -
“Jazz is a lie. America is a lie … Playing Jazz is like running on a treadmill: you may break a sweat, but ultimately you ain’t going nowhere. I am Nicholas Payton and I don’t play ‘the j word.’ I play BAM (Black American Music).”
and not get called out on it immediately is rather sad. It’s also rather offensive, as Payton is trying to forcibly rip away the contributions of whites, latinos, Russians, Azeris, Norwegians, French, various African nationals, et cetera, of their roles in the development of the genre.
Read Victor Fiorillo’s article in full here, courtesy of the Philly Post.
