“This is triumphant music.”
In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned an essay concerning the significance of jazz at the
request of the organizers of the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival.
The lineup of the 1964 Festival included: Meade Lux Lewis; The Miles Davis Quintet; the
Coleman Hawkins-Harry Edison Swing All-Stars featuring Jimmy Rushing; Sister Rosetta Tharpe;
Roland Kirk; the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and many more.
Although Dr. King was not personally at the 1964 festival, his essay loomed large over the 3-day
event. In 1964, he had risen to prominence on many fronts of the Civil Rights movement. At the
time of writing the essay, he was a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize. Also that year, he played
an essential role in the passing of the Civil Rights Act and appeared on the cover of Time
Magazine as “Man of the Year.”
Dr. King’s essay on the importance of Jazz to humanity and the Civil Rights movement was not a
speech, but even without his recorded voice, the words are powerful.
Dr. King wrote: “God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the
capacity to create and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that
have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.
Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for moment, you
will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out
with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music.
Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban
existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and
meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was
championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racialidentity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.
Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music.
It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with
its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America
there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues.
Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap
hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a steppingstone towards all of these.”
Music – From “Miles in Berlin”, recorded at the Berliner Philharmonie on September 25, 1964, Miles
Davis with his "Second Great Quintet," featuring tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist
Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, marking their first recorded
work, here’s “Autumn Leaves”.
Podcast (soundtrack): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS