It’s 1920, and the Jazz Age has begun. First sprouting in New Orleans, jazz music quickly spread as thousands of African Americans migrated from the Deep South to new opportunities in the North. Jazz found fertile ground in Harlem, where it became an integral element in the new social, cultural, and artistic movement taking root. 

Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance co-existed beautifully. Jazz represented a new art form, the first new art form that was completely American, and, most importantly, that originated in the Black community. It was only natural that the young musicians, writers, poets, and artists of this new Renaissance would embrace the music that so represented their own ideals. 

Jazz music embodied improvisation, a break from traditions, a sense of freedom, a blurring of traditional boundaries. As historian Jack Rutland described, “the music was at the center, blurring lines.” Harlem became the capitol of the Jazz Age. Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and hundreds more changed forever the way we listen, from their bandstands all over the neighborhood. 

“Walls of class, race, and gender were coming down,” said Rutland. “There were Black schoolteachers, Black entrepreneurs, Black police officers,” and Black artists in all disciplines. These artists “would gather in salons and cafes and read and show their work and collaborate with each other,” and the art borne from this era of cooperation still affects society today. The art was the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, and Jazz was at its core. 

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It’s 1970, and saxophonist Gary Bartz forms his Ntu Troop. Named for the Bantu word for
“unity,” this new group extended Bartz’s pioneering “soul-jazz.” Its music was a new kind of
fusion that melded hard bop, soul, funk, free jazz, and Afro-Cuban folk polyrhythms. Its
message was staunchly pro-African and anti-war.

Bartz saw a direct connection between the Vietnam War and American racism, citing a
disproportionate number of Blacks drafted and sent overseas. “Plenty of young Black men are
conscripted to fight for a country that offers them little to no respect on their home soil.” Both
conflicts, each in their way, Bartz said, were exercises in systemic and cultural genocide.
“Just living in this country under a racist system makes me think about it all the time, and you
have to fight it,” said Bartz. “You go other places and you don’t feel it, you don’t see it. It might
be there, and there may be prejudices, but those systems are not built on it. This system is built
on racism and genocide.”

Ntu Troop’s world view, rooted in America’s music – Jazz – opened borders in the mind, and
offered a different way to listen beyond Europe. Looking back at Ntu Troop’s legacy, one
journalist wrote, “What we can discover is how to listen, how to value more than the music of
one country or culture. Current times are such that the message of struggle, love and hope
transcend racial categories. That is both a great testament to the power of this music, as well as
to the dawning fact in this country that we’re all in this together.”

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