It is one of the sad paradoxes in jazz history that for almost as long as this American music has existed, many of its foremost figures have chosen to live in exile. From Sidney Bechet in the 1920’s to Johnny Griffin in the 1980’s, these jazz expatriates acted out of a sense of imperative and necessity – the necessity to work, the necessity to be accepted as an artist, the necessity to be treated as a human being. Europe also offered pronounced commercial advantages, particularly when the American jazz scene began wilting under the assault of rock-and-roll.
Leaving one’s own country is never easy, and for a jazz musician it meant losing contact not only with friends and family but the social, racial and musicological well-springs of the sound.
For the jazz expatriates, life in Europe also proved rather less than idyllic. Many musicians had discovered that for all that recommended Europe, life on the Continent came at the price of dislocation, the loss of a sense of “home”. Some also learned that racism existed east as well as west of the Atlantic.
Few of the jazz musicians who moved to Europe initially intended to do so. Most visited the Continent for limited tours and, finding an appreciative atmosphere, decided to stay. From overseas, the problems of America stood in painfully clear relief.
American jazz history abounds in racial horror stories from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. ” ‘Round Midnight” alludes to the World War II court-martial of Lester Young, an action widely regarded as retribution for his marriage to a white woman. While touring with the Artie Shaw band, Billie Holiday was ordered to use the service elevator in the group’s hotel. The trumpeter Miles Davis, like Bud Powell, received an infamous beating by the police.
Yet many musicians returned to the U.S. Dexter Gordon, who was such a hero in Denmark that the locals dubbed him ”The King of Copenhagen,” missed the American black community. ”The happiest moments in Europe,” he said, ”were when you’d run into other cats and bands and someone would say, ‘Hey, you long, tall. . .’ Or the get-togethers when someone would get a care package from home – red beans and greens and grits. Just that taste of home.”
Music: From 1986, Dexter Gordon with “’Round Midnight.”
Podcast (soundtrack): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS