Arkansas Blog

Well, this is for Moxie:

In reference to when you & I argued over the relative importance of Jazz vs Rock 'n' Roll, I think this further proves my case on the significance of Jazz to American culture and world affairs. Thanks, Louis!!

Armstrong also cancelled a scheduled concert at the U of A (1958, I believe). I was a freshman and had plans to attend. Didn't take long though before James Meredith and Ole Miss got all the attention.

It IS a wonderful world, and Satchmo would be happy to know it's getting even better. On last night's open line, TAP speaks of a Friday night experience in Helena where he observed a U.S. District Judge sharing barbeque and camaraderie with six young black men while a white couple danced nearby. "I left thinking about the wondrous, diverse, challenged-but-capable country we share, and how blessed I am to be here," TAP wrote. It's a feeling shared by an increasing number of African Americans in this country. And it's good news for us all. Click on my name for some reassurance.

The West Memphis 3 case is becoming our new legacy of shame. The Arkansas supreme court last week rejected powerful new evidence in the case. Language coming out of deputy dog McDaniel's office is damn near Faubusesque. If it doesn't change soon I bet Arkansas will find itself the victim of boycotts by both artists and industrialists.

Instead of war, the Eisenhower waged music, sending jazz bands around the globe to spruce up the country's image<<<

Good grief! How far we have fallen. We were also rebuilding post WWII nations, enjoying a housing boom, Soc Security was solvent and the water was clean.

Now we send corporations to South America to buy up their water supplies and indebt the inhabitants via high water prices. We attempt to flood the European market with genetically modified grains and monopoly produced software, both were rejected, and Kawmunist China becomes our second largest trading partner. Who would have thunk it?

I would dare ask how many Iraqis would prefer to hear Sachmo over the sounds of American artillery and bombs? Ask South Americans if they would have preferred to have Sachmo embedded with missionary nuns instead of CIA agents posing as missionaries.

A quote from durangokid's USA Today link:

Blacks are nearly evenly divided about what they prefer to be called - 42% favor "black" and 44% favor "African American."

Maybe we could add:

"Whites are nearly evenly divided about what they prefer to be called - 42% favor "white" and 44% favor "European American."

How about just 'American' for all of us no matter our skin color?

Dave Brubeck had one of (if not the) first integrated jazz groups. He cancelled some 25 concerts on a tour of the South, because most of the venues insisted he replace Gene Wright with a white bass player. Brubeck refused.

But when Brubeck was touring Europe on the State Department's jazz ambassadors program he wrote a song called Djiekuje (Polish for thank you). Click bluename for a seven minute YouTube video of Brubeck playing a solo of this beautiful song many years after he wrote it.

I believe I'm correct in saying that Ray Charles canceled a concert in LR because the auditorium would not admit blacks in the early 60s. If only our news media had the ethics and balls of Satchmo....we might be able to crawl out of the mess we're in.

Does anyone remember the time Leon B. Catlett was state Democratic Chair? It seems when I was a student at Pulaski Heights Junior High with Miss Newell, and played in the bank with Graham, we members of the cornet section of the Panther Band, under the direction of the great Jazz Band Master, Mr. Lebegern, had the rare opportunity to go hear Al Hirt as well as Louis Armstrong. Gary Heinz and others reported that Hirt even allowed them to touch his trumpet. But it was young Mr. Catlett and myself, who stayed and stayed outside the Star's Room waiting for just an autograph. His band was most congenial to our obtaining the signatures in the dressing rooms beneath the stage. But what a night to remember. And afterwards, we crossed the street to the Gulf Oil station to call up our parents for the ride home. They were patient, too. And they wondered why so late. Still have the autographed program. But sometimes today I wonder if the gulf has not grown wider or are we need of a giant mikva at a city where troubles can be washed away. Does anyone in Arkansas know of a city that "Baths the World?" I wonder if one can ever come clean enough in God's eyes? Or make music as the great Maestro intended? Would one have to become a catholic Methodist?

Heck, shoulld have previewed that sucker. Graham was always giving optimist speeches and I could hardly spell as well as write. I didn't play in the bank with Graham, we played in the band together. But I suspect in hindsight, that it would almost take a bank to pay for instruments these days. Of course, one Jimmy Faulkner learned how to play and perform a Bicycle build for Two. Ww had to have a crash pratice session to make it to the state band festival. Not teeling where one might end up next or what note one will play.

DBI, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas:
"At a Ray Charles concert in 1961 held at Robinson Auditorium, Porter was arrested for entering the "colored" section and was charged with "attempting to incite a riot." Another disturbance was Duke Ellington's cancellation on August 26, 1961, with only five days notice, due to pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the auditorium's refusal to allow integrated seating. By the time of the Louis Armstrong concert in September 1966, the auditorium had abandoned its unwritten segregation policy, and Armstrong played before a fully integrated sellout crowd."