Commentary
Of all the musicians who were harbingers of change, none has had the long-term influence on young musicians that John Coltrane has had.
This is what I feel can add: the perspective of a native-born son of the Rochester metro; and a view from the bridge through jazz-colored glasses.
Roy C may not have lived to see the current regime toppled or his litigation over past royalties resolved to his satisfaction, but he died knowing that he was — without a doubt — a Black American original.
In a time when everyday seems like Wednesday, creative use of new media is a visual and experiential bridge to our new and hopefully innovative normal.
As anyone who is familiar with “Toots” Hibbert’s near sixty-year career could testify, he was an artist who wrote songs that were guaranteed to transcend the contexts of their particular place and moment.
To be killed — as in murdered — by police you don’t necessarily have to be a person of color.
I’m still not sure I heard what’s revolutionary about Charlie Parker’s recordings — they’re very old news by now. But I warm to the expressions of unique genius, a beauty that in itself is radical.
Will attendees of Jurassic Quest “have a dino-mite time!”? Who knows? But the event will look mighty attractive to parents who havee been stuck in the house with kids who are driving them to distraction.
“One lesson is that when a country feels like it’s really gone off on the wrong track, a social movement that finds a way to express that dissent in the streets can really make a difference.”
Arts Commentary: “The Death of the Artist” — Culture Workers Unite!
The shared baseline of these conversations is that there are no good old days to go back to. If the cultural sector in the United States returns to the ways things were organized in February, 2020, with all the inequity and unsustainability that implies, we will have failed.
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