Protest Returns to Jazz
Belief:
Atheists, It's Time to Stand Up to Jesus
Russell Blackford, Udo Schuklenk
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
As Foreclosure Nightmares Increase, Will More Homeowners Pay Off Their Bankers in Violence?
Scott Thill
DrugReporter:
Lies About Marijuana Drive People to a Much More Harmful Drug -- Booze
Steve Fox
Environment:
Why the End May Be Coming for Coal
Christine MacDonald
Food:
Despite Censorship By Beef Magnate, Michael Pollan Spreads Message About the Real Price of Cheap Food
Health and Wellness:
New York May Stop Heartless Health Insurers from Dropping Coverage When It Stops Being Profitable
William Ehart
Immigration:
NYC Marathon Raises Question of Who Is American Enough?
James E. Johnson, Jr.
Media and Technology:
Focusing on Fort Hood Killer's Beliefs Is an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
What Michelle and Barack's Marriage Has in Common with 56 Million Other Ones
Annabelle Gurwitch
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Fetus-Shaped Potatoes? Going Undercover Inside the Weird World of Right-Wing Abortion Foes
Ann Neumann
Rights and Liberties:
"My Kids Want to Hide Their Identity; They're Scared Someone Will Attack Us": U.S. Muslims Being Targeted
Jaisal Noor
Sex and Relationships:
Instant Sex: Has the Digital Age Destroyed Relationships or Made Them Better?
Vanessa Richmond
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Why Natural Gas Is Not a Clean Energy Panacea
Stan Cox
World:
With Unemployment at 40 Percent, Afghan Teens Enlist in Army, Police
Lal Aqa Sherin
[Editor's Note: For this special AlterNet podcast, Reese Erlich interviewed percussionist Ray Barretto (shortly before his death in February 2006), bassist Christian McBride, trumpeter Dave Douglas and vocalist Roberta Gambarini. You'll hear lots of their great music as well. Reese Erlich produces Jazz Perspectives for public radio stations in the U.S. and Canada, which can be heard online at JazzCorner.com.
Be sure to listen to Erlich's companion podcast, "Stopping Cuban Music at the Border," also posted on AlterNet today.]
Since its beginning jazz has produced radical thinkers and non conformists. Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie advocated progressive politics, as did Billy Holiday. These days some jazz artists continue that progressive tradition.
Ray Barretto has been an immensely popular Latin musician since the early 1950s. He became famous as a salsa conga player with the Fania All Stars and as a jazz percussionist. Barretto was outraged at the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
"I was born a little after WWI. I would have lived through during WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the invasion of this country and that country, Iraq. I can't have a lifetime of peace. I can't tell my son, you will live the next 30-40 years in a time of peace."
Barretto was among a growing number of jazz artists speaking out against Bush administration policies. They are also angry at the government's slowness in rescuing the mostly African American victims of Hurricane Katrina and delays in rebuilding the devastated areas. Many musicians participated in benefits to raise money for New Orleans residents.
Bassist Christian McBride says the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina indicates that far greater problems with racism exist in the U.S. Jazz artists, he says, are particularly sensitive to that issue.
"There's no way you can be in any creative endeavor and not know what's going on politically. The hypocrisy is so completely clear. I really do think the 60s is going to have to happen all over again. There will have to be people willing to put themselves at great risk to be able to get their message heard."
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