tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post8276955447259043104..comments2023-11-03T14:08:43.854-04:00Comments on Broken Turtle: Jazz and PovertyPhillip Bannowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15635421147908549692noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261340509073154473.post-53205363776518878402010-05-07T01:43:41.213-04:002010-05-07T01:43:41.213-04:00Good points Steve. If there was a golden moment f...Good points Steve. If there was a golden moment for the jazz and music scene in the city for people like me, it happened in the 1970's, as the counter-culture started ten years earlier seemed unstoppable. Most visible were the clubs which burst upon the scene, with many of them from Market to Union Streets serving as music hot spot shuttle stops. The Flight Deck was open for business, with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Al Grey, Jimmy Forrest, and other notables. The city was on a roll. What happened? <br /><br />To get the good feeling back, we have to look at the real heyday for "the music" in town, from the end of World War Two, to the beginnings of the Vietnam War. That's why people like (former WTUX and WILM announcer) Maurice Simms are essential. Much of the rich history of this period has only been handed down verbally by Simms and a few others over the years to those of us who took the time to listen (Maurice's story of Dizzy Gillespie encountering Clifford Brown for the first time is golden).<br /><br />In Post World War Two Wilmington there was a midnight curfew for clubs. While it sounds awful, that law helped things along as world-class musicians liked playing early sets and getting done so after-hour house parties could start that much sooner. I only wish someone had recorded the music at such places, much the way photographer W. Eugene Smith did in New York City in the 1950's (Smith moved into a loft along Sixth Avenue, which became a jazz musicians haven...a hangout for Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, and hundreds more, and Smith recorded it all for 8 years (wnyc.org has a lot of the tape in their vault). <br /><br />Through this golden age, cultural richness continued on Wilmington's East Side, unbeknownst to most of us in other parts of the city and New Castle County. Our comfort zones were being fed a steady dose of "Hit Parade" radio songs (Doris Day's version of "Tweedly Dee", instead of Laverne Baker's, etc.), and we read the news that was fit to print in the News Journal. It took awhile, with the Civil Rights movement, the assassinations, Vietnam, Apartheid, and other stimuli which drove us to the brink and invariable change. By the 70's to me it looked as if Wilmington culture was finally getting the exposure it deserved and needed to survive. Sadly, this crescendo gave way to the collapse we see today. <br /><br />Wilmington's Jazz scene was never widely appreciated. The promise of expanding it in the 70's was replaced by the Reagan backlash of the 80's. Combine this with a constant battle with racism and you have the recipe for ruin. But in concluding these thoughts, I have to inject something else to blame for the cultural erosion: too much stimuli. <br /><br />Radio is dying, and in its place are self-absorbed i-pod programmers. ALL types of music are caught in the cross hairs by this Balkanization. We are left with an American Idol culture, where diverse artistic expression struggles for recognition and survival. The Brave New World technology, combined with racism, provides a potent poison. When it comes to figuring out how we can rekindle the little flicker of hope we had for jazz 30, 40, or 60 years ago, as usual I'm all ears. <br /><br />Pete Simon<br /><br />footprintswayne44@yahoo.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com