Billie Holiday would close her shows in 1939 and '40 with Strange Fruit. Waiters would stop serving. The bars would shut off the lights. A single light would shine on Holliday. The audience, and Holliday, would often weep after the performance.
Showing posts with label Jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jazz. Show all posts
5.01.2011
4.05.2011
Song 88: Faubus Fables, Charles Mingus
Composer and jazz legend Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus is his most political work of art. In 1957 the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent the National Guard to stop nine children from integrating the Little Rock Central High School.
PoliMusic Reader Jeff, from Toronto, wrote in support of Mingus:
There should be a sub-category for the bravest of the artists profiled. Mingus would make that list. Most of the contemporary agit-prop musicians didn't actually risk anything in writing their music, they were just expressing a viewpoint or (worse) scoring points. But artists like Mingus risked being dropped by labels, being blacklisted or alienating fans. Just reading the history of his "Fables of Faubus" is a welcome reminder of how far we've come and how much of a debt we owe to people like Charles Mingus.
PoliMusic Reader Jeff, from Toronto, wrote in support of Mingus:
There should be a sub-category for the bravest of the artists profiled. Mingus would make that list. Most of the contemporary agit-prop musicians didn't actually risk anything in writing their music, they were just expressing a viewpoint or (worse) scoring points. But artists like Mingus risked being dropped by labels, being blacklisted or alienating fans. Just reading the history of his "Fables of Faubus" is a welcome reminder of how far we've come and how much of a debt we owe to people like Charles Mingus.
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