Jazz Lives!

Ken Burns is undoubtedly one of, if not the most, prolific and successful documentarist on the planet. However, I must challenge a famous conclusion he voiced, in his ten part series on jazz. You see my father schooled me in all things jazz, as he dandled me on his knee, and I can quote chapter and verse from the jazz bible, in my sleep. The point is, I strongly disagree with his statement that jazz is not a black or African-American art, but an American art. If I travel to Japan, and make a baby there with my wife, who is black as am I, our child will not be Japanese. Likewise, our art-forms are an expression of our very souls and jazz, blues, ragtime, hip-hop, R&B, etc, are black musical forms, just as classical music is a European art form. The fact that other peoples can excel at those various forms, does not change their point of origin, or the identities of their originators. As a testimony to the spiritual power of jazz, and it's greatest proponent, John Coltrane, the above portrait hangs in a church where he is the patron saint.Go here, to listen to some of his music.