Jazz discussion
For this post, I’d like you to find either a song, concert, or event in jazz that was charged or influenced by race, gender, religion, or another social issue of your choosing. Sharethat in the discussion board. Make sure to include a “who, what, when, where, and why or how” in your post. Use paragraphs and complete sentences.
You will then respond to a classmate’s post, respectfully and thoughtfully.
Classmate post
I feel like there are several songs to choose from in this era because there was so much going on between races and political and social issues. The song I chose is “Fables of Faubus” because during this time, there was not much of a more socially or politically charged song. This song was written and performed by Charles Mingus and his band in the late 1950s. This song was originally written when Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas refused to integrate the students at Little Rock, their local school, after the Supreme Court revoked the requirement for schools to be segregated. It got to the point where the government had to step in and force the integration and stay to protect the students. The song was not released by Columbia Records as it was originally created because it was such a forceful song, but later Mingus released it as he first intended, and it very much point blank describes the abuse and terror the African Americans were experiencing at the time. It even goes as far as to call the governor and president ridiculous and accuses them of teaching the country to hate. All in all, it is a very raw, controversial, and thought-provoking song. It is not what one would typically expect to hear in jazz. It is well performed with a catchy melody, but then it creates this hard and intense feeling of anger and unrest. It paints a picture of the struggles that the African American race had to deal with on a regular basis.
Parsons, S. (2018). Mingus Ah Um. Retrieved from https://blackboard.ohio.edu/webapps/blackboard/exe…
Waye, S. (2009). The original Fables of Faubus: Charles Mingus and the Civil Rights Movement. Retrieved from http://musiqology.com/blog/2009/11/24/the-original…
