Got to say...after years of listening to jazz, why McPartland was there escapes me. Maybe she had some moves. Maybe she was a token, She was not Count Basie or Theonious or Bill Evans or Bud Powell. She was okay...but because was was a woman she should get special status?
Yeah...not when we've got Ella. Billie, and Sarah in the mix. Keep up, or go away.
I understand. She was there because she's white, she played, and she "got" it.
I've got a couple of white women in my immediate circle (one who's really talented) but my male compatriots and I don't think of them as tokens. They fit a lot of functions:
One of which is adding legitimacy for people who need to see a white face to grasp black ideas.
That that hasn't changed, in all these years, says a lot about the country, no?
Got to say...after years of listening to jazz, why McPartland was there escapes me. Maybe she had some moves. Maybe she was a token, She was not Count Basie or Theonious or Bill Evans or Bud Powell. She was okay...but because was was a woman she should get special status?
ReplyDeleteYeah...not when we've got Ella. Billie, and Sarah in the mix. Keep up, or go away.
I understand. She was there because she's white, she played, and she "got" it.
ReplyDeleteI've got a couple of white women in my immediate circle (one who's really talented) but my male compatriots and I don't think of them as tokens. They fit a lot of functions:
One of which is adding legitimacy for people who need to see a white face to grasp black ideas.
That that hasn't changed, in all these years, says a lot about the country, no?