“There are only three things American will be remembered for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization,” said the writer Gerald Early. “They are the Constitution, baseball and jazz music.”
Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock were the artistic guests of honor at the Blue Note Tribute, Southwestern’s jazzy tribute to African-American jazz musicians.
Dr. Virgil Hilliard, a local physician, and his wife Angela said it was refreshing to hear some of the great jazz they grew up with.
Hilliard said jazz came from the blues and that both forms are great because of the contributions of African Americans. The blues and jazz were developed together by white musicians from Europe, particularly Ireland, and black slaves from the west coast of Africa. Combining their instruments and musical techniques, dockworkers and laborers in New Orleans created the blues on European stringed instruments and African banjos. It was a flexible form that encourages collaboration and improvisation – both traits of African music. Black and white musicians started playing it on a variety of instruments, including brass, pianos, strings, woodwinds and harmonicas. Soon jazz became a vocal form as well.
African American musicians and dancers found an artistic voice through jazz, Angela Hilliard said, and it became a vehicle to express a range of emotions.
“It’s a form of expression of our sufferings, of our triumph, of our wins, of our losses,” he said.
Contemporary musicians are still influenced by jazz, said Angela Hilliard.
“Because so much music is sampled from jazz, it’s giving a nice tribute to the older musicians,” she said.
