On Jazz, The VRA, the NSA, and Paula Deen . . .

Read my book A History of African American Jazz and Blues. Nicholas Payton wrote, “If Black Americans don’t start making a stand in this country for who they are and recognize and celebrate their culture, we can expect to see more of a decline within our community. To be clear, I never said we should rebrand Jazz to Black music. They are not the same. Jazz is racist. It was from the beginning and still is. It was stolen from Black music, but Blacks don’t control the economics of the business. We don’t run the majority of the festivals nor the clubs. It’s not just marketing, Jazz marginalizes the music from its culture.”