Meshing politics with art
If you had to design a music playlist for the Fourth of July, what would be on it and why?
Right off the bat, mine would include Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A Train." First, because it is jazz, an art form that could have only happened in the confluence of cultural backgrounds this nation boasted. For me, it speaks to American potential, the greater whole that can be formed from our diverse input.
Secondly, because the song was written in 1939, which means it went overseas with the troops who fought World War II, on Armed Forces Radio, in their hearts and minds. There's not a time I don't hear it that I don't imagine what hearing it meant to those struggling to combat fascism, an audible symbol of what they were fighting for. It sounded like nothing else from anywhere else in the world, like a wholly distinct American culture.
