Jazz for Obama: A Concert for America's Future

[Ian David]

Jazz for Obama: A Concert for America's Future
Published: October 17, 2008

By Greg Thomas Discuss

Jazz for Obama
92nd Street Y
New York, NY
October 1, 2008

Jazz, to some, is apolitical, a refuge of artistic purity in the midst of a cultural and commercial wasteland. To these persons, art is hermetically sealed from world affairs. Yet there comes a time in the affairs of men and women that standing on the sidelines is no longer tenable. Now is such a time in the United States of America as we face the most important presidential election in a generation.

Jazz fans and artists made a pact at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on the side of political engagement called "Jazz for Obama: A Concert for America's Future." The fundraiser concert, held on October 1, 2008, was spearheaded by pianist Aaron Goldberg, with a supporting cast (Pavani Thagirisa, Anurima Bhargava, Kim Smith and Mabel Tso) comprising a group called Jazz for America's Future. The concert brought in $60,000 for Senator Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency of the United States.

An array of band leaders and sidemen gathered on the stage, from senior grandmasters such as Roy Haynes and Hank Jones to younger wizards of jazz music as Christian McBride, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Roy Hargrove, Robert Glasper, Stefon Harris, Brad Mehldau, Joe Lovano, Stanley Jordan and vocal divas Dee Dee Bridgewater and Dianne Reeves. The music performed was powerfully uplifting, a testament to the progressive spirit of change felt in the hall. But music—the art of the invisible—often gave way to words which were probing, visionary, humorous, hopeful and inspirational.

After Goldberg and Thagirisa opened the evening, the poet/playwright/spoken word performance artist Sarah Jones got laughs when she transformed herself into an elder Jewish woman and young Dominican in support of Obama. (She's like a Gen X version of Anna Deavere Smith.)



More:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=30909

[djkevvy]

1. Damn, those are some big names...

[grasswire]

2. where was the Marsalis family?

??

[Ian David]

3. Marsalis works for Jay Leno. You think Leno would let him go to that? n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. Marsalis left Jay's show about 15 years ago.

[Ian David]

6. Oh! Well, I haven't watched Leno in years, so that shows how much *I* know! n/t

[elkston]

5. Good Stuff!!! Herbie Hancock was one of the VIPs at the Denver speech

Of course Herbie was born in Chicago, so Obama's sort of a "homeboy" in that respect.