Wattree's picture

    AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
     
    AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED
     

    While government has a role in improving conditions in the Black community, the ROOT of our problem is a lack of education and knowledge, and we can't wait for the government to address that issue, because the GOP has dedicated their very existence to dumbing America down, and with good reason - enlightened people don't vote Republican. 
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    But we could turn their effort into our advantage if we're smart. While they're hard at work dumbing the rest of America down, we should double-down on educating ourselves and making the pursuit of knowledge a way of life. That way we can level the playing field. We could make ourselves some of the most literate people in America, because our problem is not a lack of intelligence, it's an indifference toward knowledge. We need to become knowledge junkies.
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    We must also educate one another in the wisdom of an enlightened way of life, just like we currently educate one another in our current toxic way of life. I've seen it done before, in the sixties - I'm a product of that environment. When I was in elementary school they were about to place me in "Special Training."  I like to had a fit, because Special Training students were separated in their own little bungalow at the very back of the school, and they marched in formation everywhere they went - the rest of the kids used to call them the Retard Brigade. I became so distraught over the idea of being placed in Special Training that my teacher, Ms. Lady Lee, convinced the principal, Mr. DeTonto, to give her the rest of the year to work with me.
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    ONE GOOD TEACHER IS WORTH A BOATLOAD
    OF
    POLITICIANS

    But in the end, all she did was teach me that you ARE what you think (that's why it's so important not to think of ourselves as victims). And then she gave me a tip: She said the key to looking, and BEING, smart was to ALWAYS stay one chapter ahead of the class (that forced me to start studying and taking my homework more seriously). I was so determined to stay out of Special Training that I made studying a way of life.  I started outlining our textbooks, and giving each point they made its own place in the outline. Within a month I had outlined all of our textbooks and knew their content backwards and forward. I suspect that's why I'm a writer today, because without knowing it, I fell in love with compositional structure in the process.

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    But thereafter, Ms. Lee started asking questions in class that she knew I was the only one who could answer, and I did.  At first, my classmates were amazed, and then finally, they started treating me with a new respect (and so did my mother), and that reinforced my understanding of the value of knowledge. So at the end of the semester, instead of going into Special Training, I went into an advanced class with students who were a year ahead of me, and I've been fooling people by using Ms. Lee's tip every since - because life isn't about how brilliant you are, but how knowledgeable.
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    Then during the sixties, the Black community went through a similar process. We spun on a dime (or maybe I should say "they spun on a dime," because I was a little late getting on board - I was "doing time" in the Marine Corps). But the community went from being filled with street gangs and crime, to being filled with dashiki-wearing street philosophers. Former gangsters became Black Panthers and joined other organizations to help enlighten and feed the poor. We recognized that we had to do these things ourselves in order to gain the political clout to FORCE the government to change its ways - and eventually it did, and the community began to rapidly move forward. Ford, General Motors, and other major corporations began to open their doors to Black workers, giving them access to the middle class, and the government began to PAY people to be educated and trained.

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    We made it cool to be knowledgeable.  If a brother wasn't enlightened, he couldn't even get a girlfriend. It became so hip to be Black that White folks were trying to nap their hair up and wear naturals, and White girls were walking around in cornrows. That's how the Rock and hippie revolution got started. Before that, White musicians were going on stage in black suits and ties singing "Rock Around the Clock," and "Venus" - so we've already demonstrated that we can influence the world.
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    But we tend to always allow the White establishment to think 10 years ahead of us (that's why I'm so big on making education our number one priority). They introduced acid, speed, and other drugs into the mix, and the lure of these drugs began to drag us back down. Then in the eighties Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" - one of the nation's primary educational tools, which forced network and radio stations to give equal time to opposing voices every time they tried to spew conservative propaganda - and then Reagan flooded the inner cities with crack ("Just say no!!!!?"). That devastated two generations of Black people. As a result, that severed the connection of the third generation from their Black cultural heritage, because the parents who were supposed to be teaching them about their culture were crackheads. Then the establishment used the media, with things like MTV and BET to serve as a re-education tool, which brings us to where we are today.
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    Thus, it is essential that the Black community come together and re-establish our connection with our cultural roots. It's no accident that we no longer see people like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, or Ray Charles coming out of the Black community anymore. The reason for that is we now have a generation of young Black people where many are just as remote from their Black roots as many White people. Yes, they have Black skin, but thanks to the machinations of the White establishment, they aren't anything like Black people once were. They're like cardboard, imitation Blacks who are reminiscent of real Black people.
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    Think about it - isn't it ironic that, with the exception of people like Janet Jackson, Tyrese, Mariah, and a handful of others, one of the closest examples of old-school Black soul currently in the public domain is being put out by Robin Thick? - and I know, because I'm a lifelong jazz musician, so I'm listening . . . and Robin sounds good!  And the same is true in jazz.  If you go to a concert where they're playing REAL jazz, it looks like a Tea Party convention, because this generation of Black people don't support, or even KNOW, their own culture. (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/07/relections-on-stanley-crouch-mtume.html)
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    So we'd better wake up, or 50 years from now the only people who are going to have the musical skills to play Black music are gonna be White, because they're devouring our music in music schools and conservatories all over the world as we speak, while we've been seduced by the dollar to spew vulgar nursery rhymes to the beat of electronic drum machines.
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    That's what I mean by addressing our cultural infrastructure. We've got to stop thinking of ourselves as victims.  The word "victim" suggests weakness, and Black people are not weak. The adversity that we've endured has made us MORE, rather than less. We simply have to recognize that fact, and be PROACTIVE  in addressing our issues instead of simply reacting to cultural assaults. The bottom line is, we've got to stop telegraphing everything that's on our minds by screaming and grabbing microphones. No one is impressed by that; it just makes us look like reckless idiots. We've got to begin to use our minds to forge innovative and thoughtful approaches to resolving our issues, and we have the resources within our community to do that, right now. Because as Frederick Douglass said, "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
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    "THE SAME BOILING WATER THAT SOFTENS THE POTATO, HARDENS THE EGG.  SO IT'S NOT ABOUT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, IT'S ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF."
     
    Eric L. Wattree 
    Http://wattree.blogspot.com 
    [email protected]
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    Eric

    Times have changed. Music has changed. Media has changed. Means of communication have changed. If you are stuck on what MSM tells us, you are not informed. Black actors and athletes are doing things in the community just as they did in the past. LeBron is sending 1100 students to college. Black women are leading the fight against misogyny in music and speaking out against violence against women.

    Fast food workers demanded better pay and corporations bent to their demands. Citizens demanded an end to Stop and Frisk and won in court. Moral Mondays suffered setbacks but won a case in court.

    Parents in urban neighborhoods are fighting for better schools. People protest the high crime rates in their neighborhood. The school to prison pipeline for black males and the sexual abuse to prison pipeline is being challenged. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a book detailing black grievances and condition that is a National Book award nominee.

    There is heavy activity going on. You look at the situation and conclude that no one is doing anything. People are aware of what is going on. Ferguson's citizens awoke from their slumber and changed their government. There is much more to do. Yet you see nothing.

    You say that black people cant make demands because they have no power. You say this in the face of increased wages for fast food workers and and end to Stop and Frisk as a result of demands. 

    You have nostalgia for your imagined glorious past. It took a decade to go from the Birmingham boycott to the Civil Rights Act. The current Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights act. Privatized prisons pay politicians to lobby for more prison so they can profit off of black bodies. Your advice is to tell poor people who are already fighting the system to wake up. They have been awake Eric. Progress is slow because they are under siege.

    If somebody is boiling water that softens potatoes, telling the potato to become an egg is ridiculous. The more direct solution is to pop the chef in the mouth and turn off the burner on the stove. While you wait for a genetic transformation from potato to egg. People are demanding that the chef quit turning up the heat. 

    Times have changed. There are new talented musicians and vocalists. There is communication via Facebook, Twitter, People are actively seeking change. Black people will survive. Your candidate Bernie Sanders understands that changes need to occur. Black people understand changes need to occur. The changes are not going to be rapid because corporations are benefiting from current conditions.

    We demonize the poor. Why aren't they doing more we ask. Why aren't things better. Until you address the power exerted by corporations and their political toadies, nothing will change. Read some of Sanders writings on these issues.

    Repeatedly putting things in bold print does not make them true. Let's try punching the chef boiling the water before we try to create eggs out of potatoes. I think the chef will back off before the DNA mutations occur. In fact without the boiling water, the potato is pretty sturdy. Black people are the same.


    RM,

    Again, everything you've listed is anecdotal, and if you know ANYTHING about music, you should know that we've gone from the calculus of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, back to addition and subtraction:
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    Here are the Crusaders as young "wannabes" barely out of college.
     


     

     

    Here's John Coltrane:
     

     


    Miles Davis and John Coltrane:

     

     

     

     

     

     

    NOW, POST SOMETHING COMPARABLE THAT'S OUT TODAY.  ALL CHANGE IS NOT GOOD CHANGE. GOOD CHANGE GOES FORWARD, NOT BACKWARDS DUE TO A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

     
                                          Wattree's Chord Chart

    There are new artists like Esparanza Spalding who are creating their own thing.

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/15/new-note


    RM,

    Post some videos of COMPARABLE PERFORMANCES to what I've posted, or let's just shut this discussion down, because I'm tired of going around in circles and having to deal with anecdotes.
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    Even well-schooled White musicians see what's going on, so get your head out the sand . . . before it's too late:



     

    My focus and knowledge of jazz is in no way as extensive so as yours, so I will concede the point.


    Well, thank you for the discussion, RM.
    .
    Even though we disagree on this issue, I did gain some valuable knowledge that will come in quite handy in the future. 


    Eric

    C'mon man. You can't think I'm conceding everything I've argued.

    So that you are clear, the concession is only on the musical aspect. If you argue that the chord structures are better, I can't argue the point. A Mississippi buds guitarist might criticize a New Orleans blues pianist. I could not definitively state which form is best. I concede the musical aspect. I stand firm on everything else.

    On the other aspect, poor people in urban areas are in the same position as poor people in rural regions were in the 1960s. It took demands from black people to make state governments build schools. Currently, education is not a priority. Children can't read because their parents can read. I am a member of a group that involves at risk children in an intensive five-week program that teaches, anger management, self esteem, math, and reading skills . Within that brief period of time, the children grow by the average of a half grade point in math and reading skills. There is constant monitoring of the children after that. Children have gone on to college and even careers in medicine. Because of size limits, a large number of children can't get into the program. To say that those other kids have the same opportunities is ridiculous.

    Regarding your boiling water analogy:

    The potato is sturdy in its natural state.

    The egg is weak in its natural state.

    Boiling water may soften the potato and harden the egg

    The Hardness of the egg is an illusion

    Drop the hard-boiled egg and the shell cracks and the white inside splits and the yellow inside spills out.

    The egg was still softer than the sturdy potato.

    The egg was weak before the boiling water and weak after the boiling water. The shell will always crack.

    We need to attack the offending chef from damaging the sturdy potatoes.

    There is nothing wrong with the poor in the black community or the rest of those in poverty.

    The system has to be corrected.

    If you are too tired to fight the system, just say you are tired.  Keep creating eggs that will crack under stress, even when the boiling water is removed.

    BTW

    Due to their nature, mashed potatoes left alone will tend to harden. 


    Facts

    Black teen pregnancy rates are down

    More college-aged  Black Males in college than in prison

    Businesses owned by black females has increased

    The black dropout rate has decreased

    Until recent flares the black homicide rate was decreasing

    I have repeatedly you shown you data from number crunchers with the same results. You call data anecdotes. You are incapable of accepting new facts.

    The black community is already active on a host of issues. There is much more that needs to be done. The black community are not pathological or lacking some motivation dream. The poor are being oppressed by people who like boiling water.

    Drapetomania was a pseudo-disease that physicians said caused slaves to run away.

    Dysaesthesia aethiopica was a pseudo-disease that caused slaves to be lazy.

    We always look for reasons why the oppressed do not respond well to oppression. The terms we use today carry the same message of some malady effecting the oppressed

     


    Bob Somerby at Daily Howler continually notes stats that show black kids' scores going up, a fact that everyone including "liberal media" chooses to ignore. No optimism allowed.


    I'm not sure what your point is in posting this Bolton Kenny G video. If you think it's real that just reveals how little you know about musicians who play light jazz. Kenny G is not nearly as original or creative as Coltrane or Parker but he can play in tune and his improvisations do fit the chord changes. This was either performed as a spoof or over dubbed by other musicians as a joke. I think it was most likely overdubbed.

    I've never understood this disparagement of simpler forms of music by jazz purists. Not everyone can understand the most complex forms of music and they don't need to. It takes lots of listening to train one's ears. Just as not everyone can understand Shakespeare as well as Dr Cleveland. Deeply understanding anything complex takes some type of training or study, either explicit or implicit.

    It's simply not possible for any one person to have a complete understanding of the complex in every form of human endeavor. No one has enough time. While it's likely you have a sophisticated understanding of the complexities of the greatest jazz music there are undoubtedly other areas where your understanding is simplistic.

    I can enjoy a record by Kansas without spending the time constantly thinking it's not as harmonically or rhythmically complex as a record by the Mahavishnu Orchestra or that Jean Luc Ponty is a more creative and technically proficient violinist. Just as I can enjoy reading the Harry Potter series without getting all bummed out that it's ethically and verbally simple compared to The Brothers Karamazov or even modern novels like The Sparrow by Mary Russell.

     


    Kenny G earned a lot of derisiveness by overdubbing over Louis Armstrong's recording. Metheny contends Kenny G plays out of tune, which I think he assesses seriously, and since I've ever listened to a Kenny G recording (the ads were enough to turn me off), I can't say.

    While agreeing that scribbling over Louis was an affront, I'm in a very different camp from the purist jazz or whatever theoriticians (though I understand why Metheny's partof this camp). Quite frankly, I can't listen to Metheny either- too many notes, perhaps - nor Mahavishnu, though liked Miles' fusion wih many of the same players and directions. (Tribute to Jack Johnson being my favorite).

    But mostly, I think people should listen to whatever they want. My taste ranges from mainstream to eclectic, to super-talented to plain dumb and kitsch, and often it's based on a particular mood or just perverse itch. Nancy Sinatra's great in her own way (see the movie Wrecking Crew - a real eye opener about how many bands didn't record their own albums), Tiny Tim left his mark, Sid Vicious couldn't play but was an icon, etc. Flea re-recorded Captain and Tennille and it was genius. And the art of dynamics says sometimes we need something dumb and stupid to counterbalance and appreciate the more towering and complex. And then, some people just like pop, which is fine, their own business.


    Overdubbing is happening because we can now do it very easily. I think it's bullshit but lots of people like it. KG isn't the only jazz musician who's done it. It doesn't bother me at all. I expect it will happen more and more often. KG took a famous old popular tune, played over it and people liked it. It brought a lot of positive attention to him, a little negative attention which was good too publicity wise, and made him money. Making money has always been KG's motivation. He never pushes boundaries or makes the listener concentrate to understand his improvisations. He may at times play fast but it's always easy to understand. It's pop jazz, fun, happy, easy. And that's ok. Not everyone is an educated listener.

    Purists are pissed at KG because he makes a ton of money while much better jazz musicians are struggling. But most of them care about their "art" and won't pander to the popular audience. I respect and admire that. Those are the musicians I listen to mostly, but if your art goes beyond the understanding of average listeners you're simply not going to make a ton of money. Bird in his day was probably the greatest Sax  player, but not the most popular well paid musician around. He was too new, too original, too complex for the average listener.

    It's always been this way. When Oscar Peterson or Chick Corea were making great music and little money playing the keyboard Liberace was making millions giving people exactly what they wanted. And when Bach and Beethoven were composing great works of art bards were singing trite little ditties in taverns all across Europe.


    Playing schlock for profits is fine by me. Every wedding band and cover band does this. Co-opting a genius' recording should be beyond fair use, just like using it for political campaigns without permission.

    Every wedding band? Damn. Mine said they couldn't cover Schlock for Profits due to trademark issues.


    You need to ask for the Bootleg Edition - poorer sound quality but they can play it all night and it really rocks.

    Ok, if you or Metheny want to be offended it's no skin off my nose. If it's in the public domain people and politicians can use it. If not they need permission and have to pay. To me it's just a recording and the original performer is dead. It's not like it's some sacred text handed down by god that people file by and touch to be healed or get musical talent passed on miraculously.


    I don't know how he managed with album rights - probably his label owned Armstrong's library or it was a deal between record labels - I doubt the copyrights had run out. The offense is the amount of pretension in an upstart placing his mug on a picture of *the* jazz great, dead and unable to defend against this necrophilia. Miles Davis kicked Winton Marcelis offstage - his right, even tho could have been handled more tactfully, and I don't think anything less of Marselis. But I'd feel as icky if some politician put out a booklet mixing his aphorisms with FDR's or MLK's - shitty conceited move. Not sacred, but cherished - some acts are just poor taste. Oasis did a lot of cultural appropriation of Beatles stuff - WonderWall and so forth - obnoxious pricks they were even though had a few okay songs.

    It's also about stage of life, and where your head/heart happens to be. Sometimes new ideas catch your breath - other times the familiar owns your soul. The beauty of music is its constant movement.


    The ways to access music have changed dramatically. In the past, you listened to a limited number of music stations on something called a radio playing AM or FM channels. Now you can have access to a great number of specialized channels on satellite radio, or on Internet radio stations on your computer or mobile device. You went to a record store and chose from available artists. Now you have access to unlimited artists via Internet stores, YouTube, or bit torrents. You can be exposed to new artists via Apple Music, Spotify, or a host of other sites..

    I ditched my satellite radio subscription because I was hearing the same songs repeatedly. I'm doing the Apple Music trial. If a select Jazz as a music style I like, I get suggestions like "Intro to John Coltrane or Herbie Hancock" , etc. I get access to new jazz song and album releases. I can search for specific artists and make playlists. I have access to more music than ever.

    If I hear a song playing and want to know the title and artist, I can use a song detector like "Soundhound" find the artist and song and purchase the song on iTunes, Google, etc. If I'm reading an article or book about music, I can listen to the artist or song discussed with a few clicks on my phone. We are in music heaven.

    Those who are purists have a greater ability to guide us to the best artists via sites like You Tube as Wattrree has done here. For listeners, these are the best of times. With decreased focus on the arts in school, we may wind up with fewer new artists producing quality music.


    Thank you for posting these music clips.  They are wonderful.


    You're very welcome, Lurker.

     


    Eric

    You are stuck. You cannot see what people are doing today so you criticize and reject data that points to improvements. Much more needs to be done, but people are active.

    In music, people have access to Coltrane and Wes Montgomery. They have access to Armstrong and Ornette Coleman. They have access to early New Orleans jazz like Professor Longhair. Artists like Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter, and Cecile McLorin Savant are creating new paths. Blues people thought jazz and R&B were crazy. Those who loved Nat King Cole thought the Motown sound was noise and stupid dancing. Time moves on.

    You can chose from Ornette Coleman or Kirk Whalum. You can select Wes Montgomery or George Benson. They all touch the soul.


    RM,

    I'm noticing something about you. You have a tendency to make unwarranted assumptions. That's a bad habit, because it will cause you to come to erroneous conclusions in your thinking, and I'm beginning to think that's what has kept me having to restate the very same concept so many times during this discussion.   I said:

    "Well, thank you for the discussion, RM.

    "Even though we disagree on this issue, I did gain some valuable knowledge that will come in quite handy in the future." 

    In response to that - what I considered a pretty gracious conclusion - you come back with the following:

    Eric

    "C'mon man. You can't think I'm conceding everything I've argued.

    "So that you are clear, the concession is only on the musical aspect. If you argue that the chord structures are better, I can't argue the point. A Mississippi buds guitarist might criticize a New Orleans blues pianist. I could not definitively state which form is best. I concede the musical aspect. I stand firm on everything else."

    What's up with that!!!? Where did it come from?  It's almost as if you went to your corner and got a second wind - and where do you see the word "concede" ANYWHERE in my conclusion? The fact is, I don't even care what you "conceded" to, or whether you conceded at all. This was a discussion, not a sporting event. I'm into disseminating and gathering information, not putting points on a scoreboard. I'm not even into scoreboards. I consider ALL forms of competition childish. As far as I'm concerned the only form of competition that's either mature, or the least bit constructive, is to compete against the person I was yesterday.

    And finally, I'm not even going to comment on the the rest of that stuff, because it would take me all day to correct the holes in your musical knowledge; it almost seemed like you just picked names out of thin air. And having to deal with your repeated litany of anecdotal facts will only force me to have to restate what I've already said. So as I said earlier, this discussion has become a gross waste of time, and extremely counterproductive. So we need to leave it at that:

    WHY WE CAN'T AFFORD TO IGNORE BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME
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    Other than the obvious problem of blatant racism, another reason that many juries fail to convict cops who kill unarmed Black people is since we tend to ignore Black-on-Black crime in the community, our communities have become so violent that juries give the cops a pass because they take into account the fact that they're operating in a war zone, and as everybody knows, in war zones "collateral damage" is to be expected. 
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    A third reason juries let cops off is since we don't seem to mind when Blacks kill other Blacks, when we start jumping up and down against the police it seems disingenuous. It looks like we just have a vendetta against cops, and when juries or forced to take a side, they side with the police. It's the way we were socialized, to side with authority figures - our mother, our teacher, our boss, the police.  While that might seem unjust, it is what it is - and it's not gonna change.
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    So it behooves us in the Black community to start getting on top of Black-on-Black crime, because the criminals in our community are causing us ALL to be broad-brushed as animals. In addition, they're placing our children in danger from both the criminals themselves, and the police that they draw into our neighborhoods.

    Eric L. Wattree's photo.

    Sorry. Eric I completely misunderstood your meaning. I apologize.


    No problem, RM.

     


    This picture  might be considered garbage and may get you banished/blocked from accessing Dagblog 


    Anonymous,

    If a reflection of the reality of life in the Black community would get me blocked from Dagblog, I don't belong here anyway. I'm not into censorship.


    I'm not sure what changed on your last post. I'm using Chrome on my iPad. The picture is just a long rectangle with colors and I can't post a reply directly to your updated post.


    Well I haven't changed anything, RM.

     


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