Yoshi's "Shamed"

[GA Russell]

For the other side of the coin, here's an article that blasts the critics, and blasts Yoshi's for taking the CD off the market.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/06/jaz..._to_racism.html

June 02, 2007

Jazz Succumbs to Racism

By Thomas Lifson

Jazz is the great cultural achievement of America where blacks took a leading role as creators and practitioners, and where blacks and whites and eventually Asians, Latinos, and well, everyone, performed and listened in harmony (literally and figuratively). That era ended yesterday, thanks to the forward-thinking "progressives" of the San Francisco Bay Area. Race is now more important than music, according to authoritative local commentators and practitioners.

Jazz has now fallen to the level apparently requiring affirmative action. The word "tragedy" leaps to mind. We are moving in the opposite direction from a society where everyone is presumed equal and race is an irrelevant criterion. So much for Dr. King's "content of our character" hopes.

Yoshi's jazz club, a very prominent jazz venue in Oakland's Jack London Square entertainment district has, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, been "shamed" by its failure to judge the worth of jazz musicians on the color of their skin, instead of the content of their artistry.

The managers of Yoshi's jazz club said Friday that issuing a 10th anniversary CD with no African American musicians was "a huge mistake" and "a major oversight." In the wake of complaints by some African American musicians and community leaders, the club issued an apology and withdrew the disc.

Here is where Yoshi's now says it went wrong:

Kajimura [the club's owner] and Yoshi's artistic director Peter Williams attributed the botched CD to haste and expediency. "This was done on the spur of the moment, and we didn't have a lot of time and research to put into it," said Kajimura. Yoshi's began working on the project in late March to mark the club's 10 years in Oakland in May.

Eight of the 10 tracks, from four different musicians, came from Concord records, one of the world's largest recording labels. The other two came from San Francisco radio station KFOG's archives.

"That was the easiest, quickest thing to do," said Williams. "We assumed Concord would have the most music recorded live at Yoshi's."

The crime, then, is in failing to regard skin color as a major criterion.

Williams said race and ethnicity are "things that I just never think about when I'm booking the club. It always comes out that we have a great mix. I'm very comfortable with what we've done."

Apparently in this day and age, especially in the "progressive" Bay Area, one must always devote time and effort to racial bean-counting and careful allocation of everything on the basis of race. It doesn't matter if your business is a small one (Yoshi's is not exactly a multinational conglomerate, despite its international prominence and importance in the world of jazz), race must always be considered an important standard for judging every decision. Colorblindness is a crime.

Yoshi's was following the old way of thinking in jazz, and now that old way is judged bad by the leading lights of the Bay Area. As Matthew May reminded us yesterday, in the old days (you know, the era of Jim Crow), black and white jazz musicians were indifferent to race. The only criterion was, "Can he play?" Today, the "enlightened" minds demand a racial consciousness that puts the old apartheid regime of South Africa to shame.

In the realm of jazz, the monumental contribution of African-Americans to world culture, blacks are now relegated by "progressives" to the status of fragile, weak outsiders, so uncertain of their own merit, so lacking in standing that they require special consideration and support lest they fall between the cracks. A protected species, in other words. I had always thought blacks were not just in the front of the bus, they were in the driver's seat when it came to jazz. Now, blacks have been moved to the back of the jazz bus.

Ironies abound in the decision of Yoshi's to withdraw its original 10th anniversary compilation CD.

When the new CD is made, [Williams] added, it will include African American musicians recorded live at Yoshi's on such labels as Verve, MaxJazz and Blue Note. That will involve more elaborate negotiations for rights and licensing fees.

Translation: the new CD is going to cost more. So much for making high quality jazz available to the widest possible audience. Can jazz really afford to lose any more listeners?

Yoshi's had sold about 500 of the 1,000 CDs it began offering on its Web site last month. The disc, the first made by Yoshi's, was not distributed to stores.

Translation: about 500 lucky jazz fans now have an instant collector's item, all but certain to skyrocket in value.

Question: what becomes of the unsold CDs? Are they now so offensive that they must be shipped to the nearest landfill to become solid waste? If so, the clever garbage truck crew has a nice little gold mine on their hands if they spot the valuable trash. So:

Are we going to hear cries that the CDs must be destroyed? After all, if they are so somehow harmful that they must be withdrawn, then isn't it an act of "racism" to recycle them through unofficial channels? Should they be treated the way Hitler treated books by Jews, and burned in a public bonfire? If so, someone please call Al Gore and tell him about the pollution that will result. Or maybe Yoshi's must go to the expense of hiring a shredding machine, to protect the world's from the sounds of melanin-deficient jazz musicians.

Running a jazz club is never a route to fortune. I don't know the state of finances at Yoshi's, but I suspect that the financial blow of junking 500 CDs, along with the extra royalty costs and other expenses associated with a new affirmative action version of the 10th anniversary disc, are material, as they say in the world of financial reporting. If Yoshi's were to quietly sell the 500 politically incorrect discs on ebay (at the moment of writing this piece 68 jazz CDs recorded live at Yoshi's are on sale at ebay), the "shame" could actually become a minor financial bonanza. I would certainly a pay handsome sum for one of the forbidden discs, as they mark a historic turning point - the moment when blacks became a protected species in the world of jazz.

But if Yoshi's were to salvage its investment in this way (and thereby be able to host more jazz musicians - "more than half of the musicians who play Yoshi's are African American"), what are the odds that it would be denounced as a racist act? With people like Glen Pearson, an African American musician and College of Alameda instructor, waiting to pounce, I'd say almost a certainty. Here's what Pearson had to say to the Chron:

"If Yoshi's is calling this an oversight, then maybe there needs to be a larger discussion about the dynamic of what jazz is all about."

Silly me, silly Yoshi's. We thought jazz was about music. It turns out that it is about racial grievances.

This sad tale hits me in the gut because of a bit of personal history. Growing up in Minneapolis, which was in the 1950s a metropolis with very few black residents, the first black person I ever really met and sat down and talked to as a child of about 11, was a jazz musician, the great Eugene Wright, best known as the bassist in the Dave Brubeck Quartet in its "classic" phase. His kindness and consideration toward me, a youthful jazz fan and son of a former jazz vocalist, made a huge impression on me, both for his musical artistry and for his wonderful friendly and engaging personality. Race simply wasn't an issue, and in the 1960s that was a pretty rare experience. Gene, along with the upbringing my parents provided, set my racial template to "everyone is the same."

Evidently, even in jazz, that way of thinking is obsolete. And I cannot describe how sad I feel about it.

[Guy Berger]

Uggh -- I have a bad feeling that article is going to take over this thread.

Guy

[JSngry]

Oh my!

[BFrank]

There are many things about the bay area that I don't miss.

Word... I lived in Oakland from 12/85 to 11/89 and though there were many things I loved and miss, there were many things I too don't miss like the congestion, cost of living, earth quakes, and the $40 jazz gigs..

Well, congestion and cost of living will get to you in ANY urban environment. Earthquakes (especially bad ones) happen MUCH less frequently than tornados, hurricanes and floods.

And I don't remember EVER paying $40 for a gig at Yoshi's (well, I may have paid around $40 last year for Kenny Burrell's birthday bash with Joey D, Hubert Laws, Pony Poindexter and the whole friggin' Gerald Wilson Orchestra, but it was worth it).

Just a quick look at their site shows that you could see Bill Charlap tomorrow night for $16 or Terrence Blanchard next week for $18. In addition, they frequently charge only $10 for the second set.

Randissimo, I'm sorry you had a bad experience out here. You should give it another chance.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, it's kind of hard to fathom where to start...

w/r/t the article, that is.

Edited June 5, 2007 by clifford_thornton

[Soul Stream]

Just a quick look at their site shows that you could see Bill Charlap tomorrow night for $16 or Terrence Blanchard next week for $18. In addition, they frequently charge only $10 for the second set.

Yeah, I wish we had one of those crappy, racist Yoshi's clubs down here so I could got see Bill Charlap or Terrence this week ...

[Shawn]

Plus, how many young folks, no matter what their race, are interested in jazz?

Not very many! Jazz falls into the same category as B&W movies, vinyl records, VCRs, etc. Outmoded, outdated and largely forgotten...

(yes, it's a generalization...but it's not too farfetched)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

THE UNIVERSE IS BLACK

LIKE THE BLACKNESS OF THE UNIVERSE, THE SPIRIT OF BLACK PEOPLE REACHES INFINITY

WHITE PEOPLE HAVE SET EQUATIONS TO PREVENT YOU STEPPING OUT AND BECOMING THE GREAT RACE YOU ARE AGAIN

I HAVE SET MY OWN EQUATIONS TO BALENCE THE EQUATIONS OF THOSE WHO ARE WHITE

[randissimo]

and the $40 jazz gigs..

...hey, that's everywhere ain't it?

Not here in Michigan, though with the gas prices I net close to that sometimes when I do an out of town hit..

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

THE UNIVERSE IS BLACK

LIKE THE BLACKNESS OF THE UNIVERSE, THE SPIRIT OF BLACK PEOPLE REACHES INFINITY

WHITE PEOPLE HAVE SET EQUATIONS TO PREVENT YOU STEPPING OUT AND BECOMING THE GREAT RACE YOU ARE AGAIN

I HAVE SET MY OWN EQUATIONS TO BALENCE THE EQUATIONS OF THOSE WHO ARE WHITE

I thought, "this can't be Chewy, beacause their aren't any spelling mistakes." Then I got to the last line.

MG

[RDK]

I can only imagine that the lack of any black artists on the Yoshi's comp was an amusing, ironic coincidence. I can honestly say that whenever I compile a compilation - such as the blindfold test discs - I never consider the race of the artist. When I first read this story, I laughed; I never saw it as a "race" issue.

As for the follow-up piece, while I can't agree with its tone and presentation, I think it makes some good points.

[Cali]

I can only imagine that the lack of any black artists on the Yoshi's comp was an amusing, ironic coincidence.

Black artist aren't laughing:

Today's SF Chronicle has the remarkable story of the exclusion of Black folks from jazz. The problem of race in this country is deeper than we imagined.

JAZZ FANS DECRY EXCLUSION

Few African American musicians booked for Berkeley festival,

none on Yoshi's anniversary CD

By Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 1, 2007

This article appeared on page A - 1

of the San Francisco Chronicle

When Yoshi's jazz club in Oakland released its much-anticipated 10-year anniversary CD last month, local jazz aficionados were outraged that no African American musicians were included.

The tension grew days later when the Bay Area's jazz community learned that the Berkeley Downtown Jazz Festival had invited only six African American musicians to perform at the five-day event in August.

Together, the two revelations upset musicians, club owners and fans, some of whom say racism is at play in the local jazz scene. Anna DeLeon, owner of Anna's Jazz Island in Berkeley, complained to organizers when she learned who was scheduled to play at her club during the festival.

"There were 17 musicians in four bands, and none were black," said DeLeon. "It is hard for me to imagine how this could happen, how they could not notice."

Word spread quickly as people voiced outrage via e-mail over a problem many said had been simmering for a long time. Jazz professionals met to plan a response. Club owners and musicians went on Doug Edwards' "Music of the World" show on KPFA-FM on May 19. A week later, Susan Muscarella, who books the jazz festival and runs Berkeley's Jazzschool, appeared on the same show to respond.

Muscarella says the situation is being overblown. She said she hasn't finished booking the festival but has so far confirmed four African American acts, and it was coincidence that none would perform at Anna's. Last year, 30 percent of festival performers were black, she said.

"These allegations are outrageous," Muscarella said. "Diversity has always been at the top of my list. I hold African American heritage in high esteem. But I do choose quality and not ethnicity alone."

Many artists said that holding black heritage in high esteem is not the point. Inviting six African American artists to a major jazz event that includes dozens of performers and excluding black artists from a selection of 10 performances at the East Bay's most prominent jazz venue is simply unacceptable, they said.

"It is like going to a Chinese restaurant and there are no Chinese people," said Howard Wiley, a local saxophonist. "It is very disheartening and sad, especially from Yoshi's, which calls itself the premiere jazz venue of the Bay Area.

"I mean, we are dealing with jazz and blues, not Hungarian folk music or the invention of computer programs."

Jazz grew out of the African American experience, and many historians call it the most significant contribution from the United States to the music world.

Well-known jazz artists, festival organizers and academics say the two incidents show how African Americans are being squeezed out of the art form more broadly.

"This is stemming from a much larger dynamic with regard to jazz and what is becoming a legitimized and institutionalized lack of inclusion of African Americans," said Glen Pearson, a music instructor at the College of Alameda and a full-time musician. "Jazz was once looked at as inferior music from an inferior culture, and now it has become embraced socially and academically, so there has been some revisionism."

Pearson said some music critics believe the African American roots of jazz and its black contributors are sometimes featured too heavily in education and portrayals of jazz, such as in Ken Burns' television documentary series. There were complaints that the PBS series, "Jazz," focused too much on African Americans, Pearson said.

"I am comfortable saying that every significant white contributor to jazz studied from someone of African American descent," Pearson said. "So for a world-class jazz venue to not include an African American performer in a 10-year tribute is just so sideways."

Over the years, countless prominent African Americans have performed at Yoshi's, including Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Howard Wiley, Abbey Lincoln, Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Shelby, McCoy Tyner, Shirley Horn and Elvin Jones.

Peter Williams, Yoshi's artistic director, said the exclusion was an oversight and that the club does not have the right to record all the performers that appear there.

"We apologize to anyone who feels slighted by the omission of African American artists on this project, as that was never our intention," he wrote in an e-mail to concerned supporters. "This compilation CD was meant to celebrate a milestone for us in the Bay Area and not necessarily meant to be a representation of all the artists and music styles ever played at our club."

DeLeon said she and others angry about the CD do not suspect that Yoshi's conspired to leave out African Americans; they are upset it happened without anyone noticing.

"The Bay Area is a jazz mecca, considered one of the top three or four markets in the country, so for its premiere venue to leave out African American artists is amazing," said Herve Ernest, executive director of SF Noir, an arts and culture organization that highlights African American contributions, and a co-founder of the North Beach Jazz Festival.

"From what I have perceived and what I've witnessed, there is a certain whitewashing of jazz both locally and nationally," Ernest said. "I think it is done from a marketing standpoint and is a response to the largely white audiences that patronize an establishment."

Ernest said one of the reasons he founded SF Noir was that he noticed the jazz festival audiences were 90 percent white, and he wanted to try to appeal to a more diverse crowd and put a stronger focus on black contributions to the art.

"It really gets me upset that people like Norah Jones (who is white and East Indian) get pushed through with heavy marketing when there are dozens of African American female jazz vocalists who, in my opinion, are 10 times better," he said. "I'm not sure if the exclusion is intended or an honest overlook, but we created jazz and we are still playing it, so we should not be overlooked."

Local jazz artists said they see the discussion as positive in that it is offering a chance to address an issue that has been stewing for some time. A desire to organize has been lacking, said local jazz singer Rhonda Benin, but now a number of musicians are ready to take action.

"It's an ongoing problem that was brought to a head by these two events," said Raymond Nat Turner, an Oakland-based jazz poet. "That set in motion a chain of e-mails and unleashed an energy that had been dormant for years.

"People who had not been communicating have started talking and networking," Turner said.

At a forum at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music last month, about 35 people discussed how better to support black-owned venues and artists and recruiting more African American children into the world of jazz.

"We are becoming the minority as Europeans and Caucasians take over," Turner said.

Those who attended the forum plan to meet again Sunday to develop a long-term strategy.

"This is an African American art form, and they are excluding the very people who created it and continue to play it," said Benin. "It's a travesty."

The Equal Justice Society (www.equaljusticesociety.org) is a national advocacy organization strategically advancing social and racial justice through law and public policy, communications and the arts, and alliance building.

Equal Justice Society, 220 Sansome St, 14th Flr, San Francisco, CA 94104, Ph (415) 288-8700

[Guy Berger]

I can only imagine that the lack of any black artists on the Yoshi's comp was an amusing, ironic coincidence.

Black artist aren't laughing:

Today's SF Chronicle has the remarkable story of the exclusion of Black folks from jazz. The problem of race in this country is deeper than we imagined.

JAZZ FANS DECRY EXCLUSION

Few African American musicians booked for Berkeley festival,

none on Yoshi's anniversary CD

By Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 1, 2007

This article appeared on page A - 1

of the San Francisco Chronicle

When Yoshi's jazz club in Oakland released its much-anticipated 10-year anniversary CD last month, local jazz aficionados were outraged that no African American musicians were included.

I don't think anybody in this thread has made a convincing argument that the selection of artists on the Yoshi's CD was racially motivated, so let's leave that aside.

The tension grew days later when the Bay Area's jazz community learned that the Berkeley Downtown Jazz Festival had invited only six African American musicians to perform at the five-day event in August.

Together, the two revelations upset musicians, club owners and fans, some of whom say racism is at play in the local jazz scene. Anna DeLeon, owner of Anna's Jazz Island in Berkeley, complained to organizers when she learned who was scheduled to play at her club during the festival.

"There were 17 musicians in four bands, and none were black," said DeLeon. "It is hard for me to imagine how this could happen, how they could not notice."

Word spread quickly as people voiced outrage via e-mail over a problem many said had been simmering for a long time. Jazz professionals met to plan a response. Club owners and musicians went on Doug Edwards' "Music of the World" show on KPFA-FM on May 19. A week later, Susan Muscarella, who books the jazz festival and runs Berkeley's Jazzschool, appeared on the same show to respond.

Muscarella says the situation is being overblown. She said she hasn't finished booking the festival but has so far confirmed four African American acts, and it was coincidence that none would perform at Anna's. Last year, 30 percent of festival performers were black, she said.

"These allegations are outrageous," Muscarella said. "Diversity has always been at the top of my list. I hold African American heritage in high esteem. But I do choose quality and not ethnicity alone."

I think this is pretty vague. It seems like most of the outrage is generated over the fact that ONE VENUE for the festival doesn't have any African American acts. It isn't clear from the rest of the article what the racial composition is for the festival overall.

Guy

[Jim R]

FYI... there's overlap in this thread, where brownie posted the same article that Cali posted above (four days ago).

[JSngry]

There are many things about the bay area that I don't miss.

Word... I lived in Oakland from 12/85 to 11/89 and though there were many things I loved and miss, there were many things I too don't miss like the congestion, cost of living, earth quakes, and the $40 jazz gigs..

...And I don't remember EVER paying $40 for a gig at Yoshi's...

Dude - he's talking about what the gigs pay, not what they cost.

[RainyDay]

There's nothing wrong with asking about the make-up of the CD. This is the Bay Area, not a segregated community where people are expected to shut up and keep their opinions to themselves. There's no crime in having balance or for asking for it. The outcome of the CD was an oversight and was not an intentional exclusion of anyone. But raising the question shouldn't create a backlash against those who raised the question. The Berkeley Downtown festival is a separate issue and shouldn't be included in a discussion about Yoshi's CD.

I feel bad for Yoshi's employees because they really didn't deserve for this story to become what it is. I understand what happened with this CD--it was trying to do too much with not enough time and resources. Happens to me at work all the time but I don't end up on the front page of the paper.

I agree with Orrin Keepnews. The CD was not well-thought out and it certainly didn't reflect the diversity of talent that has passed through Yoshi's over the years. Had they taken the time to include the giants of jazz on the CD, the ethnic composition of the CD would have been a non issue. When I saw the line-up on the CD I figured I'd pass. Not because it was all-white, it was just boring.

If you are going to be so put out by this whole matter, perhaps you might ask why the tabloid press at the Chronicle decided to make this a front page story, two days in a row. It was a story worth covering but the sensationalism with which it was reported was disgusting.

Yoshi's does a great job of bringing jazz to the Bay Area that includes a wide diversity of talent. It is not unreasonable to expect to see that diversity on their commemorative CD.

Edited June 5, 2007 by RainyDay

[Adam]

I can only imagine that the lack of any black artists on the Yoshi's comp was an amusing, ironic coincidence.

Black artist aren't laughing:

Today's SF Chronicle has the remarkable story of the exclusion of Black folks from jazz. The problem of race in this country is deeper than we imagined.

JAZZ FANS DECRY EXCLUSION

Few African American musicians booked for Berkeley festival,

none on Yoshi's anniversary CD

By Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 1, 2007

This article appeared on page A - 1

of the San Francisco Chronicle

"It really gets me upset that people like Norah Jones (who is white and East Indian) get pushed through with heavy marketing when there are dozens of African American female jazz vocalists who, in my opinion, are 10 times better," he said. "I'm not sure if the exclusion is intended or an honest overlook, but we created jazz and we are still playing it, so we should not be overlooked."

The Equal Justice Society (www.equaljusticesociety.org) is a national advocacy organization strategically advancing social and racial justice through law and public policy, communications and the arts, and alliance building.

Equal Justice Society, 220 Sansome St, 14th Flr, San Francisco, CA 94104, Ph (415) 288-8700

Well, if he's considering norah Jones as jazz, then sure there are problems.

[peterdubya]

Yoshi's is 100% responsible for the make up of the CD.

No one at Yoshi's is blaming Concord.

The mistake was 100% Yoshi's fault.

[sheldonm]

Yoshi's is 100% responsible for the make up of the CD.

No one at Yoshi's is blaming Concord.

The mistake was 100% Yoshi's fault.

Thanks for clearing that up....who are you???

[Aggie87]

Yoshi's is 100% responsible for the make up of the CD.

No one at Yoshi's is blaming Concord.

The mistake was 100% Yoshi's fault.

Thanks for clearing that up....who are you???

Why, he's Dubya! Don't you trust him?

[ValerieB]

Yoshi's is 100% responsible for the make up of the CD.

No one at Yoshi's is blaming Concord.

The mistake was 100% Yoshi's fault.

Thanks for clearing that up....who are you???

he's a really nice guy who happens to do the booking at yoshi's!

[BruceH]

The stranges thing is, if you go to Yoshi's you'll see plenty of pictures on the wall of African/American musicians who've played there.

Edited June 6, 2007 by BruceH

[peterdubya]

Thanks for clearing that up....who are you???

[Guy Berger]

Yoshi's is 100% responsible for the make up of the CD.

No one at Yoshi's is blaming Concord.

The mistake was 100% Yoshi's fault.

Peter, thanks for taking the time to post here.

Guy

[AllenLowe]

I have made a silent vow to never again discuss race in jazz or to post in a thread that touches the topic - too complex an issue, tired of pissing people off - I will only say here what I told a writer friend of mine who published a book with the conventional wisdom about current racial conditions and the powerlessnes of African American jazz artists - as I told him, the most powerful jazz musician in the world (and probably in the history of the music) is African American - speaking of course of Wynton Marsalis. And if you than want to protest about the problems in the programs he leads and about his pronouncements I will say that's irrelevant to the point - because you are than confirming that the problem is not necessarily race.

so this is not to say that the racial issues have been solved, but that in jazz African Americans have achieved a great deal of equity - maybe not the African Americans we would like to see, but that begs a separate question about art and the need audiences and institutions have to hear the same old shit; and that is a problem that transcends race -