Jazz in Defense of Equality and Justice For All

Get in touch! America’s music, at least through 1955, was jazz. In this episode, we’ll take a deep dive into the predominant forms jazz took on from 1930 through the 1950’s and into the 1960’s, including swing, bebop, hard bop and cool jazz. In many ways during these years, Jazz gave voice to the difficult tensions and struggles confronting Americans in those years, and which tested our belief in our own convictions. Welcome to American Song, episode ten; Jazz In Defense of Equality and Justice For All Through its history, Jazz has played a very important social role in America and abroad. It is the voice of democracy and freedom. It represents our continuing desire for social justice and equality in America and has supported that role abroad. In this episode, we see how jazz evolved through Swing to Bebop and how members of the same group who have been most historically oppressed have risen – both in the music world and out of it – to be the ones to defend the country, and inspire the effort needed to face our own demons. Because they did, America has begun to live up to its promises of equality and justice for all. I am certain that America’s music will continue to inspire us, encourage us, and unite us. Just as it always has. In This Episode: In the Mood - Glenn Miller King Porter Stomp - Fletcher Henderson Fly Me to The Moon - Sinatra/ Basie Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole Northwest Passage - Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off - Astaire/ Rogers Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters Stomp Your Feet - Fred Elizalde and His Cambridge Undergraduates Minor Swing - Django Reinhart Adolf Hitler at Essen Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition - Kay Kiser GI Jive - Kay Kiser Making Whoopie - Charlie and His Orchestra The Man With the Big Cigar - Charlie and His Orchestra I Sustain the Wings/ Jam Don’t Shake Like That - Glenn Miller and the Army Airforce Band The Secret Broadcast - Music Fur Die Wermacht - Glenn Miller and “Ilse” Perfidia - Benny Goodman and Helen Forrest (V-Records) Koko - John Coltrane Mussolini’s Letter to Hitler - Carson Robison Der Fuehrer’s Face - Spike Jones and His City Slickers Body and Soul - Coleman Hawkins Straight No Chaser - Miles Davis (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong WE INSIST! Freedom Now Suite! - Max Roach with Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins and Olatunji Fables of Faubus - Charles Mingus Alabama Governor George Wallace (1964 Campaign) Acknowledgement (From a Love Supreme) - John Coltrane Alabama - John Coltrane Klactovesedstene - Charlie Parker Just Friends - Charlie Parker Night in Tunisia - Dizzy Gillespie Round Midnight - Thelonious Monk Fifty-Second Street Theme - Thelonious Monk Nikita Kruschev at UN 1960 Manteca - Dizzy Gillespie Duke Ellington on American Music Reprise: (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong President Dwight D Eisenhower Addresses Little Rock Crisis The Real Ambassador - Dave Brubeck/ Louis Armstrong Sing Sing Sing! - Benny Goodman in USSR Moaning’ - Charles Mingus U.S. Attorney General Derrick Garland on Voter Suppression Crisis As always, thanks for listening and downloading! If you'd like to support American Song, consider a donation at Patreon! Visit our Facebook page!