11 | March | 2011 | Musicwoman Radio, Magazines, and Members

I don’t agree that Jazz in the Gardens is so great. I have never attended but this event draws 35,000 deluded people. This year, there will be only two jazz artists, Al Jarreau and Branford Marsalis and NO female jazz artists at all. This is an outrage.

The people on this festival are R&B and that is NOT Jazz. They never have jazz. It’s an insult to me and all the real jazz musicians I work with and promote in my organization. That would be like having a reggae festival that features country & western.

It’s abhorrent but the City uses the word “jazz” for insurance purposes. And they should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting the cultural production of African Americans who think above their navel.

Bobby Brown, Lauryn Hill, Gladys Knight, Charlie Wilson, En Vogue, El Debarge, Doug E Fresh, Slick Rick, none of these are Jazz Artists, meaning that people like me who perform jazz are continually OUT OF WORK. We are never engaged by these cities to bring real jazz to the community. I worked day in and day out to promote jazz music in South Florida and get very little recognition by any of these so-called jazz promoters. They are liars and thieves of the “only true art form in America”. Ella, Billie, Carmen, Betty are turning over in their graves from this fraudulent false advertisement. If I had the resources, I would sue the City of Miami Gardens for this terrible and continuous offense that is killing the art of jazz and all the hard work that so many African Americans artists did in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

It is a huge insult to the hundreds of African Americans in South Florida who know what jazz really is. However, I’ve moved away from being the complainer because people in South Florida have no respect for the culture of African Americans anyway, unless it’s gospel.

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