First off, if you haven’t seen Shutter Island, go see it! Good movie!

Composer Max Ritcher composed a mesmerizing piece of music available on the film’s soundtrack which he combines with the timeless voice of blues, jazz & R&B singer, Dinah Washington (1924 – 1963). The song is very haunting and pairs well with the theme of the movie which is just as haunting. Washington originally recorded This Bitter Earth in 1960 and it was later covered by artists like Aretha Franklin, Deborah Cox and The Satisfactions, before Ritcher used the vocals for this soundtrack.

A couple notes on Dinah. She married eight times, divorced seven times and was rumored to have had an affair with Quincy Jones. Dinah passed away at the age of 39 due to ingesting a mix of prescription drugs. Dinah is well known for her version of the timeless song, Unforgettable. In her 13…

Charlie Parker died to play this music. Bud Powell died to play this music. After suffering through the worst holocaust in human history, these brilliant Black artists gave the world a gift. This gift was so potent that not only did it help them leverage some modicum of autonomy, but helped other oppressed peoples of the world find themselves. It even freed the souls of those who uprooted them from their homeland of Africa and enslaved them for centuries in a land not theirs. It is through Black music that White America began the process of healing itself.

I didn’t think back in May of 2005 when I was generously quoted in Stanley Crouch’s piece entitled, “The Colossus,” which extolled the virtues of Master Rollins, that I would have to sit up here today and call out the same publication for attempting to besmirch his character. I hesitate to write…

There is no such thing as jazz, and any idea of what that might be is false. It’s impossible to build a tradition upon something that was never a designed to be a true expression of a community. The very existence of jazz is predicated upon a lie, just like racism.

To speak of “jazz tradition” is like to speak of “racial justice.” It’s not possible to have justice within the confines of race because race was specifically designed to subjugate certain people to an underclass so that the “majority” thrives. Injustice is inherently built within the racial construct. There has never be any any tradition within jazz other than to ensure Black cultural expression is depreciated and undervalued.

What’s made clear from the very first recorded jazz, à la The Original Dixieland Jass Band, is that it doesn’t have to adhere to the common standards that makes Black music what…