Conformity and Challenges in the Eisenhower and Kennedy Years 371became a powerful voice for Black Americans who, especially after World War
II, were calling for equality and liberty. Charlie “Bird” Parker recorded “Now’s
the Time”–the meaning of the song’s title is clear–in 1945. Charles Mingus in
1959 performed “Fable of Faubus,” to criticize the racist governor of Arkansas
[Orval Faubus] at the time. A few years later, Coltrane would commemorate
the murder of four young black children in Birmingham with “Alabama.”
Nina Simone, a stunning blues singer, created perhaps the most powerful song
of that era in 1964, “Mississippi Goddam”—“Alabama’s got me so upset/
Tennessee has made me lose my rest/And everybody knows about Mississippi
... Goddam.” Jazz was inherently political and served as a key element in
civil rights movements.
Given the power of this musical form, Whites took notice and tried to
contain jazz. Many tried to argue that the success of these Black artists proved
that the U.S. was not racist, that an African American musician could reach
great heights with talent and hard work. The U.S. government also used these
Black artists to try to show the world that American racial practices were
improving, sponsoring tours by Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and
others to bring jazz to Europe and other parts of the world. Ironically, African
American musicians abroad could stay at fine hotels, eat in restaurants, and
mix in society to a far greater degree than they could at home, where segre-
gated facilities were still the rule. While for jazz artists, these tours and the
government’s approval helped their careers, it also helped “soften” the political
impact of jazz by integrating it into the American musical collection. If the
government sponsored an artist, the thinking went, then the music that he
played must not be subversive, or even political. So jazz, ultimately, was crucial
in developing racial identifications and calling for equality and justice, and also
inspiring future artists, such as the Beatniks [about whom we will talk later],
but it was also contained in that it became mainstream and acceptable to all
audiences.
Jazz was also associated with different, and non-conformist, behavioral
traits. Miles Davis was an “anti-performer” in many ways. He wore all black
at times, wore a beret, had sunglasses on even in the clubs at night, and at
times performed with his back to the crowd. The performers smoked mari-
juana regularly and many, alas, became addicted to harder drugs like heroin
[among others, Coltrane, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Billie Holiday, Thelonius
Monk, and Sonny Clark either died from, or their lives were shortened by,