Black Music

This typeface is white .

Black Musicians created Black Music . I would consider concepts created by Charlie Parker , John Coltrane , Herbie Hancock , Miles Davis , James Brown , Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder CENTRAL to the way I create music . That's black music . Black people should be allowed to be VERY PROUD of that . A piece of music or an improvisation by a Black American musician is Black American music . That is a fact as far as I am concerned .

I used to teach a piano class at a school in Bedford Styvesant . 10 - 15 little black faces and keyboards . They couldn't afford private piano lessons . Their parents obviously didn't have much . After each lesson I would get in my car and 5 minutes later I was in park slope brooklyn surrounded by white wealth and privilege . You couldn't be faced with a situation like that and to want to tell those kids that a black man inspired you to become a musician . Otherwise what have they got apart from their humanity and poverty .

I am very proud to be an Australian musician who was inspired to play music by the Black American Herbie Hancock .

Jazz , Fusion , Blues , Funk , Classical are just words which are often used as an excuse to discriminate against musicians .

It's hard to get rid of words unfortunately . Black American's even seem to want to keep the word "nigger" alive so what chance has "jazz" got of being killed off ?

I doubt inventing another word is going to make things get better . Let's just call it music . There is always going to be music created by Black Americans and Australians hopefully . That would be enough labeling as far as I am concerned but those words are going to creep into the conversation . I would love to see "classical" and "jazz" musicians perform together more often and for Australian musicians to perform more " Australian works " . I hope America can get to a point where the wealth is distributed more evenly and race becomes an issue of the past .. more of a historical fact than an important issue in music .