Another open letter to Branford Marsalis
Published Jun 29, 2008 9:19 PM
Mr. Marsalis, perhaps by now you’ve seen or heard about the open
letter to you from the British Committee for Universities of Palestine
regarding your quartet’s concert date in Tel Aviv on July 17.
It’s an appeal I’d like to echo here, while again raising the call
for a boycott of Israel by academicians and cultural artists that the BRICUP
letter mentions, which can be found at www.pacbi.org.
Larry Hales in Palestine.
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I’d like to appeal to you not solely on the basis of my being an
aficionado of the Black musical tradition, and you being a giant in that
tradition, but as one brother to another—a brother who is a writer to a
great musician who has embraced the entire scope of Black music and culture; a
brother who has been to Palestine to a brother who is slated to play in the
capital of the Zionist entity.
The lament of the Palestinian is a similar refrain to our own. Music, all
culture, cannot help but reflect the material conditions of the people that the
music-maker comes from. A person’s artistic self is an extension of her
or his political self. Jazz is indeed subtle, and perhaps more open to
interpretation, but at its essence, when created by a Black person in tune to
the conditions of Black folk, it is an expression of the desire and the
struggle for true liberation.
Of course, you know that our musical tradition sprang from our history of
struggle. From the Sorrow Songs of the days of slavery to the vocal blues
tradition to jazz, soul music and hip hop, the evolution of our music is tied
to the dialectical nature of the Black freedom struggle that continues to this
day.
Then, the traditions of the Palestinians, though from a different historical
development and a unique struggle, are similar to ours.
To play a concert in Israel, which recently celebrated 60 years of the creation
of the Israeli state that usurped Palestinian land, displaced 750,000
Palestinian people and has balanced its weight on the hopes and dreams of all
Palestinians, would be a disavowal of the suffering of another people and a
validation of the crimes of the state of Israel.
All of history is important, but we are at a crucial juncture and living in a
world rife with contradictions and suffering. Even in a rich nation like the
U.S. there is a seething lower rung of the poor and disposed, whose greatest
numbers are people of color—Black, Latin@, Asian, Arab—and poor
whites as well.
Now, moral conviction is needed—not the moral conviction of those who
hold power, but of the oppressed and artists like yourself who play to
thousands and whose music touches the lives of millions.
How can the suffering of the Palestinian people be ignored—millions of
people denied freedom of movement and their human rights? Israel is a nation
that possesses numerous nuclear warheads, has bombed and occupied not only
Palestine but Lebanon, Syria and parts of Egypt, and has destabilized an entire
region.
Israel is also a nation that supported apartheid South Africa with weaponry and
political support. Yet, we can both agree that the history of oppression and
repression of the peoples of South Africa and the southern Africa region was a
great evil.
How can such a thing be right when perpetrated anywhere? I’d like to
point you to a statement from South Africa regarding this issue, at
www.endtheoccupation.org.za.
I cannot pretend to understand the constraints put upon an artist—the
record labels, recording contracts, contractual obligations—so I
can’t speak to you about the toll the moral stance you are being asked to
take would exact from you.
You may lose jobs, face being blackballed, censured, who knows? But did Ray
Charles not face the same thing when he refused to play in Georgia? Did the
great Paul Robeson not suffer a high cost? Did the boxer Larry Holmes face an
unsure future when he refused to fight in South Africa? And, of course,
Muhammad Ali refused to fight in Vietnam—for that he lost his belt.
The history of the great majority of people around the world, who create all
wealth and who struggle to get by, holds a different set of truths. This
history will remember and embrace you tighter than a dear love.
The people of Palestine, of Iraq, Africa, Haiti, the world over will remember
you and you can set a precedent, similar to that of Kanye West when he broke
script to speak about the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Don’t go. Your
refusal will open new doors.
As the appeal from the British Committee for Universities of Palestine asks,
“How can you, in all conscience, play Sonny Rollins’ ‘Freedom
Suite’ in Tel Aviv?” Don’t go, brother.
—Larry Hales
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