Jazz

[Gillies, Lindsay]

ethan writes:
"Amiri Baraka discusses this in some article, I can't remember which one, 
but
he is addressing noted Jazz critic Leonard Feather."
 ---

I'm not sure if this is the book you're speaking of, but Leroy/LeRoi
Jones/Amiri Baraka's _Black Music_ discusses your point, not being able to
critique jazz without knowledge of the african american perspective, very
eloquently. I also read an article of his in which he said something I found
enlightening when I first became interested in Jazz. Baraka wrote (and this
is pretty close to exact): "If Charlie Parker had had the chance to kill a
white man, he would have never played a note." (anyone with the exact quote
or name of the article this is from, please notify me directly). For me, it
changed my perspective of the music, finally understanding that much of this
beautiful music was stemming, not from angst or from lofty pretentions, but
from anger. While this became obvious to me later (especially with Albert
Ayler), I think with bop and be-bop this may not be so apparent.

 -Ron
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I remember reading something from either Charlie Parker or more likely Dizzy 
to the effect that bebop was created to be as difficult as possible for 
white commerce to rip off a la big band.