Klarinet Archive - Posting 000126.txt from 2005/05

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Possible racist views in music titles (was: Rubank Method: not all by Voxman)
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 15:14:00 -0400

From: Dan Leeson:=20

<<<For example, Millard Filmore (of "Lassus Trombone" infamy, and which
is a very vulgar picture of black America in their "happy, happy,
watermelon eating days")>>>

Dan, or anyone else who might be able to contribute, I want to ask you
more about this. First, a little background: I was born and grew up in
a part of southwestern Kentucky that is more like the Deep South than
many parts of Alabama, Georgia or Mississippi. I attended segregated
schools, and could never understand why there should be a dual system of
education. When I was in my early high school years, the band played
"Lassus Trombone," and I, perhaps naively, joined in, never having an
inkling that there might be any racist connotations to this piece. I
thought it was about the trombone.

Now, among many other things, I teach a class in Jazz History. It is
necessary in such a class to discuss various aspects of the
relationships between the races. I am very sensitive to this aspect of
history, and my African-American students report to me that they do not
take offense at the way I present these issues.

One of the pieces that can be very useful in discussing the origins or
precursors of jazz is "Lassus Trombone." I consistently have played it
in my class, again completely devoid of any suggestion that there might
be racial slurs somehow hidden in the music or in the title.

This is not the first time I have ever heard an allegation that this
music has racial overtones, and I have to confess that I still don't
know what it is about this music that can be interpreted in that way.
The reason it has some relevance to the history of jazz is that it
originated at about the same time as early ragtime, being composed in
1898, I believe. And, the syncopated rhythms are exactly the same as
those found in many of the rags of Scott Joplin and others. The same
rhythms again appear in the early recordings of King Oliver, Louis
Armstrong, Jellyroll Morton, among others.

To me, notes themselves can't be either moral or immoral. I don't know
any way that I can order, arrange or combine musical tones to create
music that has moral implications, even though the belief that musical
entities can have such qualities dates back as far as the ancient Greeks
and their Doctrine of Affections, and again reared its ugly head in the
Soviet Union of the 20th century, where it was called "Socialist
realism."

So, to finally get to my question, what is it about "Lassus Trombone"
that African-American people should take offense at?

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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