A Story About Unintended Consequences

What follows is from an email I just received from my good friend Carsie Blanton. You know her as the singer/songwriter of “Smoke Alarm,” the tune that wraps up pretty much every episode of my podcast. Reading her email, I thought, “I should write something about this.” But then it occurred to me. She already has. So here’s today’s guest-writer, Carsie, with a story about how jazz (the freest musical form ever) was born from an impulse to control and repress. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Here’s hoping the forces of repression we face today trigger similarly beautiful births. If you have any sense, you’ll go see her play when she comes within range. Happy America Day.

CPR

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There's not a lot of fun in celebrating the American empire, if you've ever cracked a book that wasn't written by it. The history we're supposed to celebrate tomorrow is a long parade of war and pillage and exploitation, a parade which continues right into the present moment.

And I don't love loud noises, either.

That said, America certainly is blessed. Above all, with an irrepressibly brilliant and creative populace, despite the empire's best efforts. In fact, the consequences of all that war and pillage and exploitation have included - whoops! - all kinds of gorgeous acts of defiance and genius and generosity. And that's what I feel like writing about today, as I listen to the deeply unsettling sound of explosive devices detonating.

Here's my favorite story about July 4th.
 

July 4th, 1901: the birth of Louis Armstrong.

This date is disputed, but supported by Louis' own words and also his draft card, which is on display at Treme's Petit Jazz Museum, run by local Historian Al Jackson, who believes this to be Louis' real birthday. Al also told me most of the below story. If you ever find yourself in New Orleans, I recommend you go to the museum and ask him to tell it to you, too.

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, just a few years after Plessy vs. Ferguson (a case brought by another New Orleans resident, the activist Homere Plessy), which was decided in favor of racial segregation by another ridiculous, unjust, religiously fanatical, foolish and wrongheaded Supreme Court.

An unintended consequence of the Plessy decision was that New Orleans' Creole people were now considered Black in the eyes of the law, where they had previously been considered a "third race" in the city, with certain privileges and class status not afforded to Black people. 

Thus, hundreds of Creole musicians who had been classically trained on European instruments (many of them in European conservatories) were pushed out of white theaters and orchestra pits and had to find work in Black dance halls, churches and brothels. That's how European classical instruments like the trumpet, the clarinet, and the double bass made their way into Black American music.

Around the same time, the empire went and started a war with the Spanish. It looks to me like a land grab, but it was sold to the American people with the false claim that the Spanish blew up one of our ships in Havana Harbor (actually, we blew it up ourselves, accidentally).

New Orleans sent several Black "Immune regiments" to Cuba (based in part on the erroneous notion that Black people were immune to yellow fever). Each of those regiments included a military band, and those musicians returned to the city having absorbed the syncopated rhythms of Latin music, which made their way into the aforementioned dance halls, churches, and brothels.

So, Louis Armstrong was born on the 4th of July, at the turn of the century, just another poor kid in the far flung recesses of an empire which didn't care for him or his kind. 

But in the process of implementing its harebrained racist hogwash to divide people, the empire accidentally gave him a coronet.

And in the process of declaring another war to expand its territory, the empire accidentally gave him swing.

And Louis Armstrong invented jazz, and changed the whole history of the world forever.

Of course, Louis wasn't alone in his discovery; music is a collective action. But his song West End Blues is usually considered the first jazz recording. It's also the recording that Billie Holiday said she heard as a child which made her want to be a singer. Louis' contributions can also be heard in the music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the queer Black gospel singer who laid the first bricks of Rock & Roll, using a mortar of pure joy.

In my estimation, pretty much every kind of popular music in the world today is colored by this one moment: July 4th, 1901, in New Orleans, when the American empire failed to repress Louis Armstrong.

I guess my point is this. If you're trying to run this empire, your biggest problem isn't actually Cuba or Russia or China, nor is it inflation or Coronavirus or the rising cost of a barrel of oil. It's not the other political party, or any particular set of ideas.

Your biggest problem is the people who live here. We are creative. We are ingenious. We are irrepressible. And you need us a lot more than we need you.

UPCOMING SHOWS
www.carsieblanton.com/shows

MIDWEST

Jul 07 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
Jul 08 - Grand Rapids, MI - Listening Room
Jul 09 - Petosky, MI - Blissfest

UK & IRELAND

Jul 13 - Preston, UK - The Ferret
Jul 15 - London, UK - The Slaughtered Lamb - LOW TICKET WARNING
Jul 16 - Bridport,UK - The Ropemakers
Jul 17 - Tolpuddle, UK - Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival
Jul 20 - Limerick City, IE - Dolan's Pub
Jul 21 - Dublin, IE - Whelan's

NORTHEAST

Aug 4 - King Of Prussia, PA - Concerts Under the Stars
Aug 11 - Bethlehem, PA Musikfest
Sep 07 - York, PA - Central Market
Sep 23 - Montclair, NJ - Outpost in the Burbs

UNDRESSED/UP: TWO SHOWS IN ONE NIGHT

(First show is intimate and solo, second show is full band and rowdy!)
Oct 23 - Evanston, IL - S.P.A.C.E
Oct 29 - Bethlehem, PA - Godfrey Daniels
Nov 10 - Nashville, TN - City Winery Nashville
Nov 13 - St. Louis, MO - Blue Strawberry
 
WEST COAST

Nov 16 - Santa Cruz, CA - Moe's Alley
Nov 17 - Novato, CA - HopMonk Tavern
Nov 18 - Berkeley, CA - Freight & Salvage
Nov 19 - Portland, OR  - Alberta Rose Theatre
Nov 20 - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door

COLORADO

Nov 2 - Greeley - Moxi Theater
Nov 3 - Denver - The Black Buzzard 
Nov 4 - Boulder - eTown Hall
Nov 5 - Durango - Fort Lewis College
11/6 - Manitou Springs - Lulu's Downstairs

FESTIVALS AND MORE

Jul 23 - Morrisburg, Ontario CAN - Seaway Valley Folk Fest
Aug 5 -  Appleton, WI - Mile of Music Fest
Aug 7 - Arvada, CO - Supporting Dawes at Arvada Center
Aug 13 - Lyons, CO - Rocky Mountain Folks Fest 
Sep 17 - Berryville, VA - Watermelon Pickers' Fest
Oct 22 - Lafayette, IN - Friends of Bob! 
Nov 11 - Duluth, GA - Red Clay Theater
Nov 12 - Memphis, TN - Folk All Y'all!

Details and tickets: www.carsieblanton.com/shows