http://nicholaspayton.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/an-open-conversation-with-christian-mcbride-by-nicholas-payton/
“Jazz is nothing but a terminology. BAM is a terminology. It’s just a phrase that’s been created for identification. Think about black people in general in this country. We’ve been called Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American and now African American. Who decides these terms? Are they bad, good, or neutral? Or, are they just simply terms? Jazz has always been Black American music and musicians who play it no matter what culture they’ve come from need to understand that and I know deep down inside do understand that.” (excerpt) -Christian McBride
“You may know it’s Black music, Christian, but there are quite a few folks out there that have found me wanting to formally declare J***, Black music, a threatening proposal. Why is that? You may think everyone playing this music knows deep down inside that it comes from the Black community, but this is not widely accepted. As you know, the less your music has to do with anything remotely Black these days, the more it’s celebrated.” (excerpt) -Nicholas Payton
There is much, much, much more in that article. It’s lengthy enough that I didn’t want to just copy the whole thing, but the link is at the top of this post. Thoughtful and honest discourse between two of the greatest musicians alive.
