Each year, Jazz 93.5 looks forward to honoring February’s Black History Month as jazz music is a fundamental expression of the black American experience.  2023’s Black History Month celebration focuses on black resistance, and throughout its history, jazz music and musicians have played a pivotal role in resisting oppression and advocating for human rights.

One of the most famous examples is Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” a haunting song based on a poem by Abel Meeropol that metaphorically relates lynched black Americans to the fruit of trees.  Holiday herself found the song unsettling, but it also reminded her of her father, a fact that encouraged her to continue to perform it throughout her career.  “Strange Fruit” is a powerful statement of protest, and repeat performances and a milestone 1939 recording landed Holiday in the crosshairs of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.  The FBN chased Holiday for nearly twenty years, all the way to her deathbed where they played a direct role in her demise, ultimately martyring her.  Through her music, Lady Day became a sort of de facto civil rights advocate, and many historians point to her 1939 recording of “Strange Fruit” as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in America.

Other artists played a proactive role in advocating for the rights of black Americans, utilizing jazz music as a tool to deliver their message.  Drummer Max Roach and saxophonist Sonny Rollins both contributed album-length statements to the movement, We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Freedom Suite, respectively.  Bassist and composer Charles Mingus demanded justice with works like “Fables of Faubus,” mocking Arkansas governor Orval Faubus for preventing racial integration at Little Rock Central High School, as well as “Haitian Fight Song” and “Meditations on Integration.”  In the 1970s, Gil Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” became an anthem for civil rights, a work that was recently revitalized in the American consciousness due to numerous episodes of police brutality.

Historically, African music plays an essential role in recording and transmitting history, and jazz music has done the same in America.  John Coltrane’s “Alabama” is a smoldering funeral dirge that memorializes four girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, recorded just weeks after the event.  Nina Simone’s “Why? (The King of Love is Dead)” was recorded April 7th, 1968, a mere three days after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.  The tradition continues today with music like “Got Over” and “I’m Dying of Thirst,” both tracks that appear on Robert Glasper’s 2014 release Covered; one describes the plethora of injustices a successful black artist either avoided or overcame, the other honors the memory of dozens of young black Americans killed by police.

These are just a few of the myriad of examples of jazz artists and works that have advocated for the rights and humanity of black Americans throughout history.  Some became activists through their music while others used it as a tool for their activism.  Whatever the intent, jazz music has recorded more than a century’s worth of black resistance and activism, and during this year’s Black History Month, we celebrate all of these influential artists and works on Jazz 93.5.