As I am a white jazz musician, this is a subject
that has intrigued me for a long time. I think jazz in
one sense IS black music, and in another sense it
isn't. It depends on the context. <br><br>Jazz
originated in the melting pot of the American south, where
freed black slaves, white people of European descent,
and people of mixed race (black/Spanish and
black/French) mingled and enjoyed a lot of the same music. It
couldn't have originated in France, Canada, Japan, or
Montana, for that matter. Black Americans have every right
to take pride in it as part of their cultural
heritage, along with the work of Leadbelly, Robert Johnson,
Mahalia Jackson, Ralph Ellison, Lorraine Hansberry, et
al.<br><br>On the other hand, jazz as it is played today is a
very democratic music. You don't have to be black (or
even American) to play it, any more than you have to
be Austrian to play Mozart. A lot of listeners and
critics (and even some musicians) seem to have trouble
making this distinction, feeling that they have to
choose one side or the other.