Jazz

How Black political movements influenced Asian American jazz

‘Though they may have been influenced by earlier movements, free jazz gave musicians an opportunity to cultivate their own musical landscape.’

Another great piece by Ashawnta Jackson for JSTOR on Black liberation and its significant effect on Asian American jazz:

What does political empowerment sound like? For some musicians in the 1970s and ’80s, the answer was jazz. As ethnomusicologist Susan M. Asai explains, for Asian American musician-composers, this period was influenced “politically and musically [by] Black Nationalism,” which itself was strongly associated with Free Jazz. The art form “began to chart new musical territory that embodied [Asian Americans’] own political and cultural consciousness.”

More on Asian American jazz: For Asian-American Jazz Artists, Pandemic Uncovers Deep Wounds and 8 Asian-American Jazz Artists You Should Know About

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