| Contributing Author - Wendell Weaver (V) |
| Friday, 11 January 2008 | |
This week, Chicago Music Association poet laureate Wendell Weaver shares his memories in an introspective piece entitled Music Education V.Before I end these narratives on Music Education, I must tell you the seriousness of my involvement in it. As I have told you, The Board of Education did not care about music being taught in Chicago schools, so if I wanted to compete with Dempsey Travis’ Jazz Books, I had to dig into the libraries, book stores, among friends, relatives and record stores, then organize my materials like I was working on a Masters Degree. I had to show what was Dixieland, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Rag, Rock N Roll, Swing, Bee Bop, Modern Jazz, Current Jazz and Jazz Opera. My students had to really understand all of it, if I wanted to remain in teaching. After all, there was a revolution going on all over America. Civil Rights Activist were demanding that Black Culture must be taught in school. Children had walkouts, and sit ins. Even their parents got involved. So after I got all my material together, I gave it this title: “The Origin and Development of Jazz.” I gave all my lesson plans definitions and examples so that the student knew exactly what I was talking about. I was born in Memphis, Tennessee so I could relate to them about Beale Street and the movement of jazz up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, to Memphis, to St. Louis and to Chicago. But before I could do all that, I had to give them an origin. They had to go all the way back to Africa and deal with slavery and folk songs. Let me tell you I dug, dug and dug so hard that even church music was involved with my definitions and examples. With so much digging, I discovered that all music is the same. There was no Black Music or White Music because all of us are just human beings made from the seed of Adam and Eve. That is where my digging led me. That was so odd when I discovered that. That is a beginning of all things on the earth. But I could not teach that in the public school. That could only be taught in Sunday School. So I began in Africa and slavery. The origin of jazz was the chants, drums and the dances of Africa. When I showed my students examples of that, the laughed and giggled about all the words they heard. So I had to tell them that their language, English, is not our language. We learned English mostly when our ancestors were crowded on those terrible ships. We learned English from the English, Scotsmen and Irishmen while we were being transported over here on those awful ships. Then I said, “Kum Bah Yah.” It means, “Come By Here.” Then I sang it for them. They liked it and wanted to sing it. After they sang it, I was on my way to more African chants. When our ancestors got here, they were made to do all kinds of work. And they sang while they worked. That was the beginning of Folk Songs. Some were taught hymns while they were in Africa by evangelist. So when they got here, they sang hymns when they passed by churches and wanted to practice them. So they stole away into the woods, built barn fires, and sang them. That was the beginning of The Spiritual. Sometimes The Spiritual was born out in the fields as a work song. One person would start up with a verse; another would put in his verse. It would continue until the song would be finished. |
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