Tuesday 20 January 2009

The Stepping Stone

Casa Valdez Studios: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival - "Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR5b0Eryr1U&hl=en&fs=1]
And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these."