Wynton Marsalis official web site

Wynton is guest on “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News”

January 8, 2009  - TV show

3 Comments so far »

1. Jack Oatmon said

   on January 11, 2009 @ 5:15 am

   Mr. Marsalis,

   I’m sitting in Iraq as I write, and you’re being replayed on our local military TV on D.L. Hughley’s show of yesterday right now.

   I was Googling the show to get the names of the Jewish/Muslim guests for my site on Powerful Peace, and I heard you say (paraphrasing): “You can’t be calling people ‘bitches’ and embrace this music.”

   Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. I am always saddened to see (typically young) black men tearing out the foundation of their own potential with such thinking and speaking.

   I also see the word “pimp” being glamorized throughout the popular media, and wonder whether anyone still remembers that the word represents nothing so well as a modern-day slavemaster…and this only 45 years after Dr. King and his colleagues put their own lives on the line to earn a better place in society for today’s generation.

   My PowerfulPeace.net is devoted to reconciliation and the general increase of dignity; specifically, as it relates to terrorism and global security.

   I won’t bore you with further detail, but please accept again my gratitude for such a simple, yet profound, comment in the direction our world needs to go.

   - Jack Oatmon

2. Neil King said

   on January 11, 2009 @ 9:23 am

   Jack, Thank you for serving! When you get back to the states you have got to read Wynton’s new book “How Jazz Can Change Your Life”. Judging from your comments, you would truly enjoy this book. God Bless You and Stay Safe, Neil L. King

3. Jack Oatmon said

   on January 11, 2009 @ 12:50 pm

   Neil,

   Thank you for your recommendation. I was also impressed by the awesome write-up at Amazon; and so, the book is now already in my Shopping Cart.

   Wynton’s interview on the material is moving. It is so refreshing to see the depths of humanity expressed through this musician’s love of his art. This is the point of my network. At PowerfulPeace.net, we are speaking primarily on what I call “evolved counterterrorism”. His perspective that jazz music can change lives is in large part why I’m in Baghdad.

   Many mistakenly assume that the topic belongs exclusively in the realm of security consultants like me. What the network is trying to say, however, is that terrorism (or war, or gang violence, etc) is just an extension of grievance. It is so very much a matter for jazz musicians, and poets, and school teachers, and economists. It is a matter for people to reach out to people and change each environment that breeds this grievance.

   There is a famous account of the “Cellist of Sarajevo”, who played for weeks in full concert attire on a little camp stool among falling mortars. Robert Fulgham wrote a passage about this sublime heroism:

   “Listen. Never, ever, regret or apologize for believing that when one man or one woman decides to risk addressing the world with truth, the world may stop what it is doing and hear. There is too much evidence to the contrary. When we cease believing this, the music will surely stop. The myth of the impossible dream is more powerful than all the facts of history. In my imagination, I lay flowers at the statue memorializing Vedran Smailovic — a monument that has not yet been built, but may be.”

   I will link this book on my site, as one more voice singing harmony for Powerful Peace – from one person to the next.

   - Jack
   Jack@PowerfulPeace.net

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