Davis's article represents the majority of what happened at that panel
accurately (and does little else, with all respect to Davis, a fine writer).
But he managed, possibly out of collegial respect, NOT to report the thing
that *actually* pissed off Hersch (a close friend of mine, so I feel free to
read into his thoughts to some extent here) and the others assembled the most.
One prominent, respected white male jazz journalist (who I'll not name, again
out of collegial respect) got up to defend the "don't ask, don't tell" policy
on the part of the media by saying that an artist's private life isn't
necessarily germane to a discussion of his art, and that he most likely
wouldn't put forward the question unless an artist volunteered and emphasized
it first. Innocent enough, perhaps, but what followed was the problem:
"After all, I wouldn't ask if an artist were a wife beater or a pedophile,
either..."
You can *imagine* what that little faux pas touched off. The writer's
unintentional, subconscious equation of homosexuality with spousal abuse and
pedophilia was the most telling and electric moment in a panel that was
otherwise mostly polite to the point of being staid. Compared to that,
Hersch's quip about including "Song for My Lover Irving" on his next record,
cited by Davis, was positively tame.
In comparison to his suave veneer, Bey was mostly rather cantankerous, but it
appeared to have less to do with homosexual persecution and far more to do
with being an outsider to the jazz industry in general - he seem more intent
on letting everyone know that the very club we were sitting in had not booked
him in many years, but didn't go so far as to suggest that it was because of
his sexual identity.
The thing that most rankled Burton, it seemed, was that Jazz Times had
recently published a letter (in response to the magazine's recent "sex and
jazz" issue) that essentially said no more than "faggots don't swing," using
just that term. The argument itself was an old trope previously leveled at
other minorities and outsiders, including white musicians (Roy Eldridge's
famous argument that he could always identify a white musician blindfolded -
which he couldn't, when tested - and Steve Coleman's more recent and rather
unfortunate echoes of that sentiment in Jazz Times's "race" issue).
Burton's ire was more directed at the irresponsibility of Jazz Times in
publishing what amounted to an ignorant hate screed in the first place, given
that they presumably would NOT publish a letter that said "niggers just shuck
and jive."
Otherwise, it was a reasonably good and informative panel. That Bey was the
only openly gay black musician on the bandstand didn't really surprise me,
since there are fewer openly gay black men, period (note I said "openly").
But the fact that Francis couldn't track down a single lesbian participant,
especially given the percentage of female jazz musicians who are lesbians
(it's not a required pairing, but it's hardly uncommon), was particularly
unfortunate - especially since my girlfriend, who works with a LOT of female
musicians, told me that one woman player who was invited actually was NOT a
lesbian...
Steve Smith
ssmith36(a)sprynet.com
NP - Faure, Violin Sonata No. 2 - Isabelle Faust (Harmonia Mundi)
