[Fwd: SV: African-American musicians and Yiddish]

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Ingemar Johansson wrote:
> 
> Somewhere I've read that singer and drummer Leo Watson sometimes excelled
> in Yiddish too. Unfortunately I can't find the reference now and I know of
> no records proving this (could be some in "The Spirits of Rhythm"
> collection, though), but it sounds plausible as he moved around in the
> circles of Slim Gaillard ("the jive-idiom" of these artists would be worth
> a close study, I think).
> 
> Ingemar
> 
Interesting topic, Ingemar.

See: "Really The Blues" by Mezz Mezzrow and Milton Wolfe (1949)
The White Negro  by Norman Mailer (1948)
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence  Lipton
(and for an insight into the "zoot-suit/jive" culture, the 
play/film/video)
"Zoot Suit" by Luis Valdez,  starring  Edward J. Olmos and Danny Valdez

The zoot-suit culture was short-lived.  During the War years,  "hepcats"
were labelled "hoodlums" and castigated in the nation's racist press, in
part for favoring loose clothing that used up scarce cloth during
wartime! 

 Much like the future disparagement of the "Beats" and "Hippies" in the
press, public opinion was manipulated against these "zoot-suiters", 
cultminating in a tragic riot in LA that lasted for several days
beginning June 3, 1943. 

Hundreds of US sailors  --  later joined by US soldiers, descended upon
Mexican-American neighborhoods in a fleet of taxis.  Local police
accompanied them to watch the beatings.  There were
"preventive"round-ups and arrests of over 600 Spanish-surnamed people. 

No one was ever punished for the numerous beatings and sexual assaults
that occurred; the police claimed that the sailors had acted in
self-defence.  

At a trial where Chicano youth were accused of killing a man,  an expert
witnesse spoke of the "blood-thirsty nature of the descendants of the
Aztecs" and how Mexican-Americans did not value human life like
Europeans.

The "zoot-suiters" were predominately Mexican-Americans/Chicanos and
Blacks,  but also included Filipinos,  Jews,  Italians and even a few
"Anglo" hepcats. (The Japanese-Americans were locked up in concentration
camps).
Young people "bonding" around musical preferences (Big Band), dancing
clothing style and generational jargon.

During this era, hepcat drummer Gene Krupa, a former Divinity student,
was  arrested for  marijuana possession and  painted as a degenerate in
the nation's sensationalist press.

Slip me some skin, Gate.
I got to ambulate!

Wolf Krakowski

PS  Will be in NYC March 10, 11, 12.
Deauville Hotel
212-683-0990

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