50th State

50^th State

 

It’s official. As of today, in my 75^th year, I have now visited every state in the United States of America. As in actually spent at least one night in each, not just driven through. That includes giving Orff workshops in 43 of them (not North and South Dakota, West Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire). 

 

Given the horrendous history of white supremacy in the state, it wasn’t on my MUST DO list! But given the cultural contributions of the black community, it also was. Amongst notable musicians born in the state:

 Blues artists Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Bronzy, Willie Dixon, Charlie Musselwhite, Mose Allison,  James Cotton, Elmore James, Skip James, Albert King, B.B. King,  R &B/ rock/soul/ pop  artists Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Ike Turner, Brittney Spears, jazz musicians Milt Hinton, Lester Young, Mulgrew Miller, Cassandra Wilson, country singers Jimmie Rodgers, Charlie Pride, Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette and opera singer Leontyne Price. Quite an impressive list. No wonder the sign welcoming me in Mississippi was this!

The first few signs I read were promising signs offering some healing from a dark, dark history: 

      • Olive Branch

    • Independence

    • Laughter Rd. 

    • Senatobia

 

The drive from Jackson, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi was 4 hours, so 

I began by listening to a duet album with jazz pianists Chick Corea and Hiromi, a virtuoso explosion of technical fireworks that was remarkable but also dense music with little relief from its intensity. So I switched to Muddy Water’s greatest hits and that fit the situation better. After settling into my hotel, I walked to a nearby setting with two restaurants flanking an open astro-turfed park area. Eating outside, I watched kids of all ages playing together— tag, ball games, practicing a dance routine. What was particularly heartening is these small groups of children were all a mixture of black and white kids. 

 

I remember taking a trip some 15 years back to Georgia. My wife and I had lunch in a park with a public swimming pool where black and white kids swam together and an integrated group of college kids sat under trees singing songs with guitars. Knowing that such a scene would have been unlikely many decades earlier and even illegal before that, I was convinced we were finally leaving our dark, divided history behind and coming to our senses. Little did I know what lay ahead and how disturbingly difficult it is to get the cancer of institutionally manufactured hatred into remission. Without a full chemotherapeutic treatment of education combined with care, nothing changes. 

 

And yet, here was that same feeling again as kids played on the lawn together. Tomorrow I’ll present my way of teaching jazz to what I hope will be one of the more integrated groups I’ve taught and then hopefully, join a No Kings Rally. My little way of getting the treatment going to send the cancer into remission. Report to follow. 

Meanwhile, here I mark the completion of my tour of the United States. From New Jersey to Mississippi, 50 states in 75 years. It has been quite a wild ride.