{"id":109275,"date":"2026-04-29T20:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/freedom-humanity-and-justice-the-enduring-legacy-of-jazz\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:59:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:59:52","slug":"freedom-humanity-and-justice-the-enduring-legacy-of-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/freedom-humanity-and-justice-the-enduring-legacy-of-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom, Humanity and Justice: The Enduring Legacy of Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

since late 19th<\/sup> century, the art form created in the American melting pot has been a powerful tool for social change by challenging racial segregation, promoting equality, and fostering cultural understanding. <\/p>\n

Jazz continues to flourish in 21scheduled tribe<\/sup> Over the century it has retained its capacity for social commentary and activism, according to three-Grammy-winning jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner, who spoke to UN News at New York’s Village Vanguard jazz club. international jazz day<\/a> Which is marked on 30th April.<\/p>\n

\n UN News\/Jorge Rodriguez Diaz<\/span>
\n Jazz musician, Sullivan Fortner, three-time Emmy Award winner.<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Jazz means freedom. Jazz means America. It means humanity. It means love,” Mr. Fortner said, insisting that “as long as artists continue to make it, it will always be relevant to the times we live in.” <\/p>\n

The annual celebration of jazz highlights its role as a universal language of freedom, creativity and peace and provides an opportunity to foster a greater appreciation not only for the music itself, but also for its contribution to building more inclusive societies. <\/p>\n

“It’s (about) emotional transmission and communicating those feelings and emotions to each other. Jazz is 100 percent about that, about all of the good, the bad and the ugly,” Mr. Fortner said before the performance at the historic Village Vanguard.<\/p>\n

The club in lower Manhattan \u2013 which claims to be the oldest continuously operating jazz club in the world \u2013 is arguably the truest representation of the powerful legacy of this sometimes underrated art form.<\/p>\n

From poets to trumpeters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Passing through the vermillion red doors of the Village Vanguard, you descend a narrow staircase into a low-ceilinged triangular room that has been left unchanged for decades; This gives the impression that jazz belongs to a bygone era.<\/p>\n

\n UN News\/Hisae Kawamori<\/span>
\n The Village Vanguard Jazz Club is located in Greenwich Village, New York City.<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large double bass is placed between a Steinway piano and a stripped-down drum kit on stage. Opposite, rows of antique tables and chairs and their occupants move past photographs of famous artists over the years \u2013 Miles Davis and John Coltrane \u2013 to a colorful mural on the back wall. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to keep it pretty simple here,\u201d said owner Deborah Gordon.<\/p>\n

But when the Sullivan Fortner Trio comes swinging onto the stage from the back door, the band begins to improvise and the place becomes very alive with nostalgia. We enter that unexpected territory with them. <\/p>\n

unity through jazz<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Village Vanguard welcomed all types of artists, from poets to calypso dancers to folk singers, and was “a platform to present all kinds of cultural and political events,” Ms. Gordon said. <\/p>\n

In 1957, the club decided that jazz was the best way to perform and it became the exclusive medium on stage. <\/p>\n

Apart from a brief period after World War II, when jazz entered the mainstream, “It’s always attracted a kind of marginal, niche audience,” Ms. Gordon said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of gray-minded people like me, and there are a lot of young people like you too, it’s a great mix of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n united nations<\/span>
\n April 30 is International Jazz Day<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

tune and message<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As Sullivan Fortner and his trio continue to perform between tunes, a latent current flows through the room. <\/p>\n

Ms. Gordon said, “It’s like an energy that’s going from the music, to the stage, to the people. And back…it’s a circular thing…and you can really feel the unifying power of what music can bring.”<\/p>\n

evolution and revolution <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Its unifying power is what has made it a tool of empowerment and social change for marginalized black communities in New Orleans, where jazz first began.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fortner said, “The way music started was out of sheer protest…We were born out of a rebellion of artists trying to take a stance.”<\/p>\n

Later artists such as Billie Holiday protested racial injustice and promoted integration through their music as jazz became the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. <\/p>\n

Today, jazz is constantly changing, “incorporating different types of music from different places all the time,” Ms. Gordon said.<\/p>\n

“Jazz is beyond tunes and rhythms. It’s language. It’s the way people speak. It’s the way people gesture to each other.” Mr. Fortner added. <\/p>\n

As jazz has adopted new instruments and forms of expression, it has retained its capacity for social commentary and activism. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe have to remember this is street music and bring it to people who don’t necessarily have shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

don’t forget the roads<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Speaking about its place in music today, Ms. Gordon said: “It’s still a peripheral kind of music in the culture. And I agree with that, because to me, that means it will endure. It’s not a flash in the pan. It’s solid. And within that persistence, it changes and evolves.” <\/p>\n

Although many now view jazz as a high-art form like classical music, musicians say it should not forget its roots.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes we get so deep intellectually that we forget to reach into the gutter and take it with us. I feel like we can’t forget that it was born on the streets, that it was born in the brothels,” Mr. Fortner said. <\/p>\n

“We have to remember that this is street music and it should be accessible to people who don’t necessarily have shoes,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to remember that and take those people with us whenever we perform or play.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

since late 19th century, the art form created in the American melting pot has been a powerful tool for social change by challenging racial segregation, promoting equality, and fostering cultural understanding. Jazz continues to flourish in 21scheduled tribe Over the century it has retained its capacity for social commentary and activism, according to three-Grammy-winning jazz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[11501,372,7061,12054,878,4174],"class_list":{"0":"post-109275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-verse","8":"tag-enduring","9":"tag-freedom","10":"tag-humanity","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-justice","13":"tag-legacy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109296,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109275\/revisions\/109296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}