Hola Everybody...
It’s been several years since James Brown passed away. I wrote this back then...
It’s been several years since James Brown passed away. I wrote this back then...
* * *
James Brown and the Pitkin Theater
At a crucial point in the award-winning film, Mr. Holland’s Opus,
the teacher of the title is fighting to save the high school arts
program from budget cuts. The exchange goes something like this:
Vice Principal Wolters:
I care about these kids just as much as you do. And if I'm forced to
choose between Mozart and reading and writing and long division, I
choose long division.
Glenn Holland:
Well, I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want, Gene. Sooner or
later, these kids aren’t going to have anything to read or write about.
It
is a telling moment in a movie that’s principally about teaching our
young. The fact of the matter is that art is indispensable to education.
Numerous studies have shown that children who are immersed in arts
programs tend to do better in reading, writing, and mathematics, for
example. The word educate comes from the Latin root word educare, which means to draw from. The implication being that education is not about filling children’s minds, but drawing out the potential that already
exists. It is unfortunate that today we eat our young and then blame
them for our own collective narcissism and shortsightedness.
I won’t get into that
today, but I mention the arts because it has been such an integral part
of my life. Art, or Beauty, or Truth, or whatever you want to call it,
saved my ass. When I was at the lowest point in my life what saved me
was art. What saved me was the knowledge that in this fucked up world,
full of petty motherfuckers racing like lemmings to catch/ buy/ sell/
the latest trend/ soundbite, flavor of the month, there was Beauty.
In
my destitution, I could find sustenance in the intricate beauty of a
Faulkner paragraph. I could drink Neruda’s passion; I could listen to
John Coltrane’s fearless wide-eyed peer into the void. Knowing and
experiencing the beauty of a Monet assured me that there was sanity in
this world and that it was worth living. Therefore, it is with great
sadness that I mark the passing of great artists – those who sustained
me, when I felt I couldn’t do it myself. I feel a profound sense of
gratitude for the archetype of The Artist, because they serve to remind
us that there’s more to this momentary passage of time on this ball of
mud we call Earth. The Artist, sometimes at great personal cost, follows
her vision and sometimes points us to what matters most, though we
oftentimes don’t pay heed.
And
so it was with James Brown. I remember growing up listening and dancing
to the sounds of James Brown. As a young teen, I danced the Camel Walk
to James Brown. And who can forget his anthem to black pride when he
sang, “Say it loud! I’m black and I’m proud!” At the time, it was a
radical notion, for people of color to be proud of their skin color, the
texture of their hair, and their culture. We take it for granted now,
but there was a hard war fought in order for us to assume that we should
be proud.
I was born of Puerto Rican parents and raised in the slums of New York City, rubbing elbows with African-American neighbors who also lived in those ghettos. I remember it was 1967 when we moved to East New York Ave in Brooklyn,
right behind the Pitkin Theater (that’s the Pitkin Theater above). In
those days, movie houses were built to resemble opulent palaces: velvet
seats, gilded trimmings, lush carpeting in huge auditoriums facing a
great stage where a huge silver screen hung. There was even a balcony and the older kids would go up there to make out.
At
the time, we were one of the only Puerto Rican families living on that
block embedded in a predominantly African-American community. In the
beginning, I had to fight my way to and from school almost everyday.
Eventually, I would befriend most of my neighbors and the first girl I
ever kissed was this beautiful light-skinned girl called Gail. Actually,
she would kiss me when we stood on line in school and I hated it
because I didn’t like girls – yet.
On
Saturdays, my mother would give each of us something like seventy-five
cents and send us to the Pitkin Theater across the street on Pitkin
Avenue (our apartment faced the back of the Pitkin Theater). The cost of
admission was twenty-five cents and for that sum, you would see two new releases, plus the cartoons sandwiched in-between.
But
the Pitkin Theater also held live shows and this is where I first
experienced live soul music. I remember seeing Little Anthony and the
Imperials there, and there were other acts. Many of the then
up-and-coming Motown acts used to pass through in those days, part of
the circuit and these were hugely popular. I remember the first time I
was sitting down at the Pitkin and they were showing, between films, the
hottest acts of the day. It was the first time I remember where all the
white acts were booed and the Black performers cheered loudly. LMAO!
Now,
James Brown, he was no up-and comer. JB was the King of Soul, the
Godfather of Soul. I don’t know if he ever played the Pitkin, but
whenever I think of JB, I’m reminded of the Pitkin and those long-ago
days. JB took the field holler and put it to a fatback backbeat. When JB
squealed, screamed, hollered, it was almost as if collective pain and
anguish of the oppressed was concentrated in those musical moments. JB
had the nastiest, funkiest rhythm section and if you listened closely,
all the West African rhythms were encapsulated in his vocal stylings. To
listen to James Brown was to be reminded that you were alive, that you
were sensual, sexy, and a bad-assed muthafucka on the dance floor.
Without
James Brown, popular music as it exists today would not exist. JB was
the most sampled artist, the most emulated, having influenced people
from the great Miles Davis to Prince and everybody in-between. Our world
is a better world because of James Brown, whatever his inner demons
were and today, we’re a lot less richer because of his passing.
Rest in peace, JB
My name is Eddie and I'm in recovery from civilization...
My name is Eddie and I'm in recovery from civilization...
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