DEMOCRACY AS A CONSTITUTIONAL JAZZ BAND
A TRIBUTE TO WYNTON MARSALIS’ 60TH BIRTHDAY
Abstract
Music is one of the forms that best translates the representation of a culture. Most of the time, it carries in its body the ideals, values, aspirations and experiences of an entire society. Moreover, it is always in a constant dialogue with social reality and, to a great extent, mirrors, questions and problematizes it. In a similar way, society also seeks inspiration, belonging, and reference in music. Specifically in jazz, a great mirror of society can be observed. Starting from this premise, among the many relationships that could be made between both phenomena, one of the most convincing is with democracy. With this in mind, the present article seeks to analyze the existing interrelations between jazz and democracy, fundamentally based on the lessons of the professor and musician Wynton Marsalis, with the objective of illuminating the notion that the values and ideals of democracy can be observed in their completeness in the microcosm of a jazz band, which needs, in short, swing, which gives a sense of unity to the ensemble; freedom, so that its members can express their feelings in improvisation; and, above all, that all its members exteriorize and reveal the blues that animates their soul.