[dmz]

Without the support and interest of the white public, there would be no money to pay black jazz musicians.

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Black musicians were playing jazz before the whites came in large numbers during the swing era.

They weren’t getting rich by any stretch, but the music existed.

Existence and the presence of good paydays are 2 very different things.

I would caution about comparing the impulse to play music and making good money. If it was about the money exclusively, we’d have very few bluegrass musicians, even fewer folk singers, and well, you get the idea.

JMO.

[Misterioso]

Of course, the fact is that jazz, if defined as improvising variations on some theme by one or more musicians, has been in existence for a long time in Europe and elsewhere. It might even be described as an expression of human nature.

You mentioned Monk. Try to imagine his career without the dedication of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, Bob Weinstock, and Orrin Keepnews. Given his personal difficulties, I think it unlikely that we would ever have heard his music without their support. I love Thelonious. I have everything he ever recorded (I hope) in my collection of LPs and CDs. I do not think that his success can be attributed to the appreciation by African Americans alone.