Cheryl Goodman
I posted this on Cheryl Goodman's FB page after the Ferguson grand jury decision, the impetus being that I felt what was happening in the Baltimore of Promotion and the Arts, the suppression of an aspect of black culture, paralleled the frustrations being expressed in the discussions about how blacks felt they were being minimized by society. What frustrates me is that the BOPA, as an arts organization in a predominately black city, should know better.
" ... then many times we are not even given credit for such accomplishments"
I go through the same stuff too. Check out my website below. With over 600 compositions to my credit, I’m one of the most prolific composers this city has ever seen, and I have the grants to attest to my skills. I was showcased twice in Greenwich Village by American Music Center’s Frank Oteri. I’ve been interviewed and performed originals twice on Maryland Public Television’s “Art Works This Week.” I’ve been interviewed twice on Fox 45 too.
I’ve helped my fellow composers too.
My original jazz music ensemble “Jazz Street Station” debut CD was on the 1994 Grammy Nominations Ballot. We were a 501(c)3 performing arts organization who’s mission was to promote the work of Greater Baltimore Area jazz composers. We performed concerts at venues all throughout the region, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2009 I founded Baltimore Jazz Works, an ensemble that performed the works of all 18 composers featured in the Baltimore Jazz Real Book via two concerts at An die Musik.
I’m willing to bet though, that most people in the Jazz community aren’t aware of my 45 years of effort, in spite of my efforts to publicize it.
The reason became readily apparent last year when I attended a seminar sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council. I raised the issue of the difficulty that Baltimore jazz composers, especially those inspired by and creating new music based on the foundations of genius’s like Ellington, Monk, and Coltrane, were having in getting their work appreciated by a larger audience, and suggested that the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) could help do something to change this.
At the meeting, Cheryl here essentially told me that BOPA wouldn’t be interested, the reason being, that this progressive, challenging and innovative music, inspired by some of the greatest minds in music innovation, wasn’t “popular.”
Before sitting down, I commented that I thought the arts were about excellence.
The irony was that the very next thing discussed at this meeting was Maryland State Arts Council priorities. The very first was Excellence. The bitter-sweet irony of it all. I was actually applauded by the audience for my insight.
My struggle with the city to bring attention to Baltimore jazz composers isn’t anything new. My wife, Jane-Lamar, had written the monthly jazz column for Music Monthly Magazine for several years. We knew of the wealth of jazz talent here.
That CD I produced, that featured our jazz composers, cost my wife and I close to $7,000.00 (think mid-90’s money). With all the positive feedback we got, including a favorable review by Washington Post’s Mike Joyce, we started to plan a second.
In order to help garner more attention for the ensemble’s mission of promoting local jazz talent, I sent then Mayor Kurt Schmoke, who had a reputation as being a lover of jazz, a letter asking if he would consider writing some liner notes in support of the project.
What I got back was a letter that bragged about the attendance at Artscape. I replied saying that while that was all well and good, it did nothing to help foster the acknowledgement and growth of Baltimore’s innovative jazz scene.
The next letter I received was from Clair Zamoiski Segal, Executive Director of M.A.C.A.C. (Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture) and a major fundraiser, saying that because I wasn’t located in the city, I was ineligible for “funding.”
Well, I didn’t ask for funds, just help with my efforts to get our jazz composers a boost. I just chalked it up to indifference and went on my way.
All would have been fine, except for the fact that I had a part-time courier job in Columbia. Two of the clients were arts facilities, and it was there that I soon discovered not one, but flyers for two separate events that were funded in part by M.A.C.A.C.
I was either lied to, and there was a way to obtain funds through the city after all, but wasn’t told about it, or else funds were being given under the table.
I raised this issue on Baltimore’s Artmobile Forum. About 6 months later, MACAC was renamed BOPA, and suddenly there was a new director. Coincidence? Interestingly enough, A number of years later I attended one of Cheryl’s workshops at BOPA’s Redwood Street, and there was Claire.
So let’s look at what we’ve got here: An executive director who has a major reputation as a fundraiser, and who is still working for the city’s arts agency, in the capacity of a fundraiser. A mayor who is more interested in attendance numbers then fostering excellence, and an administrator who says that the city even now, has no use for fostering innovation from what is considered one of the world’s most intelligent and creative art forms, American jazz.
So if the question is about suppression due to fear, why then is a government agency so determined to impede the spirit and recognition of our jazz masters, to inhibit it’s spread amongst the people? I know why, but just think of it, BOPA might as well be spitting on the ideals that Ellington and others represent. Does anyone here think that Monk or Coltrane would lower their standards to be popular? Of course not.
BOPA just doesn’t get it, and constantly thwarts the potential that exists in Baltimore. The Maryland State Arts Council has this vision that Maryland can become a Mecca for the arts. Maybe so, but there’s certainly going to be a mighty big gaping hole that sooner or later, will have to be addressed.
About that reason, it’s MONEY. BOPA is fearful of programming innovative music inspired by blacks, because they assume that audience numbers will suffer. To them, it’s “Too Good.” (I’ve actually been told that). There’s your rich and greedy “oppressors.” They have these nice salaries, while real innovation languish at the end of the arts support line, begging bowls in hand.
It’s a regular Catch-22. Creators can’t get support and recognition because BOPA sees such ideas as too much of a risk.
They’re stabbing in the back every single person who aspires to follow in the steps of this nation’s jazz giants. Administrators don’t understand that real innovators can’t be herded, and so instead they make them outcasts.
I feel if we’re going to deal with the issue of disrespect of black culture, we need to begin right here in our own community.
www.georgefspicka.com
*****
I go through the same stuff too. Check out my website below. With over 600 compositions to my credit, I’m one of the most prolific composers this city has ever seen, and I have the grants to attest to my skills. I was showcased twice in Greenwich Village by American Music Center’s Frank Oteri. I’ve been interviewed and performed originals twice on Maryland Public Television’s “Art Works This Week.” I’ve been interviewed twice on Fox 45 too.
I’ve helped my fellow composers too.
My original jazz music ensemble “Jazz Street Station” debut CD was on the 1994 Grammy Nominations Ballot. We were a 501(c)3 performing arts organization who’s mission was to promote the work of Greater Baltimore Area jazz composers. We performed concerts at venues all throughout the region, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2009 I founded Baltimore Jazz Works, an ensemble that performed the works of all 18 composers featured in the Baltimore Jazz Real Book via two concerts at An die Musik.
I’m willing to bet though, that most people in the Jazz community aren’t aware of my 45 years of effort, in spite of my efforts to publicize it.
The reason became readily apparent last year when I attended a seminar sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council. I raised the issue of the difficulty that Baltimore jazz composers, especially those inspired by and creating new music based on the foundations of genius’s like Ellington, Monk, and Coltrane, were having in getting their work appreciated by a larger audience, and suggested that the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) could help do something to change this.
At the meeting, Cheryl here essentially told me that BOPA wouldn’t be interested, the reason being, that this progressive, challenging and innovative music, inspired by some of the greatest minds in music innovation, wasn’t “popular.”
Before sitting down, I commented that I thought the arts were about excellence.
The irony was that the very next thing discussed at this meeting was Maryland State Arts Council priorities. The very first was Excellence. The bitter-sweet irony of it all. I was actually applauded by the audience for my insight.
My struggle with the city to bring attention to Baltimore jazz composers isn’t anything new. My wife, Jane-Lamar, had written the monthly jazz column for Music Monthly Magazine for several years. We knew of the wealth of jazz talent here.
That CD I produced, that featured our jazz composers, cost my wife and I close to $7,000.00 (think mid-90’s money). With all the positive feedback we got, including a favorable review by Washington Post’s Mike Joyce, we started to plan a second.
In order to help garner more attention for the ensemble’s mission of promoting local jazz talent, I sent then Mayor Kurt Schmoke, who had a reputation as being a lover of jazz, a letter asking if he would consider writing some liner notes in support of the project.
What I got back was a letter that bragged about the attendance at Artscape. I replied saying that while that was all well and good, it did nothing to help foster the acknowledgement and growth of Baltimore’s innovative jazz scene.
The next letter I received was from Clair Zamoiski Segal, Executive Director of M.A.C.A.C. (Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture) and a major fundraiser, saying that because I wasn’t located in the city, I was ineligible for “funding.”
Well, I didn’t ask for funds, just help with my efforts to get our jazz composers a boost. I just chalked it up to indifference and went on my way.
All would have been fine, except for the fact that I had a part-time courier job in Columbia. Two of the clients were arts facilities, and it was there that I soon discovered not one, but flyers for two separate events that were funded in part by M.A.C.A.C.
I was either lied to, and there was a way to obtain funds through the city after all, but wasn’t told about it, or else funds were being given under the table.
I raised this issue on Baltimore’s Artmobile Forum. About 6 months later, MACAC was renamed BOPA, and suddenly there was a new director. Coincidence? Interestingly enough, A number of years later I attended one of Cheryl’s workshops at BOPA’s Redwood Street, and there was Claire.
So let’s look at what we’ve got here: An executive director who has a major reputation as a fundraiser, and who is still working for the city’s arts agency, in the capacity of a fundraiser. A mayor who is more interested in attendance numbers then fostering excellence, and an administrator who says that the city even now, has no use for fostering innovation from what is considered one of the world’s most intelligent and creative art forms, American jazz.
So if the question is about suppression due to fear, why then is a government agency so determined to impede the spirit and recognition of our jazz masters, to inhibit it’s spread amongst the people? I know why, but just think of it, BOPA might as well be spitting on the ideals that Ellington and others represent. Does anyone here think that Monk or Coltrane would lower their standards to be popular? Of course not.
BOPA just doesn’t get it, and constantly thwarts the potential that exists in Baltimore. The Maryland State Arts Council has this vision that Maryland can become a Mecca for the arts. Maybe so, but there’s certainly going to be a mighty big gaping hole that sooner or later, will have to be addressed.
About that reason, it’s MONEY. BOPA is fearful of programming innovative music inspired by blacks, because they assume that audience numbers will suffer. To them, it’s “Too Good.” (I’ve actually been told that). There’s your rich and greedy “oppressors.” They have these nice salaries, while real innovation languish at the end of the arts support line, begging bowls in hand.
It’s a regular Catch-22. Creators can’t get support and recognition because BOPA sees such ideas as too much of a risk.
They’re stabbing in the back every single person who aspires to follow in the steps of this nation’s jazz giants. Administrators don’t understand that real innovators can’t be herded, and so instead they make them outcasts.
I feel if we’re going to deal with the issue of disrespect of black culture, we need to begin right here in our own community.
www.georgefspicka.com
*****