by Harold McMillan

First, there was the blues, babe.......then there was the blues. This line from an old Jazz Crusaders tune was the "catchy slogan" for the first Clarksville-West End Jazz and Arts Festival. The line was illustrated on our t-shirts with an intense profile view of the Grey Ghost, sitting at the piano looking into the camera, his expression flat and serious. Mr. Ghost seemed to be saying, in his wordless sidelong glare, "I ain't complaining about nothing, I'm just playing me some blues."

That was 1989. To the credit of many folks, the disdain of some, the Clarksville Jazz Fest now moves into it's 8th season. That catchy slogan from the 1989 Fest is now, more than ever, the official refrain of the Festival. The line was perhaps just a cute little rhythmic device for the Crusaders' tune, but we think there's more to it than its cuteness. First there was the blues, babe....then, there was the blues. Hey, that is quite simply deep, full circle, yin-yang. And true.

Playing the blues has nothing to do with giving up and feeling sorry for oneself. Playing the blues is about getting on the inside of that emotion, expressing its depth, communicating honestly, and recognizing that the more you play the blues, the better you get at playing. You can't live the blues for a lifetime without learning to play it (if you don't learn to play it, the circle stops, the refrain is incomplete, and maybe you just don't survive). The good thing is, once you learn to play the blues, the basic clues for moving on to a classic swing are at your fingertips. After that, you don't just play the blues, you move to the next level. You get your mojo working, fall into a groove (perhaps a big wide gully), and swing your blues. The thing is, to survive -- to play -- the blues, you can't try to separate the music from the dance. You gotta learn to dance with blues integrity, the real deal. It doesn't have to dance pretty, or do the latest popular steps, just be honest. And that usually means you swing better than those whose grasp of the blues is ill-informed and shallow.

Like Matthew Robinson says (at Catfish Station every weekend), "....hey, hey! The blues is all right!"

The Eight Annual Clarksville-West End Jazz and Arts Festival is a living example of my little metaphor. We started with the blues. We've lived with the blues. And now we are trying to learn to play the blues, to dance in rhythm, to stay in the groove, to swing hard, so that we might continue on our mission of mastering bebop. Bop dancing is really where we want to be. After eight years of paying blues dues, we want this little festival to be up there doing some serious hard bopping, up-tempo hard swangin, teaching some other folks to dance with soul and recognize just where this groove lives. Believe me, there is enough room in this gully, down here in the groove, for a lot of rhythms, a lot of dances, a lot of folks. And we all will dance better, shaking our collective booddies to the music, if we can spend less time having to work on our political footwork. You dig?

Of course I do really have more to say, but this little jazz fest does take a lot of prep time. So, instead of going on right now, I'll just invite you all to come see us at Jazz Fest. With any luck, we'll all have a good time, learn to dance, and celebrate the good stuff about living in Austin. Peace.