by Harold McMillan

Twenty years ago when I first moved to Austin, if anyone asked me what I did, I'd answer that I was a social worker-a reformist-angry-young-man social worker who'd probably go on to law school after grad school. I was here to learn how to work inside the system too do something about poverty, injustice, racism, oppression. I was a humanist with an agenda, armed with high ideals and youth. I was gonna change the world, mind you, as a socially conscious lawyer in Texas. My training from the University of Texas School of Social work, my experience as a social service planner, my knowledge of history and sociology was gonna equip me to go into law and hammer down, beat up the bad guys in suits; especially the ones in government, higher education, housing and finance. My time at the great University of Texas, in the Texas bastion of liberalism, Austin, was gonna get me ready to take on the world. To me, a kid fresh out of East Texas State University in Commerce, all this made perfect sense. Austin's hip, right?

The first clue I got was when the School took me out of the fast track program (before I'd even had a single class) I'd qualified for and put me in the two year program. They told me they were doing it for my own good. Being a new black graduate student at UT, they understood that I was underprivileged, culturally deprived-through no fault of my own, mind you-and not really prepared to do graduate work at the great University of Texas.

The next clue I got was when we were introduced to the new dean and he proudly identified himself as a Nixon Republican. A Nixon Republican dean of a social planning and welfare graduate school at UT in 1979, in the South, in the Capital of the Texas. At that point, it was beginning to smell just a little bit. But hey, I was young. I was gonna get in there and fight the system. Fresh out of ETSU, I was sure I could take on the school of social work and UT and win. I'd just change them and then

About that time I was also getting around town a little bit playing bass with blues and R&B players. I met a lot of folks, mostly a mix of young white guys newly into blues and older-than-me black folks who had been doing blues in Austin for a long time. At that time the whole blues thing in Austin was on the upswing. It seemed like there was a new Austin sound developing. There were a lot folks playing blues and there were gigs to be had. Most gigs barely paid, others paid in beer and food. But the thing was it seemed like at any minute the blues thing was gonna blow up and happen. And there would be gigs that would pay.

The Antone's crew was already getting national attention. The east side clubs were mostly long gone. And young west side entrepreneurs were opening clubs and booking blues. Big Scotty still had his joint on Nueces and Brooks was around the corner on Sixth Street. Blues was the next big thing in Austin. Sixth Street was transforming into a hot spot. And there was lot of blues jamming going on. Young folks, white folks, old folks, black folks. There really was a blues renaissance going on here. The young guys were learning, showing respect for elders, being really excited to be playing with guys who had those stories of the old east side blues scene. They talked about T.D. Bell and the Cadillacs.

"Where was T.D., anyway?"

"Oh, he had retired from playing. Was still here in Austin, but running dump trucks or something. Sho' was a good guitar player, in his day!"

"What about the old clubs?"

"All these cats had stories about Charlie's, and the Shack, and the IL."

"You know, Bobby used to come down to the Victory every Sunday. And Johnny Taylor, that cat loved to gamble. Carried a gun to his gigs."

"And they say Billie Holiday came to the Victory back in the early '50s. Ike and Tina used to come through here all the time,too. And Joe Tex and Etta James. In fact, W.C. used to play bass for Joe Tex. And Home Boy used to be with her, Etta. And Hank Ballard, too. In fact, let me see, I think Homeboy was on the road with Joe Tex when he decided to just stay in Austin."

"And after T.D. started to move around more, Blues Boy took over at the Victory. That cat was hot back then. Him and Dewitty was always a good match. Hubbard played the licks and Dewitty sang them Bobby Bland tunes while keeping that double shuffle going the whole while. In fact, both T.D. and Hubbard used open up for folks like B.B. and Bobby at the Victory and then provide the band for their sets a lot of the time. But that was back in the old days, when East Austin Blues, was THE blues in Austin."

Those stories were great! Us young cats really felt like we had made the connection to the right folks here in Austin. Playing with folks who had REAL blues credentials, a history, direct connection to the real stuff.

When folks like Major Burkes or Hubbard talked about the jazz guys, they always talked about Gene Ramey, Martin Banks, James Polk. Gene was very old school. Recorded with Jay McShan, Charlie Parker, all of the Kansas City players. Then he was in New York, too. And by the way, Kenny Dorham used to live right down the street, on Rosewood I thiink. And back when Burt Adams had the Sam Houston Collegiates, now that was a good group of player who can through here. James Clay, Bobby Bradford. Leo Wright was here somewhere in there. And, man, Johnny Simmons had some hot bands! And don't forget about the Patterson Brothers. Yeah, seems like before that, everything went back to Mr. Joyce. He didn't like no jazz playing, but he taught just about everybody who could read, to play around here. Martin, Duck, Pat Murphy, just about everybody.

See back then, we had it going on over here. East Avenue was the tracks. Anderson was the high school. Huston-Tillotson was the college. Dubois came to speak here. Adam Clayton, Thurgood Marshall. Nat King Cole came to play one time and ended up taking some HT players with him to do the next leg of his tour. But that was all we knew about. That was just life on the East Side. It was important to us, but it isn't the kinda stuff you can go and research at the American Statesman. They didn't particularly care what we were doing. Well, they did cover crime. We got in the paper when we messed up, went to jail, killed somebody. Well, that's not true either. We didn't get in the paper if it was just one of us, killing another one of us. But, we did have a real, connected community. Maybe we didn't think of it as culture. It was our life in black East Austin.

Now, back to my story. I was a young kid here in the early eighties, a graduate student, a bass player learning to hang with the blues guys, wanting to hang with the jazz guys. I heard all of these stories, jammed with all of the great players who had been playing for so long, folks who had music credentials that far pre-dated the Antone's scene, Piggy's, the Elephant and all the clubs that have come since. By then Gene Ramey had come out of retirement to jam and teach here in Austin. James Polk and Martin Banks were back in town, too. And the more stories of the old days that I heard, the more confused I was about what I found happening here in the local scene.

See I was a young bass player wanting to hang out and learn. And if you recall, I was also an angry-young-man-reformist-humanist-social-worker-lawyer-to-be who was ready to change the world. My goals, my agenda for social change is very much based in cultural change. It's the same conversation, it's the same issues set against a slightly different backdrop. But, really, it's the same conversation.

It become pretty clear to me that there are enough lawyers in the world. There are too many lawyers in Austin, Texas. The law could make it just fine without me. Social work has not missed me either, I'd suspect. There are enough lawyers here. There might even be enough angry young men, generally. But sometimes I think there are not enough folks who are motivated, yes angry, about the questionable status of our cultural legacy. And please hear this: That ain't about race (unless it is also about race), it's about culture.

Believe me, white boys can play the blues. But they should not be the only blues players getting work. Latinos are perfectly qualified to run blues and jazz clubs and organizations. But in a city as large as Austin, shouldn't there also be some black folks who invest in our culture in those ways was well. White folks are not beating us over the head and saying, "now, don't y'all go and invest in East Austin. Don't preserve the East 11th Street Cultural District. If you're gonna invest in Austin, you gotta take your money (and your interest) to another part of town."

On the other hand, there have been, for years, cultural gatekeepers here in Austin that did in fact limit black musicians' access to gigs, to jobs, to media coverage. The East Side club scene died and the music moved across town. The problem is that in too many cases the musicians were not invited to make the move with "our" music. In this very town I have witnessed blues festivals that included no black folks on stage. Jazz clubs that rarely booked black players. And a local music industry (clubs, festivals, radio stations, the press) that is deeply invested in purveying what at one time was indeed African American cultural expression, but somehow those folks don't include a significant number of black faces.

All of this was motivational to me. I have my critics on the way I've chosen to address these issues. To some folks I'm a racist who books too many black players on my shows. To some I'm just a brother making all kinds of money and trying to keep it all for myself, asking musicians (and the community) to participate without having enough money to pay what they are worth. And, to some extent that last one has some truth to it. There have indeed been times when my goal of being able to provide good pay for my projects' participants has come very short of being realized. And that for me continues to be the most difficult aspect of this whole enterprise.

However, as you read our little magazine here, that is for issue the Austin Jazz and Arts Festival's publication, please consider some of the work that has come out of DiverseArts. And please know that our track record doing cultural work in Austin would not be possible without the hard work of sponsors, volunteers, area businesses, and at this point literally hundreds of musicians, other artists and technical people who share our vision of what cultural parity might look like in Austin. Know that we do appreciate the support we get, thank you for it, and need the support to increase if we are to continue and get better.

And, just so you know what we have been up to for the last 12 years, getting rich in the non-profit art organization business: at least for one week annually we have provided more stage time for more individual jazz artists than any other organization in town (clubs included); at least for two weeks annually, we have provided more concentrated stage time for more individual African American musicians than any other organization in town; we have the largest collection of archival video footage of Austin African American musicians of any other organization in town; we have the largest collection of archival photographs of contemporary African American musicians of any organization in town; we have the largest video taped and transcribed collection of contempory oral histories of East Austin musicians of any organization in town; during the last several years we were the first ones to produce concert featuring McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, Kenny Garrett, Elis Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, Nicholas Payton, Charles Neville, Jason Marsalis, Ray Barretto, Roy Hargrove, and Oliver Lake; we produced concerts that brought Huston-Tillotson alum James Clay and Bobby Bradford back to Austin to perform for the first time since they left school; and, this little magazine you're reading right now is the only publication in town that writes about jazz in every issue.

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