Appropriation vs Appreciation - Thought 1

As I sit here enjoying Ryo Fukui for the first time, introduced to me by my young nephew, who just entered the audiophile world of turntables and vinyl.  The thought grows in my mind, is his music appropriation or appreciation?  I’m sure for Ryo, a Japanese jazz pianist, who fell in love with the greats of the genre like; Monk, Bud, Herbie, never would consider his homage to the art ever being thought of as appropriation.   And I, neither qualified to charge or suggest, the life love of an individual is not genuinely from their soul.  However, because of my scars of witnessing Black appropriation, its unfairness, unkindness, its inconsideration and mal-intent to steal, deface and profit, I became triggered on the first listen of Ryu’s 1976, ‘Scenery’.  

I read up what I could on him and the album, and listened with the soulful ears of a Blackman.  You see, for those who may not fully comprehend what that means, soulful music is not owned by any people, matter of fact, we all have a soul-song that we can sing from our hearts.  Soul music is born out of a pain and joy, a despair and hope, sitting somewhere between existence and the ‘thereafter’.  Black folk music, and you can read that as Black-folk music, or just Black folk music, is born from an un-earthly place deep within the ‘somewhere’ of the soul.  It encapsulates not just 500 years of pain and progress but pulls from the land that birthed blackness, African beats and rhythms unknown to this land until 1492.  Notes and rhythms that Black children may have never heard or studied but somehow open their mouths and the melodies resound.  It’s not magic, it’s providential, it’s of divine-knowing, the language of Black folk.

But back to the question Ryo poses to me, particularly, in ‘After Hours’, a backwood-blues run, that you’d here in a sweaty Mississippi joint, or a refined New Orleans ‘Dew Drop’, he calls me to ask...is this an act of appropriation?  An act worse than thievery.  Who is worse than the ‘hyprocrite’?  Who says one thing and does another. Yes, I know appropriation, like the generations of oppressors, slavers, and ‘good’ folk who demean and demolish Blackness, culture and nuance, all while they sweat to Black funk behind closed doors.  

Like Elvis’ popped collar and stanky leg, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin positioned as the posters of ‘cool’ all with their ‘Cotton Club’ swag.  From Bebop to Hiphop, steppin’ to dressin’, from Knowledge of Egypt to ‘Nights Over Egypt’...we can’t have shit, literally, without others desiring to control, manipulate and appropriate, while they deny our value.  

Ooh Ryo...did you just get Baptized in this jawn...the black church keys...naw, this ain’t appropriation, this is true.  I’ll argue, this Japanese icon, loved and appreciated Black folk so, that he wanted his people to learn and appreciate what we created.  Yes, this is appreciation.  Not much different than me bumping his ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ on my 1976 Marantz, Japanese made, amplifier.  Good call Nephew.  

....hold up...is that Bob James ‘Heads’ album playing...aww that’s my...wait a minute...