I have done live shows on Good Friday for two years now, but the title of this blog post actually derives from a much earlier NON-musical event and memory. From 2006-2010, one of my responsibilities as Director of the University Honors Program at North Carolina Central University involved chairing the planning committee for the Honors Convocation for Academic Excellence, which convenes in early April--often a week or two removed from Passion Week and the culmination of the Lenten season. From department chairs I would receive names of students to be recognized University-wide, and prepare them for two public documents--a rather large laminated poster for display around campus lobby areas, and the event program book. In a faculty meeting I made a brief presentation and advertisement of the Honors Convocation, and referred to the event's date (that year) as "Mo' Betta Friday", borrowing from the title of the motion picture "Mo' Betta Blues" produced and directed by Shelton "Spike" Lee, starring Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Nicholas and John Turturro. Most of my colleagues caught and chuckled at my sincere play on words, appreciating the strange malapropism attempted amid a bunch of academics!!
In my Good Friday programs in 2018 and 2019, I have intentionally chosen and played selections aimed at providing inspiration and opportunities for some measure of reflection from the wide varieties of jazz repertoire and tradition. Evangelical hymns, Negro spirituals, music of Duke Ellington and many others form my playlist for the show--which actually flies by rather quickly!! I had just finished playing the last tune for the first hour of my show when the studio telephone lit up. Upon answering, a female caller was on the line, most incensed by my on-air use of the term "Mo' Betta Friday". To her ears, apparently my mention of this created holy-day term constituted a sacrilegious replacement of this Holy Week Day, an attempted verbal tantamount to heresy!! She gave me a piece of her mind and attitude that she just couldn't afford to keep to herself!! I patiently heard her out, but even the few comments and words of attempted alleviation offered interjectively...fell on "deaf ears"--or perhaps a closed mind. (Part of me is convinced that she hung out with the Pharisees near the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night!!)
Nonetheless, my listening ear and representative position kindly and carefully heard and endured her harangue, even though my rising blood pressure was elevated as a result of the awkwardness of "such a mountain made out of molehill". While the second hour proceeded without any further incident (or phone calls!!), it was overshadowed--partly by my biblical recollection of the time of day during which the Crucifixion took place, "from the sixth to the ninth hour", 12 noon until 3 pm, by current daylight saving time clock reference. I had hoped to make it through the midday hours with my reverent on-air corniness intact, but that one call broke the streak and marred the experience.
On an aesthetic, artistic and musical level, this time of day is one of special meaning and function, as the sum of my "taste" is permitted a most unique platform--one having a very sensitive membrane of aural exposure, access, information, understanding and appreciation. The few callers who make and take the time to call the studio during my leg of the radio relay--usually call with questions about what's been played, suggestions for future selections or my even speech-rhythm!! But such a call as on Good Friday occupies the most unusual category in my suggestion box, and will for quite some time!!
My stepson occasionally poses a quasi-sarcastic question for his mother at the end of a bizarre day of work and interaction with total characters in the workplace, phrased as follows: "so what did we learn today"?? Here is what I learned...on "Mo' Betta Friday": 1. In this nationalized American Judeo-Christian culture, we have been socialized to venerate events and holidays but haven't learned to work harder at following the Golden Rule: doing unto others AS we would have them do unto us. 2. We often listen--NOT for the purpose of learning and understanding, but for the aim of response. Immediate response, with the aim of "one-ups-speakership". The caller called me onto her carpet of cultural correctness over the issue of word choice, usage and grammar...not the relevance of ANY musical selection heard on WNCU/90.7 FM between 11 am and 1 pm on April 19, 2019--the Friday of the Passover celebration known as Good Friday. 3. I learned anew that communication, whether verbal or musical--takes time. People need time and space quite often. The lady who called in to the radio studio on "Mo' Betta Friday" will need time--to just listen to the music I program WITHOUT any reference to religion, holidays, history or even her own thoughts and attitude. I will need time...to reconsider my motives and thinking for choosing the music I do. Nevertheless, the comfort I retain is that of knowing and loving so many of these organized moments of uncommon grandeur so much...that they defy complete or even coherent description at times.
I also need to remember...that the folks who didn't call in to fuss about what I called the day...were moving through their pensive day touched by whatever they heard in ways I cannot hope to completely fathom. That is more than sufficient encouragement and validation for me. Happy Easter to all!!
#LiveInLove #LiveInPeace #GrowInFreedom
