Beyonce records a version of her own female rights track ‘‘Don’t hurt yourself’, whilst, telling this story…

Revolutionary jazz

We have seen how jazz was created through protest and revolution, in the late nineteenth-century cotton fields and in episode seven we focus on how free jazz soundtracked the civil rights movement of the 1960s - but these are only two examples in a century of history that has been soundtracked by jazz at every turn.

Jazz musicians have always expressed musically what people are thinking politically.

Racism in the 1920’s

Louis Armstrong didn’t write “Black and Blue,” but his version is iconic. The song’s power rests in its brilliant usages of racial double-entendres:

I’m white inside but, that don’t help my case
‘Cause I can’t hide what is in my face…

This type of wink and nod towards the racial politics of its day fell out of favor a generation later, when a more militant Black generation demanded a franker treatment of racial trauma; calling into question Armstrong’s commitments to the struggle. Author Ralph Ellison disagreed, using the very same song to spawn one of the most powerful and moving novels about race and selfhood in American history, ‘Invisible Man’, which addresses many of the social and intellectual issues faced by African Americans in the early twentieth century. Barack Obama modeled his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father on the novel.

How would it end? Ain’t got a friend
My only sin is in my skin.
What did I do to be so black and blue?

WATCH: Louis Armstrong, Black & Blue, live in Berlin

Anti-war in the 1940s

‘Gloomy Sunday’ was composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress. The original lyrics were titled “Vége a világnak” (The world is ending) and were about despair leading to suicide, caused by war, ending in a quiet prayer about people's sins.  It became well known throughout the world after the release of Billie Holiday’s version in 1941

The BBC banned Holiday's version of the song from being broadcast, as being detrimental to wartime morale, not lifting the ban until 2002.

WATCH: Bjork perform ‘Gloomy Sunday’ at fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Lynching & segregation in the 1950s

‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday is one of the most famous protest songs in any genre. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".
Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Holiday would close with it, the waiters would stop all service in advance, the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

WATCH: Billie Holiday with Strange Fruit in 1959.

WATCH: The trailer for ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ a biographical movie about singer Billie Holiday and the authority’ss reaction to ‘Strange fruit’.

Nina Simone and the civil rights movement of the 1960s

Nine Simone almost singlehandedly soundtracked the civil rights movement. No discussion of Black freedom is complete without Nina Simone’s voice. When her music became explicitly political, catapulting her to the militant wing of the Civil Rights Movement, her career suffered; never quite reaching the household status as that of her other black female contemporaries.

WATCH: below, Nina Simone performing the following four political songs.

‘Mississippi Goddam’ (1964)

Nina Simone announced this anthem to be her "first civil rights song". The song was released on her album Nina Simone in Concert in 1964 and is indicative of the more political turn her recorded music took during this period. She composed it in less than an hour. It encapsulates the profound turmoil of 1963: the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama, and the attacks by vicious dogs against the non-violent freedom fighters. It is one of her most famous protest songs.

‘Backlash Blues’ (1964)

‘Backlash Blues’ is a protest song of the highest order.  Come hell or high water, she demands what her white peers take for granted: The song is not merely about racism in the abstract sense. This is someone living it, firsthand; snatching dignity in the face of adversity. This is a great talkback to white supremacy, at its boldest.

‘I wish I knew what it meant to be free’ (1967)

The song was written by activist jazz musician Billy Taylor for his daughter in 1963. Nina recorded her version in 1967 and it served as an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

“Why? (The King of Love is Dead)” (1968)

Simone recorded “Why?” three days after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. That Simone and her band chose to write and perform the song on such short notice, lends the track an emotional rawness and intensity that is felt and sincere. 

Part eulogy, part jeremiad, and eloquent rage, Simone channels the entire grief of a community into a performance that is as disturbing as it is moving. She offers no answers. She extends no olive branch. What the song manages to do is indict a morally perverse nation that would work to tear down its great champion of nonviolence with these final, troubling words: 

Folks you’d better stop and think
Everybody knows we’re on the brink
What will happen, now that the King of Love is dead?

WATCH: Nina Simone performing all four songs live.

Four women (1966)

Simone wrote ‘Four Women’ out of anger at the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was a tribute to the four young women who were murdered in that act of terrorism.

Simone created a portrait of four Black female stereotypes. There was Simone herself, Aunt Sarah, a God-fearing housecleaner, Sephronia young light-skinned activist, and Sweet Thing a tough prostitute. The point of the song is that there can be no single portrait of any person. Each individual, no matter what colour or background has worth as a human being.

Her goal was to express how the rest of America viewed African-American females, as invisible. If White society saw all Blacks as stereotypes, it helped to make the dead women seem almost anonymous, thus lessening the tragedy of their deaths.

WATCH: Lisa Simone, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, Angélique Kidjo and the original Nina Simone Band perform ‘Four Women’ in a tribute to Nina Simone.

Gender Equality in the 1980’s

Queen Latifah broke ground in hip-hop music both as a woman and as a lyricist. Her 1993 single, "U.N.IT.Y.," addressed the disrespect of women in hip-hop culture. To this day, the word "bitch" is used, not just in hip-hop, but is also regularly used in society to put down or repress women. If a woman is outspoken, she is often labeled a "bitch" for no reason other than being outspoken. The song was so powerful that radio stations wouldn’t censor the word “bitch.”

Queen Latifah's "U.N.IT.Y." was one of the first songs to address this issue directly and empower women through hip-hop music. She would become a pioneer for women in hip-hop, being followed by the likes of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott and many more. Today in hip-hop, women have gained a larger role and have even dominated the charts with artists like Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion.

WATCH: Queen Latifah with U.N.I.T.Y.

Apartheid in the 1990’s

‘Free Nelson Mandela’ was written by British musician Jerry Dammers, and performed by his band The Special A.K.A. in 1984. It was a protest against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela by the apartheid South African government, and is considered a notable anti-apartheid song. Unlike most protest songs, the track is upbeat and celebratory, drawing on musical influences from South Africa.

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown revealed that Nelson Mandela had a soft spot for singer Amy Winehouse after a quip she made about his time in prison.

WATCH: Amy Winehouse perform ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ supported by the biggest rock stars at Mandela’s 90th birthday event in 2008.

South African jazz trumpeter and activist, Hugh Masekela, was described as the father of South African jazz. He wrote the anthem for the anti-apartheid movement.

WATCH: ‘Mandela (Bring him back home)’ on international jazz day 2015.

The New Orleans floods of 2005

On Monday, August 29, 2005, there were over fifty failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans and its suburbs following the passage of Hurricane Katrina. The failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans.

At the first New Orleans jazz festival after Katrina and the floods. New Orleans was still struggling. Rock legend and jazz aficionado, Bruce Springsteen headlined the event and culminated it with ‘When the saints go marching in’, a black spiritual. It is particularly associated with the city of New Orleans, often played by its jazz bands and famously recorded by Louis Armstrong.

WATCH: Bruce Springsteen performing ‘When the saints go marching in.’

Black Lives Matter from 2015

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly album showed the impact of protest jazz on modern music. It touches on issues like the exploitation of Black entertainers, police brutality, and Black self-hatred, all the while fusing rap and jazz instrumentation. It received positive critical reception, commercial success, and six Grammys despite its jazz influences and heavy political themes. The album’s lead single, “Alright,” was sung in protests against police brutality and is regarded as the modern black national anthem. Protest jazz is far from dead, it has lived on in hip-hop music.

WATCH: The video to ‘Alright’ by Kendrick Lamar.

Gabriels, a new jazz/neo-soul group led by former gospel singer Jacob Lusk added a video of him singing Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ at a Black Lives Matter protest, to the end of the video to their debut single ‘Love and hate in a different time’.

WATCH: Jacob Lusk singing ‘Strange Fruit’ (from 5.00min)

NBA Basketball has always had deep roots with music, most recently through hip-hop. There is even a team named after jazz itself!

In 1974, New Orleans became the newest member of the NBA. That spring, a contest was held to name the expansion team. Of the more than 6,500 names submitted, the chosen one was ‘Jazz’

As the undisputed "jazz capital of the world", the city embraced the new name. And, for the second time, Jazz had been born in New Orleans. To convey a distinct Mardi Gras theme, purple gold, and green colors were used and the logo featured the 'J' as an eighth note. As with the tradition of Mardi Gras, the three original team colors were emblematic of the following: purple for justice, green for faith, gold for power.

The Jazz remained in New Orleans for five years before ownership decided to move the team to Salt Lake City. Despite no history of Jazz music in Utah, the name was kept.

Prior to the restart of the NBA in July 2000, The Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans knelt in BLM solidarity. major new jazz artist, Jon Batiste performed a black jazz version of the National Anthem.

The Star-Spangled Banner was mixed with ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’, widely considered the black national anthem, as the backing chords. The middle section used a slowed sample of the "Trigger Man" beat, which was highly influential in the development of music in New Orleans, where Jon Baptiste is from. The guitar playing (including the white guitar itself) was a direct reference to Jimi Hendrix's famous performance of the National Anthem years beforehand. It intentionally sampled music from the black community as a response to the protests and BLM movement happening.

WATCH: Jon Baptiste performing the national anthem

A black woman’s anthem for today

Beyonce pays homage to the protest songs of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday with “Don’t Hurt Yourself” an empowering, guitar-thrashing black woman’s anthem.

Uh, this is your final warning
You know I give you life
If you try this shit again
You gonna lose your wife

WATCH: The video for ‘Don’t hurt yourself

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