“Treated me like shit”: the disastrous circumstances that led to the greatest jazz record of the decade
There was once a time when jazz music was treated with utter disdain by the musical establishment. Born from Black communities living in New Orleans during the 19th century, the widespread racism and prejudice throughout the United States extended to the inherently African American sounds of jazz. Even today, with jazz music a strongly respected field populated by incredible musicians that transcend race, gender and sexuality, the scene is somehow still not free from the shackles of racial prejudice, something that Angel Bat Dawid is all too familiar with.
Dawid is certainly among the most talented, determined and emotionally affecting jazz artists currently in operation; her clarinet compositions are almost like a sonic weapon against the injustices she suffers on a regular basis. Since the release of her debut record, The Oracle, in 2019, the discography of the composer has been near-flawless, capturing the spirit of Chicago’s diverse music scene and establishing Dawid as a stunningly original avant-garde artist. One of her finest recordings, by the name of LIVE, was recorded alongside Tha Brothahood back in 2019, but the circumstances surrounding the performance were less than harmonious.
That year, Dawid and Tha Brothahood were booked to appear at Haus der Berliner Festspiele as a part of JazzFest Berlin. However, while the band were gearing up to leave Chicago, they received word that their bandmate and friend Viktor Le Givens had passed out on the streets of the windy city and was subsequently robbed of his possessions. Clearly, this was a distressing situation for the group as they had to worry both about the well-being of their friend and their performance in Europe. To make matters worse, when the band informed JazzFest of the situation, they were met with the response, “If you cannot find a substitute, we will have to reduce your fee”.
The horrendous response from the festival organisers was only the start of Tha Brothahood’s disastrous journey to Europe. Once in Berlin, Dawid and company found themselves knocked back at every turn, with horrendously racist attitudes rearing their ugly head in the German capital. Even at the band’s hotel, which took its namesake from the jazz legend Duke Ellington, the jazz group were treated with disdain by both staff and festival organisers. Dawid was reportedly even reprimanded for playing a piano in the lobby of the hotel, which seems totally at odds with their theming as a tribute to Ellington.
After being treated like dirt by seemingly all those involved in JazzFest and having suffered multiple instances of racial prejudice since landing on German soil, you could forgive Angel Bat Dawid and Tha Brothahood for throwing in the towel and heading back to Chicago. Instead, the group delivered an utterly awe-inspiring set at the festival, channelling all of that anger and emotion into their music.
Released as a double-LP in 2020 by International Anthem, the recording of Dawid’s performance in Germany begins with her ranting at staff in The Ellington Hotel, screaming, “Ever since I’ve been here, y’all have treated me like shit!” Before transitioning into the festival performance. Amid a complex soundscape of spiritual, free-form jazz, Dawid’s deep emotion and all-encompassing passion can be heard clearly on the record, making it one of the most compelling jazz albums to be released this decade.
Particularly on the performance of Dawid’s defining track ‘Black Family’, which deals with the historical and current violence and oppression faced by Black people worldwide, Dawid does nothing to mask her utter fury at the treatment she and her band had experienced in Berlin. The song is incredibly emotionally charged anyway, but the performance captured on LIVE is enough to stop anybody in their tracks; it commands your unwavering attention.
Reflecting upon the performance of LIVE, Dawid once said, “I have issues in general about the way artists are treated because I see a difference in how tech folks treat women and artists of colour… I’m calling it out,” adding, “I am hypersensitive to any infraction I ever see, feel or observe when it comes to racism, and I no longer pass it off as an over sensitivity but an opportunity to blow the whistle on intellectual and structural racism that is still a rampant and ugly beast, especially in the European music world.”
It seems ridiculous that a jazz festival, of all places, could be so ignorant of these racist attitudes, but Angel Bat Dawid seemed to handle the situation perfectly. Rather than quietly cancelling their performance at the festival and heading home, Dawid and Tha Brothahood delivered an awe-inspiring set that stunned audiences to silence. There are very few other live recordings that spring to mind that can elicit such emotion, and that comes both from the incredible quality of the musical performance and also from the anger of Dawid, who certainly put the audience in their place over the course of the recording.
In the years since the LIVE album was first released, Dawid has continued to showcase her intense talents and affirm her commitment to educating audiences on the continued oppression of Black people in the modern age. Today, she is perhaps one of the most vitally important jazz musicians in the world, and LIVE remains the finest jazz album of the 2020s thus far; indeed, it is hard to imagine it being topped any time soon.
