To Be Clear, Bill Clinton was NOT a Good Sax Player
but his performative use of jazz culture allowed him to justify a lifetime of imperialist anti-Black policies, and therefore did its job.
America’s Blues Man
The word “jazzy” has a certain condescension attached to it. If an audience considers a musician’s work “jazzy” it can be felt as more of a novelty than an art. It’s similar to calling a visual artist’s hard work and sacrifice “arty.” The term “arty” can come across as a hotel-room-decoration vibe; just as “jazzy” can portray an elevator-music, shades-indoors, performative and insincere environment for the expression of art through music.
Bill Clinton received a lot of press for criticizing the recent uprisings for Black lives at John Lewis’s memorial, where he continued a trend of denigrating incredible leaders in the movement while thanking Jim Clyburn and the political elite for practically securing their reign for at least one more term with the shenanigans surrounding Bernie Sanders’ 2020 primary withdrawal (which paved the way to Biden’s embarrassingly unstable odds of victory against President Trump).
As a musician, all I could think about was Clinton’s longtime connection to jazz — and, more broadly, the relationship between music & politics.
Just like his neoliberal agenda or smarmy (and similarly “jazzy”) politician style, his saxophone playing always made me cringe — you’re the leader of the free world in the country of jazz music’s origin and for whatever reason acquired the title of the country’s “first black president;” why does it feel like I’m watching a subpar high school warm up act at a grungy dive bar?
But there’s something to be said about how his “jazzy” saxophone — a symbol of the first true American art form that is unequivocally Black — went hand in hand with his ability to play Southern racial politics.
What’s Good?
First we should define what makes a “good” sax player:
While it may differ from person to person, overall a “good sax player” should have some combination of decent tone, adequate technical ability and expressive musicality. We can also delineate between a “sax player” vs “saxophonist,” in that sax players can learn a few tunes, develop a halfway decent tone and grab some shades to get random club gigs; whereas saxophon-ists spend their lives and careers perfecting the craft, are able to perform in any context or genre, and often have no innate desire to wear shades on stage (unless you pay them more for it). This is similar to the contrast between “artists” vs “technicians” — a common possible culprit as to why certain musicians (sometimes with lesser technical skill) are considered legends largely due to their exceptional artistry.
Bill Clinton, at best, falls under the category of “sax player” — he knows a few hokey Blues-Brothers-esque tunes and repetitive melodies that work in any context; produces a middle school-level tone quality and technique (even with professional grade equipment); and of course rocks those iconic “jazzy” (pandering) shades which worked wonders in seducing the white liberal class. His performative musicianship might have been good enough for a president and governor to charm voters, but were his give-and-take policies in support of those same ideals?
What are the functional results of Clinton’s arts funding through organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, Paradigm Talent Agency & Creative Artists Agency — many of which have funded the neoliberal wing’s cultural war chest, and been used as tools to consistently funnel emerging artists onto the corporate elites’ side of the culture wars…
Not to mention changes to industry jobs, welfare reform, big banking, mass incarceration, mass media, copyright, music censorship… and to what end?
Man, Slick Willy, You Jivin’
The glaring difference between Arsenio Hall’s demeanor in response to Clinton’s performance versus his pseudo-fanboy disposition throughout an extended interview with Miles Davis says a thousand more words. In contrast to the Miles interview, which was full of genuine interest and admiration for one of the most influential artists in music, the atmosphere around Clinton’s interview was marked by an underlying sense of skepticism and patronization — and in retrospect, perhaps rightfully so.
One of the Cool Cats
On top of the initial optimism around Clinton’s sincerity from Black community leaders and music industry professionals, he was often pushed by the media as a full-fledged cultural icon. The sudden propulsion of music advocacy in the political sphere — and especially the original Black music of jazz — saw many jumping at the opportunity to capitalize on his popularity and exceedingly praise Clinton for his apparently selfless efforts at bringing music and arts back to the forefront of American values.
But the growth of the information age has seen many once enthusiastic Clinton supporters regretting their choice (or not).
The New-Age Crew
In such a unique election year, amidst social uprisings and global pandemic, people can no longer be swayed by the same tired tactics and empty symbolism. The information age has allowed us to grow more aware of the common misdirections and long kept secrets surrounding politicians. The present-day electorate rallying behind Biden is essentially a coalescence of the voters who were duped by Bill, and the same is true for artists. The types of established musicians supporting his campaign are likely uninformed and/or interested in returning to and maintaining the status quo, which is not the strategy deemed acceptable by most modern day up-and-coming musicians — many of whom are finding it more difficult to balance refining their craft within the increasingly unforgiving economy of the 21st century.
Unfortunately and most certainly following the neoliberal Clinton legacy, an undoubtedly anti-progressive, excessively pandering (yet just “jazzy” enough) Biden administration would only continue the Clinton reign of terror for black & brown people — featuring the same style of out-of-touch pandering and unpopular policies that Bill managed to slip through due to his charisma and the fact that Democrats justify whatever Democrats do in office, even going so far as to invite him to speak at the Democratic National Committee’s 2020 convention despite scathing evidence of his involvement in the Epstein trafficking ring.
Harmonious Substitutions
Let’s conduct a brief social experiment for musicians, to see whether artists could have a similar level of success in politics as Clinton had with music.
Saxophonists (and sax players):
- Record yourself playing a (roughly) transcribed famous Clinton solo.
- Next, add an additional performance section shredding your own material Kenny Loggins style (the above-cited Clinton transcription can be heard after being embarrassed by Loggins, at 7:10).
- Now, do you support these policies?
If you answered “no” to most of number 3, then congratulations! You are now a better politician than Bill Clinton was a sax player.
Anthony Casamassima is a professional musician, educator and community advocate. Learn more about his work here, and follow RealMusicInProgress on Twitter or YouTube.
