COLUMN: You can’t make jazz in a Scrabble game

As director of the Old Gardening Party (OGP), I love his music and his commitment to social justice.

I also love the music of jazz trumpet players like Louis Armstrong, who also said, “They’d beat Jesus if he was Black and marched at Selma.” I played the trumpet’s cousin, the cornet, in school band, but sadly gave it up to focus on sports.

One year I taught in a school where the lackluster PA announcements were ignored, even when end of the day “blue stars” were awarded to exemplary classrooms. One day when the regular announcer was ill, I was asked to fill in. When I got to the “blue star” part, I did my best Louie Armstrong impression, singing, “I’ve seen stars of blue, and great students, too.”

Hallway motion froze, except for a girl walking into the office with a sly smile. She said, “Mr. Johnson. You shouldn’t do that. You could cause an accident in the hall.”

KBEM radio, the jazz station, is the place to hear Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and other famous jazz musicians. There are also magnificent local artists, and many lesser-known greats who emerged mainly from 20th century southern African American communities.

KBEM is an argument for the Arts as one of the Basics. It’s run by Minneapolis Public Schools as a place where high schoolers can learn to be broadcasters. It also makes you wonder, so you wander to the library for stories like Yona Zeldis McDonough’s “Who Was Louis Armstrong?” The jazz legend grew up around much trauma and turned his life around by playing trumpet in what was then called “reform school.”

Before I was drafted in 1970, a love of sports and the outdoors led me into camp work with struggling young people. There was no way I would tell a story, and all I knew about jazz was it was a bad word for Scrabble because the game has only one “Z”. However, I learned early on that performing music or a story at a campfire could be a turning point for a child battling hard times. Years later as a Minneapolis elementary school storyteller/video specialist, I figured my job was to remember those campfires and help children be recognized. Too many kids are great talkers who can’t use that skill constructively. Making video is similar for those who think they hate education. It can be revolutionary to dive deep as a team and research, write a script, and produce a piece you all care about. The excitement can override anger about being forced to learn to read, write, or spell.

I experienced KBEM through the historic connection of radio to TV. I signed on as the KBEM school news point person and helped children write the news themselves. I then picked a talented child struggling with reading. We practiced until he or she could be stunning when KBEM recorded them. That experience of being heard by classmates as “radio star” drives a positive impact into whatever that child chooses to do later in life.

For me today, listening to KBEM while out and about, gives calming inspiration for all I must do.