The Jazz Urbane Cultural Commentary

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” — “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear” Toni Morrison

I was recently watching the Netflix series “Sunday Best,” which focuses on how Black performers, from Sammy Davis Jr. to Nina Simone, broke down barriers and were for all people. Artist after artist and commentators spoke about how music was one of the “great healers of life” and “the barrier breaker.”

Ed Sullivan, host of the show that championed Black artists in the mid-1950s to 1971, commented, “The fight for freedom is the fight for brotherhood. …This is a great crusade for

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