Jazz great embodied class missing in today's black music

Here's an article from the Chicago Sun Times by Stanley Crouch about the late bassist Percy Heath, and the group he co-led for over 40 years, the Modern Jazz Quartet.
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"It was an immaculate band that was important because of what it had done with piano, vibraphone, bass and drums, a still-unusual grouping, and because it made a successful frontal attack on the minstrel tradition that was imposed on Negro musicians. It was known for its class, its virtuosity and its control.

In our era of neo-sambo minstrelsy arriving in the worst of hip-hop, it is hard for many to realize that there was once a time when black musicians aspired to more than money and access to decadence."
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Read the complete article here...