Jazz, justice and Juneteenth: Wynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson join forces to honor Black protest

NEW YORK — Black music traditions such as jazz are central to celebrations of Juneteenth, says civil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson. That’s why he and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis have debuted “Freedom, Justice and Hope,” a live performance album of historic jazz records created to protest racial injustice, in time for this year’s celebrations. Some historians even consider jazz singer Billie Holiday’s 1939 rendition of “Strange Fruit,” an anti-lynching poem by Abel Meeropol, one of the catalysts of the Civil Rights Movement. “I think jazz as an art form needs to be understood as a protest against these narratives that Black people are somehow incapable,” Stevenson said. Jazz’s reliance on instrumental leads has led some to stereotype it as dated, irrelevant and less connected to social justice than vocally driven rap and hip-hop — think Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” N.W.A’s “F Tha Police,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” But musicians, scholars and activists alike urge listeners to recognize and champion the political messages communicated through the music’s emotional depth.