It was fairly common for black musicians to leave the US to play and live in Europe during the 50s and 60s. They received much better treatment there than they did stateside.

Two black US expatriates were Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke. They both lived in Paris. Together with French bassist Pierre Michelot, they formed a trio called ‘The Three Bosses’. They played the clubs in Paris to much acclaim.

A lot of tremendous talent (literary, musicians, artists, actors etc) left this country for greener pastures elsewhere because of racial discrimination, and many never came back. One wonders how richer the artistic landscape would have been for the US if the treatment towards their own black citizens was better. The expats enriched the countries they settled in and made them better in every quantifiable manner you can think of, that is certain. Entire industries were bolstered around artistic black expats, so their presence alone brought an influx of money.

The US lost a great deal because of bigotry. I wonder if people today know the impact this had, and how we in the US are worse off because of it. I’m sure it had to sting a quite a bit to have to leave your own country to be treated like a human being.

Notes

  1. mesooncome reblogged this from mybutbeautiful
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    Furthermore, Kenny Clarke is an example of those...“freedoms” they didn’t even enjoy at...
  6. randomberlinchick said: Not only jazz musicians, bro … and not only in the 50s and 60s. Berlin is full of brothers and sistuhs from the USA who’ve basically said, “I’d rather be a foreigner over here, than at home.”
  7. atane posted this