Jazz is Democracy

Cityfolk's resident Jazz aficionado Dave Barber spotted this article in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal. In it, Nat Hentoff tells of a man in Iran whose love of jazz lifts him out of oppressive circumstances. Hentoff writes:

Then, in 1998 Mr. Khoshbakht discovered jazz when he came across a compilation cassette. "What changed my life was Louis Armstrong. When it came to Pops it was like somebody put me on fire," he says. "Jazz became my religion. It was a way of escaping from the bitter realities of the outside world." Beyond the sheer pleasure of the music, Mr. Khoshbakht found a larger lesson in jazz. "If out of the worst imaginable situations and the most horrifying in the history of African Americans—slavery—such a graceful music can emerge, why can't I be a decent and free human being in the circumstances of Iran's troubled history of repressing freedom?"

It's a truly inspiring article about the power of music.