Spiritual Commodification: A Political Economy of African Jazz in the Civil Rights Era.

This article delves into the production and marketing of African-themed jazz albums during the civil rights era of the late 1950s and early 1960s. It explores the challenges faced by African diasporic musicians in a predominantly white recording industry, as well as the commodification of African jazz for white audiences. The article examines the political and cultural context in which these albums were created, highlighting the trade-offs musicians had to make between expressing their political and artistic positions and meeting commercial demands. It also discusses the intersections of spirituality, politics, and sexuality in African jazz, and the ways in which white perceptions shaped the production and sale of these albums. The article concludes by examining the overlapping and contradictory images of Africa presented in these recordings. Additionally, it discusses a specific series of recordings by Art Blakey and Sabu Martinez that incorporated African and Latin percussion, and raises questions about the commodification and exoticization of African and African American culture in the entertainment industry. The article also explores the different approaches taken by record labels in supporting explicit political messages in jazz music, and the role of Caribbean and African immigrant musicians in the production of pan-African recordings. Overall, it emphasizes the complex and contradictory nature of these albums as both political statements and commercial products. [Extracted from the article]