London students boycott jazz professor
NewsTwo conflicting petitions are being canvassed over the future of the leading jazz teacher Martin Speake.
Students at Trinity, the Royal Academy, and the Guildhall are said to be boycotting his lessons after the leak of a private email . It contained, allegedly, ‘harmful and defamatory narratives about black musicians in the jazz industry.’
One student organiser claimed: ‘The impact on my mental health has been significant, causing me great distress and discomfort within this learning space’.
The anti-Speake petition has so far gathered 276 signatures.
The pro-Speakers have 60.
A musician’s livelihood has been put at risk by this venomous email leak.
I think it is important to mention that he sent this email to the university administration and 1 student.
After that he authorised the university to share it with all students in the Jazz Department.
His email was sent in reply to a Black Lives Matter email sent by the university he works in.
…. which means there’s probably much more to all of this than meets the eye.
It does not bode well for the longevity of those students in the music business if some criticism, however well-founded or errant, drives them toward mental instability. If every there was a business that requires big boy’s underthings no matter who you are, it is the music business.
I’m so sick of their phony fragility.
Being a teacher doesn’t give you the right to be a racist and discriminate against your students. These are students who pay $30,000 a year whether rich or poor – without the generous grants and scholarships available in the United States – to study at the institution.
They have a right to expect behaviour that upholds standards of courtesy and respect. And – as many of these students require help from parents and grandparents to fund their education, their families have a right to demand a minimum standard as well.
True, but they are not in the music business. They pay for their education, and the schools are contractually obligated to provide certain conditions that they promised. This includes the well-being of the students, going beyond simple music lessons.
Furthermore, this is not just about them, but it is a form of activism. Students want to see a certain kind of future in the music world, and this is their way of fighting for it.
Not enough information. Is it the leak that is venomous, or the email itself?
But I am sick of people who start on about their “mental health” and “distress and discomfort” when they hear about one possibly unpleasant, even nasty, comment by a possibly unpleasant and nasty individual. Running across unpleasantness in the world is not an onslaught on the mental health of reasonable people.
It is something to oppose, as strongly as one sees fit — actively, fumingly, whatever they prefer as their m.o. Be p*&sed off, by all means, and say so, by all means. Call out the offender to explain, apologise, withdraw, whatever is appropriate. But stop clogging up the overtaxed health care system with your inability to cope with the vagaries of day to day life.
Well said.
100%
The facts are not straight. The email wasn’t leaked. He showed it to one student and then agreed for it to be sent to all jazz students in the department.
God help these students and their mental health when they discover the hard way that music is a meritocratic overcrowded profession, with diminishing opportunities in which you are only as good as your last gig!
And if you are a jazz musician there may not be a gig at all. There’s probably a bigger market for Bartok than for Coltrane these days.
Have you read the email? Being defamatory has nothing to do with being meritocratic at all.
The profession of music must always feel like a safe space for me. And I must never be triggered by rejection, disappointment, and music by composers who were not sufficiently enlightened by my criteria for acceptability.
It is a terrible thing to encounter someone who expresses an opinion that differs from yours.
Even being made aware that there are different opinions can cause significant distress and mental health damage.
Perhaps this has not been fully experienced by people in previous generations.
Please do not challenge me on this assertion. You would knowingly be making the world an unsafe space for me.
Some mental health. An email leak and zing! it’s gone!
I wonder how people in Mariupol and Aleppo and Be’eri and Rafah feel about the “unsafe” spaces these BLOODY snowflakes inhabit. Their narcissism makes me furious.
Isn’t it the job of a college to prepare students for the outside world? Some of these kids sound like the only thing they are ready for is to climb back into the womb.
They are too busy building “safe spaces for their almost permanently “traumatised” student population.
When I was an undergraduate, and worked in the library till closing at midnight, the university provided a taxi to take the female staffers home. If your shift ended earlier you were on your own.
Now it seems I must have a locked room with a coded entrance and peer counsellors feeding my paranoia to retreat to if a professor opened the pages of Tess of the D’Urbervilles for discussion in a fourth-year English class.
They don’t even read those old books any more.
I wish people would stop talking about their Mental Health when they’re upset by something.
They’re upset if someone turns up wearing a colour they don’t like. Decades of “child-centric” nonsense achieving its apogee.
You raise kids to think they are never wrong, never beaten in a race, never not picked for the school play, they are utterly unequipped to deal with life, and they catch on to the latest scam to beat having to work, or otherwise do anything they do not want to — having “mental health issues.”
Pity coping with reality is not something their damned “influencers” promote, but they are no better, except at self-promotion and talking up stuff they get free. I hesitate to categorise a whole generation, but I hear too much about celebrity over achievement. Little kids want to grow up not to be ballerinas or astronauts or footballers — they want to grow up to be marketable.
We are about to enter a dark age where absolutely nothing gets done.
A musician’s livelihood has been put at risk by his own venomous spewing of misinformation.
This article is a gross misrepresentation of what actually happened. The email was not leaked, Speake authorised the email to be shared with all students (including the Black students, whose place within jazz he is ironically bringing into disrepute).
Regardless of the commenters’ views on the realities of the music industry (which also concern me as many seem to be insinuating that blatant racism is something to just be accepted as a part of life as a working musician), an educational institution like TL exists to be a safe space for the nurturing of artistic talent. As a member of staff of TL, Speake has a duty of safeguarding students, and in sharing an email like this, where again he is creating an environment in which it is seen that certain (very visibly identifiable) students are not there on merit, but because of handouts, he is doing the complete opposite by putting many students in danger, and so the question of him loosing his job is not an absurd one.
It is very interesting to see how quick and comfortable the author and many commenters are to dismiss this, having not read the email in question. This is the wider issue with this email, and particularly with it being willfully shared; it allows people a space and platform to spread their own hate. The focus in the comments on the student’s mental health alongside not a single mention of the ‘defamatory narratives about black musicians in the jazz industry’ is very telling. If Speake is not fired, Trinity will be seen to be complicit in creating this environment where Norman Lebrecht is able to publicly share an article more concerned about the fact that an email was ‘leaked’ (which it wasn’t), than the racist content of said email, and commenters are able to have and share such strong opinions about the students mention of their mental health, and no care for what caused the deterioration of their mental health, based on this article which is devoid of any detail. This is not a safe environment for any musician.
If you have the email, please share it here and we can form a more informed judgement.
I have not been able to find the email — this is the most I have been able to dig up so far:
“The email outlines his view that the jazz industry is not institutionally racist. It is claimed by a student, in an ever growing online petition, that this email has made black musicians feel unsafe at Trinity.”
Not being a member of the jazz industry, I have no direct knowledge as to whether it is institutionally racist. As an occasional attender at jazz events, performed by people of varied races, I would have said that it didn’t look that way.
Unlike the petitioners on both sides of this issue, I hold no opinion on the question. But they do. So does Professor Peake. Some apparently disagree with him, others do not.
Can’t they argue it out like grown-ups? Maybe he is wrong. Maybe he expressed himself rudely. Tackle him, if that’s what you believe. Don’t cower in “safe spaces” feeling “traumatised” and “distressed.” Marshal your arguments and face him down if you think he is wrong.
Does his long and very distinguished career have to be destroyed even if he has expressed himself in an unfortunate manner? Is everything a hanging matter? It’s higher education. IF he is wrong, show him how. He works in the world of music and education, and if he is wrong, he will thank you for enlightening him.
If, as is more likely, he is right but has expressed himself unfortunately, or even nastily, demand the apology that is due, and perhaps ask the institution what consequences his unpleasantness should engender.
Like Mr. Lebrecht, I would like to know exactly what was in this email. On available information, it still looks as if a segment of the university population is snowflaking because someone has had the temerity to disagree with their blinkered, do-not-dare-to-contradict-me approach to life.
Listen up, snowflakes: you are entitled to be annoyed if you think this guy is wrong, or has expressed himself unpleasantly. But try to lay off on the collapse into a mental health abyss of self-created traumas and distress and unsafety. Man up.
Be nice if you shared the specific content instead of engaging in innuendo.
Probably black students are more resilient than you think, probably their mental health will not deteriorate immediately as you suggested, and probably you are the real racist with your condescending views.
If these students want to know what distress feels like, and I mean the real thing, they should pop up to Rotherham, Rochdale, Keighley, Bradford, Newcastle or any one of several other places and speak to the thousands (yes, thousands) of young girls in care who have been repeatedly abused, and who were ignored for at least two decades because the authorities were afraid of being accused or racism.
I’m sure that these girls would have happily traded their experiences for the trauma of hearing a few hurty words.
Trauma is relative. Many students today have been constantly stimulated by endless social media feeds that make them happy (memes, sugar-laden recipes, and more) along with instant access to their favorite music and videos at next to nothing. Everything is consumed on-demand, no need to wait or pay, for that matter.
If they hear a speech given by a Holocaust survivor, the current generation is more likely to need a “trigger warning” or, on th either hand, protest that the Holocaust never happened. Their brains are not wired like those of their parents. It is a sad reality of our time.
In Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East, these topics are not discussed because people in those places have different problems. In Asia, it’s all about education and building wealth through hard work (very hard study); in Africa it’s about surviving harsh living conditions (in every way); in the Middle East the disparity between rich and poor could not be more marked, and the poorest kids face numerous pressures.
These native English-speaking kids are traumatized because they can’t comprehend a life without comfort and ease; they must blame the past for all of their problems. They blame a first generation Romanian-American for slavery because he or she looks white, and thus “must have had slave-holding ancestors in North America” (this is their thinking). They believe it is okay to rob stores and people and damage property so long as those committing the acts (crimes) are of a certain look. Even here at this website we have commenters saying that rates of property theft and robbery in San Francisco have gone down, yet these commenters are completely out of touch: rates have fallen because there are fewer and fewer stores to rob and people have become more and more cautious, so much so that they have left the city.
It’s sad and disheartening. We cannot work together to improve society and life for everyone if we begin our beliefs with prejudices.
I am happy to see positive improvements in inclusivity in the performing arts world. I don’t know what this saxophone professor wrote, but I will halt judgement until the facts are clear to all. There is a chilling effect in all of this, and the mob of woke play offense and defense at the same time; it is difficult—dangerously risky— for anyone who has a foot on both sides of the aisle to take a stand and help to resolve conflicts and unite the community.
What makes you think that none of the students are from Rotherham or the other towns and cities you mentioned and have a direct connection with the victims- or may even be one of the victims?
Like many commentators here spewing against the protesting students, you too have fallen into the trap of imagining that all students who study jazz at Trinity Laban, Guildhall, and RAM must all confirm to a certain steteotype of gender, class, race, economic background, and hometown.
Anyone who genuinely thinks “black musicians are over represented in the UK jazz industry” needs to take one long hard look at the very, very (embarrassingly) white National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
The content of the letter:
Dear Aleks and Anthony
I began writing this last year but after another BLM reference and email from Anthony recently I have been prompted to add more to this response and send this as you have asked for feedback. Regarding your statements on inclusivity and Kaleidoscope: Celebrating Black British Music and now BLM at Trinity.
I would like to discuss this whole issue at some point as black musicians in jazz and many other styles of music are definitely not under-represented in the UK and have far more opportunities than many others as funding bodies, media, promoters and festivals are biased in this way. Some white musicians deliberately have black musicians in their band to help them get gigs rather than thinking who is musically suitable and are too scared to speak out about this issue as they will be labelled ‘racist’.
I and many others find it very hard to get concerts particularly at festivals because of this agenda that is now going on throughout the UK. I realise it comes from the government and above and all institutions and companies are being instructed in this way throughout the UK and many countries worldwide or they won’t get their funding maybe?
Why is it relevant what colour the skin is?
You mention systemic inequality. This is just not the case in my department. Also why hire somebody because of the colour of their skin?
Which black composers in Jazz are underrepresented? Can you tell me?
Several below have OBE or MBE’s. Hardly not recognised by the system.
Certainly not Byron Wallen, Soweto Kinch, Peter Edwards, Jason Yarde, Xhosa Cole, Nubya Garcia, Tony Kofi, Sultan Stevenson, Ezra Collective, Courtney Pine, Ayanna Witter Johnson, Shabaka Hutchins, Moses Boyd, Cassie Kinoshi, Binker Golding, Daniel Casimir, Mark Kavuma, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Gary Crosby OBE, Cleveland Watkiss MBE, Orphy Robinson MBE, Julian Joseph OBE, and many others who all have lots of press attention, label support, funding and high profile concerts in comparison to many high quality white musicians who don’t get this support.
Just look at the publicity for the LJF last year https://sites.barbican.org.uk/britishjazz/
and the publicity TL use is all about the black musicians who have graduated such as Nubya Garcia, Ezra Collective, Cassie Kinoshi, Moses Boyd who have media and label support.
This is not representative of the whole of British Jazz or even of TL but a tiny section the controlling bodies choose to promote and these organisations have a lot of power and create an inaccurate perception of what British jazz is.
This is not 20th century USA or apartheid South Africa when there was obvious discrimination and violence from the state against blacks.
There are many under represented musicians and composers of all skin colour and backgrounds. The bias of emphasising black composers regardless of quality of music doesn’t make sense to me. This quote from Frank Haviland sums up for me what is happening “Mainstream publications, educational institutions, the media and public figures are now collectively normalising the war on whiteness to such an extent, you’d think they were discussing a sickness, not a race.”
From this article. https://countrysquire.co.uk/2019/12/30/brits-are-not-racist/
Maybe in classical music and dance it is an issue but there are very few black classical musicians as far as I know, looking at the student body at TL or orchestras and professional musicians, although probably increasing? Let me know. You can’t force black children to play classical music just to get quotas up and promote ‘equality’, whatever that is. Hence TL can only use the jazz course for their quotas hiring black staff and recruiting black students.
It is the classical arena that needs to change in many ways and as I mentioned in a previous email to Aleks, particularly how it is taught. It is a mistake to direct any of this agenda to the jazz course or jazz scene. I feel it is divisive. This makes no financial, artistic or educational sense and I feel this old model and these courses, who
This makes no financial, artistic or educational sense and I feel this old model and these courses, who cannot recruit, are bailed out financially by TL because of the historical tradition. As I said in my previous email to Aleks last year, which he said he agreed with everything I had written on this subject, my suggestion is to recruit the best instrumentalists and then arrange the music for this line up rather than sticking to the orchestral or traditional model. Music can be arranged for any line up. Then students will get far more playing opportunities. The jazz course is thriving and turns away huge numbers of students applying yet has a miniscule masterclass budget for example. These issues for me are a far bigger priority that the so called race issue that TL seems to be making an unnecessary priority to please some goverment dictat.
For me the opportunity is about class not skin colour. Many poor white, asian and black children don’t get the opportunity to play music or afford instruments. Not just black. This policy being promoted by TL is totally discriminatory ironically. If there is systematic bias in Britain which discriminates against one race over others it is against white people. Also there is a use of the victim mentality to further careers (and for other reasons) that needs to be discussed but this is a wider issue.
By constantly emphasising that blacks are discriminated against, institutional racism (which does not exist in the jazz world, apart from maybe against whites now in certain areas of promotion) and are underdogs, deprived of opportunities etc, this encourages the victim mentality and is untrue.
You just need to look around Greenwich and can see the majority of students at Greenwich University are black. So how are they underprivileged or
discriminated against?
Also the promotion of the organisation Black Lives Matter, as you have put it in capital letters I presume you are referring to BLM, is very dangerous in my opinion. The critical race theory stated by BLM states that racism is embedded in society, not only the product of individual bias and prejudice, but is entrenched in institutions. I don’t believe this to be true. Look at all those who I have mentioned above recognised by the system and the number of black Greenwich University students. They are in the massive majority
BLM promotes defunding of the police so are you supporting that?
The other concerning issue is that because of this emphasis on being black and supposedly a victim and under represented the ‘race card ‘can be used if anybody criticises or disagrees with a black student or staff, then that it is called racist. This is happening and the issue will be nothing to do with skin colour. Very dangerous area we are getting into. Apologising for being white and presuming blacks are always right. Divisive.
Martin Luther King famously called on us to judge
people according to the content of their character not the colour of their skin.
With best wishes
Martin
Pressing a thumbs up for the sharing. Not for the actual content of the email of course. That is so disheartening to read. He is entitled to his own disappointments and frustrations about why he didn’t get certain gigs but they should remain restricted to conversations with friends- certainly not sent to any student.
“Hence TL can only use the jazz course for their quotas hiring black staff and recruiting black students.”
He should be fired for this alone. Demeaning the value of his black colleagues and students based on what?
What a nasty piece of work. I am glad he outed himself, destroyed his teaching career, and made himself a pariah who can only look forward to playing gigs at the Reform UK Christmas party.
I believe he was referring to how the classical music section wasn’t getting black students and were using the jazz dept as an example of their good recruiting efforts — and that they should make more of an effort in the classical area, that there was something phony about this on their part.
I don’t see how he was demeaning anyone in that passage. I think he did make a mistake later on in bringing up “critical race theory, ” criticism of which has become an immediate dog whistle for many of these students and adherents.
This is a perfectly reasonable missive. One doesn’t have to agree with it but there’s certainly nothing racist in it unless merely disagreeing with a rising or prevailing perspective is by definition racist. By that definition, there can be no disagreement with any agenda, which is, I suspect, the point.
Can someone share the email pls?
As the mother of a Black student at Trinity Laban in the Jazz Department please ‘report’ with basic accuracy. The teacher in question shared the letter with a student. It has then, subsequently ,and with the authors permission, been shared with all students in the department It will then, unsurprisingly, have been shared beyond. The whole institution was invited to meet about It yesterday. The letter contains racist, prejudiced and factually incorrect views which should, of course, be of deep concern to us ALL(!).It is quite unequivocal. You should publish it and others can be outraged…It also demonstrates, unusually in writing, view points of a senior educator in one of this country’s leading jazz departments working on a daily basis with students of colour. Can you see the problem? If you were a Black student, or indeed any student, and had assignments/work being assessed by such a person wouldn’t you be ‘distressed’? The subject of this article misses the point. Why is that? Why are we taking students to task? Racism in music and music education is a fact. It is a BAD thing. Let’s focus on what the institution and ALL OF US will do to make things better.
What was racist about it?
I think he rambled terribly, and started going off into classic right-wing critical race theory territory, but his basic point was that he didn’t think black students were underrepresented in jazz studies — that this was some kind of rebuttal to BLM-style criticisms of the college’s alleged recruiting problems.
A lot of people defending an overtly racist email is telling.
No one’s read it.
I think they’re defending the idea of academic freedom.
If you’re planning to go into the music business and are fragile, don’t bother.
Absolutely mind-boggling how there are people who think it makes sense that a white, male teacher in a position of power and influence and is at Trinity to educate on a Black, African-American art-form is feeling overlooked and overshadowed by Black jazz musicians.
Just as we acknowledge that European classical music is European in essence and historically, the same level of understanding and acceptance must be given to “jazz” music. How can you teach jazz without accepting that it’s essence is rooted in “Blackness”.
A lot of the musicians and composers he clearly feels threatened by were those who were turned away from British jazz labels, spaces and venues such as Ronnie Scott’s by racist security who associate Black with “not quality” and not classy enough to watch or create jazz (completely not understanding that the genre is for community and collectiveness) and therefore went to innovate and start their own labels and spaces.
Now these spaces are doing well, there are white British jazz musicians with similar thoughts to Martin Speake are envious and want to tear it down. It’s so typical.
Go and start your own “UK Jazz” movement or series if you feel threatened? I do agree that the scene is more expansive than some of the names at the forefront, but there is absolutely room for everyone and beyond just London too.
How can someone who allegedly authentically composes and performs jazz be racist to the very group of people who founded the music? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Black Americans sure, but Black British are a part of the diaspora and can wholly resonate with the messages that a lot of the greats were sharing on a deeper level simply down to being a part of a similar history and lived experience.
Very tired of this conversation being had and my name (which was a part of Speake’s list) being used as fodder to criticise and undermine the hard work I have put and continue to put into my music and craft.
More like Martin Don’t Speake, amirite?
Speeke said there was no anti black racism in the Jazz Industry, quite obviously untrue and shocking for a music professor to say.