    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [June 22, 2004]
    [Pages 1108-1110]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Black Music Month
    June 22, 2004

        Thanks for coming, and welcome to the White House. Laura and I really appreciate you coming to join us today to
    celebrate Black Music Month, and we're glad you're here.
        Our Jazz Masters and students from the Jazz in the New Generation
    program will perform for us soon, and we thank them for being here as
    well. I think you're going to like it. [Laughter] It's actually one of
    the great advantages of being the President is you get some great
    musicians to play for you in your living room. [Laughter]
        We want to thank Dana Gioia for coming here.
    He's the chairman of the National Endowment of Arts. He's doing a fine
    job. I appreciate you being here.
        I see members of my Cabinet who are here. Secretary of Agriculture
    Ann Veneman is joining us. Thank you, Ann,
    for coming. And the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso
    Jackson and his wife, Marcia, I appreciate you both being here. I want to thank
    Congressman Chris Shays from the great
    State of Connecticut for joining us. Thank you, and

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    thank you for bringing Laura back safely last
    night. [Laughter]
        I appreciate Bill Coleman, the
    former Secretary of Transportation under Gerald Ford, for joining us today. Mr. Secretary, thank you for
    coming.
        I want to thank Dr. Billy Taylor, Jazz
    Master 1988, and the Billy Taylor Trio for being here today. Thank you
    all for coming. Honored you're here. I want to thank Jazz Master 2004,
    Chico Hamilton, for joining us today. Thank
    you for coming. James Moody, Jazz Master 1998,
    thank you for coming. Of course, Jazz in the New Generation students,
    who will be introduced shortly. I appreciate David Baker, Jazz Master 2000, for joining us as well. Proud
    you're being here.
        During this month, we recognize the great contribution that black
    music has made to the culture of our Nation and to the world. This music
    could only have come from the unique experience of African Americans,
    yet it speaks to every human heart. Black music in America began with
    spiritual songs that bore witness to the cruelty of bondage and the
    strength of faith. From those roots, it grew into a variety of styles,
    jazz and gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. All these forms
    capture a part of the American spirit.
        It's impossible to imagine American music without Louis Armstrong
    and Duke Ellington, Mahalia Jackson and Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton
    or B.B. King, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, and countless others. It's just impossible to imagine
    American music without them, isn't it?
        Recently, we've lost two of our greatest African American musicians.
    Last month, the celebrated jazz drummer Elvin Jones passed away. He was
    the fiery pulse of John Coltrane's Quartet. Elvin Jones loved music so
    much that rather than spend his last days in the hospital, he brought an
    oxygen tank on stage with him, so he could keep amazing his audiences
    until the very end.
        And just days ago we said goodbye to another American original, Ray
    Charles, who's often called ``the father of soul music,'' but his music
    embraced every style and transcended every label. It takes a great
    talent to make a song forever your own, and no one hears ``Georgia On My
    Mind'' or ``Hit the Road, Jack'' without thinking of Ray
    Charles. When he was 15, his mother,
    Aretha, told him just before her death, ``You might not be able to do
    things like a person who can see, but there are always two ways to do
    everything, and you've just got to find the other way.'' Well, Ray
    found--Ray Charles found the other way, a beautiful way, and it was our
    privilege to witness it.
        Though an older generation leaves us, their legacy lives on in many
    talented young African American musicians of today: Gospel singers like
    Kirk Franklin and Yolanda Adams--I might add, both from Texas--[laughter]--
    bright jazz talents like Roy Hargrove, Mark
    Turner, Joshua Redman;
    pop artists like Alicia Keys. And of course,
    there's a
    Marsalis brother for just about every instrument. [Laughter] These
    performers and many others carry forward the tradition of black music in
    our country. We take great pride in this heritage. We're grateful to
    every musician who keeps that heritage so rich and so vital today.
        And so I've signed a proclamation designating June 2004 as Black
    Music Month in the United States of America. It's a way we honor this
    important part of our heritage.
        I'm going to turn things over now to the Chairman of the National
    Endowment of the Arts, Dana Gioia, who will tell
    us about the Jazz Masters program and introduce our performers. Before
    he comes up here, I want you to know that he jokes he's the only person
    ever to have gone to Stanford Business School to become a poet.
    [Laughter] He can explain that for himself. [Laughter] He's doing a
    great job as the NEA Chairman. Welcome, Dana Gioia.

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    Note: The President spoke at 4:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. The Black Music Month proclamation of June 22 is listed in
    Appendix D at the end of this volume.