[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 39 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Pages 1838-1840]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Millennium Lecture With Jazz Musicians

September 18, 1998

[The opening remarks by the First Lady and the President were made in a 
video presentation to the audience.]

    The First Lady. Good evening and welcome to the White House. The 
theme we have chosen for the millennium is ``Honor the Past, Imagine the 
Future.'' This lecture continues a series of millennium evenings with 
scholars, scientists and other creative individuals which we are holding 
to commemorate and celebrate this milestone.
    The President. With the millennium, we must now decide how to think 
about our commitment to the future. Thomas Paine said, a long time ago, 
``We have it in our power to begin the world over again.'' We have 
always believed that in this country, and we must now take it upon 
ourselves to take stock as we approach this new millennium to commit 
ourselves to begin the world over again for our children, our children's 
children, for people who will live in a new century.
    It is to the people of that new century that we must all offer our 
very best gifts. It is for them that we will celebrate the millennium.

[The video presentation concluded, and the First Lady then made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to 
join Hillary in welcoming all our musicians here tonight and all the 
jazz fans. I thank, in particular, President Havel and Mrs. Havel for 
being here. When I was in Prague, the President took me to a jazz club, 
gave me a saxophone he had personally inscribed, and provided me with a 
band that covered my sins. [Laughter] And then he accompanied me on the 
tambourine, made a CD of it, and sent it to me, so I'm actually a 
recording artist--[laughter]--thanks only to Vaclav Havel. I also want 
to thank the First Lady for having the idea for these millennium 
evenings and for agreeing eagerly to my entreaty that at least one of 
them ought to be devoted to this unique American contribution to the 
creativity of the world.
    A little more than a century ago, a famous composer arrived on our 
shores and was amazed by what he heard: African-American music, blues 
and spirituals, street songs and work songs. It was unlike anything he 
had heard in Europe or, in fact, anywhere else in the world. After 
hearing these new, uniquely American sounds, he wrote: ``America can 
have her own music, a fine music, growing up from her soil and having 
its own special character. The natural voice of a free and great 
nation.'' Those words were written by the great Czech composer Antonin 
Dvorak in 1892. It is especially fitting, therefore, that we have a 
worthy successor of Czech greatness in the President of the Czech 
Republic here with us tonight.

[[Page 1839]]

    In time, the music Dvorak heard became what we know today as jazz. 
And jazz became the soundtrack of this, the American century. Like 
America itself, it is inventive and bold, vital and free, respectful of 
its roots, yet always changing, always becoming, always reinventing 
itself. The great drummer and band leader Art Blakey once said, ``No 
America, no jazz.'' This was no mere boast. Jazz could only have 
happened here because it is music born of the American experience, and 
it gives voice, eloquent, insistent voice, to our American spirit.
    Like our country, jazz is a cultural crossroads where the rhythms of 
Africa meet the musical instruments of Europe, where black meets white 
and Latino, where New Orleans meets the southside of Chicago and 52d 
Street. And like our democracy, jazz provides a framework for flowing 
dialog, a basis for brilliant improvisation, a point of reference and a 
point of departure. It poses challenges and seeks resolution, finding it 
in the coordinated efforts of the community as well as in the unique 
voice of the individual, syncopation and solo. Like me, you're probably 
eager to hear some of the music, so please join me in welcoming two 
remarkable musicians who are our hosts for this evening.
    Marian McPartland, as you all know, plays improvisational jazz piano 
and has now been playing it quite wonderfully for over seven decades. 
With just as much energy and enthusiasm--I should not have said that. 
[Laughter] I had the chart here, that's the point where I should have ad 
libbed, but I didn't. [Laughter] The thing that I really appreciate is 
that Marian has long been introducing young students to jazz, even 
introducing them to Duke Ellington himself a number of years ago.
    And in the great tradition of Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis is a 
distinguished composer, big band leader, devoted advocate for the arts 
and education. It is no wonder that last year he became the first jazz 
artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. And he may be the only 
musician in our lifetime to be virtually universally acclaimed as the 
finest player of his instrument in either classical or jazz mediums.
    Wynton, Marian, the stage is yours.

[At this point, the evening's program proceeded.]

    The President. Thank you, Dianne. Thank you, Billy. Thank all of our 
wonderful musicians. And I want to say a special word of thanks to 
Marian and to Wynton for showing us how much jazz can tell us about our 
country, our century, our deepest aspirations.
    I did grow up loving jazz. I was inspired, moved by the agility of 
Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, by the inventiveness of Thelonious 
Monk, by the incredible inventive genius of John Coltrane and the 
incomparable Miles Davis. They and many others opened my ears and opened 
the ears of millions of our fellow citizens to a music that was 
profoundly human and distinctly American.
    But if jazz is an American invention, it certainly travels well--
from club to concert hall, from coast to coast, across the oceans and 
back, returning with the imprint of other cultures and new influences. 
Music that began as American at the core truly has become now the music 
of the world.
    Jazz is also, as it has long been, the international language of 
liberation, what a man named Willis Conover called the ``Music of 
Freedom.'' For more than 40 years during the cold war, Willis Conover 
hosted the jazz program on the Voice of America. Dictators banned it and 
jammed his broadcasts because they understood the power of jazz to 
unleash the human spirit. But they could not stop the music. Six nights 
a week, as Conover started his show with the first bars of ``Take the A 
Train,'' 30 million listeners in the Soviet bloc would join him for the 
ride. As far away as China and as recently as 1989, students at 
Tiananmen Square hummed the tunes they heard on the Voice of America, 
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie. It became sort of a not-so-secret code 
in the struggle for human rights.
    Tonight we are honored by the presence of someone who has stood at 
the frontline of that struggle and who can tell us the meaning of jazz 
for those yearning to be free. A few years ago, as I said tonight, when 
we were in Prague, we even performed a few tunes together. Please join 
me in welcoming an artist and a leader whose work is a tribute to the 
human spirit, and who perhaps will

[[Page 1840]]

tell us a little bit about the impact of jazz on his Velvet Revolution, 
President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic.

[President Havel made brief remarks, after which the program continued 
with a question-and-answer session with participants linked to the 
performance around the world.]

    The First Lady.  This is from Sarah Miles in Havasu, Alberta, 
Canada. Subject: Influences of jazz. Question: Mr. President, how did 
jazz influence your choice of going into public service over private 
business? We love you in Alberta. Respectfully. [Laughter]
    The President. Well, my first thought is that when I was younger in 
my teens, I used to do this a lot. And I was honest enough to know when 
I was doing it that while I was never happier doing anything else, I 
knew I'd never be as good as these guys, so I figured I had to get a day 
job. [Laughter]
    That's a very good question. I had never thought about it before, 
but I think the answer is, my association with music and the discipline 
and long hours of preparation it took and the joy it brought, 
particularly when I got into jazz, had a lot in common with what I love 
about public service. It is about communication; it's about creativity 
but cooperation, as Wynton said earlier. And like jazz, I don't think 
you can be really, really good at it unless you care about other people 
and have a good heart, like these guys do. Thank you.

[The question-and-answer session continued.]

    The President. Well, we should probably end with the question. You 
know, one of the things that I'd like to say, I'd like to compliment the 
recording companies who have put out CD's recently, of all of Ella 
Fitzgerald's recordings for example. And I would like to encourage all 
the people who are involved in this business to think about, as a way of 
celebrating the millennium, to look at all the great jazz music that is 
still available in any condition over the last decades and think about 
packaging anything that is not yet now in mint condition--the best 
available condition--in making it widely available, because I think that 
is very, very important. A lot of young people will listen to this, will 
carry it on, will imagine it and play it--as Marian said--if they have 
access to it. So that's a great, great question and a great way to end.
    We can't know everything that will happen in the new millennium, but 
I'll bet you one thing we know. When you hear American jazz coming back 
transformed as Brazilian music or African music, as Hillary and I have 
in our trips around the world, I think jazz will be a big part of it. 
And all of you who are part of this night tonight will know that all of 
your work will live well into this new century and into this new 
millennium. And the world will be a better place because of it.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 7:30 p.m. in the East Room at 
the White House. In his remarks, he referred to President Vaclav Havel 
of the Czech Republic and his wife, Dagmar Havlova; jazz vocalist Dianne 
Reeves; and jazz pianist and historian Billy Taylor. These remarks were 
not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.