[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 26 (Monday, June 28, 2004)]
[Pages 1132-1133]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 
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

[[Page 1133]]

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.

Note: The President spoke at 4:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.