Lary Bloom
Writer, Editor, Teacher
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Tuesday, April 04, 2006
O Jackie
For many years, I tried to convince Jackie McLean that we should collaborate on his life story. But he was reluctant. Besides, he said, that if he did decide to undertake an autobiography he would likely do it with a jazz writer. I objected. "Yours isn't a 'jazz' story as much as it is the story of an American triumph.' "That is, while it's true that Jackie Mac, as friends referred to him, ascended to the very top of the jazz world -- the pre-eminent alto sax player -- the real story is something else. It is is that, in mid-career, he decided to use his street experience (a former heroin addiction) to become a force for good among black youths. Through his insistence that they learn heritage and music and what it takes to make a good apperance in life, Jackie sent thousands of young people on the right path. That's the story I wanted to tell.
Well, there are references to it now in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and every other major newspaper in America. They carried Jackie's obit over the last few days -- he died peacefully at home with his wife Dollie and his children around him. All of the obits pointed out his community work, though none really got to the heart of it.
I still see in my memory scared little kids coming into his Artist's Collective when it was in its old building on Clark Street in the troubled north end Hartford. And I see these kids, weeks later, up on stage, dancing and singing and playing to an audience as if they were born to do it. That's the music of life -- and Jackie knew how to play it better than anyone I ever met.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 7:45 AM
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