Fighting history and myth re racial politics in jazz

I completely disagree with the point of Randall Sandke's book Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet: Race and the Muthology, Politics, and Business of Jazz.

Rather than celebrate a century of inter-racial collaboration modeling society's progress on civil rights, instead Sandke proposes that a cabal of journalists, scholars and left-leaning "activist" producers exaggerated black musicians' centrality while downplaying white Americans' contributions to jazz.

He thinks white musicians deserve more attention and credit, if jazz is a true meritocracy; I think instead that the generally accepted shape of jazz's narrative and its canon is representative of jazz's meritocracy, and that white musicians for the most part have gotten plenty of notice, plus fame and fortune frequently disproportionate to their artistic achievements.

Read my review at JJANews.org -- and look for Sandke, a composer-trumpeter as well as author, to post a response, here or there.
From: http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2010/12/fighting_history_and_myth_re_r.html