The Rhythm of Change

In Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons, which was named a Best Book of 2024 by PopMatters, Barson explores how Black musicians shaped music into a world-making force that impacted everything from the Haitian Revolution to Reconstruction and the birth of jazz. Building on Julius S. Scott’s The Common Wind, a book that details the networks of information about the Haitian Revolution that spread across the Caribbean, Barson’s research demonstrates that music was a powerful force in responding to systems of slavery and imperialism. “I wanted to call attention to this acoustic, kinetic moment that inaugurated this new age of revolution and trace how song, rhythm and instrumentation articulated itself in these pivotal moments,” says Barson.

Both a jazz musician and a community activist, Barson has long been interested in the relationship between music and social movements. While he was an undergraduate at Hampshire College, his African American studies courses revealed a connection between the ethos of music and the history of the campaign for equal rights. Barson continued to investigate these topics while pursuing his doctorate in music at the University of Pittsburgh. “It was acknowledged that the 1960s were a time of convergence between questions of social relations, the political imaginary and developments in music,” he says. But Barson also questioned whether there was a deeper, more dynamic history to be unearthed. “This book emerged from my Ph.D. research, and my Ph.D. research emerged from feeling the power of music across historical contexts.”

Of particular importance to grassroots democracy movements was the formation of large brass bands, which were composed of both freedpeople and formerly enslaved people. These bands frequently performed at mass meetings, rallies and parades, often improvising musical arrangements as a mode of political expression. “Being innovative and being able to improvise were markers of being politically aware,” says Barson.

Spontaneous improvisation is commonly associated with jazz music, which Barson links to the mass movements of freedpeople that mobilized in confrontation with the institution of slavery. “Improvisation has always had a dynamic social commentary that reflected the spirit of the times,” he says.

Given the improvisational nature of jazz, there is a commonly accepted refrain that you’ll never hear the same jazz performance twice. In this way, jazz does not repeat itself, though it contains the rhythms of history.