Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Out Chorus from Doc Jazz

The Doc Jazz in this instance is not the independent jazz label, but the moniker of Tariq Shadid, a Dutch-Palestinian “songwriter” and polemicist, whose greatest internet exposure seems to be from a rather heavy-handed diatribe regarding the proximity of the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem to Deir Yassin, the site where 248 Palestinians were killed during the hostilities of 1948. Shadid uses a crude sort of grim arithmetic of aggrievement, equating the death of 248 Palestinians with the extermination of six million Jews.

Shadid announced on his Musical Intifadah site, that as of February of this year, no more updates would be going up there (not linking, but you can find it at docjazz dot com). He’ll be concentrating his efforts on his upcoming CD. Good luck with that. Don’t expect much jazz from the cat with the Doc Jazz handle. The songs on his site identified as Jazz Fusion or Acid Jazz, like “Smile” and “Castles in the Sky” are at best warmed over R&B or milktoast funk. If there a clave beat in the so-called Latin Jazz number “Eres Mi Vida—Ya Hayati,” it escaped my listening. Even those labeled smooth jazz wouldn’t pass muster on CD101.1 (NY’s notorious smooth jazz station). You won’t hear any jazz Musical Intifadah, but you can find some virulent, hateful lyrics like:

“Do you remember all the faces of the innocent Iraqis
And innocent Afghanis killed with your rockets?
Did you ever hear about being an honourable soldier
If its possible at all well then ur definitely not that soldier”

The music assembled by Doc Jazz is propaganda, not art. Like propaganda, it demonizes its enemies, repeating lies, such as those about American soldiers committing atrocities. In this case, Shadid’s songs are not even honest about the genre they represent. Happy trails Doc . . . and stay out of trouble.