Gil Noble and Jazz:
Passing Down the History
The death of journalist Gil Noble on April 5th was unfortunate as he left behind a legacy that is admirable by any standard. The seven time Emmy winner spent most of his life trying to tell the stories of the underrepresented. While his main focus was on social issues, not many knew that he was a big advocate of jazz music. Gil actually played piano for a while and did gigs with a trio he led around Harlem, citing Erroll Garner as an influence on his style. He also was a member of the Jazz Foundation of America and grew up with saxophonist Jackie McLean. But perhaps he made the largest impact through his daily TV show that offered an alternative look into our society.
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On many occasions Gil used the show “Like It Is” to highlight jazz, and because of the hour-long format was able to go in-depth on subjects. In his early years at WABC-TV he produced a documentary with Dizzy Gillespie named “Jazz-The American Art Form,” one of the first documentaries to air on the channel in prime-time. Having access to ABC’s archives allowed him to unearth a lot of rare material from early pioneers in the genre. Even though he mainly interviewed Dizzy for the documentary, in Gil’s autobiography “Black Is The Color Of My TV Tube” he recalled how Dizzy told him to not make it seem like Dizzy was the centerpiece of the doc and to state that all American music from jazz to rock has African origins. This happening in the late 60s with the fusion movement about to come into full swing, it affirmed what many musicians of the time were trying to get across to their fans and the public. Gil would also go on to produce a documentary on the life of Charlie Parker and highlight the careers of many others.
Some of the many guests that Gil interviewed and appeared on his show were like a who’s who of the jazz world. Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Nancy Wilson, Milt Jackson, Abbey Lincoln, Bobbi Humphrey and numerous others all sat down to talk with Gil Noble. These conversations would not only touch on the music these legends made, but how they grew up and what they experienced. There is a famous one he did with Sarah Vaughn in the 1970s in which she takes him on a walk through Newark and they encounter a group of kids in a schoolyard. When he asks them if they knew who Sarah was they all said no. Gil’s response? “No? That’s part of the problem, isn’t it?” Even during that time jazz was venturing to the fringes of American culture and was becoming unknown to the younger generations.
But Gil provided a solution by using his show to expose people to the music and history of the genre alongside shedding light on contemporary issues. As he had on many activists and political leaders, he would also champion the arts and its place in society. On one episode he might have Max Roach offer a history lesson and explain the relation jazz has to certain types of African music. On another show he would talk to Hip-Hop pioneer Afrika Bamabatta with emcee Talib Kweli, bridging a gap in their music. Or he would interview Lena Horne about her upbringing and at a later date sit down with Mos Def. This does not even include the numerous icons he interviewed like Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. All of this came together on his show, allowing him to show how it was all connected as part of the social experience of black Americans. In doing this younger viewers were exposed to what came before them and how it was related to what they were doing, and older ones got to see what the newer generation was thinking about and going through.
The longevity of Like It Is though, which ran for 43 years, can be attributed to Gil’s commitment to his audience who in turn supported him. As he understood that television was the medium of the day he used this to engage people using the most effective communication tool of the time. He was critical of there not being enough specials or giving non-pop musicians time on television, and tried to counter this through his work. It should be noted that he had a large platform with ABC and because he was a pioneer he had the attention of many. But there might be a lesson in his loyalty to the community in which he served and finding the best way to reach them. He knew how important it was for black people to see the significance of the genre in connection to current music developments. Because of that his show became an entry point for many to learn about jazz when places like schools failed to do so. Gil took it upon himself to do a simple, but crucial task: he was passing down the history.
Words By Seve Chambers (Twitter: @SChambersBK)