In the tradition: Amiri Baraka, black liberation, and avant-garde praxis in the U.S

(14.) Woodard provides an extensive historical survey of the development of Baraka's politics through his leadership in the Black Power Movement.

(15.) This theory of imperialism stands in direct disagreement with those who define imperialism as simply the oppression of nations by other nations. In such definitions (following from Kautsky), national oppression tends to be regarded as the "foreign policies" of advanced capitalist nations, rather than as a more complex and constitutive mechanism of late capitalism.

(16.) It can also develop into a kind of passing fashion. See Feinstein's fourth chapter "From Obscurity to Fad: Jazz and Poetry in Performance."

(17.) Arguing that less "volatile" post-'60s' black poets--with Michael Harper's 1970 Dear John, Dear Coltrane representing the watershed moment--were able "to concentrate more on the rich legacy of jazz rather than the intensities of rage" (128), Feinstein, in his comprehensive Jazz Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present, nonetheless fails to interpret Baraka's 1979 "AM/TRAK" as anything more than a '60s' poem.

(18.) Baraka does not use Crouch's term but has a similar analysis of this counter-movement in "Class Struggle in Music."

(19.) It is no surprise then that, when Baraka records an ensemble performance of "In the Tradition" (New Music--New Poetry)--only two years after Blythe's album--he does it with the same Steve McCall who had been on the drums for Blythe's In the Tradition, and David Murray (tenor sax), a direct peer of Blythe's also named in Crouch's article.

(20.) The standards Blythe chose for the album represent important periods, styles, and artists in the black blues/Jazz tradition: Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Caravan," and John Coltrane's "Naima."

(21.) See Martin Williams's seminal writings on John Coltrane.

(22.) That 64ths and 128ths can even be perceived by the human ear is clearly debatable and indicates the vernacular technique of hyperbole.

(23.) See Brown for a survey of vernacular forms and genres in black poetry.

(24.) Baraka has written in several essays about the cycle of opposition (denigration), claiming, and cooptation through which black musical styles are assimilated into mainstream white culture. See "The Great Music Robbery."

(25.) The White Shadow played in CBS's 8:00-9:00 p.m. slot from 1978 through 1981.

(26.) Starsky and Hutch played for most of its run in ABC's 10:00-11:0O p.m. slot from 1975 until 1979, after which it lived a long second life in syndicated re-runs.

(27.) The history of racism in basketball has only recently been the subject of serious study and commentary. Fitzpatrick has written on the racial motivations behind the NCAA's 1967 banning of the dunk until 1976 (239-41). The no-dunk rule was popularly dubbed the "Lew Alcindor [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] Rule." Caponi provides an excellent history of the development and racist repression of the black aesthetic in basketball.