Remarks offered at the “Shaping an Omni American Future” online colloquium in 2021
It’s a delight to be here and to be part of a celebration of this man that I love so much. I teach his work every year, so thank you for arranging this celebration. Our struggles against prejudice—antisemitism and anti-Black American racism—are two of the most famous struggles in the world. We can model the opportunity to see one another as part of ourselves, to offer hospitality to everyone in the world as one family. That’s the Murray point of view.
We can model the opportunity to see one another as part of ourselves, to offer hospitality to everyone in the world as one family. That's the Murray point of view.
I met Albert Murray in 1973 at a conference at Harvard when I was an undergraduate there. At that time, he was talking about adoption—that’s part of what I want to say a word about today, as I share a couple of personal stories.
In a moment between sessions, Mr. Murray said that he was adopted. It was my first time meeting him. He told me that he himself had been adopted and that adoption became an important part of his philosophy. He said adoption comes from a Latin word meaning “to choose.” And the fact that his adoptive parents chose him was part of the enrichment of life as he viewed it. He had his birth parents, plus he had another set. He had a way of looking at everything in a positive light. But this idea of adoption was central to him: you could choose your own associates without regard to ethnicity or background; you could choose who you wanted. You could choose who you wanted as an artist; you could choose your ancestors. So, he would often say that his uncle was Faulkner, that his aunt was Gertrude Stein, and that Duke Ellington was part of his family because he had adopted them.
I was fortunate to be Murray’s driver. When I first came to New York, he found out I had a relatively new car, and he would call me up. That was the greatest thing in my life at that point. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, I would drive him around—he gave me lessons in clothing and cooking, lessons in books and music. And I realized that he had adopted me as one of his sons, and he was going to set me straight on any number of accounts. And I’m so much the richer for it.
Mr. Murray believed in art. He believed that people live in terms of the art that’s around them. Therefore, the jazz discussion is very pertinent. We all can be improvisers; we all can be individuals and have a strong voice.
Mr. Murray believed in art. He believed that people live in terms of the art that's around them. Therefore, the jazz discussion is very pertinent. We all can be improvisers; we all can be individuals and have a strong voice.
We all can be part of a band where we hear one another and respect one another and help them bring out their own individuality, as we make up a band that’s democratic together. So, it was very important that he heard a storyline in the music, that the singer of a song, even if it was a sad song, was the hero of that song, and that the hero’s responsibility was to save the whole group. And then, furthermore, the band was a democratic unit responsible for hearing one another and for making the whole band sound good.
I’ll finish what I have to say today with a personal anecdote concerning one of my sons.
I was going over to Mr. Murray’s house at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue, Malcolm X Avenue, and I had to take my four-year-old son with me. I knew that Murray was not so at ease with having youngsters around his house. He had expensive paintings that came as far down as the floor nearly, and books all the way to the floor. So, he told me that when his friends came over with kids, he would jump until they left… He’d say, “Watch that… Look out… Have you got… Make sure you’re going… Hold on.” He would make those kinds of jumps until the person took that kid out of there. So I had that ringing in my head as I realized I had to bring my own four-year-old son over.
So I told Gabe, “Look, you’re going to go here, and I want you to be on your best behavior. Imagine you’re at your grandfather’s house where you know you have to sit still and behave yourself and not cause any disturbance.” And so Gabe was very good. He was like a soldier. He sat there, he was very good. Mrs. Murray had a beautiful sing-song voice. She said, “I know my boy would like to have some cake. And come on in here and get a little something to drink.” So she was wonderful with him and showed hospitality. If anybody could represent that, Mrs. Murray did. Mrs. Murray liked hospitality, seeing the other person as part of who we are and saying, “Come on in. We’re all in this thing together.” That’s the Murray spirit of things.
And eventually, after Mr. Murray and I talked about whatever it was, we were ready to leave. And as we got to the doorway, Gabe pulled me down to him and said, “Daddy, am I supposed to shake his hand? What should I say to this man? How can I say goodbye?” And Murray said, “What is all this secret talk going on about?” And I said, “Well, honestly, he’s not sure if he should shake your hand or hug you. I told him to act as [he does] at his grandfather’s house, but he’s not sure what to do now.” And Murray said, “Well, if he’s at his grandfather’s house, son, come over here and give your granddaddy a big hug right now.” And he hugged him tight.
The meaning of the word adoption really came through to me at that point. He treated my son, who he was seeing for the first time, as his own grandson, as he had treated me as his son. And part of his lesson there, of course, is that we can all rise above our racial and ethnic and class and age specificities and adopt people based on kinship that goes beyond those questions of color and other questions like that. If we can see one another’s struggles as our own and reach out and greet one another in that way, Murray’s message was that we can not only be Omni-Americans, but we can be world citizens modeling what it means to be against antisemitism and racism at every single turn.