I happened to attend the Seattle Symphony a few weeks ago and the concert was titled The Best of Quincy Jones. As you can imagine, it was a concert full of Jones’ music over the past many decades he has been writing and composting songs. There were a few surprises for me — the fact that he is the composer behind the Sanford and Son theme song and that he only wrote one song with Aretha Franklin. Another surprise? A white Michael Jackson.
During this concert, there were a trio of back-up singers, all whom were African-American. Further, there was an African-American female artist who sang many of his famous songs that he wrote for women, such as Aretha Franklin. Quincy Jones is a black artist and many of his songs he composed were written for African-American artists.
No one would probably be the most famous artist that Quincy Jones composed for than Michael Jackson, the King of Pop himself. Largely, it was the winning combination of Jones’ songs magically sung and performed by Jackson that made him such an incredible artist. You can imagine the last act of this concert focused on Michael Jackson.
Imagine my surprise where a white man came out to take the spotlight and sing Michael Jackson’s song, with an African-American man backing him up on songs like Billie Jean. Something about this was just so wrong. The longer I listened to this young man singing and making his moves like MJ, the more annoyed I became. Apparently, this performer is an artist in residence with Quincy Jones, but it did not feel appropriate to have this person singing Jackson’s finest songs on the stage.
Every other song was perfomed and backed-up by African-American artists, except for the role of the King. A white young man was chosen to sing this part. It fell flat for me and I also felt it was disrespectful on some level to the legacy of Michael Jackson.
Is this reverse racism? Should I want the best person, regardless of color, to be the one to perform? Just because Michael Jackson was a black man does not necessarily mean that a white man cannot meet his standard. Yes, true. Yet, Quincy Jones is a black composer and song writer and Michael Jackson was a black man who sang those songs like no one else ever could have. It feels respectful to give an African-American the chance to perform live with the Seattle Symphony some of Quincy Jones greatest songs.
My opinion — that is all.