On My Removal From Jazz Zum Dritten, Frankfurt

A numbingly depressing moment

“Due to programmatic reasons” I have been removed from Jazz Zum Dritten in Frankfurt.

The show is sponsored by the Frankfurt tourism office (Tourismus- und Congress GmbH Frankfurt am Main), who are funded by the city and state. I received this news on September 14th, less than two weeks before I was scheduled to play.

I am sorry I won’t be able to share my music with my beautiful band—for this one Ezekiel Ajie, Maria Chiara Argiró, and Tamar Osborn—to the people in Frankfurt.

I haven’t been given more than “programmatic reasons” so can’t say more about why this has happened. “Programmatic reasons” usually shift timings or stages of already booked acts, not unilaterally cancel them two weeks before the show, with no explanation or space to discuss the decision with the artist or their team.

If you feel like this might have some connection with a pop culture news item that broke that very same day, well, I guess we are speculating along the same, dry, depressing lines.

I do want to try to put words to the flavour of depressingness of this moment.

I’d like interest and attention to be withdrawn from what spineless billionaire musicians are doing. I want them to feel how cold and meaningless everything is when they don’t stand for anything and even people who once fuelled their egos, screaming their names in stadiums, start to desert them.

It’s really numbing to know that ‘the power of suggestion’ is sought to be minimised by censoring artists who simply, humanly, firmly, oppose genocide. Isn’t that what censorship is? If enough voices, or enough influential people, publicly opposed genocide, people who previously thought it’s not a biggie might also start thinking genocide might be bad after all? And they might care enough to make life difficult for the Zionist billionaire class?

How is ‘the power of suggestion’ still in the room regarding genocide? ‘Will they say Free Palestine or not?’ ‘Will they play that song?’ ‘How will they play that song?.’ Really and truly, what is wrong with you if you’re wired in a way where this is your worry? And what is wrong with people who are thus far not fussed about genocide but might start thinking about it only if a famous artist opposes it? There must be enough of such people if billionaires worry enough to censor artists who may influence them.

How did you fall into such a deep sleep?

It shouldn’t be so easy for artists to feel like they are doing important, brave activism just by publicly opposing genocide. It should feel like hard, ongoing work to know that we are doing everything in our power. I, for one, am not doing enough at all. The censorship environment is making the bar so low for what ‘heroism’ as an artist looks and feels like.

I will not play this show and there might be other shows I won’t play. Big pop stars might be taken off some shows too. Yes, this gives many of us that numb, ‘at a loss’ feeling I’ve been fleshing out here but we still shouldn’t be too interested in this kind of news. We have to remember our time and attention are limited. Don’t give them away so easily. Genocide is still the news—the emergency— and all the more so, not less, because it continues to rage on.