Videographer Michal Shapiro sings a blues Occupy Wall Street protesters and so many other Americans will relate to — with guitarist Arnett Brewster (aka Bruce Arnold) and Woodrow T. Greenwich (aka Dr. David Schroeder, director of NYU’s Jazz Studies program) accompanying. See and hear “Up the Spout” —
Complete disclosure: I wrote liner notes to the Brewster/Greenwich cd Great Houdini, and Michal is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association. Furthermore, I admire the low-key, semi-organized encampment and earnest, inquiring discussions I witnessed Saturday at the Occupy Wall Street site. Contrary to pundits’ critiques, the point the protesters are making is pretty clear (more articulate and accurately aimed than the inchoate frustration and rage of the Tea Party’s big Washington demonstration) and anyway, it’s up to our political leadership to figure out how to get the U.S. out of the mess unregulated financial manipulations have created. Nobody should expect policy answers from a blues.