As the malign forces of Amerikkka gather for their 2024 assault on truth, justice and democracy, an assault from which, if it is successful, there may be no peaceable reversal available four years down the line, the American jazz world should hang its head in shame. Denunciations of and opposition to the rise of domestic neo-fascism have been mostly confined to rock and hip hop. In jazz, with some noble exceptions, it has been business as usual. Now, in autumn 2023, before it is too late, assuming it is not already too late, American jazz needs to lift its voice and shout.

To anyone who questions the right of a Londoner to say this, the answer is, as it has been for almost one hundred years, that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. And a Londoner might, at the risk of sounding smug, further point out that much of their city's jazz scene has been loudly on the side of progressive politics since the late 2010s.

Two of the noble exceptions to American jazz's political nonengagement have been