Another year of missed opportunity for Live on the Levee concert series

What do mayonnaise, a snowstorm, the painted exterior of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC, and the proposed lineup for this summer’s Live On The Levee concert series in St. Louis have in common? If you guessed, “They’re all pretty darn white,” go to the head of the class.

Although the roster of acts booked for series hasn’t been officially announced yet, a story in this weekend’s Post-Dispatch revealed who’s been booked so far, and if you’re a fan of jazz, blues, or St. Louis’ indigenous musical culture in general, the list is a disappointment.

You may recall that the Live on the Levee series, officially presented by an organization called Celebrate St. Louis, originally was announced as a successor to the well-received Riversplash concert series held on the riverfront in 2004. Riversplash included such acts as Branford Marsalis, Medeski Martin and Wood, B.B.King, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Taj Mahal, Steel Pulse and Los Lobos, prompting hopes that Live on the Levee would offer a similar mix of musical styles.

Instead, when the specific lineup was announced, it was a bunch of mid-tier alt-rock bands who hadn’t had any hits for a while and some classic rock bands usually found on the state-fair-and-rib-fest circuit. Later, neo-soul/folkie India Arie and 1980s funksters Morris Day and the Time and Cameo were added, providing just enough blackness to stave off potential complaints that the series’ booking policy was straight-up racist. But fans who had hoped for a mix of music that would reflect a broader cross-section of styles, and perhaps even acknowledge the city’s own musical heritage, were left disappointed.

Contrary to my predictions, the Live on the Levee series did succeed in drawing crowds downtown, and apparently the organizers have taken that as validation to continue in the same direction for 2007. The acts mentioned in the Post story include 1980s pop star Cindy Lauper, country-rock vocalist Emmylou Harris, indie folk-rock singer Ani DiFranco and, in what will apparently be one of this year’s sops to token ethnicity, Los Lonely Boys, the Texas blues-rock band comprised of three Mexican-American brothers.

Now, I have actually enjoyed at least some of the work of all of these artists, so my objections are not necessarily to the musical quality of the acts, but to the stylistic and ethnic diversity of the overall lineup. Where are the musicians that would appeal to the St. Louis area’s large African-American population, tap into its sizeable contingent of fans (of all races) of jazz, blues and other roots music, or that would acknowledge the city’s own musical history? And, to revisit another sore subject, where are the hip-hop artists? St. Louis has produced a number of hitmaking hip-hop acts in recent years, and a show featuring Nelly, Chingy, J-Kwon or other local performers would seem likely to draw a big crowd.

Of course, a large portion of that crowd would likely be young black people, and perhaps the powers-that-be are afraid of that. Hip-hop shows do have something of a reputation for violence, but media hype to the contrary, I’m not convinced that the overall documented incidence of bad behavior is any greater that what you’d find at many other concerts, sporting events, or similar large gatherings of people. The vast majority of people who attend any concert just want to have a good time, and with proper security and crowd control measures in place, there’s no reason why hip-hop should not be part of something like Live on the Levee.

As for jazz and blues, both would tend to attract racially mixed, slightly older crowds – people with money to spend, and who are not, for the most part, at all likely to cause any sort of disruption or public nuisance. If one of the purposes of the concert series is to attract people back downtown, one would think that this would be a desireable audience, especially for a city seeking to shed public perceptions of decay and racial problems.

I’d like to give the organizers the benefit of the doubt, and believe that, rather than being intentionally racist, they are merely operating from a unfortunately limited frame of personal and musical reference. But benign intentions don't excuse a bad result, and for a large public event like this, it’s not enough just to book groups that will draw a crowd, any crowd. The promoters have an obligation to address the interests of the entire community, and in that respect, it looks like Live on the Levee once again is failing music lovers in St. Louis.

I'd like to know what readers think about this. Is the lack of diversity in the Live on the Levee series a legitimate concern, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? Please feel free to use the comments to share your thoughts.

(Edited after posting to clean up a couple of typos.)