NBC’s Lester Holt: America ‘can never forget our jazz roots’

VIDEO - "Jazz is a part of American history. It's a uniquely American art form and certainly black Americans were a big part of those early roots"...

TheGrio Staff

Feb 10, 2010

In this video interview with theGrio, NBC anchorman Lestor Holt talks about the origins of jazz and the impact the art form has had on his life.

“Jazz is a part of American history. It’s a uniquely American art form and certainly black Americans were a big part of those early roots, it comes obviously from the roots of blues which is uniquely American and you just look through the history of great jazz performers, the pioneers if you will in this business and most were African-American,” said Holt.

Holt’s first encounter with jazz was in junior high school when he was captivated by his school’s band was playing at an assembly and was inspired to take up the bass.

“What I like about jazz is you can play the same number fifty times and it’ll be different every time, you’re not, especially playing the bass, tied to particular notes,” said Holt.

Once in high school Holt attended a jazz festival where he was conducted by Carmen McRae, a great jazz vocalist who taught Holt and his peers about scat singing. The following year he studied at the feet of the legendary jazz singer Joe Williams. He remembers being inspired not only by their musicianship, but the sheer quality of their vocals.

“We can never forget our jazz roots because it is uniquely American and it is such an expressive form of music and all music is expressive, but the fact that you can take these songs and put a new twist on them; sassy, funny, serious there’s just so much. You can tap your emotions into jazz and kind of make it go whichever way you want it to go,” Holt told theGrio.