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Hear It Again, Or How They Can Remember Hearing It

July 30, 2010

The song "Nobody" was made famous by the minstrel-show comedian Bert Williams. That is, popular and controversial — Williams was an African-American blackface vaudeville performer. "Nobody" was his signature song, something of a hit in 1906.

"Recently, I spoke about Bert Williams ... in public and said something, and it made me tear up, you know?" Moran says. "To think about the condition for him as a performer. But I'll say, 'Wait a minute. This guy was really famous.' I mean, this guy wasn't really poor — he was really famous. And he's a great singer. He's like [boxer] Jack Johnson: As an African-American at the turn of the 20th century ... he's kind of free a little bit. Kind of."

Moran recorded "Nobody" as a hidden track on Ten.

"The way we play it is, we try to ... consider the song a punching bag, in a lot of ways," he says. "And we really kind of throw it around. And sometimes what I will say to an audience, after they hear it, they think, 'Oh, it's such a nice ditty.' Like, this is an old minstrel song. It kind of changes the vibe about how they hear it again, or how they can remember hearing it."

  • Jason Moran
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