Musicians

More from WaPo:

The song did not catch on until Mr. McCann decided to use it as his opening number during an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on June 21, 1969. He and his trio — bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Donald Dean — were joined by Eddie Harris on tenor saxophone and Benny Bailey on trumpet.

There was no time for a rehearsal, and the horn players had never played with Mr. McCann before, but the resulting eight minutes of music became something of a happy accident of jazz.

Mr. McCann charged into “Compared to What,” pounding out a powerful rhythmic figure on piano as Dean kept pace on drums. Ripples of applause welled from the audience as Mr. McCann began to sing the mildly profane lyrics, which touched on sensitive social issues and were an undisguised indictment of the government and religion:
The President, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God d--- it!
Tryin’ to make it real, compared to what?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/02/les-mccann-jazz-pianist-dead-compared-to-what/

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