Blog #5: A Harmonic Dialogue Between Tensions

One cannot deny the racial tensions surrounding the birth and rise of jazz from its tribal origins during the slave trade, into the shackles of the work song, through an era of swing and performative entertainment, and finally at the catharsis of the bebop rebellion and modern jazz movement. In spite of the dark and dehumanizing side that the white community posed upon the black community, there was a benign aspect that served to facilitate their musical and artistic redemption through the ages. In his autobiography, Miles Davis used the positive opinions of some white critics to legitimize bebop and his musical endeavors. “What was happening was that white people, white critics, were now beginning to understand that bebop was some important shit,” However, Miles also completely disregarded them when they wrote negative feedback in somewhat contradictory words of his. “A lot of white people, though, didn't like what was going on on 52nd Street. They didn't understand what was happening with the music. They thought that they were being invaded by niggers from Harlem, so there was a lot of racial tension around bebop . . . But the rest of them white motherfucking critics hated what we were doing. They didn't understand the music,” (Davis 67). The white community’s role in the development of jazz served the purpose of fulfilling two different polarities: the discriminatory/oppressive aspect and the collaborative/inspiring aspect. The white audience was a big part of the market that Miles had to consider in his collaboration with Gil Evans in the creation of their “cool jazz” records. 

Initially, I had the false assumption that jazz sprung sporadically within the circle of black musicians without any dialogue from the white community, but that of course has changed after taking The History of Jazz course. There were white jazz bands and white musicians who played in black jazz bands such as Bill Evans in Miles's first quintet who not only contributed as a jazz pianist, but who also helped shed light on understanding what jazz really is. Musicians such as Duke Ellington performed for the white audience by smoothing out and refining the music and eliminating the chaotic elements of new orleans jazz. These are just a few examples of how the white community has been a crucial element in the development of jazz that was a source of incentive and also a shadowy inspiration that was in dialogue with the soulful black musicians. 

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Commented on Pritika’s Blog

I really like how you highlight the aspects of community and space as the central growth to the creative endeavors of Miles and his collaboration with other artists. There is a nice progression and flow in your writing that you nicely end with the personal recounting in your conclusion regarding jazz as an art form that provokes criticality. Great job!

Blog #4: Art and Community

Thelonious Monk's San Juan Hill community helped to shape his genius because it provided the inspiration of being an interesting anomaly interspersed with diversity and conflict on its own. San Juan Hill was a very unpredictable community and every block was different. It was renown for its racial tensions, riots, and violence (Kelley 101-2). This is what some mean by "Jazz is New York, man!" because the music is contained within the city and the city is contained in the music. Monk's music in particular had a lot of dissonance, which can be thought of as the conglomeration of all the dissimilar elements of San Juan Hill as well as its musical styles. In this way, his music was able to transcend the dialectical black and white categories of racism and classism and provide a musical sanctuary that was nurturing to everyone. The relationship of jazz to the community in Leimert Park is similar in that the violence and racial tensions paved the way for African-American expression to emerge in the form of art. It was different, however, in the sense that the art that emerged created the community of Leimert Park by bringing people together in the performance and appreciation of jazz, such as the innovative musical component of Dick's coffee shop on 5the street, The World Theatre's dance and musical performances, and the African-American art museum. After the establishment of these businesses that promote diversity of art, music, and dance, a bustling community formed in Leimert Park that was barren before (Stewart 3/26/15). Thus, the relationship between art and the communities in which jazz musicians grow up/perform in, directly influence and shape each other, whether it be the slave labor on the rhythm and tensions in the work song or the race riots on the chaos and disharmony of bebop. The only element that seems to be dependent on the musician is what is chosen to be expressed. 

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Commented on Anna's blog

I like how you summarized and pinpointed the connection of art and community in both the Leimert park film and the music of Thelonious Monk with your last paragraph. Especially the last bit, in which you show that the causal forces later add to each other in their development as a "continuum". Great job!

Blog #3 - Racial Discourse During the Swing Era

The transformative social impact and dissemination of popular American culture across Europe, brought about after the first world war, had changed the African-American mindset regarding opportunity, creativity, and acceptance. After black musicians travelled to Paris for the regimental band's recruitment mission, they found that there was no segregation there and that they were more appreciated by the French who equated them to the status of celebrities. This was a sharp contrast to what they were used to back in the United States (Lecture 2/5/15). This experience would serve to later kick in the near future during the Swing Era when the music takes on the ability to “move” on rhythm in a similar way that jazz begins to move big with the emergence of a national market, coupled with the advent of the radio and record players. The Swing Era (1930s) was set on the grim backdrop of The Great Depression which made some people re-evaluate the economics of capitalism (Gioia 448 [ebook]). Interestingly, the Soviet Union was flourishing at this point in time and communism was being discussed by some as a political alternative in the United States. During this time of instability, people sought radical alternatives and new ideas, such as communism, racial equality, and jazz in spite of it being “low-cultured” because of its association with brothels, mobsters, etc. It was in some sense, a form of rebellion of the middle-class, white youth and more and more white musicians started their own jazz bands to benefit off the growing popularity. Indeed, the 1930s not only saw musical battles and competitions in black spaces, but also a “battle of the bands” in mainstream musical media. However, jazz did not become legitimized until after Benny Goodman performed in Carnegie Hall (1938) where the call and response element both figuratively and literally wins out over passive musical appreciation (Lecture 2/12/15). Because of the instability of ideological norms regarding capitalism and the hegemonic roles of white people, and the rise of jazz as a national market, there was an emergence of jazz critics in the late 1920s or early 1930s who became the arbiters of the music and the musicians and critiqued the racial inequalities that came with its production. After all, black musicians such as Duke Ellington watered down the true black elements of New Orleans jazz to cater to the white audience, for which he was strongly critiqued. People wanted to hear music performed by black musicians such as Fletcher Henderson and thus, successful white musicians such as Benny Goodman hired Fletcher to write arrangements for him. One such major critic was John Hammond, who was a white, privileged radical who promoted the black musicians he saw as authentic, ironically mimicking the white patronage of black music which he condemned so harshly in his articles (Gioia 374 [ebook]). Ironically, most of the radicals or progressivists were the most privileged of the people and held high ranks in their society. They were changed by the prevalent jazz movement that had spoke to them on a deeper level for which they were willing to devote their creative and literary efforts on. And of course, this instigated a rippling effect of even further interest in jazz and the inequality of its distribution as a strange yet widespread art force. 

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Commented on Austin’s blog

I really like the certain points you make in your blog regarding the advent of the radio and how it spread a wave of authentically sounding African-American jazz in demand. And also how you mention that the critics wanted to relay the key messages of Swing, which I understand as the movement towards liberty. Great job!

Blog 2 - Chicago or New York?

By 1925, New York eclipsed Chicago in terms of the Arts. New York was the more important city to the growth of jazz because of the larger capitalization and the bigger audience. In 1900, 60,000 blacks lived in New York, and by 1920 that number went up to 150,000, clearly illustrating the great migration or diaspora it attracted to itself. It became the major sanctuary for black musicians, in spite of the fact that they were solely used for the entertainment of a white audience when it came to grand revues. It may have been another form of slavery, but to an emerging modern jazz over arduous, backbreaking labor of Southern slavery. From the smaller African-American dance revues to the bigger and glamorous, gangster-run nightclubs such as The Cotton Club, New York provided Jazz the means to evolve into a more polished and appealing form of art by giving it a larger stage backed with much more money. The Harlem Renaissance of New York was responsible for allowing jazz to go mainstream via Broadway musicals and big night clubs, and was also responsible for making jazz more of a performative art by embellishing it with acting, tap-dancing, dance routines, cabaret, fashion, etc. And not to mention the huge flock of artists who later created artwork inspired by their experiences of these shows (Gioia 390-2 [ebook]). 

A new aesthetic emerged of light brown/mulatto women as erotic, dance performers, sprouted from the hidden desire of white people to learn about the exotic. There was a distinct New York style of jazz which had a lot more edginess and was played with energy and frenetics. There was a split, however, in the styles of New York jazz–one that was in dialogue with the black migrants from the South, represented by James P. Johnson’s music, and another that was in dialogue with the white audiences, such as Fletcher Henderson’s music (Henderson 115). Although there was a side of Harlem where black culture and intellectual life flourished to boost optimism, there was another more depressing side as well, reflected by the harsh economics of the slum-life. The underside of Harlem, however, helped to foster of jazz via rent parties and other underground, all-black revues (Gioia 370-4 [ebook]). The New York Revues in some sense validated the reality of the lives of poor, black people and served as a beacon of hope. 

Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson were among the people responsible for the emergence of the big band/jazz orchestra and refining jazz, so that it catered to white people by removing the chaotic elements of the New Orleans style (Gioia 419, 425 [ebook]). James P. Johnson, an incredible jazz musician and composer, along with Willie “The Lion” and Fats Waller created something new from the urban crucible of New York–a ragtime scene before the arrival of Louis Armstrong and other artists (Gioia 388-9 [ebook]). As is apparent, there is no single musician who can adequately represent the culture and music of New York because of the many styles and splits. However, it is clear that all the big musicians travelled to New York to capitalize and express their art and culture to a much bigger audience, which makes it more important than Chicago in the development of jazz.


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Commented on Hawken Ritter's Blog (it didn't publish after I submitted my comment, so it's below)

I really like your thesis statement in which you state that the racial tensions between black musicians and white patrons contributed to a new and developing relationship that was essential in the progression of the jazz. It’s a good thesis because it points out the silver lining of the grim situation and you do well to support it throughout your blog by providing solid examples like the Broadway musicals/Revues, improved economic incentives, and mainstream opportunity. Great job!

Blog 1 - New Orleans Jazz

In the early 20th century, New Orleans became a crucible where many different traditions were mixed together because it became one of the most important trading centers in the United States at one time. After the 1803 Louisiana purchase and the lifting of trade restrictions on the Mississippi River, commerce went up dramatically due to its location on the coast and the advent of the steamboat, where goods could be shipped and received in staggering amounts. People started to flock to New Orleans looking for jobs and it soon became a cosmopolitan center of the South and a major hub of commerce. The District, or Storyville, was a place in New Orleans that even rich people went to for prostitution and the whorehouses there became places where people created music to pass time. It was responsible for putting people in the right mood for the bordello. In his book, The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia argues that the bordellos of Storyville are not the only factor responsible for the emergence of jazz but that there were more sources of New Orleans jazz such as inspiration from Baptist rhythms, Saturday night fish fries performances,  private fund-raising ventures, and second-line funeral processions (Gioia 108-111 [ebook])

New Orleans, however, had a unique diversity that separated it from other big and diverse cities, such as New York, because of the french culture that remained and the influence of the Creoles. It became a mecca for runaways, ex-slaves, and free Creoles from the Caribbean who migrated to the cosmopolitan environment of New Orleans because it was a place of vital aliveness and African-based diversity. Forty-percent of the inhabitants were foreign-born and most of that percentage was black. 

The tension between the elite Creole class and the underclass blacks was one of the most important factors that was responsible for the birth of jazz because the Creoles, brought the European dances and music with them and the rest of the blacks brought their own African cultures with them. Emancipation brought down the higher status of the Creole elites and the mixing that ensued between the Creoles and the black ex-slaves helped create jazz. The tension and pressure of the class and race conflict that gave birth to jazz is reflected in the music itself, which goes to show the significant influence it had on the music.

Many of the Mexican musicians that performed in the 1884 Cotton exposition in New Orleans stayed and taught classical music to the black musicians there who lacked a structured foundation in music. They also brought with them woodwind instruments, among which were the saxophone and the clarinet. Jazz wold not be what it is today without the contribution of the Mexican immigrants. Thus, jazz emerged in the melting pot of New Orleans due to all the different people mingling and bringing their different cultures with them, drawn into the city by the commerce and money.


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Commented on Noah Rubin's blog post, but I did not see it on there right after I published it, so here is the comment I posted in case it doesn't show up later:

You mention in your second paragraph that Storyville/The District formed the proper environment in which the lower and upper classes were able to discreetly conglomerate, but what about the other sources for jazz - such as the second-line funerary processions, private fund-raising ventures, and the baptist rhythms that closely inspired jazz rhythms? Do you think that they played a part in the obscurity which you mention in your conclusion? I really like how you state that the obscurity is jazz's important history because there are many factors known and unknown that have probably contributed to its development. Great job!

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