Blog 5

Coming into the course I had few assumptions concerning jazz especially the history behind the music. In regards to the musicians themselves, I visualized older, black men performing in low-lit jazz clubs for cigar smoking, wine drinking audience members. While there are some commonalities between my assumption and reality, I was mistaken by the fact that there is no atypical jazz musician. Jazz can be played by a Chicagoan in the heart of the city or by a white man in Mile Davis’s band. Miles discussed the struggle to break from the popularity of melody and predictability, and spotlight the diversity of performer and audience creating a diverse sound filled with life and creative expression.

The birth of jazz had never crossed my mind before this course. I had known that New Orleans fostered its growth; however, the breeding of different sounds, styles, and genres that created jazz were unknown to me. Professor Stewart has taught us that, “jazz is not a style or genre, but a creative process that had existed in other music.” Jazz grew from the inter-mixing of different musical genres. Cities such as New Orleans, Chicago, and New York, African musical tradition, and the contribution of musically gifted and brave individuals willing to push social and creative boundaries in the music industry all combined to create jazz.  Miles Davis speaks on the struggles he faced in breaking America’s popularity of rock music and the melody. He expressed how, “just a few years back the music [they] were playing was the cutting edge, was getting real popular and finding a wide audience, all that started to stop when the critics—white critics—started supporting the free thing” (Davis 271).  The “free thing…didn’t have no melodic line, wasn’t lyrical, and you couldn’t hum to it,” artists like Davis struggled to display the diverse and fluid characteristics of jazz. Jazz was not confined to rules or fossilized instead improvisation was key and the form was constantly evolving and changing (Davis 270).  The American audience failed to evolve past melody and embrace improvisation and evolving art.

Jazz’s connection to social growth, along with its ties to white and black controversy is another element that I was unaware of. I largely assumed that white artists did not contribute or participate in the growth of jazz, however their involvement can be greatly constituted to stealing and copying from great, black jazz artists.  As popularity for jazz grew, many white artists began to mimic the black sound catching the ear of record companies. This lead to a nationwide production and release of their recordings. Although black artists began to lay their songs on records shortly after, it was white privilege that allowed for white musicians to break these grounds easier and quicker.  Miles expressed his anger towards, “white people [trying] to take credit for something after they discover it” (Davis 55). There was a tendency for white artists to copy the evolving jazz sounds and because of their skin color they would gain greater access to bigger audiences and media attention grabbing the spotlight.

This class opened my eyes to jazz, not only as an art form, but as a social and cultural movement. Jazz is not based on fixed rules and notes, but instead is a living and evolving art that resurrects freedom to break restrictions and guidelines making each piece different than the one before.  Jazz is representative of African roots, musicians playing in back room clubs in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and the struggles, accomplishments and feelings that filled the minds and souls of black artists.

Blog 4

            Music and art can rise from the rubble of violence and cruelty. The development of jazz and black culture in both San Juan Hill and Leimert Park both came from a place of social unrest and racial prejudice. Thelonious Monk was exposed to this unrest at a young age; he grew up fighting against prejudice and used music as an escape from these sufferings developing his own style and finding peace on stage. Community brings people together nurturing a sense of culture and connection between its individuals; this connection in society produces art as a byproduct of the group’s struggles and victories.

            San Juan Hill was one of the largest black communities in New York during the early 1900’s. Due to its high black occupation, urban city center, and inherent prejudice by the non-black population a strong sense of community developed between the black populations. With this community came a sense of culture and political structure prompting upheaval against white injustices. San Juan Hill became a melting pot of cultures, from the Caribbean to the black South. Church was the glue that held San Juan Hill together and organized religion was incredibly important to the development of the San Juan Hill community. This blending of cultures helped to bring different characteristics to the community through music, art, and ideas. Jazz and Thelonious Monk’s music paralleled this hybrid community through his blending of cultural sounds and his reputation as the “High Priest of Bebop” (Kelley 232).

            San Juan Hill shaped Monk’s music in many ways. His incorporation of bohemian sounds and his connection to authentic, black culture helped to develop and tune his unique and lasting sound. “Monk’s brand of thinking comes from the soul and the blood rather than the mind, tapping into a well of racial memory that keeps the music pure, authentic, and black” (Kelley 233). Growing up in a strong, black community kept Monk loyal to the racial sound that filled the streets and paralleled traditional black sound. Monk brought an air of colloquialism to the jazz scene; between songs and sets he would dance and drink, “approaching the bohemian art world with a sense of humor and curiosity” (Kelley 233).  As a child, Monk was surrounded by music. This allowed him to feel at home while performing and explains his casual nature at time and ability to freely explore his musical expression and abilities. Monk’s mother would routinely expose her children to music of the city, “ frequently [taking] them to Central Park in the summer to hear Edwin Franko Goldman sixty piece orchestra perform classic works by European and African composers” (Kelley 22). Growing up in the metropolitan city of New York helped to nurture Monk’s passion and talent for music. His early exposure fostered a mastery of sound for New York jazz. Coming from a place of violence and opposition—fighting as a black child against white oppression— Monk believed there was “no reason why [he] had to go through that Black Power shit now” (Kelley 19). Monk separated himself from this political activism and instead embodied happiness and musical innovation and genius. He made music for its musical quality incorporating styles from different races and creating sounds that made him a renowned artist to this day. Jazz embodied the New York man; it was a cultural hybrid of sounds demanding to be heard and acknowledged.

            As San Juan Hill grew from political unrest to a hub of cultural expression Leimert Park followed a similar growth. The growth of both urban centers parallel each other beginning with social unrest and race riots progressing to become a center of cultural expression and art. Leimert Park began as a white-dominated neighborhood and eventually gave way to one of the largest black middle class cities in the United States. In response to this transition, many white citizens acted violently and cruelly eventually leading to racial unrest and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Rising from the violence came the development of Leimert park as an iconic center of jazz; to this day the 5^th Street Dick’s is known for their hot coffee and even hotter jazz performances and poetry slams. With the development of businesses and groups that helped to foster music and jazz in Leimert park led to its revolution as a center of violence and racial conflict to a hot spot for jazz and art.

            Community plays a large role in the development of jazz musicians. The musician’s adolescence can shape their talents and goals as an artist. Many artists are known to bring their social and cultural struggles from their life into their music expressing their beliefs on cultural and social struggles. In addition, a musician’s economic status can help or hinder their growth as an artist allowing them to receive professional training and exposure to music and art at a young age. A community can hinder or nurture the growth of an artists; it is through the growth from childhood to adulthood that individuals gain experiences, talents, and opinions on the world. A community can be the spark that ignites an individual’s musical genius or mitigates its growth.

Blog 3

Throughout the rise and popularization of jazz music, racial injustices and segregation had always been an underlying issue.  Breaking grounds musically, socially, and culturally jazz had become a beacon for a new age in the black community, gaining its momentum in the 1930’s Swing Age. With the help of radio and magazines, a large scale market for swing music developed pushing not only music critics to address racial implications in jazz, but for society to acknowledge the injustices as well, thus propelling the discussion of race and jazz into the public light.   

A huge market for Swing music became nationally known and admired throughout the 1930’s and this was in part due to the radio. The radio allowed jazz music to be heard anywhere. Audiences no longer had to go to concert halls to hear “hot jazz” and instead could listen to it in the comfort of their homes. However this growing popularity began to draw more and more people to live performances and this, “required deference to the rituals of Jim Crowe segregation which meant black musicians were unable to play from the front line delivering music to the white audiences” (Stewart Lecture). This restriction directly displayed the racial injustice in jazz and sparked discussion and thought that would eventually lead to the push to break down racial barriers. 

With its successful integration into American Pop Culture, jazz began to receive more attention from music critics and these critics in turn brought light to the issue of race and jazz.  The most acknowledged critic was John Hammond. Hammond was the most prevalent writer that looked at the correlation between race and jazz and was an advocate of racial equality. He stated, “only by unity between Negroes and whites will they be able to survive and flourish” (Swing Changes 61). He wanted to bring light to the injustices against blacks in the music industry and attacked those who hindered his efforts, such as Duke Ellington. Hammond believed Ellington to be a betrayer of his race and that he had, “shut his eyes to the abuses being heaped upon his race and his original class” (Swing Changes 51).  Ellington was backing the abandonment of black culture in favor of white acceptance.

Black artists constantly faced the issue of respectability. The foundation of jazz music was built in bars and brothels. To counter this some black artists took on an air of sophistication to put the whites at ease and further their career; Duke Ellington was known for this sophistication (Swing Changes 53). This abandoning of black culture perpetuated white privilege as well as racial indifference and prompted Hammond’s comments. Hammond’s goal was to break the hegemonic role of the whites and expose the injustices as well as the creativity and beauty of the black role in jazz (Stewart Lecture). Some examples of his efforts include his discovery and push of Fletcher Henderson into Benny Goodman’s band. This racial mixing not only broke down racial barriers, but led to competition between black and white musicians in which the music not skin color took president (Swing Changes). The Savoy in Harlem was a music battle between two of the father’s of swing Benny Goodman and Chick Webb. Thousands of people from all social, cultural, and economic classes were coming to view both a black and white artist perform which helped to validate jazz as a genre and gain respectability for the craft (Stewart Lecture).

      The Swing Era led to the development of a market that popularized the genre bringing racial barriers and inequalities into light. Due to the determination of key figures such as John Hammond to ignite the push for equality in society, the 1930’s was a time of cultural and musical change that revolutionized the music and the message.  The direct attack on racism in the 1930s came about through the discussion of racial injustice, which in turn changed to action. Swing not only brought about a musical revolution but gave way to a racial revolution as well.

Chicago: The Jazz Hub

At the beginning of the twentieth century the booming industrial revolution led to an influx of African Americans leaving the south for the north in search of factory and city jobs. This was known as the Great Migration. As a result, Chicago became a hot bed for opportunity and entertainment and in turn the young working class created a desire for more nightclubs, bars, and cabarets acting as a magnet for musical pioneers. Changing social and cultural traditions, economic prosperity, and a booming population all combined to turn Chicago into a musical hub leading to the advancement of a distinct jazz style that paralleled and represented the African American community.

There were many factors that combined to transform Chicago into the perfect sphere to nurture the development of jazz as a major musical trend and tradition. Economically Chicago offered salvation to many African Americans to, “search for a better life, for greater opportunities to work, to support a family, to enjoy a modicum of personal freedom­­––options that were much harder for an African American to pursue In the segregated South,” and as a result black population more than tripled (Gioia 43). However this influx of people was not limited to African American, many different artists and musicians of different races made the migration to the South (Gioia 76). This sheer population growth and migration of African American musicians allowed for the blending of different styles coming from New Orleans and other southern states, while also allowing these musicians to expand and advance their audiences and style.

Racial intolerance in the South was another motivating factor of the New Orleans Diaspora. Chicago offered a more accepting environment; collaboration between white and black musicians even began to flourish seen in the alliance between Jelly Roll Morton and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings (Gioia 44). Although many white jazz bands were attempting to recreate African American jazz sounds, this cultural blending was the first of its kind and continues to display how, “Chicago was the hub of contemporary and forward looking jazz” (154 The Best of Jazz). As a result of white participation in jazz, recordings became more popular finding that white privilege allowed for greater interest from recording studios. As a result however, African American jazz artists began to benefit after being recognized for, “their commercial potential” (Gioia 44). As jazz began to be laid down on records, not only could it reach broader audiences, be played anytime, anywhere, but also allowed for more economic growth and expansion. The culture of metropolitan Chicago and its importance on various form of artistic expression also contributed to the rise and popularity of jazz. For example, “Lincoln Gardens, the largest dance hall on the south side,“ was built allowing for a venue for musicians to be heard, collaborate, and advance their style and skill (Gioia 44).

Many critics have discredited Chicago Style claiming, “that they tried to copy New Orleans jazz and simply got it wrong” (154 The Best of Jazz). However, I view this critique to be wrong; although Chicago jazz adopted its style and was influenced by New Orleans it completely transformed to embody an up-beat, fast paced style that not only revolutionized the sound but got people moving. “The work of these young Chicagoans seem to have been not so much a style, more schizophrenia set to music” (161 The Chicagoans). In an effort to prove their mastery of jazz and abilities beyond that of New Orleans jazz, Chicago jazz artists would overcompensate, “trying to show how good they were, they got too fancy…too ornate and over elaborate,” this high energy music at times would be too much for the listener who is stuck to their old New Orleans roots (160 The Chicagoans). However it is this risk of musical transformation that allowed for Chicagoan jazz to take hold of audiences and gain recognition.

An artist who best represents the culture and community of Chicago and the rising new Chicagoan style would be Louis Armstrong. “Armstrong’s stage presence, repartee and globe roving activities as an unofficial ambassador for jazz almost overshadowed his role as a musician,” however when he took to the stage he combined his expert musicianship with his creativity and ability to create a fun ambience for the audience (Gioia 66). Due to his impact on jazz and the rise and creation of Chicago style along with his expert skills and highly popular music, Louis Armstrong is an innovator in the jazz world. His music not only greatly impacted the Chicago community and the community of musicians but also inspired many artists and led to the development and inspiration for jazz as a forefront in music.

Blog 1

Following the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans became a hub of economic, social, and cultural prosperity that led to a growth in population, intermixing of races, and a melting pot of ideas and cultures. The city’s tolerance towards slave dances as well as the use of drums and instruments by greatly attributed to the growth of jazz (Gioia 7). However, “historians of New Orleans jazz have preferred to focus on the city’s moral dangers, linking the rise of hot music and sin and licentiousness” to the growth of jazz (Gioia 29). The creation of Storyville, or the red light district, led to an influx of prostitution, gambling, and drinking, but with this came an environment inclined towards music that matched the changing times. Due to the influx of new cultures and the desire to push social and musical boundaries, New Orleans helped jazz become an extension of the changing and diverse culture of the city. It was not a single tradition, style, or culture that played an integral part in the growth and complexity of jazz, but the combination of them all. 

Sources that led to the emergence and changing trends of jazz are attributed to many cultures, races, and ideals beginning with the influence of African American tradition. By blending movement and purpose in art, African culture helped build the foundation of jazz. Jazz is greatly known for its consciousness of expression and vivacity of sound, beat, and rhythm (Thompson 7). In addition, Jazz’s duel functionality as both aesthetically pleasing and serving a purpose can be attributed to African influence (Thompson). Jazz was heard in all aspects of daily life; it was performed by marching bands, at festivals, and in conjuncture with both the celebration of life and death, and even had connections to the church.

Although Jazz has been stigmatized and linked with devil music and the poor morals of Storyville, it also can be traced to church gospel as well. Buddy Bolden was believed to have gained great influence from Baptist rhythm linking the sound of jazz with the house of God (Gioia 29-30). “But the birth of this music would have been unthinkable without the extraordinary local passion for brass bands” (Gioia 31). Brass bands played for almost every type of social gathering reaching a diverse amount of people. The adaptation of brass bands and their ability to play music corresponding with trends in dance and music allowed for their growth in popularity and led to the “blurring of musical genres…central to the creation of jazz music” (Gioia 31). 

Mexican contribution to jazz is pivotal to the legacy of jazz music and jazz as a community. Many Mexican musicians visited New Orleans in 1884 for the Cotton Exposition joining regional bands touring the US. However, “the most enduring cultural legacy of Mexico’s attendance at the fair was the presence of the Eight Mexican Regimental Band” (Johnson 229). Saxophonist Florencio Ramos, developed the city’s musicians union and is credited with bringing the saxophone to New Orleans. Mexican musicians not only contributed to the sound of jazz with the introduction of woodwinds and classical training, but perpetuated the importance of cultural blending in jazz, displaying its many dimensions and histories.

New Orleans as a cultural melting pot greatly attributed to the unique, multi-dimensional, and innovative style of jazz. The combination of African Art and its functionality as well as theatrical and unconfined style helped to create a foundation for the ever-evolving style of Jazz. With the addition of Western and European style came more western influence such as organized notes and harmonies, where a Latin tinge can also be heard through the contribution of woodwinds and classical training. The combination of different cultures, sounds, and traditions is most important to the evolution and emergence of jazz.