5. Jazz and its Interdisciplinary Effects on Culture and Society.

     Coming into this course I had not realized how much American art and culture owes to jazz. I was aware that jazz was an art form that I enjoyed. I assumed jazz lived in the crevices of society, nostalgic memories of a bygone era. I thought all that remained were the period speakeasies of San Francisco and iconic jazz clubs in New York, with the occasional reference in book and film. It had not crossed my mind that modern culture was shaped irreversibly by this uniquely american music we call jazz. 

     In the mid twentieth century new forms of jazz spurred a change in all other fields of creative expression. Jazz, specifically bebop, provided inspiration in its formalism and content to the beatnik movement and abstract expressionist artists. Jazz created a symbiotic relationship between artistic pursuits in reflection of the interdisciplinary nature of traditional African art. 

     After World War II, America saw a divide between the nationalistic pride elicited by victory in Europe and in the Pacific and a counter culture dissatisfied with the human condition. This split is best seen in the art produced in the late forties through the fifties. Through a marriage of the existential movement from France and the still ailing Black American community at home, the sociopolitical climate after the war had permanently shifted. 

     Intentionally or otherwise, Jazz musicians crossed paths with a multitude of artists in New York's Greenwich Village. "Playing at the Cafe Bohemia down in the Village got me into another kind of social situation with people. Instead of being around a lot of pimps and hustlers, now I found myself around a lot of artists- poets, painters, actors, designers, filmmakers, dancers. I found myself hearing about people like Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), William Burroughs (who would write Naked Lunch, a novel about a junkie), and Jack Kerouac" (Davis, 203-4). These meetings always yielded something new. Inspiration grew out of these new communities, the intersection between cultural backgrounds and modes of expression became American popular culture.

     All these artists had a common goal in mind as Miles Davis puts it:"As a musician and as an artist, I have always wanted to reach as many people as I could through my music... I always thought that music had no boundaries, no limits to where it could grow and go, no restrictions on its creativity " (Davis, 205). This creativity without bounds was present across all disciplines in the 50s and 60s; and championed by jazz musicians like Miles Davis.
     From the disciplined freedom, unbounded but sharply honed came a new sense of creativity  (Stuart). Visual art was similarly unbounded by medium or subject matter; each artist brought a new view to the scene. Jackson Pollock pioneered action painting, his splatter creations relying on the act of painting over the final product, free and yet constrained by the colors he chose and the method of application (much like the few chord progressions Miles Davis would bring to recording sessions). Likewise, Marc Rothko's color washed squares were created to invoke deep emotion given how the paint catches the light, not for depicting a conceivable reality. Much like improvisational jazz, reproductions of Rothko's work in print or on the web are meaningless next to the connection one has when standing a few feet from an original.
     As an art history student this rigorous connection between modern art and music was unexpected and rather exciting.


(Commented on Jacob Weverka's blog)

4. Jazz in Symbiosis with Community

     The natural formation of community is a defining quality that sets jazz apart from other musical genres. Artistic genius feeds off society in large part because of the symbiotic relationship between art and the public. Thelonious Monk was one such genius who owed his success to the neighborhood of San Juan Hill and those in it who helped foster his talent. There was an inbreed love of jazz in the community of San Juan Hill. The neighborhood's dedication to jazz music inspired Thelonious and provided a multitude of uncommon opportunities. "Everybody had a piano, and they used to play rolls all the time. So I had one too. That's all people listened to, mostly piano music." (Kelley, 25). This unique community allowed Monk to take up the piano, provided music teachers, inspiration and audiences. Jazz requires a conversation between performers and audiences, and thrives under collaborative efforts, fortunately for Monk, all these aspects were provided for in San Juan Hill.
     The community was able to support Monk emotionally and professionally. "The neighborhood was the center of his social universe; here he earned the respect of his peers and developed a few deep and lasting friendships" (Kelley, 32). Monk met many of his lifelong friends in the small village like community including his wife Nellie. His friendship were the emotional charge he required, while his teachers provided the necessary technical training. Robin Kelley's biography on Monk emphasizes the dedication the whole community had to jazz music. Everyone in San Juan Hill appreciated jazz wether they played, danced, or just listened. "The Monks' apartment was a popular hangout not only for Harold Francis but for many of the young neighborhood musicians. Barbara's doors were alway open for her children's friends, and she enjoyed the music they played. Marion remembers those impromptu jam sessions fondly" (Kelley, 32). Music and specifically jazz pervaded all aspects of life in San Juan Hill. Churches were a huge part of the social scene in black communities and church was an event that transcended traditional services, gospel hymns were required repertoire. "The church proved to be another critical source of Monk's musical knowledge" (Kelley, 27). The all inclusive reach of jazz music in 1920's New York City was vital to fostering jazz geniuses.
     It is this all encompassing reach of music in New York that allowed jazz to flourish as it did. In many ways New York is jazz. The city combines community, creativity, and genius, all while fostering progress and the avant garde. Jazz would be nothing without the urbanity of New York City and the opportunities it affords. Like the big apple, Jazz is a creative hotbed that would be insignificant without the people that create and support it.
     The relationship between community and artistic expression is mirrored in Leimert Park. Jazz was a way to bring together the neighborhood surrounding the park. The hot beds of creativity centered around small businesses like 5th Street Dick's, the local coffee shop, a locale that fostered community interaction (Lindsay). Leimert Park was more purposeful in its support of jazz music. Communities were not organically grown through time but enforced by community organizations like the local writers workshops. Leimert park followed the precedence of San Juan Hill and others like it, attempting to invoke the same success that other communities had been able to achieve.

     Community and artistic expression are inextricably linked, one cannot exist without the other. The beauty of jazz lays in its ability to create a symbiotic relationship between people and the art they produce. Community would not have developed in the same way without jazz, and jazz would not exist without community.

(Commented on Michelle Kaplan's Blog)

3. The Swing Era: the Great Depression, the Radio, and Some Unhealthy Competition.

     The 1930's swing era saw the introduction of new musicians and audiences to the jazz scene. In part due to segregation and distribution of wealth, swing jazz attracted predominantly white audiences, and the shift in mainstream musical taste popularized the genre and afforded jazz musicians new opportunities. Racial inequality was brought to the forefront by the vast wealth deficit brought about by the great depression, the rise of the radio, and direct competition between black and white jazz bands. The new parameters that defined jazz in the 30's had their advantages and disadvantages for the black jazz musician.

     The great depression was one of the driving forces behind the increase in white jazz musicians. When the United States fell into depression, black and white musicians were pitted against each other for the best gigs. Swing was an escape from the harsh reality of life in the great depression and was one of the few fields that was making money in-spite of the nation's monetary deficit (Stuart). In addition the disparities of race were highlighted by the rise in Communist sentiment. The great depression was viewed as a failure for capitalist society, and raising the lower class was popular among the new class of intelligentsia, a great proponent of black empowerment was John Hammond (Stowe, 61). This movement between the formerly rigid class structure lead to an increased awareness of racial distinctions.

     The introduction of radio as the predominate medium of musical dissemination in the 1930s caused a shift in the music industry. With this new national distribution of music, jazz saw a significant leap in popularity across the country (Gioia, 128). This also thrust a few key players into the spotlight, leaving behind the many smaller jazz acts that performed in the small clubs around metropolitan centers. Radio overshadowed record sales and put power into the hands of white executives that ran the stations. Music that played ran according to white taste and therefore favored white bands to broadcast. On the other hand, it allowed musicians to be heard and not seen, for some black musicians this presented a great boon, their music was appreciated with ought the racial stigma (Stuart).

     Lastly, the popularization of jazz music in the main stream lead white musicians to adopt the musical style, adapting swing to the white audiences for which they played. Competition arose between white and black bands, constantly in contention for the same gigs and opportunities. In 1937 the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem hosted a competition between Benny Goodman and Chick Webb to determine which band could swing better (Stuart). Despite overwhelmingly winning the match up, Webb never went on to success in the way that Goodman was able to. Goodman went on to play at Carnegie Hall the next year, and managed to take a step towards elevating jazz as a high art form worthy of scholarly attention (Stuart). This competition between black and white bands was spurred by what audiences were most interested in hearing and seeing. For the most part, that meant white swing bands over the more talented black bands. John Hammond, a renowned jazz patron and critic, accused Duke Ellington of mellowing his music to appease white audiences, white bands were blamed for stealing black arrangements, but black musicians were forced to deaden their sound (Stowe, 51).

(commented on Matt Hirning's blog post)

2. New York City, Center of the Universe.

     New York holds a unique position in the formation and development of jazz in the 1920's. Even more so than Chicago, New York City was a multicultural center, a melting pot of traditions old and new, owing in large part to its prime location on the eastern coast of North America. New York was and remains the United States's economic and social capital. New York, even the poorer neighborhoods there in, were incubators of artistic talent. (NYTimes) A combination of the diverse background of its residents, the close quarters, and the relative economic stimulus made New York City the ideal location for artists to collaborate and grow. The New Orleans sound was reintroduced to New York after jazz had already been popularized in the form of ragtime by musicians like James P. Johnson (Best of Jazz, 23). Ragtime was not so much a form of music as much as it was a style of playing, this "jazzing" up of classical pieces was particularly popular in lower class settings (Best of Jazz, 25), but was nothing compared to the success of big band and swing jazz as introduced by Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong respectively. Both Johnson and Henderson had participated in the rise of the New York jazz dance scene by composing for the latest craze-- the Charleston, or playing in dance clubs. (NYTimes) In the mid 1920s, Fletcher Henderson put together an orchestra of jazz musicians, an introduction to the big band style, departing from the traditional dance accompaniment he had directed in the past. (Stuart) This departure from accompaniment was aided in part by a second wave of jazz musicians migrating to New York from New Orleans and the south, on occasion by way of Chicago. Louis Armstrong was seminal in the development of the next movement in jazz, often seen as an indicator of New York influence, swing. 

     There are a variety of performers that epitomize the New York jazz movement but none so much as the man who started the swing style, Armstrong. His rise from the bottom is mirrored in the movement of black Americans from the slums to fame in the entertainment industry. The new swing sound made it big on the stages of theaters on and off broadway. New York City's vital entertainment industry and tradition of live theater on and off broadway helped popularize jazz presented in the African American Revues. The Blackbirds of 1928 and the Hot Chocolates in 1929 both produced hit songs still sung today. (Stuart) The integration of jazz into the mainstream via these theatrical avenues is a unique attribute of New York jazz. At the close of the roaring 20s New York City was defined by a popularization of new age swing performance and jazz was inversely defined by New York. 

(commented on Taylor Tidwell's blog post) 

1. Multiculturalism, the true origin of Jazz.

     Early jazz sprung from the synthesis of culture, race and class in the melting pot known as New Orleans. Louisiana benefited from huge profits and growth as trade blossomed through the emergence of America's new port city. New Orleans “creat[ed] a prosperous, cosmopolitan environment that few cities in the New World could match.” (Gioia, 27) This new found fusion of Latin, African, and Anglo-Saxon cultures meshed together to create new traditions and new sound. With the popularization of the steam engine train, New Orleans' economy collapsed. As a result, New Orleans housed both the remarkably rich and the dirt poor, this dichotomy presented a unique basis for the growth of jazz. Each culture brought a different flare to the new forms of emerging music. Africa brought rhythm to the table, syncopation and the marriage of conflicting beats contribute to the formation of blues, and later jazz. (Austerlitz, 37) Spanish influences pervade the sounds of jazz in the upbeat melodic flair. And classical training became increasingly important under the tutelage of the Mexican masters who came to Louisiana in the Mexican 8th Regimental band to play in the World Fair (Johnson, 226). Mexican influence was vital to the development of a refined iteration of jazz. The musical form was formerly reserved for “The District”, the seedy part of New Orleans, it is there, in the brothels and bars that historians claim jazz was born.(Gioia, 29) However, the infusion of classical training brought by the Mexicans heightened the expression thanks to the Tio brothers, among others, who brought formal training to the musicians who populated the scene. (Johnson, 226) This movement towards formalization and philosophy of jazz, pioneered by Jelly Roll Morton, allowed a jazz to be defined as the musical expression universally recognized today.

     It is unreasonable to assume that any one factor was the chief contribution to the development of jazz in New Orleans, it is rather the synthesis of all the multicultural aspect of the port city that fostered the materialization of jazz. Jazz can be traced to a variety of roots, and it is this pluralism that defines jazz as the new form of music. In abstraction, jazz is a representation of the diversity available for study in the urban centers from which it arose. It is a reflection of emotion and a reactionary art form relating to events of the time. The form deals with hardship and hope alike but each song reflects the individual’s life experience. Even the emergence of solos caters to individuality and personalization. This focus on the individual plays directly to highlighting the vast differences in cultural background among performers. There is additionally a dual of collaboration and competition which is difficult to reconcile. The conflicting cultural backgrounds of the performers seem to reflect in the dissonance of jazz performance. This collision of cultural heritage is the primary motivation for the development of jazz.

(commented on Neel Sabnis's blog post)

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