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)
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)
This blog has a great emphasis on the culture and the social aspect that surrounded jazz music in the cities it was popular in. Jazz definitely left an impact on American culture, and I like that you detailed its effect in this blog. Going into other forms of art that related to the jazz style at the end was also a nice touch.
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