Blog #5

I had assumed, coming into this course, that jazz was a style of music closely tied to black culture; and for the most part, that assumption was confirmed. Most of the leading artists in every new incarnation of jazz, from its inception in the early twentieth century on, were African American, and the stylistic elements that made Jazz distinct from other music styles were from African musical and dance traditions. For instance, the club Minton’s, mentioned in Miles Davis biography, was a source of great musical innovation in the Bebop style of jazz, was almost entirely black in its audience and performers. White people at Minton’s were rare and out of place. “… no matter how good the music sounded down on 52nd Street, it wasn't as hot or as innovative as it was uptown at Minton's. … you had to calm the innovation down for the white folks downtown be­cause they couldn't handle the real thing. Now, don't get me wrong, there were some good white people who were brave enough to come up to Minton's. But they were few and far between.” (54 ,Davis).

 There were white musicians at the forefront of jazz, but they were rare and usually met with skepticism by black audiences; Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, and Bill Evans, to name a few. Davis wrote that some people didn’t like that he chose Bill Evans as his pianist; People thought since his quartet was one of the best, he should have a black pianist. Miles even suggested that it is part of the reason why Evans left. “Some of the things that caused Bill to leave the band hurt me, like that shit some black people put on him about being a white boy in our band. Many blacks felt that since I had the top small group in jazz and was paying the most money that I should have a black piano player. Now, I don't go for that kind of shit; I have always just wanted the best players in my group and I don't care about whether they're black, white, blue, red, or yellow. As long as they can play what I want that's it. But I know this stuff got up under Bill's skin and made him feel bad. Bill was a very sensitive person and it didn't take much to set him off.” (231, Davis). On the whole, Jazz was dominated by black musicians.

Evans own theory of jazz challenged my preconceptions about the role of improvisation in Jazz. I had always thought of the improvisational process of jazz being something that defined it and distinguished from, say, classical styles of music. Evans, however, proposed that improvisation dated back to 17^th century classical music, but the art form had been lost.(Stewart, March 10) He thought that improvisation in jazz was a revival of that art form. If he was right, it puts jazz in a different context in musical history.

Blog 4

            Monk was a talented musician, but his genius would not have had the chance to flourish if it had not been for the San Juan Hill community. The San Juan Hill community was composed of a collection of different races, each with their own separate community. These communities were from a diverse set of cultures, and did not always get along. There were racial tensions between these communities, even violence and occasional riots. Monk himself experienced some of this interracial conflict in San Juan Hill. “I did all that fighting with ofays [whites] when I was a kid. We had to fight to make it so we could walk the streets. … It was mean all over New York, all the boroughs. Then, besides fighting the ofays, you had to fight each other. You go in the next block and you’re in another country.”” (Kelley 27).

Monk was saved, however, by the people, institutions, and resources of his community. From their arrival in San Juan Hill, Monk’s mother wanted better things for her children. She worked hard to give them opportunities, including school, musical education and a good place to live. Monk’s early piano lessons with Simon Wolf were paid for by her hard work. The Columbus Hill Center was beloved by Monk and the community in general. It provided a place for Monk to play music for an audience, but it was also a cultural center for all the youth of San Juan Hill, including his siblings Marion and Thomas. “For Thelonious, Marion, and Thomas, the Center became their second home… Thelonious rarely beat his big sister at paddle ball, but he excelled on the basketball court (though, contrary to popular myth, he never played for his high school basketball team), and he was a shark when it came to billiards and table tennis.” (Kelley 37). Some of Monk’s first bands were made of people he met through the Center.

In this respect, San Juan Hill is much like Leimert Park, a community in downtown LA. Originally surrounded by violence, over time, it became a safe community closely tied by its artistic community. Jazz, poetry, dance, and other forms of art helped tie the community together. In particular, the coffeehouse and World Stage in Leimert Park were a center for culture in Leimert Park, much in the same way the Columbus Hill Center was for San Juan. Art was a forum for members of the community, something that connected them, which is especially important when the community contains many clashing cultures. Monk’s music was influenced by this exchange and diversity of culture, and most of his early performance work was in that community. If not for the San Juan Hill community, Monk may never have received the opportunities he did.

Blog #3

 Race became explicitly talked about during the Swing Era partially due to the experiences of black musicians with discrimination in the music industry and partially because of larger forces in politics. One of the reasons Race became explicitly talked and written about during the 1930's was the new audience jazz attracted. They were younger, more liberal, and less inclined to accept the status quo of black segregation and oppression. The artists behind the Swing Era were more political as well. As black artists tried to capitalize on their music, they had faced obstacles from institutions biased against black ownership and success. Not only that, but they found themselves increasingly in competition with white bands, bringing interracial competition to the fore(Stewart). At the same time, black bands were empowered by their financial and cultural success. Their experiences abroad changed their perspective as well. While WW2 exposed Europe to jazz, it simultaneously exposed jazz artists to the racial attitudes of Europe, where segregation, at least, was not commonplace. Black artists were successful in Paris, establishing high class, non-segregated clubs.

Duke Ellington's entire persona was built around being classy. He was not content to be a second-class musician. His deal with Irving Mills, establishing Mills as his band's agent and partial owner, was hugely successful, making his band arguably the most successful of the early Swing Era. Mills brought the band regular gigs at the Cotton Club, a club usually reserved for white bands, a television show, . He made compromises with White institutions to reach his goals, and some, musicians and jazz critics alike, considered him to be unfaithful to his race and class, despite his origins in the upper middle class.(Stewart). John Hammond's highly politicized critiques of jazz music forced artists to acknowledge, or in the case of Duke Ellington, defend against his accusations (Swing Changes 100). Some of these white critics argued that jazz played by black musicians was superior to jazz played by white musicians.

The Market force created by the coexistence of radio, clubs, and professional gigs made segregation more incongruous. The Music itself is “invisible”, i.e., you cant tell a white band from a black band just from the sound. You don't have to segregate when you're on the radio, but then a concert, or work at a club comes by, and you have to segregate again. Black and white bands were increasingly in competition with each other for the best gigs. The “king of jazz”, Benny Goodman, a white musician, lost a “Battle of the Bands” to Chick Webb-by his own admission.The Bandleaders of the 1920's had been replaced largely by corporations who controlled the bands and whether or not they were successful and profitable (Swing Changes pg 103). Benny himself, wanting to retain his title, would begin hiring black musicians to play in his bands, and paying Fletcher Henderson for his arrangements. 

Race became explicitly talked about in the Swing Era due to the pressure of the new corporate management on bandleaders, who, maybe for the first time, were in direct competition with musicians of the opposite race. Critics with political agendas made race an issue, as well as the the larger forces of Swing's new, younger audience, and the cultural exchange that WW2 brought.

Blog #2

 The story of New York Jazz is the Story of Harlem. In the early 20th century, the Great Migration brought Jazz musicians from the south of the country to New York. Many of them settled in Harlem, a place described as “A promised land for a downtrodden race.” (Goia, pg 93). Harlem was home to an independent African American community, divided into a Harlem of dreams and aspirations, and another of economic realities. Out of this Harlem came a new style of Jazz, Stride Piano, one which flourished in the rent parties and underground economies of Harlem. This style descended from elements of jazz style mixed with the high technical standards of European piano. Several notable pianists made a name for themselves in the Harlem scene, Fats Waller, William “the Lion” Smith, and James P. Johnson among them. 
 Stride Piano in New York was just the prelude to the Swing era, however. Fletcher Henderson's band, with the help of Louis Armstrong, brought the swing style to New York. Duke Ellington is the best representation of the culture and state of New York Jazz at this time. Ellington was an exceptional performer, attaining great success despite the challenges he faced because of his race (Stewart). His musical style, described as “ creation of a musical landscape”, was unsurpassed in its ability to establish and maintain a musical mood. An expressive ability, at home in New York, the home of the writers and artists of the Harlem renaissance.

Blog #1

        New Orleans was the Harlem of the South, a melting point for various different cultures and ways of life. Jazz was influenced by many musical traditions, chief among them the European and African styles (Gioia, 9). The boom and bust in steam-powered transportation in the mid 19^th century helped set the stage for the creation of jazz. Blues attained popularity in New Orleans prior to jazz.

     

        Jazz is closely tied to the Red Light District of New Orleans. Many of the african american jazz artists had to work in the red light district, as upper class white establishments considered them, and in some classes their music, to be low-class and not respectable. Jazz flourished there, until eventually emigration to the North and the promise of greater success pushed and pulled jazz artists to entertain in Northern cities.(Gioia 48)

      

        Mexican immigrants had a profound effect on Jazz.Mexico sent the 8^th Regimental band to the 1884 Centennial exposition in New Orleans. Many of theses musicians elected to stay in the United States, influencing American musicians in the formation of jazz (Johnson, 225). They also popularized woodwind intruments, including the saxophone and clarinet. Among them was the writer of Sobre Las Olas, Juventino Solas.

     

         New Orleans Jazz was distinctive for the artists and performers who made it what it was, and for their personalities. Jelly Roll Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz, was one such personality. He was the first to deal with jazz in abstract terms, and his historical accounts and writings are still held in high regard, despite his reputation as a loudmouth. Louis Armstrong, arguably the inventor of the Jazz solo, brought a personality into his improvisation and performance that noone had before. He was more than just an artist or performer, he became one of the first American entertainers. (Stewart)

This is Post 1: 2.00 p.m. section.

This is Post 1.