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.