Swing, Swing, Swing

Before attending this class, I had a very narrow minded view of jazz. I was entirely unaware of its history, concepts, and even its artists were unknown to me. I was unaware that jazz had strong racial ties. I always assumed it was coincidence that the majority of jazz artists were black.  The course has definitely changed my perception and opinion of jazz and its performers. My opinion of jazz has changed entirely, this whole time I thought jazz to be “cool”. I didn’t realize that there was a “hot” type of jazz. I assumed it to be slow with small quintets. I never realized that the New Orleans big bands were a type of jazz. To be honest, the only jazz I was familiar with was the music from the film Chicago. And that music is entirely modern and has a pop feel to it. But what changed the most was my perception of swing.

            The concept that has changed the most for me was swing. After seeing the movie swing kids, I thought swing to be only an upbeat, fast-moving type of sound. I thought it to be its own genre apart from the classification of jazz. I also never realized that it took a big band sound to create a real swing sound. With rhythm sections and strong emphasis on percussion. I also heard the greatest song ever created while being in this class. Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman, in my personal opinion is the best jazz song ever. And I had no idea that it existed because I was unaware of jazz and its history. I also didn’t know that the clarinet could be used in jazz, along with the guitar. There is a plethora of instrument that are used in jazz, especially swing and now I know.

            So basically my entire perception of jazz has changed, and the biggest impact was my perception of swing. 

Monk: Bro of the Community

The community of San Juan Hill portrayed well in many aspects of Monk’s life. Although an incredibly diverse location, the city was divided into separate enclaves. In the first quote, Monk briefly mentions the separation between the blocks, and how strong the dividing lines are. But this separate community really shaped Monk as artist and played a strong role in his sound. With all the diversity in San Juan Hill, there was always a variety of music. “The cultures of the West Indies and the Southerners blended despite tensions.”(Kelley, 23) Monk soon adopted the ways of Caribbean music, and it can be heard in his early jazz sound in songs like “Bye-ya” and “Bemish Swing”. Monk’s piano refinement also came from within his community. Alberta Simmons is said to be a huge impact on Thelonius as his piano instructor, even though she had never recorded music. (Kelley, 27)

            Monk transcended racial politics through his lifestyle actions and musical sound. It is a given than San Juan Hill is a diverse place, but Monk’s approach to the racial separation made him wiser than most. He states that people all over the world come to New York and contest each other’s rights to be there. (Stewart, Feb. 28, 2013) Monk opts to not limit himself to the black and white dichotomy because violence between races is a given. (Stewart, Feb. 28, 2013) Although the streets of San Juan Hill were bounded by race and class, the community as a whole began the early days of blurring the racial lines. And Monk’s music is representative of that. (Stewart, Feb. 28, 2013) I feel as though this is represented the Delaware trial with Nica and Rouse. From the Philadelphia arrest, I have gathered that Monk is aware of race, but does not see it. Since coming from the strong community of San Juan Hill, he is more expectant of tolerance to a certain degree. Because in New York even if you are a different race, you are still equals. And in the south, they do not share that same view. But Monk’s ignoring of these racial lines fostered a community that was spearheaded by acceptance. He helped spur a progressive society and acted as a role model for better times. 

Given that race has always been a discourse in the history of jazz, why did race become explicit in the 1930s—written and talked about in the “Swing Era” as never before?

Race became critical in the 1930’s for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that jazz was becoming more predominant in pop culture, therefore bringing attention to black culture. Jazz was moving from the bordello to the night clubs, from the margins to the mainstream. (Stewart, February 14, 2013) It was this attention to black music and pop culture that made it expand into society. Also the process of American assimilation of a Black-originated art form into the mainstream of popular culture, jazz becomes an economic boondoggle. (Stewart, February 14, 2013). And finally white musicians and Black musicians are in competition with one another for the financial rewards and cultural respect for mastery of this art form. (Stewart, February 14, 2013)

            In my personal opinion, jazz became more popular because of race, because of the Great Depression. The Great Depression really had an economic impact on jazz. I believe since the Swing Era started that musicians had to travel more, if they had the means, to make money. And this physical spread jazz, and the spread of jazz called attention to race. The expansion of the Black art made a reckoning of Black people and their culture. Resulting in an awareness of black people 

            The city that was most important to the development of jazz in the 1920s was Harlem, New York. Although Chicago contributed many great artists such as Louis  Armstong, Bix Beiderbeck, King Oliver, and the Austin High School Gang, it fell short in contributing a new type of element to jazz.  In Chicago, the role of the soloist was more prominent, and the ensemble playing became more complex. (Stewart, January 31) But in Harlem a stronger sound was created with the advent of stride piano. This also led to the creation of jungle music, a term that stemmed from the white man’s wanting of the Black man’s mind and the Black woman’s body. (Stewart, February 5)  Stride piano came to be known as the bridge between the ragtime idiom of the turn of the century, and the new jazz piano styles that were in the process of evolution. (Gioia, 96) It was this major contribution to jazz that made Harlem a more influential city.

            But jazz did not just influence the musical sector of Harlem, it also affected socio and economic conditions as well. The most prominent part of the social conditions that jazz sculpted, was the merging of the highbrow and low brow Blacks.(Gioia, 96) Stride piano was the main merger performed in Harlem, by artists like Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, and Willie “The Lion” Smith. Stride helped create a unification amongst Blacks, because of mostly everyone’s enjoyment of music. It was this universal enjoyment that helped blur racial lines. Over the radio, a lot of Black jazz musicians had their music played without Whites recognizing it, allowing for the spread of music. It was also the ability for some Black artists to play in white venues that allowed for the Spread of Black jazz. For example like Duke Ellington working at the Cotton Club, a gangster run nightclub, which allowed for Duke to and his band to be pushed in a positive direction for their career. (Stewart, January 15) Finally, jazz had an impact on the economics of Harlem as well. Because many people could not afford their rent, they threw rent parties as a way to make extra money for the rent. A rent party is essentially the hiring of an artist to perform at your place to pay the next month’s rent. These are just a few of the ways that jazz contributed to the Harlem environment.

            But if one were to pick an artist that best represented Harlem and its culture, it would be hands down, Art Tatum. A nearly blind musician that was ahead of his time, stands out as a master of Harlem stride piano. (Gioia, 101) Not only was he highly skilled in the piano, but he made an excellent soloist while still being able to collaborate well. (Gioia, 104) In a time of prominent soloist, I think that the best skill as an artists could have, besides playing an instrument is this ability to combine your sound with others. As we transfer to swing we will discuss how a uniform sound is important. (Stewart, February 12) it is this skill that helps put Art Tatum before his time and prepared for the future of jazz. 

January 25, 2013

            New Orleans contributed a lot of material to the emergence of jazz in the 20^th century. For starters it started the trend of jazz being sexy with its “emergence” in the brothels in the District. It contributed to a temporary stigma of the time about jazz. The thought that it was a lesser form of music until it really started to catch on. New Orleans also contributed to the popularity of big brass bands. Although they were playing all over cities, what made New Orleans kind of unique is that that the bands were not limited to concert halls, they would play everywhere even the streets and that helped with the emergence of jazz. At the same time a lot of artists were introduced and their styles influenced future jazz styles like Jelly Roll Morton who used the stop-time technique which is explained on page 41 in History of Jazz. These are just some of the ways New Orleans contributed to jazz and gives some insight as to why jazz emerged here.

            In my opinion, there is one main reason as to why jazz emerged in New Orleans. As professor Stewart stated in lecture, the Atlantic Slave Trade had to go through New Orleans since it was one of the biggest ports in the South. So a lot of black people ended up in New Orleans and brought with them their native music. And after a couple years of playing in Congo Square and eventually music evolving and stuff you end up with jazz.

            But it wasn't always jazz. First it was ragtime, which is the art of ragging on traditional European music. And the blues, which is music that comes from the soul. Some, like Jelly Roll Morton, would say that jazz even needs to have a Spanish flair. Jazz’s sources is an evolution of music. With African roots and some European mixture it is a combination of everything and all sounds.

            The most important factor of jazz emerging in New Orleans, was definitely its location. I think jazz could of formed in Los Angeles if was closer. It's like real estate. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.