Music and its Environment

“What we did on Bitches Brew you couldn't ever write down for an orchestra to play. That's why I didn't write it all out, not because I didn't know what I wanted; I knew that what I wanted would come out of a process and not some prearranged shit. This session was about improvisation, and that's what makes jazz so fabulous. Any time the weather changes it's going to change your whole attitude about something, and so a musician will play differently, especially if everything is not put in front of him. A musician's attitude is the music he plays. Like in California, out by the beach, you have silence and the sound of waves crashing against the shore. In New York you're dealing with the sounds of cars honking their horns and people on the streets running their mouths and shit like that. Hardly ever in California do you hear people talking on the streets. California is mellow, it's about sunshine and exercise and beautiful women on the beaches showing off their bad-ass bodies and fine, long legs. People there have color in their skin because they go out in the sun all the time. People in New York go out but it's a different thing, it's an inside thing. California is an outside thing and the music that comes out of there reflects that open space and freeways, shit you don't hear in music that comes out of New York, which is usually more intense and energetic.”

-       Miles the Autobiography, 300

Coming into this course, I felt that I knew a good amount about jazz, especially for someone of my generation. I had played trumpet since childhood with jazz as my favorite genre to play, which had led me to listen to the music of many of the greats, with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and John Coltrane my favorites. I studied their music for only its musical elements, and I think I had a decent knowledge of jazz music through that lens. I had seen some of Ken Burns’ documentary about jazz, and I had an idea of some names of musicians that would come up in the class, and what they were known for.

            While the musical elements and the musicians are definitely important, I had never considered the social context from which the music and the musicians emerged before I took this course. I knew that jazz had begun in New Orleans, but I didn’t understand why New Orleans had unique qualities that contributed to the music there. I knew jazz was played in cities, but I had very little concept of how those cities shaped the music.

            The quote printed above, for Miles, the Autobiography, exemplifies the importance of the environment to the music, and how jazz in particular is equipped to interpret its environment. Prior to this class, I was drawn to jazz because of its improvisatory nature. Now, I can understand how this quality of jazz allows its musicians to respond to what they see, hear, and feel. This is why jazz in different cities has sounds that are unique to those cities. Davis explains that through improvisation, the music can be different on any given day, and that this may depend on the nature of its surroundings, hence his explanation of California and New York having different sounding music.

            The idea of music being in conversation with its environment was a new and interesting idea for me during this course. I think this is key to understanding how race, economic status, and other elements of the zeitgeist contributed to jazz music.

Commented on Dalton Klock's blog.

San Juan Hill: Monk's Mood

            Thelonious Monk was a genius, and embodied both the achievements and eccentricities that are attached to such a title. The contradictions of his genius are run parallel to the contradictions of the San Juan Hill neighborhood of New York where he grew up.

            San Juan Hill, on one hand, was a unique community. It contained the “largest concentration of black musicians in the city” and, “music was a major source of income for African-Americans, even if it wasn’t always their main vocation” (Kelly, 19). Furthermore, a strong community existed in San Juan Hill, held together in many aspects by several black churches located there. On the other hand, San Juan Hill was plagued by violence, which was often racial in nature. African-Americans in the area were in constant conflict with European immigrants that lived in the neighborhood, and the police as well. These conflicts, in addition to violence within the African-American community deeply affected Monk’s childhood (Kelly 18-19). Monk’s genius runs parallel to the contradictions present in the community. While his music is supremely unique, its genius is revealed in its juxtaposition with the eccentricities of his personality. This is similar to the community of San Juan Hill, an extremely difficult place to live, but also a unique community, especially for musicians, which may have existed as a direct result of the struggle of living there. This community undoubtedly shaped Monk’s psyche, his music and his genius. This is the meaning of the phrase “Jazz is New York”; the community and its inherent contradictions directly affect jazz artists and their music.

            The relationship of jazz to the Leimert Park community is similar. Leimert Park has been plagued by racial violence. Like San Juan Hill, a musical community formed there, in many ways in response to the violent and unsafe environment. In both areas, the community and conditions that existed there affected the music.


Commented on Phil Coren's blog

Out in the Open: Discussion of Race During the Swing Era

            From its conception, jazz was associated with African-American culture. For this reason, white audiences and critics typically looked down upon jazz music, or even ignored it during its early years. Because of the white hegemony in all aspects of society, jazz music was not highly promoted before the swing era. However, the emergence of swing, especially due to its coincidence with the emergence of radio and mass media, catapulted jazz to a level of popularity that it had not previously known. This brought the spotlight onto black swing musicians, often playing alongside white musicians or for white audiences. Explicit discussions about the role of race in jazz music became common, with white critics like John Hammond leading the way. However, the rise of these discussions were not because race functioned especially differently in the world of swing than it had in earlier jazz, but rather to the increased acceptance of the medium into popular culture, which forced listeners to consider the role of race in the music.

            Prior to the swing era, whiteness was an important factor for the careers of jazz musicians, as white musicians like Bix Beiderbecke and the Austin High School Gang were able to profit more from jazz than their black counterparts, despite jazz being predominately a product of black culture (Lyttelton, 153-162). The hegemony of white people in the world of jazz continued into the swing era, where white musicians like Benny Goodman, who even played in Carnegie Hall, had more opportunities for success than black swing musicians (Gioia, 117). Success for black musicians depended on navigating a fine line of being a black band catering to white audiences. Duke Ellington proved most capable of doing this, though it came at the cost of giving the rights to many of his songs to his white agent, Irving Mills (Stewart, 2/10). This shows how even the most successful and talented of black swing musicians were forced to conform to the demands of a white supremacist society, much like their jazz predecessors from earlier decades.

            The rise of mass media in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in the form of radio, caused a massive eruption of swing music across the United States (Gioia, 128). This brought the music of many black musicians to the ears of white listeners, many of whom were oblivious to the history of jazz before that point The new high demand for swing caused a secondary industry to rise around it: the industry of critics, exemplified by magazines like Down Beat (Stowe, 52). These types of magazines created a space where critics could discuss their opinions of swing music and swing musicians. In their evaluation of swing, progressive critics like Hammond were able to describe the role of race in swing music, and its connection to asymmetrical relationships between blacks and whites in society as a whole. These discussions were only made possible by the acceptance of swing music into mainstream culture.

            The popularity of swing music, aided by the rise of radio as a vehicle of mass media, prompted the creation of critical spaces where discussion of the role of race in the music could occur. White exploitation of black musical and musical labor and continued much as it had prior to the swing era. The difference during the swing era was that the music gained enough popularity for critics and audiences to play closer attention than they had before.

Works Cited

Gioia, Ted. The history of jazz. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Lyttelton, Humphrey. Humphrey Lyttelton's Best of Jazz. London: Robson, 2008. Print.

Stewart, Jeffrey. "Swing and Kansas City." UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA. 10 Feb. 2015. Lecture.

Stowe, David W. Swing Changes: Big-band Jazz in New Deal America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1994. Print.

Harlem's Jazz Evolution

            As black people migrated north in the early twentieth century, their music came with them. Cities such as New York and Chicago became centers of both black population and black culture, where jazz naturally flourished. Of these cities, New York’s racial dynamics, as well as its opportunities for dissemination of jazz music into mainstream culture provided an environment that encouraged the evolution and growth of jazz music. For these reasons, New York played the most important role in the flourishing of jazz.

            Harlem, following the First World War, filled with African American migrants, who came from the South, as well as the midtown area of the city (Gioia, 90). Harlem became the preeminent location of black autonomy, with the majority of the real estate under black ownership. From these circumstances, the Harlem renaissance emerged, with Harlem a cradle high culture. However, life for many Harlem residents was difficult, with low wages and high rent. From this culture emerged Harlem’s rent parties, where people would pay entry to apartments to hear musicians play, and the money went toward rent payments (Gioia, 90). In this environment emerged stride piano, a more slick and professional iteration of ragtime, where showmanship and competition mattered as much as the music itself, an attitude that came to permeate jazz culture from that point forward (Gioia 93).

            New York provided a unique opportunity to introduce black music to mainstream American culture. Fats Waller, as the leading stride pianist of the time, was able to take his music from the Harlem’s clubs and rent parties to Broadway and the big screen (Gioia 95). In this format, Waller was able to reach a wider, mainstream audience than he would have been able to in any other city. The opportunities available to musicians in New York even attracted Louis Armstrong, invited by Fletcher Henderson to come play in his band, where his musical influence is credited with the beginnings of swing (Stewart, 2/3/15).  Armstrong also played in Hot Chocolates, a Broadway musical written by Waller, which brought further attention to jazz music (Gioia, 118). All of these opportunities were unique in New York, as America’s largest city.

            The development of black autonomy in New York, as well as access to mainstream culture allowed jazz to flourish and develop in a way that would have been impossible elsewhere. For this reason, I maintain that New York was the most important city for Jazz in the 1920s.

Works Cited

Gioia, Ted. The history of jazz. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Stewart, Jeffrey. "New York to Jazz." UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA. 3 Feb. 2015. Lecture.

New Orleans: A Musical Melting Pot

Jelly Roll Morton referred to New Orleans as “the cradle of Jazz,” a claim that is widely accepted (Gioia, 42). While the importance of New Orleans in the early history of jazz is evident, the features of the city that contributed to the genesis of jazz are complex and numerous. The emergence of jazz in New Orleans, as a music form that has roots in Europe, Africa, and the New World, was certainly influenced by the multicultural nature of the city. New Orleans position as a major center of trade, its history as a French colony, and its location in the post-slavery south created a unique environment that led to the emergence of a this new form of music.

            African influences, particularly rhythmic complexity, seem apparent in jazz (Gioia, 11). The perseverance of African musical traditions in the South and in the Caribbean is hard to fully characterize, though they are evident in accounts of Congo Square, the square where slaves in New Orleans went to dance and play music (Gioia, 4). Some aspects of this musical tradition appear to have carried over into post-slavery New Orleans, as African rhythmic elements appear in ragtime music, a precursor to Jazz (Gioia, 8). As these African traditions continued to manifest themselves among the lower class Black population of New Orleans, the Creole population, which consisted of people with mixed background (French and Black), were integrated into the upper class of New Orleans. Creoles, under French law, were superior to Black people and had mostly been freed from slavery before the Civil war. Thus, they typically were wealthier than Blacks, and eschewed Black culture. This meant that Creole musicians were often well trained in the European classical repertoire. However, with the designation of Creoles as “Negroes” in 1894, they were pushed into closer contact with New Orleans’ Black population (Gioia, 32), which resulted in a mixture of European classical music with African-influenced Black American music.

            New Orleans’ position as a major Caribbean trade center, and its proximity to Mexico resulted in a major Mexican influence in the early jazz world. When the Mexican government sent a national military band to the New Orleans World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, and many remained there. In subsequent years, many Mexican musicians continued to visit New Orleans, and provided classical instruction to many of New Orleans’ up-and-coming musicians (Johnson, 225-226). The influence of Mexicans in the New Orleans during the early 20^th Century resulted in the introduction of woodwind instruments into the jazz genre (Johnson, 229). Furthermore, the Mexican influence in the early jazz scene was expressed in the sound of the music itself, as Jelly Roll Morton explained that playing jazz required “tinges of Spanish” (Gioia, 6). Thus, the impact of Mexican musicians in New Orleans was very important during the early emergence of jazz.

            New Orleans provided a setting that allowed for a combination of music from a wide range of different traditions, due to its unique position as a major trade center in the South, and its history as a French colony that kept slaves. These aspects of the city created a platform where different musical traditions were able to mix, which resulted in the creation of jazz.

Works Cited

Gioia, Ted. The history of jazz. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Theresa Johnson, Gaye. "'Sobre Las Olas': A Mexican Genesis in Borderlands Jazz and the Legacy for Ethnic Studies." Comparative American Studies 6.3 (2008): 225-240.