The Recognition of Race - Post #3

         It wasn’t until the 1930’s that Jazz music became a more socially acceptable form of entertainment, especially to the white community. The 1930’s swing music “took on a more explicit set of ideological meanings and evoked more complex responses” (Stowe 53) than Jazz had done in previous generations.

As previously identified, Jazz was concentrated in primarily black impoverished communities, and frowned upon by both whites, and upper-brow black communities. Examples of this include, the origination of Jazz in the red light district of storyville, the association of jazz with slums and gangsters in Chicago, and the way in which Harlem jazz was never able to quite measure up to the African American renaissance art of it’s time. As stated in “Swing Changes," Jazz was perceived as uncouth and primitive; a direct threat to moral propriety, sexual decency, and American womanhood”

(53).

Essentially, two major performances slowly began shifting the negative perceptions away from jazz music. These include the great jazz duo of the century between Goodman and Webb at “The Savoy” (1936), followed by the performance of Goodman at Carnegie Hall (1938). These events “made jazz legit," and created a type of pressure for racial integration, at a time when segregation was still very present. Race was now at the forefront, and as professor Stewart stated, jazz had begun to gain “high culture respect."

The Savoy jazz duo (victory awarded to Webb) also represented the idea of a new form of racial competition, and a new found economic game. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that whites saw black jazz band competition as being “head to head” legitimate competition. This identification of competition always brings out racial consciousness among its players, with each side now representing an entire racial group rather than simply an individual’s artistic talent level (Gioia 140-145). Although groups such as the Dixieland Jazz Band and the Austin High school gang emerged in the 1920’s, black musicians at this time were not put on record and were not yet recognized as being on the same professional competitive level as their white counterparts. Race was explicitly visible and noticeable in the 1930’s due in part to this “new found” competitive landscape.

Now that black’s music was gaining respect as a higher art form, this led to the emergence of white fans and consumers. Swing music drew diverse populations into similar spaces, and in essence began breaking down physical segregation, thereby creating a type of cyberspace integration (Professor Stewart). Jazz musicians now had to market too much broader, larger and more diverse audiences in both live performances and radio mediums. Hence, swing became a platform for “social misgenation," which refers to interracial marriage and sex. However, negative racial connotations arose, as it instilled in white men a fear that their white women would be “consuming the music AND consuming the bodies that were playing it”  (Stewart). Race issues became more prominent in social settings, and were both explicitly talked and written about due to fears revolving around social miscegenation.

         

In addition, the emergence of the white jazz critic also influenced race issues in jazz music of the '30's. The relationship between the white critic and the black musician created racial tension, since the critic was not “embedded in the same reality-the differing aspirations of musicians and the pressures of the music industry” (Stewart lecture). A perfect illustration of this complex relationship can be seen through John Hammond’s critique of Duke Ellington. Hammond “had positioned himself as an arbiter of African American musical authenticity”(Stowe 52), as racial hierarchies were once again reiterated in the lives of black musicians. This is repeatedly displayed through the success Duke Ellington. Aside from talent, Duke’s success was attributed to his exposure to white consumers, for example making appearances at the whites only 'Cotton Club'. Duke was aware that if his music was appealing to the white consumers, this would lead to commercial success, since they were the puppeteers guiding the industry.

         

Hammond then critiques Dukes complex situation as he states that Duke, “disguised a willingness to tolerate racial indignities for the sake of commercial success”, and that as an activist Duke had refused to respond to the “plight of his people." (Swing ppt). With little ground to stand on, white critics were able to “make or break” careers based on their subjective and detached critiques. Not always negative, Hammond did have beliefs that “blacks had an innate superiority (Stowe 61), as he claimed to have “discovered” several important black jazz musicians such as Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie and Billy Holiday (Stowe 52-60). Nonetheless, the relationship of this overarching white “puppeteer” John Hammond, controlled every movement of artists like Ellington, make it apparent that the white critique causes yet another source of racial tension.

In conclusion, the 1930’s brought about not only an era of swing, but also an era that began explicitly recognizing and discussing the discourse of race. This was brought on by the recognition of jazz as a “higher art," a new aspect of economic and cultural competition, a fear of social miscegenation, the emergence of the white consumer, and the relationship between the white critic and the black artist.

The Fusion of Two Harlems

New York City was the most influential contributor to Jazz in the 1920s, as it created an environment where various peoples, cultures, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds could, “mix and react, creating the laboratory of a great race-welding” (Locke, 630). New York was the most heterogeneous northern city in the country, as “each group had come with it’s own separate motives and for it’s own special ends, but their greatest experience has been the finding of one another” (Locke, 630). The migration of African Americans from the south gave rise to a new Black identity, as music acted as an agent of change and expression for African Americans. This fusion of two different socioeconomic communities in New York is what set it apart from cities like Chicago. New York jazz music formed a racial identity and created an attitude of self-determination for African Americans.  (Locke).

These “Two Harlem’s” describe the African American cultural renaissance movement, and the lower class “rent party” social environment. Unlike Chicago, where black Jazz music was concentrated only in certain areas such as the south side, or New Orleans (storyville, red light district), Harlem created a sense of widespread community and social interaction, as seen in rent parties and social events, across all areas of the city. (Gioia, 93). It was, “neither a slum, ghetto, resort or colony, though it was in part all of them” (Locke, 630).   Where environments such as Chicago Jazz were concentrated only in black slums, Harlem created a forced syncretism of two diverse black communities, which evolved into a unique form of “New York Jazz.” The term “forced syncretism is important to note, as jazz music was highly ostracized in the upper brow black community, as it was associated with southern black slavery roots, racy dance clubs, and seen as a less educated and/or less sophisticated art form (as compared to European traditional art/literature). (Gioia, 123). In time, whites began to attend whites only “Cotton Club” located in Harlem, where they too began to fall under this “Jazz fever”, and therefore turned black jazz into a commercialized success.  (Gioia, 123).

New York style Jazz had the unique element of the stride piano, which “The Best of Jazz describes as an “oompah left hand, and by an arabesque of right-hand chords and arpeggios, fashioned in counter rhythms.” Stride piano was a metaphor for the innovative cultural melting pot of the two Harlem’s. It integrated both black audiences, and in that, created something totally unique and innovative.  As Gioia mentions, stride piano, “bridged the gulf between highbrow and lowbrow” (96). The Harlem Stride Style helped to bridge this gap between the poor blacks and the socially elite. The Stride Era consisted of many jazz fathers, such as Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Art Tail, and Willie “the lion” Smith, just to name a few. (Gioia).

In particular James P. Johnson, "the father of stride piano," best represents the New York Style Jazz as a whole. Johnson embodies Bakhtins “third party” dialogic theory of imagination to Jazz, more so than any other New York jazz father. While Johnson improvised the art of jazz through his stride playing, in doing so he also improvised the New York community, by responding to what his audiences wanted, therefore creating this new and unique “community of NY sound”. (Stewart lecture). He embodied the idea that a jazz piece was a dialogue between the artist and his audience, where the artists speaks to the audiences desires, while the audience in return is affected in the cultural changes these new sounds create. This element of call and response is seen in James’s pieces such as “Carolina Shout” and the Charleston (“The Best of Jazz”).

New York was not only innovative in the 1920’s but it went on to be a place of innovation of “big bands”, which consisted of both a bigger contrast between soloist and ensemble, as well as a faster paced, and more unison based rhythmic framework. New York became the basis of the new “swing era”, where men such as Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson who both in their own individual ways, became the pioneers of swing innovation, which would end up being extremely popular in the 1930’s. (“The Best of Jazz, Henderson). The opportunity for black Jazz musicians to inject their influence into NYC society, to cross cultural lines, and to make a living as a musician, certainly made this city the most important city for Jazz in the 1920's, and also carrying on to the 1930’s.