Blog #5 – Jazz’s History: A Dynamically Migrating Genre

Coming into this class, I had listened to some of the greats of jazz that people will refer to when their mind initially approaches the genre, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Louis Armstrong. For white jazz musicians, I knew of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman. However, there was obviously a slew of musicians that I had never even heard of, including Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Waller, Bix Beiderbecke, Fletcher Henderson, and I will even admit Duke Ellington.

When I thought of jazz, I assumed it held more than just a musical form, but was seen as an art that embodied the entire lives of those devoted to it, seen in every outlet of people’s personality. Jazz musicians in my mind always had that stereotypical sharply dressed look, with a pinstriped suit and slanted fedora. For instance, in Davis’s early career, he “started caring about the way I looked, trying to look hip and everything…” (Davis, 32).

            I had also assumed (which was reinforced through the class) that New York played a critical role in the success of jazz as a music industry from a commercial perspective. Numerous artists after the 1920ssaw New York as a mecca for opportunity, including Davis, who claimed “I had learned all I could from playing around St. Louis, knew it was time to move on. So I packed up my stuff…took a train up to New York City…” (Davis, 50).

            Another key aspect reinforced in this class was the role of improvisation. I thought jazz was inseparable from this description, but did not realize the oscillating effect it held in its history, between its diminishing presence in swing to full force seen in bebop. Davis highlights its importance in his music, as he “didn’t write out the music for Kind of Blue, but brought in sketches for what everybody was supposed to play because I wanted a lot of spontaneity…Everything was a first take, which indicates the level everyone was playing on” (Davis, 234). Separately, I did assume a clear understanding of the inevitable social influence jazz held on racial tensions. I had a good prior understanding of the music’s necessity for survival through the struggle of slavery with instances such as the Congo Square, but did not know it possessed such similar parallels across time, with systems like the contracts of Chicago nightclubs reminding some of plantation life. On top of that, New York’s migration down Manhattan in Davis’s eyes showed these conflicts, as “a lot of white people, though, didn’t like what was going on on 52^nd Street. They didn’t understand what was happening with the music. They thought that they were being invaded by niggers from Harlem, so there was a lot of racial tension around bebop” (Davis, 68). I did not realize (for jazz specifically) that parallels of this cultivation through social conflict could be drawn to modern times events like Leimert Park.

            Most importantly, though, I had never thought of jazz from a geographical perspective in terms of its history. I knew that New Orleans, Chicago, and New York were all key players in its cultivation and transformation to a worldly stage, but never viewed them from a chronological perspective. On top of that, I had no idea of the eye-opening role Paris held as a reverie for greater equality and tolerance compared to the United States at the time. My understanding of the history of jazz was fundamentally changed by this new perspective.

Commented on Steven Bennett’s blog:  http://stevenbennettblst14.blogspot.com/

"I also found remarkable new facts on the roles of Juliard and classical teachings and their effects on jazz. I think your evidence pointing to Miles Davis hits that point with good support well. The contrast to that and the presence of mainstream cultivating from hole-in-the-wall settings further drives that ironic contradiction well."