Dialogue in The History of Jazz

Coming into The History of Jazz, I really had no real concept of what jazz was, nor what its history included. The things I associated jazz with were trumpets, elevator music, old-people concerts, and an overall old-fashioned vibe. The only jazz music I could really recall were famous pieces in movies or TV, and a little bit that my dad used to listen to, although I could not tell you the style nor the artist. On top of that, I had no clue whatsoever about the history of jazz and how it started. I assumed that it was just a type of music that began because someone simply started to play it one day. I also thought that there were only specific instruments, that did not vary, that were used to create the music. I could name Miles Davis as a jazz player, and not a single other person.

            This class transformed my knowledge and understanding of jazz. I heard it, learned about it, and even experienced it a tiny bit through DeeDee Bridgewater. The class definitely changed by assumptions about jazz and its history. I no longer view jazz as “elevator music,” and instead can appreciate it for all of the influences and culture that molded it into its many forms and types. I have learned that jazz stemmed from African roots and is built upon the foundations of African music, dance, and art (African Art in Motion). Now I know that there was a progression of different types of jazz, from its origination as New Orleans jazz up to in Chicago and New York jazz and over to Kansas City jazz, as well as the many cities and styles it hit along the way (Class Lectures 1/22/13 through 3/7/13). I also know many more key players from jazz’s history, including Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and more (History of Jazz, Gioia). Additionally, I no longer view jazz as “old-fashioned.” Rather, I have come to appreciate its history and all of the trials and tribulations that came along with innovative black musicians creating a new style of music during tough times of segregation, discrimination, and racism, which proved to be incredibly hard, as I learned in this course (Class Lectures 1/22/13 through 3/7/13). However, it was a battle fought hard and fought well—because jazz as we know it today, and as I have learned about through this class, is a beautiful, interesting, and inspiring art form.

            Before taking this class, I thought of the term dialogue or “dialogic” simply as a conversation between two people. However, my definition of this concept has changed drastically throughout my participation in this class. Professor Stewart introduced the concept of dialogue very early in the quarter. In fact, in notes I took during the very first class, he gave the meaning of “dialogic” without actually using the word by explaining that there was a connection between the music the musician played and how it was shaped by the audience (Class Lecture 1/8/13). This is the new definition of dialogic that I came to know and understand as the class progressed. Spanning this course, we have discussed the dialogue between musician and audience, between a location such as the Cotton Club and the musician, between the community and the performers, and even through learning a little about the Bakhtin Theory of the Novel (which is the idea of dialogue between the reader and writer through a novel) (Class Lecture 2/5/15). I learned how dialogue is a give-and-take; how each side contributes and influences the other. My new definition of dialogue is a lot deeper than my previous idea of it—I did not consider that it could represent such a connection between two things. After taking this class, I now see dialogue as a relationship, versus a conversation. In fact, I have learned so much throughout this course that I think I definitely deserve a 16 on this blog! 

Monk Escapes Racism Through His Music

Although he is often characterized by his erratic behavior and moods due to undiagnosed manic depression and bipolarism, Thelonious Monk was full of wisdom concerning racism. His musical life was situated during a period of high creativity—the late 1940s, which allowed for a lot of growth artistically, even as black musician (Lecture 2/28/13). The community in New York that Monk grew up in molded both him and his music, and combined with the fact that he chose to focus on music—rather than black power—throughout his life in order to deal with racial issues, he was able to create and shape his own unique community.

Through his quotes, Monk alludes to the different aspects of his community and neighborhood, including the daily struggles for blacks (Kelley, 19). He explains the “multicultural war” happening in San Juan Hill saying, “every block is a different town. It was mean all over New York, all the boroughs. Then, besides fighting the ofays, you had to fight each other. You go to the next block and you’re in another country” (Kelley, 19). He shares about the diversity of people, as well as the violence, that one encountered each and every day. The dissonance that one can identify in Monk’s writing, music, and improvisational style is directly related to his growing up in the violent and multicultural San Juan Hill. It is through these struggles also that Monk first begins to vent his frustrations about racism through his music, versus physically reacting.

However, growing up in San Juan Hill also introduced Monk to a world-wide spectrum of musical styles and cultures:  “With the music, cuisine, dialects, and manners of the Caribbean and the American South everywhere in the West 60s, virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid,” and this diversity easily wound its way into Monk’s art (Kelley, 23). Monk was also familiar with “many of the neighborhood musicians who played in local calypso or salsa bands,” as well as the classical styles of many great such as Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Chopin that were introduced to him by his Jewish Austrian piano teacher (Kelley, 23/Lecture 2/28/13). His musical style was strongly impacted by all these varied cultural influences. 

Furthermore, Monk’s music is revolutionary to the creation of bebop, which is well known for dissonance, atonality, fast and varied tempos, scattered notes and complex, improvised rhythms. But not only did Monk help structure the style of bebop, but this musical style created a bohemian community through his art. It was the artsy, poet-filled, music-appreciating bohemian community that was centered at the Five Spot--the local café-turned-music-venue where Monk had a regular gig and where he gained a lot of his popularity. The artists who came here were free-thinkers who loved Monk’s bebop-improvisational music because it challenged established norms, in the same way that Monk’s views on society and especially race were challenges to the established order. This is what helped create the bohemian-type community that he fostered through his music.

Race and racism were big factors of life that many musicians were obsessed with at this time—but fortunately, that was not Monk nor his personality. I feel that Monk actually uses his music as a way to deal with and transcend racism, rather than get caught up in it. As a black man, he was subject to the pervasive racism of the time—as seen when he unjustly lost his cabaret card while with Nica in Delaware in 1958; yet still he refused to respond by becoming more race conscious. This was a very different reaction than from someone such as Miles Davis, who would have reacted vehemently to the distinct show of discrimination (Lecture, 2/28/13). He transcended traditional racial politics by focusing on himself and his work and not the “black power shit” and associated struggles (Kelley, 19). Additionally, Monk also ignored race by focusing on other things, such as his eccentric and stylish clothes, improvisation and “Dionysian” style in his work, and even dancing around the stage when he was “really feelin' it” (Kelley, 30). Rather than respond outright to racism, Monk was able to respond through his music, and this is what makes him a great artist.  

Monk differs highly from other black musicians by refusing to succumb to negative racial aspects and instead incorporating his feelings into music. He used the aspects from the community he grew up in and as well as his improvisational style to create a new community that was “bound together by a tolerance for modernity, for dissonance in music as well as within the New York ethnic groups, and the avant-garde in both art and life” (Lecture 2/28/13). I think Monk’s strategy to overcome racial barriers and overall race consciousness was to use music as a vent for his frustration, rather than responding physically in the real world, and this made his music that much better. In light of his arrest with Nica in Delaware 1958, as well as his previous arrest in 1951, I think this added to his intent focus on being a great musician, versus fighting back against the unjust and racist system. On top of that, his relationship with Nica in general helped him overcome race, and to unite the generation of both blacks and whites that were "rebelling against the structures of American society" (Lecture 2/28/13). He refused to let racial problems be a set back, and because of this his art grew and blossomed unlike any jazz artist of the time (Lecture 2/28/13). 

 

The Swing Era

It is thought by many that Fletcher Henderson’s band with Louis Armstrong was perhaps the first orchestra to really “swing.” Henderson really possessed the supreme ability and talent to produce swing in the 1920s, but because he was black-skinned in a segregated white world, there was limited access to work. This “race” issue had always been a discourse in American history, but it was during the “Swing Era” that race became explicit due to factors of interracial competition, the need for validity of jazz as music form, the bad economy, and the physical time frame.

            Beginning with the time frame—the “Swing Era” took place during 1930s, following the Great Depression and preceding the first World War. The Great Depression took a huge toll on the economy and the overall standard of living. Record sales dropped ninety-percent in a mere five years, and “record labels that focused on black music…were hit especially hard” (Gioia, 127). The radio was becoming the new Because of this fact, there was extreme competition between black and white jazz performers, who vied for both cultural respect and the monetary and professional rewards. So, the musicians were now playing not just a creative game, but an economic game as well.

            At the beginning of this time period, both black and white jazz musicians lacked high cultural respect, as jazz was not then seen as a legitimate art, or as “classy” (class lecture 2/14/13). Because of this, there was pressure for inclusion, even in a society that was segregated. Jazz was great for this though, because it by now had morphed into a dance-style of music, and dance applied to all races! Race was still a huge issue during these times, yet while there were definitely segregated clubs, such as the Cotton Club, there were non-segregated places that popped up as well—such as the Savoy. Here, the dialogic nature between the music performer and the dancers was apparent. The dancing drew diverse audiences, of all different skin colors. It started “social miscegenation”—i.e. the interbreeding of those of different racial types—because dance involves touch, and being personal, which directly relates to sex and sexual tension created via dancing (class lecture 2/14/13). The jazz and henceforth dancing was beginning to break down America’s segregation. 

            However, as great as dancing was for starting to break down racial barriers during the thirties, there were always racial issues still popping up. One such issue was the tension between the black jazz performer, Duke Ellington, and white jazz critic, John Hammond. John Hammond excessively criticized Ellington “for his racial insensitivity to the troubles of ‘his people’” (class lecture 2/14/13). However, this situation is ironic in a couple ways. For one, it was Ellington who played by the (white-man’s) rules and hired an agent to promote him, and he performed as a “black performer” in the segregated club called the Cotton Club (class 2/14/13). These were aggressive moves that he made, versus say Fletcher Henderson, who simply did not pursue a further career due to a segregation society, that allowed him to become famous and successful. However, these race issues were still very significant, and due to them, he also had to sacrifice a lot for the fame. These sacrifices Ellington made left a “racial residue” in his mouth, according to Professor Stewart, that can be seen through his song titles like “Black Beauty” and “Solitude” (class 2/12 and 2/14). So, we can see that this still was an internal and personal concern to Ellington, and additionally, “Hammond’s criticism is ironic, given that Ellington’s music of the 1930s was explicitly and self-consciously concern with African-American cultural expression” (Swing Changes 51). The titles mentioned prior perfectly example this. Racial issues were no longer swept into the background—they were being addressed front and center.

            The Swing Era of the 1930s fell at a poor economic time in the country. Especially with the struggles and competition that resulted, along with the already and strongly present segregation, musicians had a tough go during this time period. Whether is was race issues working on being solved, like through non-segregated dance halls and social miscegenation, or race issues highlighted in a negative way, like with Ellington and Hammond, the race issues were explicit. They were in-your-face as never before. It was hard because it was basically a catch-22 for African Americans—they could become famous in a “white man’s world” which meant playing by certain rules and being criticized, or do what they could as a black performer, but probably not go as far because of limited opportunity. Race affected everything. Because of this, these factors all contribute to race being explicit in the 1930s as never before.