Jazz and Racial Identity

I enrolled in History of Jazz with only a slight knowledge of the form, and most of this kowledge was merely circumstantial. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Duke Ellington--the obligatory classics that I'd learned of through surfing Wikipedia and word of mouth--were the extent of the jazz artists on my iPod; I was excited to expand my taste in music, maybe collect a few gems that I could share with some friends. Instead of getting a pure jazz survey course (which I had expected, and also received, to a certain extent), the readings and Professor Stewart's lectures highlighted the role that race played int he development of jazz. From jazz's roots in African music, to the New World shaping music into spirituals and the blues and then ragtime, and its evolution beyond jazz, race has played a huge role in every step of jazz's development. My knowledge of jazz--that it was born spontaneously, as if from a vacuum--expanded because of the historical context heavily emphasized thorughout the quarter, and proved the most interesting aspect of the class.

It had seemed that many of the most famous jazz musicians were African-American, but I was unaware of the African music tradition's entire influence on jazz. The slave trade brought Africans to New Orleans, and they continued their cultural traditions there. Sunday mettings at Congo Square illustrate principles of African dance and culture, as enumerated by Thompson's African Art in Motion: emphasis on propulsive rhythm and syncopation, lively yet controlled dance, and the call-and-response relationship between perfomer and audience (Thompson 7, 9, 13). The musical forms that jazz influenced--swing, rock 'n' roll, disco--all contain these elements. Eventually, these elements evolved into spirituals, and after the Civil War, into the first uniquely American musical form: the blues. While I had learned before this class that the blues was a distinctly African-American musical form, I was unaware of the historical and political context surrounding the melancholy sound, that "being black doesn't mean being free" (Lecture.1.13). Both spirituals and blues placed the call-and-response mechanic at the forefront of the music, wehre a singer would sing a line and the audience/participants would sing the same line, or a slight variation of it, in response. This emphasis on community plays a huge role in these forms, as well as later jazz and swing. With the passage of legislation in 1890 that claimed that any person with at least one relative of African descent was entirely black, ragtime and jazz emerged. The classically trained Creoles were forced to create relationships with the black community they previously discriminated against, thereby combining their musical knowledge (Creoles: classical; blacks: blues). This resulted in ragtime, based heavily on African principles, which eventually evolved into early forms of jazz.

Eventually, with jazz's migration to Chicago and the proliferation of radio as a means to listen to music, jazz became a cultural phenomenon. As with any cultural hit, jazz had many imitators, most of them white (such as the Austin High Gang). However much they attempted to copy the jazz/swing formula, the imitators never captured the authentic jazz sound, perhaps because they were unaware of the African music principles behind it (as mentioned by Thompson). Jazz gradually changed with the course of history--the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, the Harlem Renaissance in New York--becoming the modern sound we associate it with today. But the most interesting aspect of the course, and what I learned the most from, was its roots in African tradition.