Essay on Jazz Ken Burns

The Jazz Age was a period of radical behavior and care free living. This new music structure started the crazy decade that would change American life. “In the US during the 1920s, jazz was far more than a new musical style or genre”. A Focus on culture, fashion, and mostly freedom became huge. “The Jazz Age became a touchstone for a wide range of social and cultural issues.”1 Also the freedom during the period allowed for many different ethnicities, including African Americans, to gain freedom within society. This new music

Picture this: the year is 1926 and you are walking down the street in downtown Chicago. You pass a crowded club, where you hear the upbeat and speedy rhythms of music pouring out. The sound consumes you, fills you with joy, and persuades you to dance. You walk into the club to find numerous people swinging and tossing themselves around each other, enjoying the fast-paced and boisterous music. This is the appearance of jazz music, and in the early 20th century, jazz music swept the nation. With artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Joe King Oliver, Sidney Bichet , Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, jazz filled the souls of Americans, promoting a free and fun lifestyle. Although these artists had different beginnings,

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro Life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia clubwoman… turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifestations—likewise almost anything else distinctly racial…She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug as near white in smug as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist …to change through the hidden force of his art that old whispering “I want to be white,” hidden in the aspirations of his people, to “Why should I want to be white? I am Negro—and beautiful.”

Jazz is a genre of music that originated in African American communities in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Jazz Era was a big deal throughout 1915 to 1935. Jazz was brought up in many different ways. There was many jazz artist who contributed to the era such as Jelly Roll Morton, Joe King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. As the jazz era ended, some artists struggled and some continued on with fortune and fame.

Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz

The genre of jazz is one of rich history and also one that is eternally changing. With its roots in African culture and its evolution mainly in the United States, it is quite obvious that the musicians involved in the growth of this music experienced great racial barriers. From its origins in the plantations of the South during times of slavery to its current state as a popular form of music, jazz has been an important tool in the battle against black prejudice. Due to its exposure to white audiences and musicians throughout its history, its use as a weapon against Jim Crow, and its relation to the black power movement of the 1960s, jazz has helped combat racism against blacks in the United States.

As black artists merged the rhythms and feelings of West African music with the emotions of blues and ideas of ragtime and new type of music began to emerge from the South. With an eclectic mix of races, class and urban and rural environments, New Orleans came to be the center of early jazz development. The eventual explosion of jazz in the 1920s was foreshadowed by the quick rise to popularity jazz experienced in the city. Jazz music provided black artists with a possibility of relatively steady employment and eventually facilitated the dispersion of black culture throughout America. As jazz rose to popularity there was certainly a great deal of resistance on both musical and racial levels. Fearing perversions of moral and musical ideals, many whites resisted jazz initially. Once jazz experienced an increase in popularity revisionist histories appeared, removing black contribution or playing up white roles in the development of jazz. Segregation still appeared frequently as black bands could not get jobs playing to white

Out of the streets of New Orleans, a new form of music arose. This new type of music was not known as African or European, but simply American. It was jazz. In 1900 jazz first developed, but it wasn’t until the

Jazz emerged towards the beginning of the 20th Century, but didn 't just spring up out of nowhere. Instead, it was a creation that developed from popular music styles of the 1800s that blended and combined them to entertain the nation and social dancers. The two main music styles that jazz consisted of were ragtime and the blues. Both ragtime and the blues had their beginnings in African-American communities. While both of these music styles strongly contributed to the creation of jazz and have a lot of similarities, they do have their differences. These differences lie within their origins, their elements that make up their styles and how these elements influenced jazz, and their artists and composers.

Between 1910 and 1970, a mass number of African Americans moved from the rural southern states of america larger urban cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit. Historically this is known as ‘The Great Migration’, which proved to be an important factor in the development of African American music, art and culture. When the migrants left their homes the south in search of a better life, they left behind the threat of lynching, discrimination, segregation, denied human rights and lack of employment. They brought a culture constructed out of their own experiences of discrimination in the south, these cultural navigations gave birth to Jazz, America’s first authentic art form. An evolution of negro spirituals and work songs, ‘The

Musicians like Duke Ellington, believed that Jazz was more than a music, because it was “a genuine contribution from our race” indicating that Jazz was part of the social movement fighting for rights and equality in America (Porter, 1). Jazz, despite having its various meanings, meant a lot to musicians because they themselves were telling their story. Once Jazz became a highly desired commodity in America, musicians fell victim to exploitation. Club conditions where these Jazz musicians like Roach performed in, were not well-maintained and transportation costs for a club tour made it nearly impossible to maintain with a whole band of people. Exploitation of musicians did vary based on color, given that black areas of town were able to pay lower than white sections of the city.

I will do this by outlining the role of race in American society during the 1920’s, the migration of many African Americans to the North, the creation of “Race Records” and the way in which Blues music was marketed to African Americans. Then, I will analyse the role of race in the creation and development of Jazz, the attitude towards African Americans in US society as reflected in Jazz music, the tensions between black people, white people and Creoles in New Orleans and the impact this had on the creation of Jazz, and finally discuss the role of race in Vaudeville.

Abstract: “From work songs and spirituals during slavery to the gospel, soul, and funk of the civil rights movement, Black music offers a new historicist interpretation of the African American experience. Through Black popular music, the struggles, faith, and joys of a people are expressed. More than mere entertainers, Black musicians are the village griots, the revisionist historians, and the voice of a people. African American music solidifies messages of societal concerns, offering

     The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the

Jazz originated from the United States in the early part of the 20th century. From Ragtime and blues to Big Bean and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. The history of jazz has its roots firmly planted in the American cities of New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City. New Orleans jazz was first recorded in Chicago and New York, not in New Orleans. The first recording was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Jazz is often referred to as “American’s classical music.’’ Jazz is known as one’s of North America’s oldest and most celebrated musical genres. Clarence Williams takes credit for the term by declaring that he was the first to ever use the word ‘’Jazz’’ in a song. Jazz originated from brass band and ragtime piano styles of the 1800s that were blende to satisfy dancers. During the 1890s, jazz began to be recognizable as a style of its own. A lot of jazz is offered in night in nightclubs, where people gather to hear music while they drink and talk with friends.