I don’t know where jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You
can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens. —thelonious monk
Despite the fact that during the 1920’s blacks were
considered unworthy and therefore below the “sophisticated” white class for
most aspects of life, it seemed that the two races found similarity through the
growing era of Jazz. Between new and inventive ways of playing the trombone or
piano to mixing different cultures of music to make unique jazz sounds, several
big name artists in this time rose to fame and stamped their names in history.
Compared to
most of the heavyweight jazz players in the 20’s, Joe “King” Oliver was
considered to have the most popular jazz band. What differentiated him from the
crowd was his influence of Creole- a mixture of French and African folk music
styles that began to blend in the south during the Pacific Slave Trades. “This
embrace [of incorporating styles] has not always been comfortable, nor should
it expected to be since African culture was, and remains, multifarious. The
wide range of areas that Africans were taken from meant they were as different
as they were similar,” (Miller, 1) within the growing genre of jazz. Oliver
played the trombone as well as the cornet. He was most noted for playing the
cornet in Bill Johnson’s band in Chicago, where he first picked up the name Joe
“King” Oliver- king of the cornet.
Joe “King”
Oliver’s “Sobbin’ Blues”
A mentee of the great Joe “King” Oliver, Louis
Armstrong rose to fame during Oliver’s heyday. Armstrong took on jobs that
Oliver could not fit into his schedule. This allowed Armstrong’s name and
musical talents to become known across the nation. Many knew him for his
ability to improvise lines within an already written song, both rhythmically
and harmonically. He became known as the first real superstar of 1920’s jazz
music.
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald “Summertime”
Different from most jazz stars during this era,
Paul Whiteman capitalized in the field of symphonic jazz. Whiteman enjoyed
hiring big-time jazz names to perform with his symphonic band, creating a
jazzier feel without becoming a full-fledged jazz band. This created a
modern jazz spin that took off later in the 1930’s.
Paul Whiteman’s “Whispering”
Throughout the 20’s
jazz music grew to a new level and new faces had risen to a new level of fame
despite their race or personal musical talents. All of their musical
contributions made their own watermark on jazz as a whole, but no matter how
much it progresses, “jazz is bound up with a
pluralism that somehow reconciles these apparently irreconcilable trends.”
(Deveaux, pg. 486)
Bibliography
DeVeaux, Scott. "Constructing the
Jazz Tradition." Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography.
New York: Columbia UP, 1998. N. pag. Print.
Miller, Herbie. Syncopating Rhythms:
Jazz and Caribbean Culture. New York: Jazz Studies, 2007. Print.
Jessica Alderete
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