Why
is jazz important for American culture?
"I think there are only three
things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when
they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and
baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things
this culture has ever produced."
"A certain kind of paradox is
built into jazz music," says Early. "You had people who created a
music that's really celebrating democratic possibilities:
liberation, freedom of the spirit, a soaring above adversities -
who really hadn't experienced everything that democratic society
had to offer, but you could look around and see the promise
embedded in the society. Jazz is a kind of lyricism about the great
American promise and our inability to live up to it."
The
Great American Promise
Perhaps. Jazz was almost like a
coping mechanism. Blacks played at places where they could not stay
as guests. They were living in America, but were considered
outsiders. Jazz was one way to find their way in.
How it dealt with a world
outside that was less inclusive is examined in the series. Blacks
played at places where they could not stay as guests. Blacks and
whites together on a bandstand could cause comment. At the same
time, with segregation widespread, playing and listening to jazz
was a pastime that could bring the races together.
"Many of the black people who
performed this art form rose to the stature of being considered
really serious, profound artists and that really hadn't happened
before in American life," observes Early.
"Jazz is probably the most
distinctive, the most complex musical art that America produced,"
says Early, who is a professor of English and the director of the
African and Afro-American Studies Program and of the American
Culture Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis.
"It's also the most inclusive. Jazz is a music that will take
anything."
"Contrary
to the very fundamentals of Nazism"
In the Depression, jazz offered
swing, danceable music over the radio that everyone could afford.
In the forties, jazz became a symbol of wartime resistance and
traveled worldwide via V Discs (short for Victory Discs!). "Jazz
expresses the hope of a free people," declared Earl Hines. "It is
based upon individuality which is contrary to the very fundamentals
of Nazism."
"There is a sense of hope and
possibility and joy and an irrepressible energy that is quite
remarkable," Novick comments.
With all of its permutations,
jazz has not been easy to define. Musicians themselves are
sometimes reluctant to offer an answer. "I can understand that,"
Novick says, noting that Duke Ellington disliked having his
compositions identified with a one-word label.
Bruce Raeburn, curator of the
Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University and another adviser on the
film, compares trying to pin down jazz to observing the Big Bang
and attempting to keep track of all the resulting asteroids. "Jazz
is a style of interpreting a piece of music in a personal way.
There are certain essential conventions, all of which can be
interpreted very broadly."
Victory
Discs
Earlier in the lesson we
mentioned V-Discs, or Victory Discs. Let's look at this
subject in a little more depth.
"V-Disc" was actually a record
label produced during World War II by the U.S. government. They
collaborated with many private recording companies to produce these
music records for U.S. military who were fighting
overseas.
These 12-inch, 78 rpm gramophone
recordings were created between 1943 and 1949. The "V" stood for
"Victory", to remind the troops of home and to lighten their
spirits with jazz music as they continued to fight for the
cause.
These V-Discs were a
HUGE hit. There was a variety of music to
listen to - from big band, swing, classical performances to
straight jazz and even marching music. Many V-Discs contained kind
words by bandleaders and musical artists, wishing the troops good
luck and sending their prayers for a swift and safe
return.
Reference: Jazz-An American
Elixir - By Pedro Ponce. Humanities, July/August 2000, Volume
21/Number 4. <
http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2000-07/jazz.html
>
Image: Buenos-aires,
digitalcolony
