The Jazz Music Scene in the 20th Century

Jazz, as a genre, is arguably one of the most collective forms of musical art in existence. From its roots as call and response hymns sung by slaves to today's soloists, bands, and even orchestras, jazz's evolutionary process is marked by the joint effort of hundreds of artistically gifted minds. Instead of sonic complexities and new ideas being added in the format of a straight line, jazz's roots have expanded in a circular pattern. Artists have come together to explore a myriad of different musical directions, all of which fall under the umbrella that has defined a significant facet of American culture for more than a century.

As evinced by the fact that jazz is well known as an art form developed by African Americans, its early development occurred in the South, especially New Orleans. At the turn of the twentieth century, African American musicians began fusing old plantation hymns with faster beats, making dance music out of it. It shadowed a social shift into urban areas, which is why it was coined "Ragtime" or "Ratty" at its origin. According to The Oxford University Music Dictionary, jazz was at first "novel and entertaining...(it) accompanied dancing and was performed usually in places serving alcoholic beverages". Scott Joplin, writer of the now famous "Entertainer" and Jelly Roll Morton were the forerunners of what was then called the "ragtime" genre. As World War I raged overseas from 1914 to 1918, American culture, and jazz itself, stagnated and stayed isolated. Then, peace was declared, and the American population wanted something to dance to. Jazz filled the role perfectly, and was poised for a colossal surge in popularity.

As the "Roaring Twenties" and Prohibition began, the jazz scene spread northward out of New Orleans. It reached Chicago, New York, and even Europe. This is the place in time where those aforementioned artistically gifted minds started coming together. Jazz was a part of a social scene, a lifestyle, as opposed to just a form of music. Speakeasies and underground bars rose sharply with the enforcement of Prohibition. The music was in demand, and its prominent leaders spread out across America. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong and King Oliver, now both respected individually as master jazz trumpeters, both played and composed in the Oliver Creole Jazz Band. Duke Ellington, meanwhile, took the "harder, more brittle, and generally more frenetic" (Oxford) style of Armstrong and Oliver's Chicago jazz and softened it, adding more piano and making it more melodic. He brought this form to New York in the peak of the Harlem Renaissance. The pool of ideas and intellectual pathways was developing quickly. White musicians, too, discovered and joined the cultural movement. Artists such as George Gershwin, who "combined the textures of romantic works for piano and symphony orchestra with the pulsations and rhythms of jazz" (Janaro 199). Each important musician in the genre added their own elements, making it more complex, allowing more room for creative improvisation, and concurrently widening its appeal to the masses. Great American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term "Jazz Age" for this decade of intellectual expansion.

Suddenly, the 1929 Stock Market Crash and Great Depression occurred, followed by the repeal of Prohibition. American culture changed wholly, and jazz followed suit. Many performers "went out of business, some to never return". In response, new and original forms of jazz rose out of the collective pool of previous musical ideas. Jam sessions that went unrecorded and interaction between the musicians spawned "swing" and "cool jazz". It was led by a newer group of musicians including Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, but originators of the twenties like Louis Armstrong adapted and remained leaders within the genre. (Oxford) With the constant innovation, "swing" jazz was opened up to a huge new demographic - young whites. Until then, white listeners had been the definite minority. And with the new listeners came new money. Jazz musicians again flourished, spawning new musical directions. The newer group, in general, created two distinct styles of jazz in the coming decades.

The first of those routes was more mainstream. The thirties through fifties saw the "swing" style expand to one of the most popular musical genres in America. The scene was still segregated, and though blacks and whites played together privately they were not often seen together in public. (Oxford) The fact remained, however, that its play on both racial sides contributed to its wide success. Performances by the leaders of the mainstream jazz movement such as Benny Goodman saw bigger audiences, much larger bands, and even more money and popularity. With this came the freedom to collaborate on stage as well as off of it. Relationships that have now become storied, almost legendary musical partnerships were being seen for the first time. This included the likes of Louis Armstrong with Ella Fitzgerald, and Benny Goodman with Dizzy Gillespie. With the financial freedom provided by popular "swing jazz" came a new opportunity for those same musicians to reshape and innovate their craft. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Music, "Through informal and after-hours jam sessions held in small night clubs and musicians' apartments, a process of collaborative discovery unfolded". Out of this experimentation came even more sub-genres out of the jazz umbrella, including "be-bop" and "cool jazz". Be-bop was frantic and energetic. It was perfected by clarinet musician John Coltrane and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Parker, and quickly became the new "musician's music" of the forties. From there, Miles Davis joined these experimental be-bop at the age of just nineteen to play with them. (Janaro 199) His prowess was immediately recognized, and given new input, they developed "cool jazz" a style with a slower tempo, longer melodies, and steadier chord progressions for extended solos. With this pattern, Davis brought jazz to Carnegie Hall in the 1950's for the first time since Duke Ellington. With this, the age of the legendary jazz musicians slowly faded. John Coltrane and Charlie Parker passed away after years of substance abuse, and pop music took center stage. The many forms of classic jazz still have a heavy influence music, though. They can be heard in the rhythmic patterns of pop, rock, R & B, and even rap.

The fact that jazz is still so influential gives one an idea of just how important and effective musical collaboration is. From one small musical idea, a melting pot of gifted musicians came together over the span of three decades to carve a lasting mark into musical history. In jazz, it was not the sell out shows or national attention that mattered most. It was the late-night, intimate meetings between musicians full of brilliant ideas. Perhaps this is why jazz has remained so successful - despite branching out in a myriad of directions, its core is among the most emotive of any form of expression because, inherently, it is a personal form of art.

Sources:

Janaro, Richard P., and Thelma C. Altshuler. Oxford Music Online. 9th ed. Pearson, 2007. 199