Jazz in the United States

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The Jazz is a major musical genre that in the United States has emerged. According to Billy Taylor (and Wynton Marsalis ) it can be considered the "classical music of America". Therefore, the special development of jazz in the mother country is treated here, which cannot be separated from its reception, but also from the working conditions for jazz musicians in the USA.

root

Buddy Boldens jazz band around 1900

The roots of jazz lie on the one hand in the blues and in the work songs , spirituals and gospels of the Afro-American slave workers in the southern states of the USA, on the other hand in the various folk music of the European immigrants, including dance music and marching music . Ragtime developed from European musical styles and Afro-American rhythms, which is the direct predecessor of jazz alongside the blues. Throughout its development, the blues has had a permanent influence on jazz as well as on other musical styles that have emerged alongside jazz over the years. Between 1890 and 1915, ragtime was the most popular music in America.

Arose from the ragtime and the blues after 1900 in the Creole culture of Louisiana of New Orleans Jazz . The first known band leader of the new jazz music was Buddy Bolden with his brass band. There is no sound recording of him, however, as he was admitted to a mental institution in 1907, before the age of recordings. Jelly Roll Morton , a successful bar pianist , was also a contributor to early jazz. Certain band leaders like Buddy Bolden are said to have been distinctive instrumentalists with a very individual tone formation.

The era of jazz

“Why is there this jazz music and these jazz bands at all? One might as well ask why there are dime novels and greasy donuts? These are all manifestations of the bottom drawer of human taste that have not yet been swept away by the process of civilization. Jazz belongs in the lowest cellar of the house of music, in the servants' room of rhythm. Because, unfortunately, the main problem with jazz is its emphasis on rhythm. Loud noises and meaningless noises have an exciting, almost intoxicating effect on some natures, such as primitive colors or strong perfumes, the sight of naked flesh or sadistic blood pleasure. "

- New Orleans Times-Picayune : June 17, 1917

Jazz bands from New Orleans have been touring since around 1912 - especially the groups of Bill Johnson , Tom Brown and Freddie Keppard . Due to the racial segregation at the time , bands were separated according to skin color. New Orleans has had both African American and white bands from the start. The latter played the somewhat simpler Dixieland Jazz . A series of new forms of musical expression emerged from the encounter between musical cultures. First in New Orleans and along the Mississippi River , later in Chicago and other metropolises in the USA. At that time, these big cities recorded a high level of immigration, especially from African Americans from the southern states, which contributed significantly to the development of jazz. In addition, the authorities closed the Storyville entertainment district in 1917 , where many jazz musicians had previously had good opportunities to perform, because of incidents with the Navy.

The genre became known through the first jazz recordings in 1917 with the Original Dixieland Jass Band . Most Americans had never heard jazz before, but it had been played in many places for a long time. After this first recording, jazz soon took on the role of the dominant music genre, which it retained until the mid-1950s. It spread like a wildfire . Jazz and its dances - initially the shimmy - soon became popular.

Many more recordings soon followed. Most, or rather almost all, recordings of New Orleans Jazz or Dixieland were not made in New Orleans, but in Chicago, and some in New York. Many music professionals from the south, especially Joe King Oliver and his younger band partner Louis Armstrong , went north. The prohibition of that time shaped the bar scene in Chicago and thus the local jazz culture.

Armstrong went to New York for two years in 1924 to play in Fletcher Henderson's band. That changed jazz forever. Armstrong created the swing in New York . His recording of the song "Heebie Jeebies" from 1926 is considered to be the first recording to use scat singing . Armstrong had previously made instrumental solos an art form.

Glenn Miller

The swing era from the late 1920s to the early 1940s is jazz's most successful period with audiences. Jazz had established itself as dance music. The associated swing dances (especially the Lindy Hop ) were very popular. Another form of swing emerged in the late 1930s; slower, more romantic and with singing. The developer and most successful band leader of this style was Glenn Miller . With the changed style he managed to reach an audience that could not yet do anything with the predominant variant. The arrangements were relatively fixed. Therefore, there was a lot of discussion as to whether swing even deserves the name jazz. This music was also popular during the war, even at the front. Many of the band leaders at the time went into the military and founded military bands there.

With the stomp , another variant of the original swing became popular. He was made famous by Count Basie of Kansas City . In Kansas City Jazz, with its more robust arrangements that allowed more spontaneous interplay, the swing music of big bands was revitalized. Lester Young , Herschel Evans , but also Coleman Hawkins made the saxophone an important instrument a second time after its use in Chicago Jazz. With Count Basie, another new style emerged, which at the time was overshadowed by trends. It was called midnight jazz and is the forerunner of bar jazz. It was very slow and calm music with the saxophone and piano as important instruments.

In 1939, the Columbia label refused to record the racist lynchings denouncing the protest song Strange Fruit , which Billie Holiday then released on the small Commodore label. The singer, who could beguile her audience, but also confuse her, brought the contradictions of the USA to life.

Cuts

Woody Herman 1976

In the early 1940s, when swing was still dominant, Charlie Parker , Thelonious Monk , Dizzy Gillespie and other musicians had developed a new direction in jazz that was soon to be called bebop . Due to a strike by the unions against the record industry ( recording ban ) and because it was not played on the radio during the war, the bebop initially went unheard. Bebop became known from 1943 and divided the jazz world. It was a style that was played even faster, with a lot more notes. Band ensembles, teamwork and arrangements took a back seat, soloists and free improvisations dominated. This modern jazz was based in particular on harmonies that were "expanded" compared to the previous harmonics . Critics criticized, among other things, the lack of danceability, and the domain of this new style of music were the flourishing jazz clubs.

In the 1940s, with the spread of heroin as a drug, another development began that was to have a fatal impact on the life and work of many jazz musicians (early death, prison stays). In many cases, drug offenses resulted in the loss of the license to perform in clubs with a corresponding loss of income. Marijuana use was particularly widespread among New Orleans jazz musicians , but had similar legal consequences. For this reason, too, there was an exodus of important jazz musicians to Europe in the 1950s, which often meant that they disappeared completely from the perception of the American audience.

Due to the war and the changing taste of the audience after the war (singers were the mainstay of entertainment after the war), the big band died by the end of the 1940s. A role that should not be underestimated also played the 20% tax on entertainment events with dancing or singing, which was introduced during the war and continued thereafter. Some more progressive big bands like Stan Kenton's or Woody Herman broke new ground with more complex arrangements.

With the concerts of Jazz at the Philharmonic , jazz got out of the dance halls and clubs into the big concert halls. The swinging, wild jam sessions , which the impresario Norman Granz organized as a nationwide tour under this title, became an important "traveling circus" from the second half of the 1940s, whose participants did not care about the boundaries between swing jazz and bebop. Musicians like Oscar Peterson , Stan Getz or Ella Fitzgerald quickly became known nationwide.

Louis Armstrong with Willis Conover (right) at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival

In particular with Miles Davis ' recordings of Birth of the Cool from 1949, a counter-movement to hectic bebop began; the slow and dreamy cool jazz was born. A variant of cool jazz that focused more on entertainment emerged among the musicians who worked in the studios of the Hollywood film industry - West Coast Jazz . To differentiate it from West Coast Jazz , African American musicians developed hard bop in the mid-1950s .

From the mid-1950s the State Department sent jazz musicians to other countries as jazz ambassadors , as musical ambassadors. Willis Conover also presented jazz in the Eastern Bloc through the Voice of America .

The biggest turning point in the history of jazz came from outside. During the 1950s, rhythm and blues had developed into another form of music and was becoming increasingly popular with the white part of the audience; the rock and roll . This meant that jazz was no longer the only popular music; it was slowly going under in public. This made it easier for African-American musicians to play in the USA. In view of the continued racial segregation , numerous American jazz musicians such as Bud Powell settled in Europe, especially in Paris.

Hardbop musicians developed soul jazz , with which an attempt was made to recreate a closeness to the music of Afro-American youth. In 1964 the Beatles also had their rise in the United States; With the establishment of rock music , the era of success for jazz was finally over. This year only Louis Armstrong landed another hit with the song "Hello Dolly", which was number one in the charts before the Beatles. All legendary jazz halls closed during the 1960s. In the late 1930s, jazz and swing accounted for 70% of all records sold, compared to less than 3% in the mid-1970s. In 1975 Miles Davis declared jazz dead and also referred to it as "museum music".

Iridium Jazz Club (New York)

The urge of the record industry - especially the major labels - caused many jazz vocalists to record commercial material; “Ultimately, it was decided to abolish freedom of choice on the part of the artist as well as on the part of the consumer,” wrote Will Friedwald in his book Swinging Voices . He shared the opinion of Lew Tabackin , who shared his experiences recording at Motown : “Everything had to be interchangeable. If any of the girls were to bother, they could be replaced by another and no one would notice the difference. There was no place for jazz in their minds. ”Pop music was conquered by the young guard and jazz polarized itself into commercial funk on the one hand and anti-commercial free jazz on the other. “In 1962, Creed Taylor released Anita O'Day and Mel Tormé from their Verve contracts, and Atlantic did the same with Chris Connor . In 1965 June Christy recorded her last album for Capitol , and Mark Murphy and Jackie Paris left the country. "

New ways

From cool jazz, certain circles of jazz musicians developed a freer, experimental style of playing in connection with hard bop. It was initially called the avant-garde, its creators as avant-garde. In works like We Insist! Freedom Now Suite is a political and at the same time musical return to the musical traditions of Africa, which Max Roach connects with this music. Randy Weston and Melba Liston worked similarly . Free jazz emerged in the late 1950s . Ornette Coleman was the most important developer here and, along with John Coltrane, the most famous representative in the 1960s. In 1961 Coleman released the record "Free Jazz". Both sides of the record consisted of a single title. This style of music abolished all musical laws and allowed musicians to do everything. This sparked discussions in the jazz world, as jazz was already seen as the epitome of freedom. With the broader public in the USA, free jazz - unlike in Europe (where the musicians soon went on tour to make money) - had only limited success. This was also experienced by representatives of a free black music that presented its music to the Afro-American audience in its districts: some of these musicians were insulted; some were spat at; some were attacked, physically as well as by the black press; some were pelted with eggs and other things . The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago has deduced from this the consequence of paying more attention to the school music education of the next generation.

Miles Davis was initially skeptical of the avant-garde, but eventually approached it. Since the mid-1960s, Davis and other musicians such as Larry Coryell , John Klemmer , Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock fused the riffs and rhythms of rock music with jazz improvisations. In this rock jazz , mainly electrically amplified instruments such as electric guitars and synthesizers were used and the wind instruments were amplified accordingly. Compared to other jazz recordings of this time, rock jazz was very successful commercially and once again reached a mass audience - also in youth culture . A good example of this is not only Davis, who appeared in the Fillmore East as well as rock groups, but also the group Weather Report , which performed in front of a large audience and was able to achieve corresponding record sales.

Jazz comeback

In 1976, the jazz musician Dexter Gordon , who was little known in the USA, returned to the United States after 15 years in Europe. He played traditional jazz with an emphasis on swing and with a blues feel. He had great success in his performances. His 1977 album “Homecomming” became a hit. As a result, records by jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and many others were found again in US stores , which were previously hardly available there. That gave the jazz scene in the USA a boost again. Since then, jazz has existed alongside others as a timeless genre. However, this is hardly represented in the radio stations - apart from Marian McPartland's concert concerts with important musicians and the college broadcasters. In the United States, however, smooth jazz is regularly played on special radio stations , a catchy variety of jazz that is almost not represented in Europe and does not use complex improvisations.

In the music education of the American music colleges and conservatories, jazz is recognized with its own courses. In New York, Jazz at Lincoln Center , directed by Wynton Marsalis, is a non-profit organization fully dedicated to promoting jazz music as American classical music. However, there the maintenance of the repertoire that has emerged over the last hundred years is valued higher than the further development of jazz.

Norah Jones

The current stylistic range and the division into different jazz scenes is greater than ever before. Veterans like Sonny Rollins and Keith Jarrett still play at a high level. David Murray takes the achievements of jazz of the late 1960s in a neoclassical form. The guitarist Pat Metheny is not only successful with jazz listeners. The trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who was very much connected to tradition, gained significant influence in the 1980s; great talents like the singer Cassandra Wilson and the saxophonist James Carter give jazz new impulses. But it is precisely the numerous branches of current jazz development, such as the downtown scene around musicians like John Zorn and Dave Douglas or saxophonist Steve Coleman, that contribute to the liveliness of current jazz.

The composer, singer and pianist Norah Jones had the greatest success in recent jazz history . With her individual pop-jazz style, she received eight Grammys in 2003 for her album "Come Away With Me". In addition, jazz has been combined with different styles over the decades, for example with hip-hop . It was also integrated into other styles such as pop and house and contributed to their diversity.

A side effect of this strong diversification is, however, that many current developments are, in some cases, highly controversial, both among critics and listeners. Some musicians are accused of stubborn traditionalism, while others are accused of having distanced themselves from the Afro-American roots of jazz and thus given up essential elements of jazz. These controversies have led to the genre name jazz becoming extremely vague and being interpreted differently. The term jazz itself is not without controversy. Nicholas Payton said in 2011 that like 'America', 'jazz' is also a lie. That is why he and Orrin Evans suggest to speak of Black American Music instead of jazz , in order to counteract a 'white' claim to the musical genre.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Billy Taylor, "Jazz: America's Classical Music." The Black Perspective in Music 14 (1) (1986): 21-25; see. critical Jon Pareles Don't Call Jazz America's Classical Music New York Times , February 28, 1999
  2. ↑ cit. according to R. Wagnleiter: Jazz - the classical music of globalization. 2001.
  3. ↑ Reinhold Wagnleiter: Jazz - The classical music of globalization. 2001.
  4. ↑ Ulrich Stock What makes it sound are the contradictions of America's Die Zeit , April 6, 2015
  5. ↑ Quoted from Friedwald.
  6. ↑ So Bill Dixon , quoted. n. Ekkehard Jost: jazz musician. Materials on the sociology of African-American music. Berlin 1982, p. 58.
  7. ^ Jost: Jazz musician. P. 64ff. Already in the early 1980s in New York there are 4 independent scenes: the mainstream jazz scene, the avant-garde jazz scene, the studio musician scene and finally the piano bar musicians
  8. ^ Nicholas Payton and Guests Don't Need All That Jazz Village Voice , Jan. 6, 2012
  9. ↑ The Word “Jazz” Will Now Be Racist Philadelphia Magazine, Jan. 10, 2012

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