Rent party
Rent-party or house-rent-party was a form of jazz social event (mainly by pianists) in the 1920s (until the late 1930s) in the New York borough of Harlem , Chicago and other cities.
The background to the organization of such house parties was the economic situation of many African-American families in the New York district, but also in other cities, such as Chicago. Despite the often overcrowded apartments, rents were overpriced. One way to raise the money for the rent was, the rent party (sometimes called house rent party , stomps Rent , Struts , House Hop called), who first came up an expression to the 1920s. People saved up to buy a piano and then hired a musician, usually a pianist or a band, and invited friends, acquaintances and neighbors over. Those who came to these parties had to pay admission - this money was then given to the musician (s) or they then let their hats go around (and at least received free food). The host also sold drinks and homemade food to guests.
The rent party played an important role in the development of the stride piano style and (especially in Chicago) the boogie woogie . Many famous musicians of the time were associated with rent parties , such as Stride pianists Speckled Red , James P. Johnson and Fats Waller and boogie pianists Pete Johnson , Cow Cow Davenport , Meade Lux Lewis . The scene developed particularly in the late 1910s and early 1920s, making it a major source of income for many pianists during this period. Rent parties were often the venue for so-called cutting contests , when Harlem jazz pianists such as Willie The Lion Smith , Johnson, Waller or, later, Art Tatum , for example, competed to outdo others ( cutting ).
In Harlem, such rent parties were recognized forms of performance for jazz music, for which flyers with the names of the musicians were also circulated in advance. Willie the Lion Smith remembers that it could have over a hundred people in a seven-room apartment (and possibly an adjacent hallway or even the entire building).
Rent parties were portrayed in the 1941 film The Joint is Jumpin ' starring Fats Waller. A number of jazz tracks are named after Rent Partys (such as House Rent Blues by Clarence Williams 1923, House Rent Ball by Fletcher Henderson 1924, Rent Party Blues by Duke Ellington 1929).
In 2009, New Yorkers took up the Rent Party tradition to raise money for a tombstone of jazz pioneer James P. Johnson.
literature
- Alyn Shipton: A New History of Jazz. Continuum International Publishing 2007, p. 130.
- Ted Gioia: History of Jazz. Oxford University Press 1997, p. 94.
- Jürg Schatzmann (text) & Hannes Binder (pictures): Ain't Misbehavin´ - Stories and images from the life of the legendary jazz pianist Fats Waller . Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg 1981, ISBN 3-473-35061-3 .
- David Levering Lewis: When Harlem was in Vogue. Vintage, New York 1982.
- New York Times on the Rent Party for James P. Johnson
References
- ↑ Mary Lou Williams in her Memoirs of Her Youth in Pittsburgh, Melody Maker 1954 , mentions the terms House Rent Parties , Chitterlin Struts
- ↑ Another expression for this is the Joint is Jumpin mentioned in Waller's film title . According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word boogie also goes back to such gatherings. Other slang expressions were skiffle (from which skiffle music is derived) and Percolator , duration, Longstreet Knaurs Jazzlexikon 1957, article House Rent Parties . According to this, this custom dates back to the middle of the 19th century.
- ↑ In the early 1920s between 35 and 50 cents. Philippe Carles , André Clergeat, Jean-Louis Comolli Dictionaire du Jazz , 1988, Rent Party article
- ↑ quoted from his autobiography in Ted Gioia History of Jazz , p. 95