Blog #3

Delaney Riley 

Blog #3 

2/12/2015 

In the history of jazz music, race has always had an impact on its certain successes. Jazz changes and from the period of 1926 to 1940, the era of swing music emerges. With the effects of the Great Depression that plummeted Americans economy, there are many factors as to why swing music had become something to hold onto for those who were affected and race became explicitly written and talked about more during this time. 

Due to the Great Depression, the nations market and music industry suffered affecting the way jazz was played and tensions and competition rose. The sounds of jazz, and with the influence from the economy, caused competition between white bands and black bands that were both struggling to successfully make it through the Depression. Segregation at that time was regional to the point were there were places with mainly white audiences preferred to listen to white musicians. The issue of race during the emergence of the swing era was commonly exposed because black bands felt that more opportunities were given for white bands to play for white audiences. Gioia claims that white musicians, “Unlike the black bandleaders, they were more readily accepted by mainstream America. They typically encountered easier working conditions, stayed at better accommodations when on the road, received higher pay, and had more secure careers. They were not forced to suffer the indignities of racism that even the finest black jazz musicians faced on a regular basis.” (Gioia, 133) 

Tensions grew higher as black musicians believed that white musicians were clashing with styles that were innovated by black musicians. While it is believed that the white musician only accepts jazz into mainstream culture, black musicians are more innovators of the art that jazz emulates. This leads to the issue that questions what the audience think that jazz music is in retrospect to art. Tensions with white musicians and black musicians were rising between the artist and the means of jazz distribution to the markets that were controlled by white agents. The issue of race plays into this scene because the black musician considers the swing era as a period of battling for respect. Overall, the competition of which band is better depends on the reactions of the audience and black musicians are constantly battling for respect over their new style of swing music that they innovate as a form of art. 

One jazz musician, known as the King of Jazz, Benny Goodman helped intertwine bother races in bands and alleviated tensions over the racial barriers that overall affected jazz play. Gioia states that, “As a soloist he defined the essence of the jazz clarinet as no other perfumer before or since; as a bandleader, her established standards of technical perfection that were the envy of his peers, while his influence in gaining widespread popularity for swing music.” (Gioia 129) Before Benny, Jazz was considered middle class music where people liked it, but it didn't have the high status where is would be considered as art. Although this angered the black artists, Benny was able to use, “his preeminence to break through the many barriers—of racial pre justice, of class distinctions , of snobbery and close-mindedness.” (Gioia 129) Benny connected the two races together to where people were surprised to find that black musicians were a part of his band. He helped conquer the assumptions that because Benny is a white bandleader, his entire band was going to be white and forced the audience to deal with their relationship in segregation. 

The topic of race was brought up explicitly because of the advancements of the swing era made by black and white musicians. 

Blog #2

Blog Post #2  

Chicago, in comparison to New York, I believe was the most important city to jazz during the 1920s. Chicago during the twenties turned into a city where black entertainment thrived. Depending on the social, economic, and racial conditions, Chicago jazz made a name for itself in history. 

Socially, the 1920s in Chicago was a place where black people sought out for dreams. Black people migrated to Chicago all with a shared dream that they were going to make something for themselves and had the idea of sacrificing your body so that their future descendants will become middle class. With this in mind, many people who saw an opportunity for them to become famous jazz artists, thought that the buzzing city of Chicago can give them a chance. Chicago at that time was a lively town with the contributions of gangsters, the mob, speakeasies, and the prohibition. Socially, the mob and gangster played a large role in creating a different jazz culture because gangsters were the ones really in charge of jazz players who they wanted to play for them and their clubs. Nightclubs and town areas became sanctuaries to jazz players and people of the city who enjoyed the jazz music that was brought up from the South. 

Economically, the city of Chicago helped the growing jazz culture to thrive with the rush of migrants that were drawn to the city because of the more opportunities jazz players were given to play in clubs that were also given larger amounts of money to perform for clubs. Many famous jazz players that came from all over the country i hopes to experience this kind of economic prosperity. According to Gioia, he writes, “But these players remained in Chicago not due to any loyalty to their native soil, but because of the vibrant local jazz scene and the financial security it represented.” Not only a new representation of jazz that flourished from Chicago and brought in the rush of jazz players, but it also became large enough in the city to give much more opportunities to jazz players who could earn a larger sum of money compared to performing in places like New Orleans. 

There were some racial conditions that played into the successes from jazz in Chicago. Jazz did create a conflict because artist would sign very strict and binding contracts that disallowed them from playing for other club manager or boss. These binding contracts had black musicians feeling like they were being slaves once again, but slaves to music. This would lead to a criminalistic scene amongst jazz players and may be a downside to the the culture of Chicago. 

Since jazz migrated up North from original cities like New Orleans, Chicago did create its own style of jazz. Gioia mentions that the music in Chicago, “Was still a paean to the New Orleans sound, but it also pointed forward to the later Swing Era preferences for tighter arrangements, greater expressive range and variety, and a more pronounced separation of solo and ensemble textures.” I think that the social and economic components in Chicago did help create a wider range of styles that jazz was being played into. Jazz of course was brought into the Chicago through the many influence that New Orleans had to offer. In these years, jazz in Chicago turned into something that appealed to a public image and the aspect that differentiated it from other styles the most was the improvisation. 

I think the the boys from the Austin Hill Gang can best describe the styles of jazz that Chicago as a city emulated. The Austin Hill Gang was a group of high schoolers that would listen to recorded music and simply just tried to play the way that the big shots in the jazz game would play, later composing a working band. This was the style of improvisation where jazz players can just listen to sounds of other jazz sounds and be influenced to play their own versions of it. The style of jazz in Chicago may never be understood as the advances in the different styles continued to grow throughout the jazz movement. For these boys of the Austin Hill Gang, they saw Chicago as a jazz sanctuary where any style of jazz can be accepted or formed into different appealing sounds.