Jazz within a Community

Delaney Riley 

BLST 14 

In Robin Kelly’s biography on Thelonious Monk and the film, Leimert Park, describe the important influences jazz not only has on a community, but also the influences a community has for jazz. Similarly, in Kelly’s biography, Monk grew up in San Juan Hill, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York. Although Monk was very young at the time of his arrival into San Juan Hill, the community shaped the way Monk visualized his musical genius. 

San Juan Hill, at the time was a community covered with violence and is described by Gioia as being one of the, “Busiest crime areas in New York City.” (19) Blacks still endured segregation and racism throughout New York while housing conditions were very poor and unhealthy. Monk joined the community of San Juan Hill with his mother, Barbara, and two siblings, Marion and Thomas, where they would go to school and get by on their own. Despite all the violence and harsh living conditions that San Juan Hill acquired, the different types of people that lived there brought diversity to the various kinds of culture that poured out of the community. Monk had a strong connection with his community and became a young boy of culture. Kelly defines, “With the music, cuisine, dialects, and manners of the Caribbean and the American South everywhere in the West60s, virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid.” (23) Monk took music lessons at a young age and would constantly hear different styles of music coming from everywhere in his tightly packed community, therefore further fueling his passion for jazz and the art form. Although Monk was an odd individual where people may have not liked the dissonance of his musical styles, the influences from the community shaped Monk into the different kind of musical genius that defined the new personality and coolness of jazz music. 

The community that Monk was raised in is a community where it would take credit for the type of art and music that would come out of it. What some mean by “Jazz is New York, man?!” is that through the culture that grew out of communities creates a sense of pride amongst its inhabitants and believe that the movements were inspired mostly by them and their culture. Kelly claims, “San Juan Hill boasted the largest concentration of black musicians in the city. During Mary White Ovington’s six-month residence at one the the Phipps Houses in 1908, she discovered that music was a major sours of income fro African-Americans… she recalled hearing music constantly in the hallways and streets. Every household had an instrument.” (19-20) The communities in New York came together with music and it makes sense to conclude that most of that jazz music performed is to be credited by the locals or New York. 

The relationship of the community Kelly outlines is very similar to the relationship within a community that is described in the film of Leimert Park because they both describe the struggles and achievements that a community overcomes for the sake of how art and music can shape the community and how a community can also shape art and music. Both communities share a common love for art and music and believe that it brings the entire community closer together with their shared interests, efforts, and achievements. When jazz artist grow up and perform, the relationship between the art and the communities can play a very important factor on their talent abilities due to influences, and where and how they were raised to adapt to a certain type of art form.