Glass Ceilings, not just hovering over women's heads.

Miles Davis had many of the same struggles as other jazz musicians of his time; he did drugs, struggled as an artist, and had to continuously push racial boundaries. One of the struggles he mentions continuously through his Auto Biography is white jazz critics. Critics put down every new development in Jazz until it became popular, then they would claim to be the ones who discovered it. This struggle with white critics is a reflection of larger pressing racial issues. As the African American population gained more and more freedoms the White population tried to maintain more and more control. As jazz became more and more popular white musicians went from disregarding jazz and not even music, to playing it themselves, and they went from condemning jazz musicians to claiming to be the ones that discovered them. Davis discusses this when talking about the beginning of bebop, 

“After bebop became the rage, white music critics tried to act like they discovered it-and us-down on 52nd Street. That kind of dishonest shit makes me sick to my stom-ach. And when you speak out on it or don't go along with this racist bullshit, then you become a radical, a black troublemaker. Then they try to cut you out of everything. But the musicians and the people who really loved and respected bebop and the truth know that the real thing happened up in Harlem, at Minton's.” (pg. 56)
Not only did critics try to take claim for what wasn't theirs, but they would ruin the images of any artist who tried to argue. African American artists were constantly under the thumb of white society, but it they tried to ask for equality they were looked down on as radicals, stuck under the glass ceiling of racism but pressed right up against it.

I sang in a jazz choir in high school and was very interested in the culture and music. I sang countless jazz songs and studied the style but I never realized how large a part racial issues played. I never really thought about jazz as the scene of a racial struggle. I also assumed that jazz was always cool. I never thought it was looked down on by classically trained musicians and critics. The image you get from seeing Louis Armstrong sing with Barbra Streisand in Hello Dolly, hearing Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra songs in every wedding playlist and romantic movie, and looking at art deco style paintings of jazz bands, is that Jazz artists were the trendsetters and icons of their time. This they were, but this was in spite of constantly pushing against the glass ceiling of racism. With this in mind, the development of jazz is that much more impressive.

What conditions does it take to grow a Thelonious Monk?

The San Juan Hill community was built on the backs of hard working, lower class, African American’s. Much of the housing had horrible conditions and people were continuously getting sick. The areas were predominantly African American but there were some areas that had white populations and these created gangs. With the constant turmoil created by gangs and the political issues of the time race riots became common. Leimert Park shares many of these characterizes but in a modern sense. The movie portrait Leimert Park as a lower class neighborhood, troubled by gangs and race riots. The two areas also had diversity in their communities that was showcased by music performances. The cities were, sanctuaries small units, which had a unique culture and fostered close relationships between the members. Monk’s wife described, “It was like a little village. Everybody knew everybody.” (pg. 20) There were large block parties showcasing all the different styles of music that the community brought.(pg. 23)This sense of community played a large part in the development of Monk’s musical talent. His teachers, audiences, and competition were his neighbors. He was well known throughout his town; even from about 11 years old it was clear that he was going to be a star. This intimate community fostered Jazz in the sense that it was everywhere. With budding musicians like Monk, his siblings, and Seifield Gordon Heath, the competition between the students was the talk of the town and with undiscovered stars like Alberta Simmons playing at local venues; Jazz was in everyone’s life. (pg.27) This sense of community and sanctuary is part of what makes people identify New York with Jazz. New York Jazz was not just this sanctuary of the block parties, rent parties, and small communities, but also the Clubs, the stage and the opportunities that were not available anywhere else at this time.

This same sense of community is a recurring theme in the development of Jazz. Community fosters creativity and allows for close competition, which pushes artists towards innovation. At the same time, music creates community. In the video about Leimert Park they describe how the number of people at the café increased exponentially when they started having live music at night. People are naturally drawn to music and have a high respect for it. Even the gangs had such high respect for music that they made Leimert Park off limits, allowing everyone to enjoy the music in peace. 

How Black is the Cool Black?

Jazz, like many new art forms, became a symbol of rebellion and the new social ere. It may have taken till the 1930’s for the US to fully embrace Jazz, but once it did Jazz artists became celebrities. What do American’s love more than creating drama involving their celebrities? Race was a hot button topic then, it had been ever present in American culture and had been a common theme in the development in Jazz. Jazz was strongly identified as “Black” music, even when white bands played the music. Despite being labeled as “black” music Jazz created fluidity between racial boundaries creating a sliding scale of blackness. Black artists who played Jazz more similarly to how white bands played it and displayed themselves as less colorful of characters where ridiculed for not being black enough. Black artists who sang songs about black history, and who played in the more “black” style, where ridiculed for being too black. The public focus on Jazz was made more prominent by the Depression and Nazi scare.

John Hammond was one of the main forces driving the debate of blackness in Jazz. Hammond dominated the industry of Jazz critics. He promoted artists, demolished them, and even talent scouted bringing new artists to fame. “Hammond’s opinions, expressed with the frankness of a man who has nothing to lose by an reaction his words may arouse, are conned eagerly by jazz ‘critics’ and college boys from coast to coast, thereafter to reappear almost verbatim in their own periodicals when they review records or discuss jazz performers to be heard on the air.” Hammond’s writing brought extra attention to the racial debate bringing it to the minds of all Americans.

The political turmoil of the 1930’s combined with Jazz’s continuing rise in popularity made Jazz perfect for racial debates. What was an underlying fact in American culture became commonly discussed ideas for the first time. Writers wrote about race as they couldn’t before and the ever-growing popularity of Jazz made American’s hungry for the opinions of the writers.  
Commented on Ethan Reul

Chicago and New York, Armstrong and Ellington

Chicago and New York played very different rolls in the development of Jazz. IN Chicago Black Jazz musicians pushed the race barrier, they developed their own subset of society within Chicago. They had their own business district and their own economy, also jobs paid more in Chicago so people had extra money to spend on leisure. However, the mob controlled much of the Jazz clubs and took control of the artists to the extent that they can be compared to the plantation owners. In New York Jazz could reach a much larger audience with its it’s presents in Harlem and it’s induction into theater. During the 1920’s Harlem saw a transition from the piano and ragtime to the big band. This big band still put an emphasis on the soloist and improvisation. (Gioia) The Cotton club was a prime example of this. In the Cotton club affluent white audiences and employed Black bands playing the hottest dance music behind a group of dancers. The Cotton club was Mob owned similar to the hottest cubs in Chicago. The theater aspect of Jazz was unique to New York. The music differed from that in the clubs because in the clubs you get up and dance and in the theater you watch performers dance. During one show on Broadway, reviewers praised Lewis Armstrong’s singing so highly that he was invited onstage to sing during the show. Just as Jazz has done since its beginning, it pushed racial boundaries. With the theater and the boom of the radio, Jazz progressed further in New York at this time than it did in Chicago. Although both Chicago and New York had huge impacts on the development of jazz, New York fostered the next step for jazz during the 1920’s. In New York, besides Lewis Armstrong’s spring to the spotlight on stage, Duke Ellington embodied jazz of this time. Ellington had a self-promoting nature parallels jazz of this time: Reaching wider and wider audiences and spreading around the nation. (Gioia) Duke Ellington is unique in the way that he used his connections with his Caucasian agent to further his career. In the past it was always white’s taking advantage of black artists, and in this case it went the other way around.

 Commented on Matthew Oldcorn

Jazz Pushing Boundaries

Jazz blossomed in New Orleans for many reasons, one prominent one being simply locations. New Orleans, nestled right in the Gulf of Mexico and the base of the Mississippi, was a center for international trade, a growing post reconstruction city, and nurtured a melting pot of cultures. This melting pot of cultures created new divisions of cultures as well as pushing the well-established boundaries of race. New Orleans received a large proportion of its trade from South America and that brought the Mexican influences that proved essential to the development of Jazz. Mexican artists brought new instruments, woodwinds, and also classical training that was not offered to Blacks in America at the time. With the addition of these influences Jazz became infectious, American’s couldn’t get enough. Despite being seen as “Black Music” it was beloved by white audiences, even Black artists became adored by white audiences. Jazz became a way to transcend the racial divide. This transcendence mixed with the pushed boundaries of race was unique to New Orleans. Artists like Jelly Roll Morton used Jazz as a way to raise his social standing from his Creole background. The Creole culture was one of the main cultures that pushed the racial boundaries. Creole musicians were trained classically as opposed to Black musicians, which lacked that training but more fully embraced the Jazz style. With the Louisiana Legislative Code NO. 111 all people with any African descent in their background were considered “Negro.” When this happened Creole’s, that previously viewed themselves as higher on the social scale, were viewed by society as the same as Black. (Gioia, 32)

I would say that the fluctuation of racial divisions was one of the more prominent developers of Jazz. This was the force driving forward all the innovations that made Jazz what it is. Despite being identified as a Black music style, white audiences everywhere loved it and this gave Jazz musicians the ability to push racial lines. There were many other factors that helped create Jazz, not one is specifically responsible. It took everything, the Mexican influence, the dichotomy of the creole culture, Storyville, and the African influences, and a drive for modernism. The racial division fluctuation in New Orleans provided a large effect on the development of Jazz that may be prominent, but all the other factors are just as necessary.

 Commented on Morgan Brubaker