The Dialogue of Improvisation

           Coming into this course, I was excited to learn more about jazz's history and those who made it what it is today. For the last 8 years, in the various jazz bands I performed and competed with, a main focus was always on improvisation for me. As a lead tenor saxophonist, my directors always had me listening to bebop musicians. Artists like Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie who were known for their improvisational skills and the way they communicated with the rest of the band their their solos. Because of my own musical background, improvisation and jazz were synonymous. This class had reinforced this opinion when it came to the bebop era, but also brought to my attention dialogue does not only exist between members of a band, but also between the artists and the audience/community.

            Improvisation is an essential part of jazz music. This was always very clear to me. This class reinforced this and also added the role importance it played in the history of the music. Improvisation was not only a way to show off one's musical talents and knowledge of chord progressions, but rather a way to convey a specific message to an audience. In the 1940's it served to provide individualism to the artists that were being pulled by the conformity brought on by the war (Gioia, 236).

Improvisation was something taught only in my jazz bands, never in classical or marching training. Although it was never taught, improving as a jazz musician meant improving as a classical performer and vice versa. This was because jazz has so many roots in classical music, along with many other genres.

            There has been a constant relationship between jazz and the society it was performed in. When it originated, there were strong horn sections because of the surplus in military instruments and horn players when the war was over. The music was a way to express one's identity as not a slave, but as a human being. The genre grew as black people were given more rights, and it spread through the nation.

          When jazz grew and adapted all it could take from New Orleans, such as it's Spanish and French influences, it moved to Chicago (Gioia, 42). Chicago was modern city, with sky scrapers and many jobs for the people moving away from the south. This caused jazz to take a modern turn and become more of a dance music, for all the workers that wanted a release after their shifts in the factories (Gioia, 59).

            Following the flow to modern cities, jazz moved to New York and took in everything the state had to offer. People first needed music that could include all the different cultures, so stride piano was born (Gioia, 97). Dance halls were a huge social event, and clubs began to integrate. Although the band and patrons were separated, the music adapted to entertain the new audience, paying white customers. Swing was born for to serve this purpose (Gioia, 171).

             All these adaptations jazz experienced led to the creation of modern jazz. Through these adaptations and the demand for individualism among the conformist culture America was experiencing at the time of World War II (Miles, 72). It is easy to see the dialogue that jazz had with the culture shifts that America went through as society grew. Jazz made the necessary changes that would provide a source of respect and identity for it's artists. As the demand for jazz grew, as did it's diversity in music styles. Jazz had a constant dialogue with the community.

Thelonius: The Monk of Tolerance

           San Juan Hill was a neighborhood known for it's diversity and the violence that stemmed from it. It also would become known for being the home to many influential jazz musicians over the years. This neighborhood raised Thelonius Monk and influenced him musically, socially, and politically. Between the many artists that took Thelonius under their wing and all the opportunities the neighborhood offered him, Thelonius became one of the most respected and influential jazz figures of all time.

           Thelonius' signature music style was the product of his early years in the music scene. He was taught by an Austrian Jewish man named Simon Wolf, who educated Monk in classical piano (Kelley 26). Later, Monk began learning jazz in the form of stride and ragtime, from a local woman Alberta Simmons. Around the same time he was learning jazz, he became more involved in the church which taught him many hymns and performance skills (Kelley 27). San Juan Hill had so many cultures and subculture, it was easy for Monk to bounce around to different music educators. He said it best himself, “You go to the next block and you’re in another country.” (Kelley 19). It was common for a household to have at least one instrument to be practiced, and due to the close living conditions throughout San Juan Hill, Monk could hear all music styles being performed on many instruments (Kelly 20). Monk was essentially raised by an entire community, a community composed of musicians varying greatly in art forms.

           Eventually Monk became very involved in his neighborhood, through The Columbus Hill Community Center. Here he learned to interact with all the youth of the neighborhood, and was prohibited from using violence (Kelley 28). As he grew older, Monk was constantly reminded of racial inequalities reinforced by the police throughout New York, particularly San Juan Hill. Monk felt that the police often encouraged this racism, “Anything you did, if you ran or something, they called you black bastards.” (Kelley 19). These feelings towards the police continued, if not strengthened as Thelonius had more encounters with them. Thelonius lost his Cabaret card unjustly because of a policeman's racism. He later would have to go through much turmoil and bring many people to defend him on his behalf in court to get a new card (Section Movie). In 1958, while traveling with Nica and Rouse to a gig in Baltimore, Monk was arrested with two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, breach of the peace, resisting arrest, and narcotics possession. This was all product of Thelonius's unwilling to accept unfair treatment due to his race (Kelley 254).

           Thelonius took a unique stance on race issues that was undoubtedly a product of his upbringing. Thelonius did his best to ignore race in all contexts. He didn't feel like there was a race war between white and black people, but a war between every community. In San Juan Hill, the Italians were fighting the Irish, and the Southern blacks were fighting the Caribbean blacks (Lecture 2.26.13). Thelonius is often described as eccentric, and these eccentricities only demonstrated how truly intelligent he was. Reflecting on a conversation about being called “boy” by white people, Larry Riddley remembers Monk telling him, “Ain't no drag, Larry, because everybody wants to be young." (Kelley 417).

           Monk was rumored to be, but in fact was not ignorant, especially of the discrimination black people were facing in society. Unlike many musicians of his time, Monk performed his music for the art form, rather than conveying a message of rebellion or dissatisfaction with society. He wanted his music and his life to represent his tolerance, and to be separate from his own race (Lecture 2.28.13). He took his music and attempted to form a community much like that of San Juan Hill, with it's many influences from around the world, but most importantly with less violence and contempt towards one another. Much like his music, his message of peace between races would not be appreciated until after his death.

Racial Discussion in Swing

     Following the 1920's, the “Jazz Age”, jazz music had it's breakthrough into mainstream culture. This was great for many of the starving musicians in many ways. Finally they were getting consistent gigs and acknowledged for their talents. This brought the need for music agents and also brought people of many backgrounds to the scene. These two factors contributed to the discussion of race more so than ever before. Although race has always been discussed in relation to jazz music, it was never so prominent as it was in the 1930's.
     When black musicians first began gaining popularity, they found difficulty in establishing themselves outside of mob controlled venues such as The Cotton Club. Some artists such as Duke Ellington adapted his style to what the people at these segregated clubs wanted. This lead to a spread in popularity and to him eventually hiring a white music agent, Irving Mills. By hiring a white agent, Ellington was soon able to get jobs that most black people were unable to. Mills not only put Ellington's name all around, he was a white face in front of a black musician. This was a huge step for black and white relationships (Gioia 153). Between Ellington and Mills, and Ellington and the public. Ellington was later criticized by white critic, John Hammond, for this style. He was said to have essentially turned his back on his own people and their struggles to advance his own career (Lecture 2.14.13). This was another huge step in the relationship of jazz and race. For the first time, white people were criticizing jazz musicians not for their art form but for what they were expressing with their music. These critics were primarily white, which was a sign of the extent jazz had infiltrated homes and popular culture around America (“Swing Changes,” 52).
The spread of jazz music to white people was happening for many years before the 1930's, with bands like the Austin High Gang (Lecture 1.29.13). However, in the 1930's some white musicians were considered the best jazz musicians and brought jazz to places it had never even been considered, such as Carnegie hall (Lecture 2.14.13). This increase in white musicians brought the already competitive art form into the dance halls and brought race with it. The best example takes place on May 11, 1937 in Harlem. At the Savoy, a regular named Chick Webb and his band competed against Benny Goodman's band. This brought people of all kinds to the integrated jazz club. The two battled it out, in front of many white and black fans. There was no announced winner, but the final result was bringing white people to listen to a high performing black jazz band. Competitions tend to bring out race issues, people siding with one band due to their race and not their musical abilities was very common at this time (Lecture 2.14.13).
    With the spread of jazz, came a spread of competition between races. Which race played the best swing, blues, or ballads. The white people were the agents and the critics of black musicians. For the first time, black and white people's lives intertwined through jazz. Both race's lives could completely revolve around the music. The 1930's was the beginning of the integration of jazz, which lead to an all around change in racial relationships throughout the country.

When Jazz Took New York

   New York and Chicago were two major players in shaping jazz music in the 1920's. Both became home to some of the biggest names in jazz, such as Louis Armstrong. Although Chicago is extremely important to jazz's development, New York played a greater role in the 1920's. M.M. Bakhtin states, “The third party is a constitutive aspect of the whole utterance, who, under deeper analysis, can be revealed in it”. This quote is perfect to describe the jazz scene in New York during this era, by bringing attention to how jazz music is not only a conversation between artists and music, but also between the music and audiences. New York was most important due to it's demographics and the way people used jazz to communicate. New York jazz was performed by mostly black musicians for white, high brow, and low brow communities. At the time, New York was the most heterogeneous city in Northern America (Lecture 2/14/13). This meant it had to bring all these cultures together.

    In Chicago, jazz musicians were restricted to perform in the South side, where white people would go to “learn” the styles (“King Oliver”, 37). These white audience members were rare but a few still came to borrow styles from their black competitors (Lecture 1/31/13). New York offered a much more integrated scene for jazz music. Although still separated, black musicians performed for white audiences in common places. This is a huge step in the progression of jazz because for the first time, people were proud to listen to jazz and appreciate the music openly. Venues like the Cotton Club became famous for this concept. By separating the two races, and applying a jungle theme and advertising “Jungle music”, people didn't feel there was so much of a stigma in listening to it (Lecture 2/4/13). Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson both performed at the Cotton Club which was a huge step in both their careers. While Fletcher did not move much further past the Cotton Club, Ellington used it as a stepping stool to his much more publicized and larger musical career. Not only was Harlem split by the races, within each race there were divides. Gioia states there were two Harlems, a low and high brow. The high brow was made up of black citizens who considered themselves above the other black people. These people were more likely to prefer “Cool jazz”, which tended to be more structured with less improvisation. over the “Hot jazz”. High brow citizens wanted to escape the black stigma by becoming more educated and associate themselves with people of higher intellect. Low brow citizens have more of the untold story of Harlem in the early 1900's. This community consisted of what could be considered slums, although those who lived there enjoyed it and lived there by choice. Low brow black people would hold rent parties where their love of the hot jazz was demonstrated. These competitions became large gatherings where musicians tried to show their best skills to make enough money to pay their rent. People would come together and dance and perform to help one another (Section and Lecture 2/7/13). Having this combination of people in the audience, the music naturally adapted to better suit the audiences demands.

    Not only was New York is credited with being the place where piano met jazz, it is the birthplace of stride piano playing (Lecture 2/4/13). Stride piano was coined by James P. Johnson when he began performing on Coney Island for mixed crowds of people. He combined European music with the music he learned from his time in New Orleans. In New York, ragtime was a the most popular genre at the time so James P. Johnson combined ragtime, jazz, and other styles to better fit all his audiences demands (Gioia, 96). Stride piano became an essential part of Harlem style jazz. It involved the left hand playing more complex rhythms than traditional piano playing, such as arpeggios, trills, and syncopated beats. Stride piano brought lovers of all music together to upbeat, danceable songs. This style was performed by Fats Waller and Willie “The Lion” Smith who helped spread it through New York (Gioia, 97-98). Stride brings truth to Bakhtin's quote, by demonstrating how the musicians took into consideration their audiences. Unlike Chicago style, which focused on individual musicians and soloists, Harlem style artists performed music that reflected both the conditions and experiences of the musician, as well as the tastes and experiences of their audience members, the third party (Lecture 1/31/13, 2/4/13).

New Orleans as Jazz's Birthplace

New Orleans in the early 20^th century consisted of many unique characteristics that allowed it to become the birthplace of jazz music. Jazz is a unique genre that could only stem from the very combination of elements such as the ones New Orleans provided. Congo Square can be credited with the very beginning of jazz. Although very far from the genre itself, it was the first place where black people gathered to preform, and white people would watch. With a white audience the black music, with roots in Africa and especially the Caribbean, influenced them and began the important process of syncretism in New Orleans. Following Congo Square, Minstrel shows also was a large contributing factor in the creation of jazz. By having white people act as black people, and entertain other white people and then black people acting as white people acting as black people, black traditions and music became a part of white people's culture and vice versa.

As a major port city in America, New Orleans had a constant flow of new people of many ethnicities. Originally, the Atlantic Slave Trade ships would dock in New Orleans as one of the main ports to distribute slaves into the country. Even after the bill passed in late 1805 that banned the importing of slaves, the impact lasted. New Orleans became a melting pot of races and different cultures living in close quarters. One of the largest reasons for this combination of cultures is due to the changing in control of the port city from Spanish to French to American. Because of the huge Spanish and French population, Catholicism was the main religion. As slaves would come through the city, to Americanize them the slave owners would try to convert them to Catholicism. This religious conversion brought the two cultures together and soon New Orleans had a huge population of black Catholics singing traditional hymns in a whole new way. Incorporating instruments to their church services in addition to the new way of singing contributed to an overall spread in music interest, particularly outside the traditional classic music. Along with converting black people the Catholicism, the French also influenced the way slaves were treated. In comparison to the rest of the country, New Orleans had a Latin system of slavery in which the slaves were treated as people. Under the Latin system, slaves were thought to have souls and basic human rights such as intermarriage and the right to be freed. With this system, another culture of people emerged who were called Creoles of Color. These people were mixed race but strongly identified with their European ancestors. The Creole people often studied classical European music in an effort to make their connection with those ancestors stronger. Following the 13^th Amendment, the Jim Crow laws forced the Creole people to leave the white orchestra's and identify as black. With the classical music training of the Creoles and the more ragtime and Caribbean music of the black people, the two made jazz. This combination of styles was the biggest factor in the birth of jazz. Living in New Orleans, the people were constantly preforming and music was an aspect of daily life. When classical music met ragtime and dixieland bands, the genre of jazz was truly born. Throughout the next century, jazz changed dramatically. But it's roots are always able to be traced back to New Orleans and the bringing together of many cultures and the music styles of each.