Jazz in America
Max Lewontin
AP American Literature
10/24/08
The 1920’s
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The “Roaring Twenties”, after the end of the grueling First World
War, were a time of great opulence and extravagance
The Twenties were very different from the time before the war,
when people embraced economy and simplicity
The decade was a time of great change, when there were great
advances in technology, the economy was strong, and America
flourished culturally as well with new, more daring clothes,
movies, ideas and music
This period ended in 1929, when the stock market crashed,
sending the country into turmoil and destroying this atmosphere
of extravagance, reverting back to the cautionary ideas and
lifestyles of the previous decade
What is Jazz?
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Jazz is a uniquely American musical style which came into its formative years
during the Twenties
Jazz combines European harmonic ideas with African rhythms and African
American spirituals and blues
The style of jazz that was initially popularized used syncopation, which
emphasizes and accents the “weak” beats in a measure which are not often
accented
Syncopation was later abandoned by many jazz musicians, who began to play
longer, non-syncopated notes instead
Jazz in the 1920’s was played both by big bands and by smaller combos with
only a few instruments
The 1920’s were known as the “Jazz Age”, a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
(author of “The Great Gatsby”) due to its great popularity throughout the
decade
Unsyncopated
(accents on 1st and 3rd beats)
Syncopated
(accents on 2nd and 4th beats)
The Origins of Jazz
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Jazz began in New Orleans, which is called the “Cradle of Jazz”, due to its large role
in shaping jazz in the early part of the 1920’s
In the late teens and early twenties, New Orleans was a crossroads for many
different cultures; European, African and Caribbean cultural traditions crossed in the
city
The result of the blending of these different cultures was a new style that combined
different pieces of each culture’s musical traditions to create a new kind of music
Jazz spread beyond New Orleans quickly, (supposedly after the closing of the
Storyville red light district in New Orleans), making its way into the rapidly growing
new American cities
Many jazz musicians moved from parts of the south into the expanding
metropolises in the East and Midwest: New York, Chicago, Kansas City, and cities
became centers of the jazz community
Jazz’s growing popularity was fueled by rapid population growth, a move away from
rural areas and the increase in technology, which permitted music to be transmitted
by record and radio, further increasing the circulation of the new music
New Orleans,
1900
Jazz in the 1920’s
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After moving to the bigger cities, jazz was first performed at small cabarets and
speakeasies
As it grew in popularity, it eclipsed these venues and began to be played in bigger clubs
like the Cotton Club in Harlem
The popularity of jazz also increased because of the passage of the Volstead act in 1919,
which banned alcohol to be sold in public places. This led to a rise in illegal speakeasies
and clubs, where jazz was often played
Although jazz was primarily played by black musicians, there were several white jazz
bands, which were often regarded as a lesser, much more commercial form of jazz,
although this was not always the case
The rhythms and style of jazz inspired many different dances of the time, as well as made it
the favored music of many high society parties that would have previously played classical
music
Jazz was embraced by many young people who thought of it, along with flappers and
frequenting speakeasies, as part of a culture of rebellion against the old, pre-war stuffy
society
The Cotton Club
in Harlem
Jazz in the 1920’s
1920’s jazz bandleader Duke Ellington (piano),
playing “Mood Indigo”
The Jazz Controversy
• While jazz was cheered by many, it also had many
detractors. Critics called it savage, crude, noise, and
even tried to ban it from being played in many public
places
• This controversy was rooted as much in the music
itself as in the social ideas and norms at the time
Jazz band,1920’s
The Jazz Controversy:
The social conflict
• Jazz was often attacked for the strong feelings it incited in
people at the time
• One newspaper even charged that putting a movie theater that
featured live musicians playing jazz next to a maternity hospital
would instill “jazz emotions” in the babies born there
• Supporters of jazz argued that it was simply a mode of
expression and had no harmful affects on the listener
• This conflict was really rooted in the tensions at the time
between the old establishment, and the younger people, who
were more inclined to participate in all the fads of the time;
dressing like a flapper, going to speakeasies, and listening to
jazz
Speakeasy, 1920’s
The Jazz Controversy:
The Music
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While there were many social conflicts that occurred during the 1920’s
involving jazz, the music itself also was very controversial for these reasons:
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Jazz uses a lot of improvisation, both by individuals and by a group, which
was very uncommon for music at the time
Broadway show tunes and spirituals were often used as source material for
jazz in addition to original compositions, making it seem to be derivative,
unoriginal music
Jazz also redefined the relationship between the composer, singer and
player, as the music was often spontaneous and did not involve any written
music at all
Jazz was also cited as “simple” because there was often no written music
involved, making it seem much cruder than other music of the time
(classical music, show tunes or marches) that did involve written music
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The Jazz Influence
• Beginning in the 1920’s, many modern classical composers (such
as George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Igor Stravinsky)
embraced the stylistic elements of jazz and created classical works
that involved jazz in various ways
• Jazz is present today in many ways; through samples of older jazz
that show up in new songs, and through new jazz artists that have
expanded upon the foundations of the music of the 1920’s to create
many new styles of jazz throughout the years
• As jazz embodied change in the Twenties, when it was the music of
the new, rebellious youth; jazz also was a prominent part of
American culture during many eras, including the Civil Rights
Movement, when it was one of several music styles embraced by
people of a new generation
Works Cited
"Jazz Age." American History. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 20 Oct. 2008 <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.
"jazz." American History. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 20 Oct. 2008 <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.
"jazz." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 24 Oct. 2008 <http://0www.search.eb.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu:80/eb/article-9110142>.
Ogren, Kathy J. The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America & the Meaning of Jazz. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1987.
“United States." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 24 Oct. 2008 <http://0
www.search.eb.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu:80/eb/article-9111233>.