Initially, I
thought the history of jazz lay solely in New Orleans. Having visited New
Orleans, I was perhaps mislead to believe that jazz was an entirely American,
New Orleans invention, and I failed to see any connection of jazz to later
forms of it such as Swing. In addition, I saw jazz as something that was
present only in New Orleans and I completely disregarded major jazz cities such
as Chicago, New York, and Kansas City- and disregarded those cities’ major
contributions to the art of jazz. However, after taking a course about the
history of jazz, I quickly learned that I was completely misguided.
From the very
beginning, after reading Robert Thompson’s piece “African Art in Motion”, I
quickly learned that jazz in its rawest, most original form originated from
African elements of art, music, and dance. Blended with the melancholy of
Africans’ new lives in the United States as slaves and their rich history and
traditions of art, jazz emerged firstly in New Orleans- it is more African than
anything else. This was the greatest, false assumption that this course has
broken down for me while learning about the history of jazz.
I originally
viewed jazz and swing as entirely mutually exclusive musical genres. I was
correct in assuming that Swing emerged through the newly “sex-ed up” industry
that was forming, as well as because of the fact that the days of Prohibition
and the Great Depression left lasting impacts and created a need to “get loose”
and dance the struggles away. However, I failed to see that Swing was merely a revised
version of jazz in its original form. The same instruments were used, but in a
new arrangement, combination, and with a new brand emphasis on the style of
improvisation, as well as a more energetic, fast-paced rhythm to relate to the
fast-pace of big cities like Chicago and New York. Furthermore, the original
African elements that Robert Thompson presents in his article shine through the
Swing Era. The elements of improvisation, fine form, and especially the “get
down” quality of swing music are prevalent in swing and were the main elements
that helped transform New Orleans into a more danceable, commercialized form of
swing.
Overall, I was
initially blind to the fact that jazz and other musical genres following jazz
are all completely separate from each other- with no overlapping factors or
influence, as well as no overlapping influences with locations other than the
location in which that genre was first heard. Taking to time to learn about the
history of jazz revolutionized the way I think of jazz and swing by opening my
eyes to the fact that each musical genre is merely a revision of a previous art
form or a summation of multiple cultural influences—even if that culture is
thousands of miles around the world from the location in which the music first
appears.
No comments:
Post a Comment