At the close of the 19th century the railroad gradually replaced the
steamboat as the major transportation industry. Thus, the economy of the
Mississippi river adjacent cosmopolitan trading center of North America,
New Orleans, began to decline. (Gioia, 142) This industrially
induced failing monetary state of New Orleans depleted the opportunities for
the New Orleans black community, and jazz musicians, to climb the social ladder. Inhibition of
vertical social realignment led to The Great Migration of 1910-1930 and corresponded to
an extensive dispersion of southern black culture throughout the northern
states. Of the northern states, Chicago and New York distinctively
absorbed and embodied southern black culture through jazz. Both
cities were important to jazz in the 1920's, but New York's newly surmounted diversity within the black
population perpetuated an explosive polarizing atmosphere and could
be paralleled to that of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. (Johnson, 29) Jazz triumphed in New York as a result of diverse dialectical interactions
between black jazz performers, their business associates, audiences, and
communities.
As jazz flooded American pop culture
the best jazz musicians, who were black, became increasingly prized
valuable possessions. Major nightclubs such as New York’s Cotton Club
and Paramount Theater were run and owned by racially
diverse white men of the mob, which complicated the
relationships between the performers and the employers. The club
owners ran a “plantation system” in which the performers were
held both under contract and physical threat by the varying mobs of both
Chicago and New York (Travis, 43). Propelled by opportunity
for vertical economic mobility this life-objectifying fiscal tension coupled musicians'
survival with their musical talent and popularity.
The life threatening popularity
contest put on by the mobsters fueled a rapid evolution of jazz in
New York from the solo jazz performer, to the jazz band, such as
Fletcher Henderson’s’, and to the stage. Almost entirely black casted
productions such as “Hooray for Love” and “Hot Chocolates” depicted jazz
as more than just music, as a dialect. In “Hooray for Love” a homeless
woman was reminded that she has running water, a leaky fire hydrant, which
played with the idea of the elegant savage.(1) Unlike Chicago, which
perpetuated mainstream jazz, New York finessed jazz into
something more than just another mainstream audience
phenomenon. Broadway contributed several elements to New York jazz
including dancing, tapping, vocals, instruments, and most importantly
visual narratives of black life in the city. Through these productions, the majorly, if
not entirely, white audiences gained access to an imagined
community. (Stewart, 02/03/15)
The communities depicted in stage productions
were similar to that of Harlem, which was monumental to
the development of the New York style jazz. Johnson mentions that due
to the Great Migration Harlem underwent
a metamorphosis from a small Dutch village to densely populated
ghetto. (p.28) In order to survive, and thus out compete other
musicians, pianist James P. Johnson absorbed the rich southern culture that
was transplanted into Harlem and in response he changed his music to best
represent the New York subculture in which he partook. Johnson
used his knowledge of European popular classics and his experience
with the less formal Eastern style of ragtime to
provide “lowdown music, tinged with blues” that both the
white-emulating Creole’s and the “ring shout” southern black immigrants
of New York could enjoy. (Johnson, 30) This 'gutbucket' element incorporated from the southern black culture eventually infiltrated the most respectable of black performances. (Henderson, 101) Johnson eventually improvised this tantalizing mix of
aesthetics and developed the New York style of jazz, the Harlem Stride piano,
in which the
left hand played a two-beat seesaw and the right hand played counter-rhythms.
The overly apparent segregation within the New York jazz
culture was overcome by the survival instincts of the New York jazz musicians.
Competition fueled the evolution jazz and the creation of a distinct style
of jazz within New York.
commented on Matt Hirning's:
You present great ideas regarding the importance of Chicago to jazz. I think contrasting New York and Chicago through the "for whites only" policy was an effective way to illustrate the inherent difference in culture between the two cities. Although I think the jazz performers mentioned in paragraph 5 were important figures in jazz, I believe it may be of benefit to merge that paragraph with the latter, or not include it. Overall great job though!commented on Dalton Klock's:
Great intro. It made it clear that you're aware that Chicago was not the only significant influence on jazz during the 1920's. That being said, you argued that Chicago became a hallmark of diversity after the Great Migration, which undoubtedly is true, but it would have been nice to know more specifically how this induced diversity contributed to the development of Chicago's 'hot' jazz
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