racism and jazz

8/8/2019 Racism and Jazz

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Question:

How did racism contribute to the jazz movement in Europeduring WWI & II? In addition, what struggles did jazz musicface against the Nazis in France? And why did the Nazistarget Jazz?


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African Slave Trade


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Roots/Slavery

Culture Clashing

European with African

The South especially,slaves madeup sizeableportion of the population.

Black outnumberedwhites in some areas ofthe south


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Syncretism and the need for Song

It was from both the syncretism that created theAfrican from disparateethnic cultures and thesyncretism that created the African-American or the

Anglo-African from the blending of African and Europeancultures that produced theunique aesthetic product ofblack American music. Wynton Marsalis

Music was an individual and collective form ofexpression. As an art form, it united slaves and allowedcreativity.

From the start, jazz music was forced into isolatedcommunities.


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Birth of Jazz

This body of music was of great importance in the developmentof jazz- especially as we know it.

First, almost certainly, the field secular music was theforerunner of the blues, which appeared in the 1890s and wassuch an important aspect of jazz and the gutbucket feature ofblack dance music. The "unschooled" techniques from thismusic, the slurring and bending of notes, the wild falsetto cries,

became common features of jazz as both an instrumental andvocal music, but in far more artful ways as jazz developedsophisticated principles for its performance.


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Segregation and JimCrowe Era brings peopletogether?

Brought together Creole (mixed Euro + black descent) and blackcommunities in South. BLENDING- music and society

New Orleans: Creole and black musicians brought different butcrucially important elements to the mix of jazz that might never havecome together if these two groups did not find themselves forcedtogether socially and politically.

Because of the Creole influence, jazz was always open to Europeanand parlor influences.

Because of the black influence, jazz always had a foundation ofAfrican and gutbucketexpressions and traditions that continued toinform the music throughout the 20th century. Black migrated toSouth because jazz was a compelling art form.


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Segregation and JimCrowe Era brings peopletogether?

segregation closed many avenues ofexpression to blacks as wellas many professions; but one that was not closed was music,which compared to other work that blacks could do at thattime, was a relatively attractive occupation.

So directly, segregation probably accelerated the development of

jazz because such a large number of talented young men (andsome women) went into it who might have, if the society hadbeen less racially restrictive, either played some other form ofmusic or not played music at all.


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Europes Men in World War I

On April 16, 1917, America enteredWorld War I, and on New Year's Day ofthe following year, the 2,000 men of the15th New Work Regiment landed atBrest on the coast of Britanny.

Landed in France with big regimentalband full of jazz musicians.

People were shocked by the regiments

drive and spirit in their music.

Lieutenant James Reese Europe and theHellfighters


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Jazz in France

Europe and the

Hellfighters

People loved the jazzfeel

They wanted more

Playing for hospital patients

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-nCIGtIuj4&feature=player_embedded


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WWII and Nazi Occupation

During WW2, the Nazisoccupied France.

Lif e and music in Paris

came to a halt.

Jazz became an illegalmusic.

Jazz performers fled into

exile.


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Degenerate Art

To Hitler, music wascrucial war in racialpurification.

He declared jazz as adegenerate art

Hitler recognized jazzspower. He realized howmarches and anthems

united countrymen.


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Politics and Protest

Jazz was a major target in the fascist embargo becauseit was a story that celebrated triumph over oppression,

hope, and individual freedom.

These concepts threatened the Nazi movements

Hitler wanted to dominateevery area of French thought,

culture, and life.

Despite the war on Jazz, some French musicians

continued to secretly perform as a symbolic form of

protest.


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Frozen France

French isolation led tolack of access to theinnovative and

progressing Americanjazz artists.

France jazz becamedogmatic (stuck to New

Orleans style).


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Fugitives and Refuge

French musicianssecretly performed asprotest.

Boris Vian (famous jazzcommentator)- jazzcreated a secret, subtleworld where youth could

find refuge.

Jazzs message helped

people cope with life.


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Thesis and Conclusion

Thesis-

Jazz music was built on the idea ofblending. The blending of cultures,languages, and different art forms. Had itnot been for segregation, we may not have

jazz today as we know it.

Conclusion-

Jazz music symbolized individual freedom,adversity, and hope. The American jazzmovement into France, during the WorldWars, provided creative and imaginativeoutlets for the French to express

themselves.


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Sources

Hentoff, Nat. Jazz: New perspectives on the history of jazz....New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Company, 1959.

Kaufman, Helen. From Jehovah to Jazz. Freeport, New York:Libraries Press, 1937

Morton, Brian. "Swing Time for Hitler."W

ilson Select Plus(2003): 33-36. Wilson Select Plus. 15 Sept. 2003. Web. 28Nov. 2009

Whisenant, Engrid. "Hitler's War on Jazz in France."Suite101.com. 3 Apr. 2008. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.

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