New York: The Center of Jazz on the 20’s

In the 1920’s the development of jazz took place in two different cities: Chicago and New York. Even though jazz was prominent in both of these cities, most of the development in jazz occurred in New York. This is mostly because of the variety of jazz, both in style and types of gigs, in New York, as opposed to the fairly monotonous (style-wise) Chicago. What was so special about New York jazz was that there was no specific style. It was the diversities of style that made New York important in the development of jazz, and because of this, no one band or individual can represent New York jazz.

Style in Chicago was not limited by the musicians, but rather by the men they worked for. In “The Jazz Slave Masters” Travis, D. J. talks about how Al Capone had complete control over the musicians in Chicago, saying “Capone said ‘Lucky, don’t forget. Take this hundred dollar tip and go play my favorite song’”, and “the three of us jumped into my little Ford and headed back to Chicago. The mob, through intimidation and organization, had things so well-regulated we could not even change jobs’”. This shows that even though musicians in Chicago had their livelihood protected, they were not able to choose what or where they wanted to play. This inability to choose what they wanted to play severely inhibited the development of jazz in Chicago. This lead to Chicago jazz remaining mostly solo-based and upbeat, without evolution, which is why New York was more important for jazz in the 20’s.

Even though New York also had a strong mob influence, in New York there were several different jazz scenes for the music to develop. In Chicago, the mobsters controlled the entire jazz scene, but in New York jazz developed in black clubs, white clubs, and underground parties. This led to the creation of several different styles of jazz in New York. Stride Piano developed in the underground “rent parties” with players such as Willie the Lion Smith, and a new cutthroat, boisterous style. Willie the Lion Smith “epitomized a new breed of jazz player” and he made his reputation “in backrooms and private gatherings” (Gioia pg. 98). In these backrooms, players would compete against each other for the ‘crown’ or title as the best pianist around.

On the other hand, players such Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson were instrumental in the development of big band jazz, with its large ensembles and group focus. Duke Ellington played at the Cotton Club; it was “The Carnegie Hall for those who could not perform at Carnegie Hall” (Gioia pg. 125). His audience was white only, but it gave him the most prestige and the most opportunities of any job available. Gioia even says that Fletcher received his inspiration for developing big band jazz “not from New Orleans or Chicago jazz” but rather from the “music and dance that was sweeping New York”.

There was also a large variety of education in New York, which may have helped lead to this variety. Duke Ellington was middle class and received a formal education and said himself that he was “pampered and pampered, and spoiled rotten” (Gioia pg. 118). On the other hand, Willie the Lion Smith came from a less successful family, and even joined the military for a time (allaboutjazz.com).

The differences in education, venues, line-ups, and playing styles that can be found in New York made it the most important city for jazz. The differences in styles in the 20’s would eventually lead to the development of new styles, such as swing, and a larger focus on big bands, having an effect that Chicago never will. Even though Chicago had the players and talent, it did not have the diversity, or the influence of New York.

New Orleans and the Roots of Jazz

New Orleans is the birthplace of many great American innovations, but I am only going to talk about one of them: jazz. Jazz was able to develop and flourish in New Orleans for many reasons, but the most important reason for jazz’s success specifically in New Orleans was the racial diversity. Specifically, it was the tolerance that came from this diversity. Sure, people in New Orleans still had slaves, and they defiantly were not going to give people of color equal rights, but they gave them a little bit more freedom and respect, which is all that was needed. In most of the country, if a white man had a half-black child, social stigma would force him to deny all claims to the child, but in New Orleans this was not the case. In New Orleans creoles were given a much higher social standing. In New Orleans they understood that even slaves needed to enjoy themselves once in a while, and they were given access to Congo Square.

It is great that New Orleans had more ethnic diversity, and that this let them appreciate other races more, but what does this have to do with jazz? Couldn’t jazz have developed even without the help of Caucasian slave owners? No, it couldn’t. This is because jazz is not a purely African form of music. Jazz started as both blues and ragtime, and evolved and merged into what it is today. Ragtime in particular is strongly based off of more traditional European music. Jazz could never have formed without European influences on African music. This, combined with American innovation, is jazz.

This still does not fully explain how European and African musical traditions were able to mix in New Orleans. It actually happened due to the raising in status of the black man when slavery was abolished, and the corresponding fall from grace of the Creole. Creoles used to consider themselves as superior to their full-African counter parts, but by the end of the 19^th century the rest of the city did not seem them this way. They had maintained strong European roots and traditions, and they were now on the same level as the recently freed slaves. This forced interaction between the two groups, and lead to the European culture/music of the creoles and the African culture/music from the slaves to mix, and influence each other. If it was not for this forced mixing of cultures, and for the comparative freedom that slaves had in New Orleans before this (Congo Square), jazz would not have developed in the way that it did. This is why the melting-pot of cultures that is New Orleans is the mother of jazz.