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"Bunny M." is an eighteen-year-old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano
and clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as
a youthful fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
Listen to Dinah Washington sing Accent On Youth 
___________________________
Accent on Youth
by
Bunny M.
Trio for E. Ch., by
Jazzamoart
Playin' the Changes
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Tempus
Fugue-It, by Bud Powell
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"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
So goes the old saying that brings the circle of life to full comprehension.
The same idea could also describe jazz, a music that has expanded its horizons
and metamorphosed again and again without ever losing sight of its essence.
From the beginning jazz has been a music of diversity, witnessing and embracing
the full spectrum of change from the most personal and interior to the collective
and far-reaching, while remaining one of the purest expressions of man's
deepest sentiments.
Don't Forget to Mess Around, by Louis Armstrong, a three minute piece originally
recorded in 1925 |
Don't let its old age fool you; jazz can be said to be
the first musical genre of the modern era of technology, coming into existence
around the same time as the ability to record sound. For this reason the
beginnings of the new music are relatively well documented, with recordings
extant of all but its absolute earliest pioneers. The growth charts of these
two cultural revolutions unfold side-by-side in some interesting ways. Both
endured initial periods of indignity and growing pains: early experiments
in sound recording, reproduction, and synchronization to moving images were
extremely delicate and regarded as crude novelties rather than serious
entertainment; early jazz was also considered crude, even "devil's music,"
something respectable people did not involve themselves in. Both gradually
streamlined and evolved, often in tandem: In the early nineteen-hundreds
the sound of dixieland was etched into wax cylinders and discs; in the thirties
companies like Columbia pressed vinyl records of the latest big bands; the
long-playing record in the sixties rang in the beginning of "long-playing
jazz," allowing free jazz players to improvise without end, and composers
and musicians like Duke Ellington to develop more extended, elaborate works.
Where records were formerly limited to three minutes of recording time each
side, it now became possible to spin chorus after chorus on one song or several
just as in a live performance. Ideas could be expressed on a much larger
scale; instead of single A/B sides, artists' output was now released
album-by-album, with multiple tracks on one record. Songs no longer had to
be made to stand on their own; entire programs of music could be assembled
and tied together by a unifying theme. |
Duke Ellington's 1943 Carnegie Hall Concert, the first recording featuring
his extended work, Black, Brown and Beige
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Black
Brown
Beige |
Resolution ,
by John Coltrane, from A Love Supreme, a 1964 recording |
While records made it possible to capture long
performances and sit down to enjoy extended listening sessions, the rise
of the compact disc led to a reversal of sorts in the way people listened
to and enjoyed music. The technological specifications of the CD make it
possible to tailor a listening experience to the listener's exact specifications,
skipping over certain tracks, repeating others, even shuffling through them
at random. Whereas the cumbersome nature of record players made it easier
to listen to a recording all the way through, the push-button ease of CD
makes it easier to jump around in the recording; with no fragile needles
to pick up and set down in a specific spot on the record with surgeon-like
precision, it was no longer difficult or even reasonable to play a recording
in its entirety. Objectively, this new ease and control of experience that
CD's provide can be an excellent tool for instruction; burgeoning musicians
can dissect songs second-by-second, practicing along with their favorite
musicians and able to quickly compare and absorb different styles and ideas,
effectively educating themselves. However, coupled with the modern "iPod
culture"'s barely-there attention span and obsession with instant gratification,
such exact control has had devastating affects on the ability to fully appreciate
music for its own sake. Rather than a work of inherent aesthetic value and
conveyance, music has become a vehicle, a go-between utilized in the seeking
of gratification and amusement, especially of emotions. Perhaps this explains
the more discrete nature of much recorded music today; concept albums like
John Coltrane's A Love Supreme don't seem to be as common as they
once were, replaced by recordings that sound more like collections of similar
but sundry items, rather than a broadly thought out story unfolding over
several acts. |
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the iPod, the music player that changed the
way people listen, and perhaps even how -- and what -- musicians record |
1934 illustration of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters |
The spread of jazz was also aided by technological
advances in travel and communications. The introduction of the sleeping car
on passenger trains made traveling by rail not only more comfortable, but
accessible to greater numbers of people as the travel industry became more
middle-class oriented and less of a toy strictly for the wealthy. Many porters
employed at this time were African-American, ambitious, and culturally proud
in their service of not only ensuring passengers' comfort but entertainment
as well, becoming ambassadors of regional news and local trends. Many of
these porters also sold records, or were musicians themselves; in this way
different regional styles of jazz traveled the country, mixing and mingling
with others and being heard by larger numbers of people than might have otherwise
been exposed to it. The advent of commercial radio broadcasting in the early
twenties had a similar effect, allowing news and entertainment to be transmitted
quickly to more people than ever before. The radio rapidly became a fixture
in every modern household, and with it, jazz, which had become associated
with all things progressive and sophisticated. Early radio performers like
Rudy Vallee became the equivalent of today's mass-marketed popstars, while
swing music in the thirties caught on by wooing listeners with live "remotes"
from ballrooms around the nation. |
Rudy Vallee
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Lover
Come Back to Me |
Dancing the Charleston
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Charleston,
a 1925 recording by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra |
Besides technological innovation, jazz has also had a
relationship to cultural revolution. Just as American society has undergone
vast changes over the last century, the style and prevalence of jazz during
the same time has likewise changed. For example, jazz so pervaded culture
and the arts during the "Roaring Twenties" that this decade of unparalleled
freewheeling and decadence is also known as the "Jazz Age." From the smoky
speakeasy just before the mob bust to the ballrooms where flappers danced
all night, rip-roaring jazz bands were everywhere, captivating listeners
with their horn-heavy raucous, sweltering sound. Abetted by a slew of tunes
whose titles typically contain the word "Stomp" or "Boogie," many new dances,
including well-known ones like the Charleston and Lindy Hop, emerged; the
dance marathon made dancing a competitive test of endurance and showmanship
on par with pole-sitting, aviation, and other record-breaking pursuits. Clearly,
the rough-edged, earthy sound of "hot jazz" was a most appropriate voice
of the times in an era rocked to the core by unprecedented economic boom,
excess, and thrills of every kind. |
photo by Gjon Mili
The Lindy Hop
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Pound Cake, by Count Basie, c. 1939 |
The Harlem Renaissance around the same time greatly enriched
American culture by bringing to the fore the work of black writers, musicians,
actors, and other artists, many of whom were strongly influenced by jazz.
Langston Hughes, a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, wrote poems that
could have easily been set to a hearty blues tune and belted out by the likes
of Bessie Smith, such as "Po' Boy Blues":
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
Since I come up North de
Whole damn world's turned cold.
I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong.
Yes, I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong,
But this world is weary
An' de road is hard an' long.
I fell in love with
A gal I thought was kind.
Fell in love with
A gal I thought was kind.
She made me lose ma money
An' almost lose ma mind.
Weary, weary,
Weary early in de morn.
Weary, weary,
Early, early in de morn.
I's so weary
I wish I'd never been born. |
And "Motto", a simply stirring credo which truly should be the rallying cry
of every jazz aficionado:
I play it cool
and dig all jive
That's the reason
I stay alive.
My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig and Be Dug
In Return. |
Bix Beiderbecke
Tiger
Rag
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Benny Goodman
The
Man I Love
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Charlie Parker
Star
Eyes |
When the wild party of the twenties gave way to the
Great Depression and pre-war years, jazz lost much of its previous
rough-and-tumble sparkle, quite literally -- many of the early pioneers and
stars who had defined the sound of the Jazz Age like Bix Beiderbecke and
Jelly Roll Morton had either died or fallen on hard times that ground their
careers to a halt. The country was in need of a feeling of safety and security,
and to people standing in breadlines and scrimping every penny, entertainment
became a luxury. Big bands came into prominence, bringing to jazz a more
orderly, orchestral sound. Having cut their musical teeth as young players
during the turbulent twenties, many of these leaders had a keen understanding
-- subconsciously or otherwise -- that more than mere entertainment, music
was now an escape, a way for people to be able to forget their troubles for
as long as the band was playing. Big bands put on thrilling spectacles of
showmanship, and "girl singers" in fancy dress like Helen Forrest, Lee Wiley,
and Liltin' Martha Tilton specialized in sweet ballads and torch songs; leaders
like Benny Goodman and Jimmy Lunceford became well-known for the discipline
and high professional standards they exacted of their ensembles. The old
sense of fun was not lost on these new bands, however, as exemplified by
such big band hits like the "Jersey Bounce", "One O'clock Jump", and the
swing anthem to end all others, "Sing, Sing, Sing." While not all the
output of the big band years was of high artistic value, its emotional
significance and comfort in these times was immeasurable.
Jazz shifted gears again in the fifties and sixties,
with bop and cool jazz rising at the time of the "Beat" movement, often regarded
as the first subculture. As young artists, particularly writers, celebrated
creativity in a spontaneous, reduced and "un-constructed" state, so young
jazz musicians sought to break away from the old ways and make jazz that
was free and loosely-structured. Many icons of bop, notably Dizzy Gillespie
and Charlie Parker, also became icons of the Beat movement, when Gillespie's
distinctive horn-rimmed glasses and goatee became a Beatnik cliche. While
the musicians were turning harmonies inside-out and eschewing forethought
in favor of improvisation, a writer like Jack Kerouac sought to capture "supreme
reality" by writing free verse, often using random words without regard to
syntax or comprehensibility (known as the "cut-up" technique of writing).
Revising text once written was strongly disfavored because "the first thought
is the best thought." Kerouac's writing in particular can be seen to
have been very strongly influenced by jazz improvisation; in fact he wrote
a poem titled "Charlie Parker." The great voice artist Ken Nordine, often
regarded as one of the original hipsters, pioneered what he called "Word
Jazz," narrating spoken word over jazzy musical accompaniment. His
album "Colors," an expansion on an advertising campaign for the Fuller Paint
Company, is an underground classic, the stereotypical bongo-playing,
poetry-reading, black leotard-wearing, interpretive-dancing Beatnik experience. |
Frank Driggs Collection
Jimmie Lunceford
For
Dancers Only
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Lee Wiley
Oh
Look at Me Now
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Ken Nordine
Maroon
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The influence of jazz continues to have an impact on
popular culture even today, although in a more retrospective way. The American
songbook is a compendium of songwriters like Irving Berlin, George and Ira
Gershwin, and others who indirectly helped "make a lady out of jazz". Classics
like "Stardust," "God Bless America,",and "As Time Goes By" are still widely
loved and can be heard everywhere from sporting events to fast food commercials.
Lesser stylistic components of jazz have evolved into rock 'n roll and even
heavy metal and hip hop that kids today listen to. Many slang expressions
that originated among jazz musicians or devotees are still in use: "Baby"
as a term of endearment, something cool (itself a jazz-originated expression)
being "the bomb," "See ya later, alligator," the standalone superlative "too
much," and a horde of others. And am I the only one who thinks the modern
youthful fashion of wearing baggy pants with an unreasonably long keychain
dangling from the pockets is a near-exact replica of the dapper attire of
a thirties jitterbugger?
From speech and fashion, culture and lifestyle, art and
innovation, jazz has eagerly embraced change in every sphere throughout its
history, a sort of living blank canvas accepting paint of all kinds to create
an ever-changing masterpiece -- never completed, always a work in progress.
Yet, jazz remains jazz, its essence unchanged by time, still just as palpable
today as when the first New Orleans players started blowing. The mathematician
Alfred North Whitehead said, "The art of progress is to preserve order amid
change and to preserve change amid order," and be it big band or bop, Free
or Nu, jazz has proven itself more than capable of such a task -- a music
with an eye to what's ahead while still mindful of its footsteps behind,
and ready to ride with whatever change may come around the bend.
______________________________
Peace is the word,
Bunny
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"Bunny M." is an eighteen-year-old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano and
clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as a youthful
fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
You can contact Bunny at: lotusflower1922@hotmail.com
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Accent on Youth archive
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