Jazz Age (original) (raw)

Constructing a history from fragments: jazz and voice in Boston, Massachusetts circa 1919 to 1929

2017

Boston is a city steeped in history. Beyond the struggle for abolition, however, the historical experiences of the majority of black Bostonians, especially during the early twentieth-century, are lacking recognition. In this respect, the Jazz Age (represented here as circa 1919 – 1929) serves as a noteworthy case-in-point. For insofar as the impact of jazz music on social, political, and economic climates in cities such as New York, New Orleans, and even Kansas have been recorded, the music’s impact on and significance in Boston is yet to be addressed in any great detail. Simply put, the history of jazz in Boston, and with it an important period for black development in the city, exists in fragments such as discographies, newspaper listings, musical handbooks, potted witness accounts among others. Therefore, the principle aim of this thesis is to piece-together these fragments to form a mosaic history that reveals instances of black struggle, resistance, and progress during a period of heightened racial (Jim Crow segregation), political (the Red Scare), and economic tension. Essential to this process is not only the need to locate the voices of Boston’s black past, whether in text, testimony, sound and beyond, but also to create the conditions to hear them on their own terms. In order to achieve this, emphasis here is placed on tracing instances of voice, and as a by-product heritage, in musical form from the arrival of the first slaves to Boston in the first-half of the seventeenth century and analysing the ways in which these voices were perpetuated through methods of adaptation, appropriation, and evolution. This approach would ultimately assist in enriching the Jazz Age with a black art form that was not only unique but a distinct form of expression for a race lacking a significant voice in America at the time. In this respect, this thesis looks at the ways in which homegrown Boston musicians, such as Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, and frequenting players, such as Duke Ellington, used jazz music as a way to oppose standard forms of white dominance, cultural elitism, and economic subjugation.

" Big City " Culture in Modern America

DINAMICA LIMBAJELOR DE SPECIALITATE TEHNICI ȘI STRATEGII INOVATOARE, 2016

The beginnings of the 20th century in the by now well-established American nation carried a number of common features with what was happening in Europe, as well. It was a " new era " , in which the machine took over many of the previously human-performed activities, giving birth to a new society, eager to enjoy more comfort and an increasing number of consumer goods. Massive industrialization prompted large amounts of population to move to the big cities. As a result, new patterns of behavior developed, new cultural trends and a new, popular, culture were born coexisting with the so-called " high culture ". Modernism became apparent in almost every aspect of human existence, from daily life to literature and the arts. This paper tries to point out some of the ways in which big cities were influenced by the economic boom, by the technological, social, and political modernism and, conversely, the ways in which, in return, they influenced a number of American writers and artists at the turn of the century. Keywords: " the big city " , " a new era " , modernism, popular culture, " high culture " It is the beginning of the 20 th century in America. The impressive changes that had just started some 20-30 years before are in full progress now. It is the age of the machine and of accelerated industrialization. The miracles of science and technology attract growing numbers of people to the cities, in pursuit of their American dream, looking forward to the success they crave for. Once the frontier was declared closed, a new one seems to be open toward the skies. The Wright brothers have just flown their machine on the 17 th of December 1903, to the surprise of many who could not possibly imagine such endeavor and some twenty years later, Charles Lindberg crossed the Atlantic in his single-seat, single-engine, purpose-built Ryan monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis for the first time in human history. The Progressive Era politics began to show its fruitful results, smoothing down social inequalities and " Social Darwinism " through programs offering access of the masses to all levels of education and by providing a safer environment and an increased number of efficient workplaces. As a result, a solid middle class had a real chance to grow now. Immigration was slowed down to limited quotas for the different nationalities already extant on the American soil. The 1920 Prohibition Law had some unexpected repercussions consisting in the appearance of bootlegging and gangsters and growing criminality. However, this period is generally referred to as " the great boom " or as " the roaring 20's " due to the unprecedented flourishing of the American society as a whole (with some small reprieves/hiatuses caused by the WWI and the short recession after that). A ceaseless population movement from the rural parts to the industrialized cities lead to an unimaginable growth of the latter: New York reached 7.5 million inhabitants, Chicago, 3.4, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Detroit 1.5 each. It was in fact for the first time that more Americans lived in the cities than in the country. Another movement, from South to North, the so-called " the Great Migration " , changed the demographic structure of the northern industrialized cities, since the majority of the people heading there were blacks, the sons and grandsons of the freed slaves, trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. They had taken over the jobs of the whites who had been fighting in the war. A newer type of migration began, from the overcrowded big cities toward the suburban residential areas. The newly paved roads, the cars, the elevated trains made commuting to and from work in the big town quite easy. The suburbs were mainly populated by upper-middle class people who could afford a house with electricity, modern indoor plumbing and sewage system, equipped with every appliance that made life easy, with a back yard and a carport or a garage. These areas were mainly residential at the beginning, without many businesses; so the residents depended on their automobiles to go shopping or even to work. The architectural styles of these houses varied, though generally remained traditional; in California the ranch-style houses was predominant. The country clubs came to be the representative suburban landmark during the twenties, serving as a community social center, by offering the wealthy neighborhood such facilities as sports (golf, tennis, swimming) and all kinds of entertainment. In the city, ordinary people, workers, clerks, immigrants resided in the high-rise apartment-houses, a general tendency in all crowded urban areas. The so-called " dumbbell tenements " (because of the shape of the floorplan which resembled a dumbbell) were rather buildings made for profit without too much worry 1 Dr. A.E. Crețiu is an Assoc. Prof. with The Dept. Of Theoretical Disciplines of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca

The Wild and Roaring Twenties: Impact of Jazz Culture on African- American Literature

"Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world." - Ahmad Aladeen. At times certain events, images or trends can define a period of time in our memory. Like when many people think of the 19th century Britain, they think of Dickensian images such as chimney sweeps, factories bulging in smoke etc., other periods like the WWII are defined by the horrors of war and bloodshed. For the 1920’s in America, the period was arguably defined by its new music and literature. The reason many still refer to this period in the western history as the ‘Jazz Age’. The mental image one conjures is of swishy dresses, dapper suits, loud music and lots of dancing. Jazz infiltrated how people thought, how people spoke, and how people especially famous wrote. Since jazz began as an African-American musical genre, it went hand-in-hand with the writers of the Harlem Renaissance. They both came out of the same clubs and the same minds and the same history. Jazz is not a solitary art. Its form does not only reveal itself in the music. Jazz finds manifestation in many other forms of expression, including the powerful narratives encompassing jazz literature. In all of its modes, jazz narrates a people’s emotional reaction to oppression, expresses the artistic abilities of African-Americans, and provides a voice for those whose voices have been beaten into submission. William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman’s A Handbook to Literature defines narrative as “an account of events”. The narrative of jazz, however, captures more than just an account of events; it tells the stories of a people who developed a music that transcended racial boundaries and is an art that allowed for the emergence of self-expression in an overtly oppressed race.Jazz literature narrates the African American experience in a white world order, telling stories of struggle, triumph, and the formation of a Negro identity that defied negative perceptions of blackness. Through my paper titled “The Wild and Roaring Twenties: Impact of Jazz Culture on African- American Literature.” I would like to portray the impact that jazz culture has had on literature, whilst referring to works such as the poem ‘The Weary Blues’ by Langston Hughes, the song ‘What did I do to be so Black and Blue’ and the novel by F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Great Gatsby’. It would also talk on the influence of jazz on art, architecture, music, dance and even food.

Of Icons and Iconography: Seeing Jimmie Blanton

2015

This article explores how iconography can be a useful analytical tool, and in the process help to demystify the lives and music of so-called jazz icons. I will start by illustrating how a narrative around jazz bassist and Ellingtonian Jimmie Blanton (1918-1942) grew that posits him as an artistic hero in the pantheon of jazz history. Next I will highlight some problems that arise with such canonization and examine two case studies focused on Blanton, one based on statements historian Gunther Schuller made in regard to the bassist’s right hand posture, and a second one focusing on his tone in relation to his physical position within the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In both cases visual sources are used to gain a better understanding of Blanton’s performance technique, which in turn aids to nuance his iconic framing.

BRITISH ART BETWEEN THE WARS.pdf

Explore the reactions of the artistic world to the First World war with a concentration on painters at work in the UK. The twenty year interlude between the wars (1919 -39) witnessed the rejection of the avant garde in the totalitarian countries of Germany, Italy and Spain and a return to ‘safer ‘neoclassicism’ while in the UK Paul Nash vomited his pain by painting dead fields and the modern movement developed a new aesthetic in response to the horrors of war and the worst effects of industrialism. From the fiction of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf to the crude murals of Stanley Spencer art was reshaped by the first world wide conflict of the twentieth century: traditional ideas about Western art were changed forever.

The Return of the 1920s: An Examination of the Twenty First Century Revival

2019

This thesis presents, frames, and analyses a corpus of films and television programs set in the 1920s, all of which have been produced in the last decade. It posits these texts as the latest in a long line of ‘returns’ to prominence of this storied decade within popular culture. It questions why such a twenty-first century resurgence of interest in the 1920s has come about, arguing that we have much to learn from these representations in seeking to grasp key origins of our ever-later modernity’s founding mass media and consumer age. In so doing, it apprehends the 1920s as a ‘protean’ decade, and this for its future-oriented energy, unfinished nature, uncontrollable generativity, diverse potential, and ongoing relevance. In the process, it seeks to discover what makes this latest return of the 1920s distinctive and in what ways it repeats overdetermined tropes that date back as far as the decade itself. In both respects, the thesis argues that the 1920s accumulatively appear to us on screen in a manner that comprises dense intertextual, audiovisual, literary, and historical layers in a state of constant realignment. In allegorical terms, it is argued that our twenty-first century present is rearticulated and questioned through this audiovisual revival of the 1920s, and that the story of our times is made more palatable, and less traumatic, by the filter of the past through the setting of what is by general consensus a key nodal point in the history of Western modernity. At the same time, the 1920s themselves were already a protean multimedia decade, forward looking and intrinsically adaptable to subsequent allegorisation, and radically open to diverse, contradictory possibilities. In order to address productively such complex historical, textual, and conceptual terrain, the thesis engages a number of academic disciplines, notably History, Film and Television Studies, and Literary Studies, drawing on and combining them in distinctive ways. It thereby seeks to demonstrate the degrees to which the audiovisual texts of the current revival reconstruct and remain faithful to, and/or distort and adapt, the historical events of the 1920s, and how previous iterations are updated by these films and television programs. In this sense, it aims to provide a work of historical iv accompaniment for the present day consumer of this 1920s revival, while at the same time reading the latter as a phenomenon of and for our times that seeks to understand a central chapter in the genealogy of its ever-expanding modernity as played out on screen.