How did New Orleans Jazz challenge
inequalities in the south of America in the early/mid 1900’s?
Introduction
During
the course of this dissertation, we will be going over what aspects of jazz and
the community associated with it may or may not have helped question the rights
of minorities and those segregated against in the early/mid 1900’s. Furthermore
the growing popularity of jazz at the time, could easily be a major
contributing factor to making black people be less discriminated against and
more accepted into America as a community There are ideas that due to jazz and
other genres heavily influenced by black people becoming so popular throughout
America, made Americans more open to black people and their culture. In
addition we will also discuss what helped form jazz and make it into such a
powerful genre that would help shape America into a more accepting country.
Moreover we will also go over the fact that New Orleans was one of America’s
slave ports, and even after slavery was abolished quite blatant discrimination
was still lingering, this encouraged races of all kinds to interlink. Additionally
I would also like to cover that there are ideas that black people mainly
influenced the creation of jazz, for example the improvisational feel, it also
has its fair share of European input, for example the composition and harmony.
However there are also ideas ‘jazz does not owe its existence to any one race’.
Another topic I would like to discuss is the fact that quite a few black people
at the time felt Americans were gaining a lot more fame then themselves, this
angered them mainly because a lot of black people felt that they were the
pioneers of jazz, but were not being credited properly for there contributions
to the genre.
The
birth of Jazz
The
birth of Jazz is quite largely believed to have started in New Orleans, there
are ideas that Jazz started as far back as slaves being brought from Africa to
America but there are also beliefs that it was formed from songs slaves used to
sing about going back home whilst on the plantation. Furthermore we will be
following the ideas of those who believe it to have started in New Orleans,
from a mixture of slaves and ‘free’ people. To fully explain the birth of Jazz
we will have to go back as far as the 1800’s to the parent of Jazz, which is
Blues. Blues is said to have come from the south of America by African
Americans expressing their pain, hardship and experiences as a slave. It’s
thought to start on plantations, whilst slaves worked to keep morale high and
was viewed as an escape from their harsh reality. In addition to explain the
creation of Jazz we would need to talk about the French and Spanish speaking
black people (creoles they were called at the time) who were under the French
then Spanish rule but were then freed, and the newly freed slaves who lived on
the west side of town who were less privileged than the ‘Creole’ people as the
majority of the newly freed slaves had all but no education and were poor,
which was a huge contrast to the Creole people, as they had been around
European people for a number of years, they had worked in opera houses, lead
their own bands and were able to read music. These two communities joined
together musically, which was a spectacular thing as the newly freed slaves
knew almost nothing about reading music and composition whereas the Creoles
did, the newly freed slaves knew more about the improvisational side since they
often song/played blues and gospel. So in short the west side bands (the newly
freed slaves) brought the improvisational side to jazz, where as the Creole
bands brought more of the composition and sight reading to jazz. To summarize the
idea goes as such, in the early 1900’s African American musicians would gather
in New Orleans and share their songs, experiences and ideas, which would then
become to be known as jazz, this played a huge part in spreading Jazz on a
national scale, yet people still only knew jazz as the “New Orleans Sound”. After flourishing in New Orleans Jazz then
moved to Chicago, It was still called New Orleans Sound, but was said to be
less wild than it was originally in New Orleans. However one of the main
reasons Jazz then swiftly moved to Chicago was due to the fact that
discrimination against African Americans and the Creole people had re-emerged.
Whilst the Chicago and New York received most of the jazz migrants from New
Orleans, Jazz influenced Kansas City the most out of the three options, as
after Jazz artists started moving there the genre stayed popular for the
longest amount of time compared to Chicago and New York.
Identity
Politics
Once
Jazz had moved to the other cities, many African Americans and Creole people
were a bit disappointed and annoyed, they were disappointed and annoyed due to
the fact that in places like Chicago where Jazz was deemed as more popular, it
was said that the Jazz sound had changed, it had changed from a less wild,
primal, sound to a more classical sound. In addition people believe this was
done to change the audience from the former slaves who were now free people and
were able to express their emotions and past through song, to a white audience
making it more polite. This infuriated many ‘founders’ of Jazz, but others saw
the plus side. With the style being changed, this meant that Americans would
now come to Jazz clubs and events allowing the genre to grow. It also meant
that Americans would have to go to African American neighbourhoods to listen to
this genre. However with this birthed another issue, with there being two
styles of Jazz, it segregated the Jazz community, there were now clubs for
‘negroes’ and clubs for ‘whites’. The New York style of Jazz was different to
both the Chicago style of Jazz and the original New Orleans style of Jazz,
whilst it still was similar to the New Orleans style, like the Chicago style it
lost it’s primal ways, but not changing so much to attract a whole new
audience. In fact this simple changed attracted and “appealed to people from
every echelon of society” (http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/is3099/jazzcult/20sjazz/upriver.html).
Kansas city was where “jazz flourished for the longest” (http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/is3099/jazzcult/20sjazz/upriver.html).
Unlike Chicago African American Jazz artists were wanted in both white clubs
and African American clubs. Furthermore sexism was also a big issue around this
time, many jazz artists and musicians were male, there were few
‘canaries’(female jazz vocalists), and even fewer female musicians. It was
acceptable for canaries to be in bands but mainly on the occasion they were
attractive. Females had it roughest in the jazz industry. “Not even great
talent could shield female jazz musicians from sexism’ (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/771665/Jazz-helped-break-down-US-racial-barriers.html). An interesting opinion I found was “one could
argue that racism made jazz seem forbidden therefore irresistible across all
ethnicities in the 1920’s in America”, (https://www.quora.com/How-did-racism-influence-jazz-music-in-the-20th-century).
This opinion is interesting because it’s playing on the idea that humans want
what we can’t have so for Americans making going to African American jazz clubs
socially taboo across their community may want the younger generation to rebel and
go to them, which would ultimately surprise them and they would enjoy it. Jazz
music was completely interracial; there were African American, Creole and
European bands all across the south of America. Whilst many ‘pioneers’ of Jazz
felt cheated by the Chicago style of jazz it was still a hub for Jazz musicians
nationally.
The
Harlem Renaissance
From
the south of America a lot of jazz artists and fans would venture to Harlem
where they would hear African American jazz artists play in segregated clubs.
The Harlem Renaissance also played a huge part in combatting racism in America.
With the Jim Crow Laws and numerous amounts of hate groups in the south of
America, many African Americans ended up in Harlem. The African Americans
brought jazz with them; this is what formed Harlem’s cotton club. The Harlem
Renaissance allowed African Americans to portray their memories and experiences
as raw as they could. Due to the Harlem Renaissance Harlem was then viewed as a
hub for African Americans, their culture, music and their art. It was portrayed
as a celebration or an acknowledgement of the hardship African Americans had
been through. The Harlem Renaissance was a result of world war 1, many of
Americans had gone off to war so there were quite a few vacancies in the
factories in the north of America. African Americans saw this as an opportunity
to better their lives as many of them were uneducated, poor and had no real
sight of what to do next. With Harlem becoming a hot spot of culture for
African Americans, which was originally quite a white area, it’s thought that
this made it easier for white people to be more accepting of African Americans,
this is thought due to the increase of white people attending African American
jazz clubs and also less clubs being only for white people. Furthermore The
Harlem Renaissance did not last for long, it ended in the 1930’s once the
aftermath of the Great Depression, caused the Harlem Race Riot.
Swing
In the
1930’s a variation of Jazz was created, Swing. The common components to Swing,
was quite a large band, written music and solos from individual musicians
rather than the whole band playing an improvisational part. This became to be
the forefront of the Jazz genre. However it only remained one of the more
popular forms of Jazz for around 10 years, in the 1940’s its popularity fell
and the genre gave way to bebop.
Conclusion
I
believe that Jazz helped challenge racism in the early/mid 1900’s for the
better. I believe this because, Jazz is almost like the retaliation to the
years of oppression the African American and Creole people served as slaves and
the discrimination they deal with to this day, this brings me to believe that
without the African Americans and Creole people expressing their culture and
emotions, through Jazz which, even though was watered down at one point,
appealed to Americans, they might still be alienated and not viewed as human.
Jazz did not eradicate segregation in a flash but I do believe it was a
starting point and allowed Americans to be more understanding and question the
past choices they made to enslave people of colour. Furthermore it didn’t only
allow Americans to understand Jazz culture it also allowed them to enjoy it,
this would make both people of colour and Americans to be more welcoming to
each other’s society. In addition, the fact that Americans were able to adopt
Jazz into their own style means they at least acknowledged the genre and
although not every American jazz artist did this at the time, many American
artists worked with jazz musicians and artists who were of colour. However I
don’t believe Jazz helped challenge sexism in the mid/early 1900’s, this is
because, within the jazz community women were sexually harassed, quickly fired,
taken advantage of and were not given the same opportunities as the men. Being
a female African American or Creole artist or singer, would have been more
challenging at this time, than being a male. As stated earlier there was a
criteria you had to fit to be accepted into a jazz band and even then you were
mistreated. Whilst people were making strides in earning rights around this
time, I don’t believe Jazz had a part to play, that’s not to say that there
weren’t many popular female jazz artists around this time, but if they were men
with the talent they had then their careers may had risen higher. Furthermore I
don’t think it helped that sex and drugs surrounded the Jazz scene, this would
have made it more difficult for women involved to try and escape the stereotype
that they would be easy to manipulate.
For recording piano on my track influenced by Persian Rugs, I'm thinking of using a D.I box which will be connected to a synth/electric piano thats available in the recording studio. Ill create a score for a session player (most likely Tega) as I'm confident in her ability to play chords and melodies. Ill set up a headset for her so she can hear the rest of the track and the midi version of the chords, just for reassurance. I'm choosing to use a D.I box so the sounds feeds straight into logic with no background noise or ambient sounds. The score I'll give her will be fairly short as the chords repeat it's self throughout the track. For the recording all I will need is a D.I box, (not specifying whether its stereo or not) a Male XLR to Jack lead, an Electric piano and a score. We will record in 141.
Week Two
For recording Bass on my track influenced by Persian Rugs, my idea at the moment is to give Jack a Liverpool bass then get him to play the bass that plays the melody. The set up will be a SM57 by the amp for the bass, which will be fed into the audio interface by using a jack to female XLR lead, I'm doing this because for this type of bass I would like their to be some type of ambience. I won't be giving Jack a score as he's practiced this piece before and is competent to play it. I'll set the track up on logic so he's able to listen to the midi version of the bass.
I have already recorded bass on my remix of Tupac do for love, but I would like to record another type of bass as the the first bass i recorded was a fretless bass, which I'm unsure if it suits the track, so my plan is to record it with a Liverpool bass, or another sub type bass, and feed it directly through a D.I box. As Jack has already played this bass-line I won't be supplying him with a score, but will let him listen to the midi version and the previously recorded audio version so he can listen back.
Week 4
I also plan to record the trumpet for my saxophone section on Tupac Do For Love. To record this I will set up Alex with a E606 microphone and connect using a female XLR to male XLR lead, I'm choosing a E606 as its a dynamic microphone meaning it can pick up sound in a specific direction which would be best for recording one instrument. Week 5
For my remix of tupac do for love, I had Alex play the trumpet to cover the saxophone the end result is as follows below and the recording went as I planned. Although we didn't use a score, we were able to read the notes to Alex and he was able to play them to the metronome.
Week 6
For my Persian rugs remix I recorded the chords on the juno synth connecting it to a D.I box and straight into the DAW. I had Josh play the chords and told him the individual notes to play, we placed him right next to the floor box and set him up with some headphones so he would easily be able to hear himself.
Open Music Funding
We wish to apply to the open music funding by PRS For Music Foundation to further our journey with our Sound 'Bashment's Backbone' over the years of performing in small venues, we've accumulated quite a loyal following base and the four of us (Jax, Tempo, Mod and myself) think it's about time we toured around the UK. Our fans are often mailing and emailing us that they would love to see us perform but since so far we've only been limited to London due to not having the funds to transport all our equipment with us to the other side of the country or even to Northern Ireland. We use drum pads, looping, vocals, synths, a range of instrumentd and pre-recorded tracks in our performances, which i believe makes us unique and has allowed us to grow as big as we have. All of us know how to use the equipment but we tend to have our separate favourites which encourages to work in sync better. Jax mainly acts as the producer for the pre-recorded tracks and for the sounds we use from the production softwares. Tempo is usually on the drum pads but surprise surprise can also play the drums, hence his name Tempo. Mod is usually in charge of looping and playing melodies whether thats on guitar, piano or a synth and i'll be on vocals and have my own synth. As i mentioned earlier my aim is to tour the UK, for this we would need roadies, vans to transport the equipment in, promotion (through social media and flyers etc..) and to have venues at the ready. We have our own pages on social media so promotion via social media shouldn't be an issue, the main issue is transporting our equipment, and having the venue prepared for us. This is what the funding would go towards we have already got quotes from roadies to achieve this and spoke to many venues across the country who would be willing to cater for us. We're also thinking of adding merchandise to our personal website and putting up a stand at the venues we'll perform at.
We're hoping for a funding of £10,000 we have planned budgets for each step of the way and think this plan will succeed.
"Persian Pugs" was inspired from the chords from Persian Rugs by Party Next Door. I played the chords in and decided it was a unique sound that I liked. I wanted to remake the sound of the chords into my own sound, I used the EX 24 synth to conjure a sound that I liked. This version of Persian Pugs is missing some content as its an older version, I used this bounce so the development can be heard and my ideas for this track are clear. Throughout the development I plan to use panning techniques on only one bar of the synths, which will be when the synth is split into thirds. I plan to have Erykah sing on this track to finish it off.
Using the bass line from Tupac Do for love, I wanted to make a remix mainly formed of audio, we recorded. In the studio we recorded a fretless bass guitar and drums, I plan to add trumpets and synths to the track from recording, I already have midi versions of them both. But using the D.I box will make the track more interesting and completely recorded by me and peers. I added the synth to keep interest there rather than just the drum and bass line. The same with the trumpet. https://soundcloud.com/milesedwardsfrancis/tupac-do-for-love-remix
What Do You Want
Starting off this track I wanted to start it with a kind of dark ambient feeling, with the drums changing after each bar, my plans for this track are to have a almost RnB/ drum & bass, bass line, to keep the ambient feeling, and add more interest to the song. With this track I was thinking of mainly keeping it midi and using most of my midi skills. The synth was made using alchemy, but the drums was just one of logics instruments. https://soundcloud.com/milesedwardsfrancis/what-do-you-want
Crazy Tazy
Using the track from last year, I added a subby synth intro that fades and in and increases tempo as it goes along, and kept the vocals, with this song I planned to have Erykah sing on it to add to the vocals. Furthermore I would like to possibly replace the drum beats with a beat from ultra beat and improve the synth using an ESP or EX 24. I could possibly add chords to help develop the song. https://soundcloud.com/milesedwardsfrancis/crazy-tazy
Throughout this Ethnography we will be exploring Contemporary R&B throughout the 1980's and its origins. We will be uncovering the several aspects that can help us understand the genre of music, the visual representation associated with that genre, what sounds to specifically listen for, where and how we interpret the music, (e,g, whether at a concert with friends dancing, or in your own company in your room, listening to the meaning of the song) And a few more factors.
Sonic
In the 1980's there were multiple genres that were fused together to form R&B these genres included; Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk and Pop. Many popular artists in this genre at the time were The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson as a solo artist, Prince, Stevie wonder, Marvin Gaye and many other artists whom we may go over during the course of this Ethnography.
One of the more interesting features in Contemporary R&B is that the drum beat can range from a fairly upbeat, fast tempo, to a slower relaxing speed and its mainly dependent on the artist on which of these the drums will follow. However one thing most Contemporary R&B tracks have in common, is that a lot of the time the drums will open the song followed by the bass or the other way round, then the vocals will kick in and hook the audience. Furthermore in the background there will more often than not be a synth that sounds like an alarm or phone ringing. From the prince song When Doves Cry at 25 seconds the synth kicks in and plays on and off throughout the song. Also in this song you hear the bass kick in first, followed by the vocals.
We can cross reference this with The Jackson 5's Can You Feel It. Where the drum and bass kick in at the same time starting off the song at 50 seconds. But there is a synth but not one simulating a ringing sound.
However as I said earlier, the 1980's was an early stage for Contemporary R&B so there are many different styles, which means ultimately the style you hear will depend on the artist, for example Can You Feel It and When Doves Cry sounded more towards the pop genre whereas if you listen to Did I Hear You Say You Love Me by Stevie Wonder the feel of blues is more than noticeable right from the start of the song. But the upbeat drums which is shared between all three tracks I have embedded so far is still in the mix.
Visual
The 1980's played a crucial part in the visual aspect of music as the first music video to be released on tv by MTV was released in 1981 and it was The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star.
Even though This is not an R&B track yet alone a contemporary track, this paved the path for artists like Michael Jackson to start releasing his own music videos, because only a year after the first music video released, Michael Jackson released the world renown 'Thriller' music video. I believe both these two music videos to be a turning point in the music industry no matter what the genre is. Adding visuals to music means we can see what the artist wants us to see or possibly broadens our imagination to stimulate thoughts on current issues in the world or what the artist is addressing.
Also an interesting aspect to consider when discussing the effect visuals hold within in music is clothing and hair, for example the Jackson 5 all had afros during their time in the group, and often wore similar coloured or styled clothing if not both. This is shown in the picture below.
Technological
The technological side of Contemporary R&B is interesting since the 1980's was known as a turning point for most genres. The use of synthesizers in most songs during this time is noticeable and as i touched on earlier the groove (the drum sounds and bass sounds) which may have been taken from neo soul, play a very interesting part as its almost a must for a song to be classed as R&B. The early 80's were known for the introduction of midi and recording digitally to music, which is a huge addition to the creation of music as it helps in plenty of ways. This is not to say that there were not ways to sequence without midi because there were but with midi the prices for midi sequencers dropped allowing it to be much more accessible to people with lower budgets and it made sequencing possibly easier. A lot of instruments were then replaced with synthesizers. Furthermore Cd's were released in early 1980's/late 1970's which makes listening to music a lot more accessible.
Mediatic
Since this was the 1980's most people would goto gigs or festivals to listen to music, however there were people who could afford record players, which weren't too expensive at the time but most families would tend to only have one and mainly in their family room. With the release of the Cd it meant that cd players would be more frequent in family homes as it was cheaper although the quality wasn't as good as record players or even live, it still was the most modern thing at the time, so families would listen to either cd players or record players together in the sitting room as a form of entertainment. However as i said earlier i think that the most popular way for listening to music would be by going to the concerts and tours and gigs as that way you're getting a live experience. I think the majority of R&B is meant to be danced to, with the exception that quite a few types of R&B encourage to deeply think about the song and the meaning behind it to possibly help deal with any hardships you could possibly be going to the the artist relates to.
Temporal
Generally the contemporary R&B songs last around of a maximum of 5 minutes and a minimum of just under 3, however when it comes to the music videos this can increase by double all more as their might be another message the artist is trying to get across which would make it all the more interesting and possibly even make you feel more intwined with the song. However with albums there may be extra tracks which can only be listened to our bought along with the album as a special edition and an incentive to buy the whole album rather than individual tracks you're interested in.
Corporeal
The majority of R&B does tend to have voice in it, however if we look into prince's original purple reign, that track had no vocals to begin with and that track was still popular, furthermore tracks which could have been influenced of Miles Davis who rarely had vocals if any on most of his tracks, wouldn't surprise me if the artist decided to follow the same route and leave the vocals out.
Discursive
Contemporary R&B was the after math of blues, neo soul and jazz, there will be underlying issues from these three which generally relate to black people being oppressed, however the majority of contemporary R&B barely mentions such subjects so for me personally I almost feel as if contemporary R&B is a celebration of freedom to be able to experiment with music as freely as the artist chooses to and to express themselves without the racial oppression motivating them.
