Music Essay

Influence of Jazz Music Towards the Society

Ronaldo Yuliawan 10B

American singer, Christina Aguilera said that, “Blues, soul and jazz music has so much pain, so much beauty of raw emotion and passion.” This explains a lot considering Jazz originated from the blues. While working in the plantations in the south, the black slaves sung the blues to express their feel of injustice and lost love while at the same time - in happier moments - sung about their victory over broken hearts and adversities. Blues is music that tells the sufferings and joys of life. When blues reached New Orleans in the 1900s, jazz music was being conceived. In a mixture of church hymns, gospels, marching bands, ragtime and native African drumming the jazz was born. Jazz did not become the national music instantly - although it eventually did in the 1920s where the era was known as the Jazz Age - but it experienced a steady progress towards national and worldwide fame. What was unique about jazz was that since its inception, not only was it music for the black people - like what the blues was at first - but jazz was also embraced by the whites and eventually the Latin Americans in later years, they would combine all their cultural differences and make new forms of jazz. From its blues foundation, jazz has become a global phenomenon where everybody in the world can find common ground in. Jazz goes beyond music, jazz goes beyond racial and cultural differences, jazz embraces it and jazz has become the medium in which mankind unites as one.

Before jazz became one of the most well known genres of music, it first experienced very humble beginnings in the southern region of the United States. Afro-American slaves working in the plantations in the region were treated terribly. These slaves were treated as objects and are considered to be the inferior race therefore sub-human. In the plantations they would experience whippings and slaves would usually only last for seven years due to the amount of work they were forced to do. Slaves in churches survived only for around three years. These sufferings prompted the Afro-American slaves to cry out; from this cries and sufferings came along the earliest form of he blues. They would not only sing about the sufferings but also the joy of being free and the dream and hope of being free. Black slaves would continue to do so until the blues reached New Orleans in the 1900s where it would give birth to jazz music.

When the blues reached New Orleans, musicians combined it with numerous other music genres that were present in the city at the time. As a result jazz was given birth to from the mix of marching bands, church hymns, gospels, ragtime and the blues. Jazz music is unique because from its inception jazz embraces all the different types of music in New Orleans into one. Another interesting fact to know is that jazz - unlike the blues and rock ‘n’ roll - was soon enjoyed by both black and white people. This will prove vital in uniting both races in later years.

During the 1920s the era was famously called the ‘Jazz Age’. This was because during that period of time, jazz was the national music genre. The government has just passed the Prohibition law, which makes selling and manufacturing alcohol illegal. But people sold them and manufactured them anyway, these people were called speakeasies, they opened illegal bars that were hidden behind a seemingly innocent store by its exterior. These bars had to have a band playing and since jazz music was not accepted anywhere before the 1920s, this was where they play. Jazz music suits strongly with the lifestyle of speakeasies, a life of mystery, class and danger. Soon jazz music became popular and started to play in bigger venues. Mind you that the drinkers in the illegal bars are mostly white men. Bigger jazz bands were soon formed and these large bands were called big bands, playing a branch of jazz called the ‘swing’. Glenn Miller and Count Basie were one of the most famous band leaders emerged during this period but more importantly they have members of both races working together, not being exclusive to white or black people. But as the days were getting better for jazz, the Second World War broke loose with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1939. This brought whole new deeper meanings and emotions towards jazz. From this moment on, jazz music will never be the same again.

Bands often toured base camps all over Europe to raise the morale of the soldiers. Artie Shaw, a bandleader, was at that time playing for a group of soldiers in the south pacific. He recalled how he and his bands were used to getting applauses and cheers that they had taken them for granted. They were surprised then that when they finished their performance, the soldiers did nothing. They realized something was wrong and Artie Shaw soon understood that the soldiers missed home and his band’s performance reminded them of it. In other base camps and even in the streets in the United States, bands would play to raise morale and optimism of the soldiers and the population at home about the war. By the end of the war, jazz has spread to the whole of Europe and its optimism and rebelliousness was so disturbingly apparent that Nazi Germany had to make it a crime to listen to jazz, although they eventually could not control it and ended up making their own propaganda jazz music. Although white Americans may still despise the black Americans and vice versa, they have gained a considerable amount of support from the Europeans. They learnt how to play the way the black Americans played it and they shared experiences and ideas. Europe has officially caught the jazz germ. Soon jazz would spread to the central and south Americas and with the influence of their traditional Latin music pushed jazz to new limits and branches.

Cuban immigrants that arrived in the United States incorporated their traditional Latin music with jazz musicians, creating Cuban jazz. This completes jazz’s unity and influence from the north, central, south to Latin America. Latin jazz is the culmination of all these influences, a place where we all can relate.

Jazz is not just a type of genre and jazz is not only about syncopations and swings. But jazz is about us; jazz represents how we as human beings can come together to unite as one. From the slaves in plantations singing about their sufferings, to performing in bars and wars, jazz has united all kinds of people of all races. Jazz teaches us that no matter how different we are, we are really not that different at all. Jazz shows that if we are willing to work hard, we can be united. It will not be easy but it is possible. After all, who knew that tunes sung by slaves in plantations or jazz bands in speakeasy bars could spread to Europe, trouble the Nazi and be loved by the world. Jazz tells us that it is possible because it has done it.

Bibliography

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A History of Jazz Music, www.scaruffi.com, 2005, Piero Scaruffi, 30 Jan 2013, <http://www.scaruffi.com/history/jazz1.html>

History of Jazz, teacher.scholastic.com, N/A, 30 Jan 2013, <http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/history_of_jazz.htm>

How Were Slaves Treated?, news.bbc.co.uk, 16 Feb 2007, BBC, 31 Jan 2013, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6340000/newsid_6342400/6342489.stm>