Jazz: A Revolutionary and Imaginative Force for Freedom

Before taking this class, my knowledge about jazz was very limited. I was only exposed to it recently, as my friend’s father loves jazz. He showed me some Bebop and Cool jazz and I really liked it. Furthermore, he told me that he liked jazz “because it was a music with class” and that he aimed to set himself apart from others by listening to this high-class music form. Nevertheless, I knew that jazz was mainly pioneered by black people so I asked him how it could be a high class music in a country that was, until recently, very segregated. He replied that he was referring to jazz being a music with class nowadays, whereas throughout most of history it was underground music. I considered this to be really thought-provoking and my interest in how jazz rose up from being a black underground music to now being considered “classy” by some people made me take this class. As a global studies major, I was also really interested in the social implications of jazz being a force for freedom, revolution and ultimately acknowledgement of the black community. I read the book “Dreams of Trespass,” which talks about the oppression women face in the Middle East, but also about how they transcend these boundaries through dance, music and imagination. Thus, I also wanted to know if jazz was a similar imaginative force for freedom to the African American population during legal segregation.

This class really emphasized that jazz indeed was a revolutionary music form that questioned and sometimes tried to transcend racial boundaries. As Miles calls himself the “famous black rebel,” most of the history of jazz is defined by certain forms of rebellion against the prevailing social inequalities (Davis 272). Slavery might have ended on paper, but racial segregation and discrimination were still in place. In Chicago for example, black musicians were bound to their clubs and “owners” by legal contracts (Travis 44). Additionally, Miles points out the very real discrimination, when he describes a rich white doctor that made money off “poor black people that he didn’t give a fuck about” (Davis 41). For the black community jazz served as community building. Importantly, jazz was a symbolic way to transcend the racial oppression as “musicians of all colors, all nationalities” were playing it (Gioia 35). Thus, jazz was often a space where social divides were non-existent, helping to transform black people from objects into subjects, who can exercise their culture freely (Stewart 1/22). For example, Thelonious Monk, instead of opposing oppression as many did before, utilized jazz to create a community beyond racial dichotomies (Stewart 2/24). This is very similar to music and dance enabling women in the Middle East to move beyond oppression, even though, in both cases, the repressive system doesn’t change (Dreams of Trespass).

Jazz was also actively embodying the revolutionary tendencies of the black community as Coltrane, for example, emerged as the symbol of “beautiful, black, revolutionary pride” (Davis 286). Throughout jazz history, black jazz musicians always strove for the recognition of their music, and thus for their culture and people. In the Swing era, racial tensions became ever more exacerbated when jazz went national (Gioia 127). In this time Benny Goodman was the first to play with a mixed race band in one of the most respectable venues in the US, Carnegie Hall (Stewart 2/12, Swing Changes 55). This transformed jazz into a respectable music form. Moreover, being respectable was another way of utilizing jazz to strive towards equal status socially and thus (symbolically) overthrowing Jim Crow segregation. When jazz became national culture, black musicians had achieved their symbolic revolution and struggle towards equal status and recognition. (Even though this class did not explicitly state the revolutionary aspects of jazz, reading between the lines of the readings and lectures I always got the feeling that this was one of the core aspects of jazz and its relation to race.)

Thus, in sum, this course confirmed my expectation that jazz reflected and transformed racial boundaries. Jazz always embodied the current racial tensions and often, as discussed, musicians sought to rebel against or transcend these tensions. This, also being in line with my expectations, shows the great influence that imagination, which is the precondition to music and culture, has on humanity and how it helps to shape and reshape societies. Thus, jazz was incredibly important musically, but also socially and culturally in reshaping oppression in the US and therefore much of the world.

Commented on: Charles Wilkens Blog: http://cjwilkensblst14.blogspot.com/2015/03/blog-5.html?showComment=1426056733826#c93174307971240442