Let’s Talk About It: The Emergence of the Racial Dialogue of the 1930s

While jazz was undoubtedly a Black creation, by the end of the 1920s and through the 1930s, it had made its way into mainstream White popular culture. As a result, conversations began to surface about it origins and the culture that created it, spurring conversations about race, ethnicity, and value. However, as Black culture was being appreciated for its creation, there was a second debate raging about who should control the industry and the revenue associated with it. It was as a result of this integration of jazz into mainstream popular culture and increased monetization and control of the industry by a few individuals that caused race and ethnicity became an explicit part of the conversation during the 1930s ‘Swing Era’.

            Back in the days of Storyville, jazz was seen as a rough, underground, unsavory form of music. Coming from some of the seedier parts of Black New Orleans, jazz had this rough stigma attached to it and even as it moved up to Chicago and New York, it was still mostly played in Black neighborhoods or in gangster run concert halls. However, all of this started to change in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the proliferation of radio and recorded music further worked to entrench jazz into mainstream culture. This expansion of jazz into popular culture throughout the 1930s, highlighted by Benny Goodman’s Palomar performance in 1935, sparked a conversation about the origins and meaning of this type of music that many people were hearing for the first time. Compared with the prominent 1920s view jazz was a lower class, criminal form of expression, by the 1930s jazz stood for the leftist ideas of race integration and creativity of African Americans (Swing Changes, 53). Benny Goodman’s band employed many talented Blacks including Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, and Gene Krupa (Stewart). John Hammond travelled the country discovering jazz musicians, including Fletcher Henderson and Billie Holiday, and lauding Blacks for their creativity and intelligence, even going to fair as to say that Duke Ellington didn’t do enough to stand up for Black culture and rights (Swing Changes, 51 & Stewart). The credit to Black culture for creating jazz sparked a conversation about race, ethnicity, and value that can be viewed as a precursor for the Civil Rights movement (Section).

            However, while the conversation about the creation of jazz led to an increased appreciation for Black intelligence and creativity, when it came to who would control this new industry, many of the same race relation problems that had existed for decades once again appeared, and the hegemonic role of Whites remained (Stewart). Due to the consolidation of power in the industry as a result of radio and record sales, there was a need for far less musicians to entertain the masses (Gioia, 127). As a result, only the few artists who could get radio play and record distribution were able to make a decent living and obtain a level of stardom. More often than not, it took a partnership with a White manager or business partner in order for a Black musician to get this airtime and distribution, such as was the case with Duke Ellington and Irving Mills (Stewart). This type of arrangement spurred discussion about the return to what had been the norm of exploitation of Blacks and Black culture by the White elite (Stewart).

            Stemming from the streets of New Orleans, jazz was created as a way for the Black residents of the city to express themselves and their unique culture. By the 1930s, while Blacks were getting credit for its creation and some bands were becoming integrated, there were those who were questioning the control that White managers and businessmen had over the industry. This two sided debate, while starting in the 1930s, would rage for decades and lead straight into the Civil Rights Movement.

Splitting Hairs: Choosing the most important city to jazz in the 1920s.

How can one really choose which city, either Chicago or New York, was more important to jazz in the 1920s? As Ted Gioia so eloquently states when describing the spread of jazz in the United States, “Drawing its ebb and flow on a map, we seem to find ourselves staring at a sharply articulated triangle formed by three urban centers: the starting point is New Orleans, next comes Chicago, finally New York” (Gioia, 66). However, to look gauge importance simply chronologically would be incredibly shortsighted. The integration of the stride piano and evolution of jazz as a performance art worked to ensure New York’s place in the annals of jazz history (Gioia, 91 & Henderson). And yet, when examining all of the evidence and the fact that only importance in the 1920s is up for debate, Chicago appears to come out ahead in this debate due to the musical integration that took place and the proliferation of white jazz and their musicians into popular culture.

Of all the ways that the city of Chicago impacted the evolution of jazz music, one could argue that the most important way involved people watching and listening to jazz, instead of performing it themselves. Situated on the South Side of Chicago, the Lincoln Gardens was an immense concert hall that in the early 1920s, provided a home for King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band (Gioia, 44). Coming from all over the Midwest and sometimes from farther, musicians would fight their way to the front of the crowd to listen to the revolutionary compositions of King Oliver and his young trumpet player, Louis Armstrong. Often, these young musicians clamoring near the front of the stage would be White musicians who had already finished their gigs on the other side of town, and would then come to the Lincoln Gardens to hear what the Black musicians were performing, hoping to take certain aspects and use them in their own performances (Stewart). Groups such as the Austin High School Gang would head to the Lincoln Gardens on Saturday nights to see King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band up close, and Bix Beiderbecke’s perpetuance for sneaking out of boarding school to visit Chicago clubs eventually led to his expulsion: all so they could learn the skills of improvisation and Black musicianship to go with their more classical musical training (Gioia, 68 & 75).

With skills and appreciation acquired from their Black counterparts, 1920s Chicago saw the proliferation of some of the most prominent White musicians of the era and the evolution of jazz into popular culture. Simply looking at those associated in one way or another with the Austin High School Gang, including Benny Goodman and Eddie Condon, reads like list of jazz royalty (Gioia, 74-75). It may have been this proliferation of jazz into white culture that led to its shift in the style in the 1920s. Leaving behind the blues and multitheme ragtime structures that were so prominent in New Orleans Jazz, thirty-two bar forms and popular songs were increasingly used by Chicago jazz musicians in the 1920s (Gioia, 73). Many stylistic musical devices, including the flare up and the shuffle rhythm, are seen as signature elements of these White Chicago musicians (Gioia, 72). In terms of representing the culture and community of Chicago, perhaps no one did it better than the previously mentioned Benny Goodman. While Louis Armstrong’s time spent playing in Chicago has led to an association between him and the city, he grew up playing a New Orleans style of jazz and did not emerge as a renowned soloist until years after his stint at the Lincoln Gardens with King Oliver (Gioia, 48). Goodman, in comparison, was born and raised in the city of Chicago and not only embodies the proliferation of White jazz, but represents the integration of musical styles, with his assured execution and smooth phrasing inspired by the playing of Jimmie Noone out of Chicago’s Apex Club (Gioia, 62).

Despite the fact that early Chicago jazz is almost always associated with the city’s White musicians, it should also include a lengthy narrative about how the rise of its’ distinct musical style has a tremendous amount to do with the integration of ideas between the Black and White musicians of the city. It is the results of these interactions, along with the rise of White jazz and musicians, that made Chicago the most important city to jazz in the 1920s.

Comment- Jason Ortenberg