TOT! AC RES COL LECITAV
The New Poeularit Of Jazz
to that status) on the radio and in the
moviess
Considering its origin, how can we account
for the sppeal of jazz among urban, middle
llass, intelluctual whites? There have
:eel a variety of answers to this question.
;r ma writers claim, that jazz has a rhythmic
vitality and tunefulness that is superior
that of commercial music, and hence
attracts the more intelligent person who
listened to popular dance music.
"t.hers go further and see in jazz the
:xpression of our turbulent, quick-paced
‘fflitieth-century life, and say that
): - Requently,jazz has a natural appeal
It has been argued, also, that
rDan sophisticates find a new kind of
0-I'.?al thrill in jazz because its folk
)1 - -,,,n answers some deep reed in our--
-e.., for an identification with the
6 in an age of complexity and thorough
social change. Finally, some
- ,vents insist that the conditions of
.13:.curity and oppression which character
',s.-ad the lives of the Negroes who developed
; ...f4J is now characteristic of the lives
no3t of us, and the intelligent person
the first to recognize this feeling
~id to react to it in the form of appre
iation of jazz music*
j:Latever the reason s jazz has continually
the aritice who predicted its de—
The first of these predictions
30 1 e from writers who considered jazz
o C)e nothing more than a child of the
twelitiesy which in turn they
C:Ted was but a transitory period in
‘e.tional development. Yet ,jazz
I ) ry,,ek renewed popularity durfng the 1930 s
in the gzesent deca&v. Between
.(yvir - t5, too, jazz was never dead, for
zynced in New 04-leans., Chiczgo l a:d
:)Ik, as well as in isolated spots
iA recordings.
(1 tonnection with recordings and the
1 4 ,ercist in jazz, mention must be made
taa ilfl,ollectors," those jazz lovers
,Ic devote much time and energy to the
,lectiom 4 exchange ) and cataloging of
' , Jtxrds, and whose concern - with the music
continued
FRIDAY OCTOBER 10 1958
never flags. They are its unfailing
supporterg in good times and bad. The
practice of collecting has developed
into a science of discography, and aLro
has assumed many aspects characteri:,;'.s
of religious and political cults,
special rules of conduct, esßteric
terests, special literature hardly ODII,-'
prehensible to outsiders, and a good
measure of evangelism°
The common beliefs still prevalent, that
Jazz is a child of the twenties ignores
two or three decades of jazz playing
before that° Nevertheless, it is true
that while jazz was born long before
the twenties, it was given a powerful
impetus during those yearS by the
emergence of some great Negro and white
musicians ° The considerable migrations
of Negroes from the South to the North:
just after Wor:;.d War transplanted
both the jazz musicians and a substauf
part of their audiences to new areas,
At the same time, two external condi:
conducive to jazz were present in ma,:7,
places during that decade°
First, as Frederick Ramsey, Jr., once
aptly put it, 4 4.azz..0 needs the intimcl—
of small halls." - ' 4 /tt is not merely the
size that is meant, bUt..hefly the
informal atmospheeo The players of
Jazz are uncremonious men, not enrrs.- ad
with tradition in malmer of proforma e
Jazz is not customarily played by me.
in boiled shirts and - white ties, with
the accumulated precedent of centuries
of the concert stage and music chamber,
It grew up in a very informal atmostl'e.'e
the small saloons and dance hall f,
people won: - to relax and th;o9- .71;1'
vention a:11 dignity. In th
and dives of the post World War I
then / jazz found the same in:Coma:it
and intimarfy in which had origilm.',y
flourished,,
The second exter - ial ascent of the
gram:h of jazz 7as the -.:ommunity of
interest lietween playe - r-s and listeners
in a famiaar atmosphere which, too t
was oharaoteristic of the small cluhz
of Ile twet,ies In New Orleans MOP,'
of the eatly jazz mer ; great and small,
continued