GEOG 100 Themes

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GEOG 100 Themes

• Case Study Jazz

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Observations About Jazz

• A main theme in this class is cross-fertilization
  the production of new syntheses as a result of
  the interaction or collision of cultures. There
  are many forms of music that originated largely
  in the U.S. as a result of the interaction
  between African-American and Euro-American
  culture, with most of the influences coming from
  the black side.
• Jazz is truly a wondrous example of a new hybrid
  that has gone global and blended with other
  influences Latin, reggae, gypsy, and other
  forms of 'world music.' It has been described as
  the classical music of America.

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Observations About Jazz

• It is something I am personally very passionate
  about, because it symbolizes so many things that
  are potentially contradictory
• It combines a mastery of classical music theory
  with musical traditions that have bubbled up from
  the grassroots.
• Its practitioners have been strongly
  individualistic, while the music at the same time
  requires extraordinary cooperation and
  collaboration.
• It requires enormous technical discipline and yet
  allows for incredible freedom of expression and
  improvisation.

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Observations About Jazz

• It respects its traditions and idioms and yet is
  constantly innovating.
• It is also the first form of serious and popular
  music that saw integration of musicians black
  musicians into white bands, and white musicians
  into black bands. While the scene was not free of
  racism, there was a lot of collaboration and
  mutual respect far more so than in the rest of
  society at the time. So, jazz has strongly
  conveyed a message of equality.

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It hasn't been as inclusive of women it has
largely been male-dominated, but there have been
notable exceptions, such as Louis Armstrong's
wife, Lil, who is credited with really launching
his career. Lil Hardin was a pianist, composer,
and arranger...
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Observations About Jazz

• All of these aspects mean that jazz has conveyed
  a philosophy and way of being whose significance
  transcends music. Interestingly enough, because
  of its libertarian spirit, it has earned the
  wrath of totalitarian regimes of both the left
  and right. After playing a clip, I will read
  (time permitting) some derogatory statements
  about jazz made by the Nazis and the Soviets
  under Stalin.
• Another example of how American music has
  reverberat-ed around the world is the Beatles a
  British band that developed its chops playing
  Black American rhythm and blues (Chuck Berry,
  Little Richard, Motown) to German audiences
  before making it big in the U.K., whereupon they
  formed along with other rhythm and blues-based
  bands the British invasion that
  revolutionized Ameri-can music which had been the
  original source of inspiration.