Class evaluation Blog

When I enrolled in this class, I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it was going to be more music oriented class, with the history of how the music came about. But what I found was that it was much more a culture-oriented class; in particular how the black community shaped, and was shaped by Jazz music through dialogue with the musicians (February 5 lecture, "The Novel"). This class has changed many of my preconceptions on Jazz, including the time periods and cities in which it flourished, the importance the genre had to black Americans, and the multiple styles that jazz entails. I honestly had no idea that there were so many different styles of jazz; learning about how each style of jazz developed, flourished, and disappeared was fascinating.

One aspect of the class, Swing, actually caught me off guard. I had no idea that swing music was actually a form of jazz. I had always imagined jazz as a sort of white movement, a 50s dance craze that was the foundation of Rock n' Roll. In fact, the sound was pioneered by black musicians like Duke Ellington in New York. Stride piano and the modernity of Jazz led to the bigger, louder, more upbeat "swinging" rhythms that swing is known for (Gioia 144-45). I realize now how wrong I was, but I can see why I had interpreted the music that way. While the style was pioneered by blacks in New York, whites began to take a fancy to the music; at this point jazz was no longer looked down upon. 
Benny Goodman's performance at Carnegie hall brought swing to a broader audience, and whites seemed to claim the genre as their own eventually. Black musicians were discriminated against, sold less records, and made less money. The class has shaped my understanding of swing from a genre of its own, invented by white musicians for white dance halls to a style of jazz, pioneered by blacks who were in turn exploited for their own creativity. White's turned the style into "their music" by feeding off the creativity of Blacks while simultaneously oppressing them. Eventually, blacks would reclaim the genre after the swing scene had become stale and overcrowded. In a "reaction" against swing, Bebop emerged, with more complex rhythms that were difficult to imitate (Stewart Bebop Lecture).
Overall, this class has been significant not so much in what I learned about jazz, although I did learn a great amount, but because of the Black history that the class imparted upon me. I feel more informed, more understanding of black culture, and got a better sense of what segregation and discrimination looked like in the past. It also gave me a better appreciation for the human psyche, because from oppression came a beautiful art form, that to this day remains relevant and important to Black Americans.

Thelonious Monk and Racial Pride

The community of the San Juan Hills, where Thelonius Monk lived during his years as a jazz musician in New York, was a completely different environment than that of Harlem. Harlem was almost completely populated with African Americans. Many residents had similar backgrounds and they were in general quite friendly with one another. San Juan Hill, however, was a neighborhood strife with conflict and territorialism. "Every block [was] like a different town," filled with Italians, Germans, Irish, Caribbeans, as well as blacks (Kelley 19). The community had a "reputation for violence" and was especially known for its race riots, so it seems logical that racial pride was a running theme in the neighborhood (Kelley 16). The neighborhood  and the daily violence that occurred within affected Monk heavily in his daily life; it weighed heavy upon him and shaped his personal beliefs (Kelley 18). He grew tired of the daily violence and fighting not only "whites" but men from all different countries. In a city strife with racism and infighting, two things mattered to Thelonious Monk: his music and his family. In reality, the two kept him grounded and focused on the future. His career was music, and his family was the driving force to keep him innovating and producing successful records (Stewart lecture 2/26/13). San Juan Hill did not completely leave a negative impact on Monk, in fact, it can be argued that he would not have thrived without them; the people on his block supported him throughout his career. Professor Stewart mentions that the help he received from neighbors in such a violent area gave Monk "sense that there was order in disorder," and that there was meaning to be found in even the strangest of situations (Stewart lecture 2/26/13). This sentiment can be found directly in his musical stylings. Eccentric, disjointed, and strange, Monk's music was extremely chaotic. It was not music you listened to while reading the paper, rather, it commanded your attention, forces the listener to focus and only then is the order and meaning revealed.
This is the type of community that Monk fostered, a community of thinkers and artists dedicated to finding meaning in music. Monk's music was so distinct from what had come before, so different and unique, yet lacked in popular themes of his time such as segregation and discrimination. Monk's music was not politically or racially driven, his love of music is what kept him going. He had no interest in that "Black power shit" as he had seen what the violence of racial pride could lead to. In his biography, Kelley also mentions that "virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid," so Monk may not have connected as much to his black roots as others did. Monk was able to take the chaos and racial tension in the streets and transfer it through his music, rather than community involvement. Unfortunately, he was not able to overcome real racial discrimination in Delaware in 1958. Monk was wrongfully accused of "assault and battery on a police officer" among other things. He was severely beaten and his cabaret card was revoked for six years because of the incident (Kelley 254). Even Monk, a man who tranformed the tensions of San Juan Hill into art, was severely affected by this act of racism and violence.