Who is Jazz?

            Coming into this course, I had a pretty clearly defined idea of what jazz and it’s history was to me. I was completely and utterly wrong. My skewed view may have come from me being a relatively sheltered child. While most jazz musicians experienced a mixing of peoples and cultures when they were younger, I got a very binary view of the world. There was my culture, and ‘their’ culture. Not to say that I view cultures separate to mine as inferior only that they were not at the forefront of my development.  

            Before this class, I, just like Miles’ teacher at Julliard, thought that “black people played the blues was because they were poor and had to pick cotton. So they were sad and that's where the blues came from, their sadness” (Miles, 59). I didn’t think that white people, or anyone outside of the American south in particular, wanted anything to do with jazz or the blues. Obviously this was a very inconsistent perspective on Jazz history and culture.      

            As we learned over this quarter, jazz was the product of many cultures. French, Mexican, and African just to name a few. Jazz was a brand new aesthetic brought about by a collaboration of cultures spurred on by the rise in technology; had it not been for the advent of the steamboat, New Orleans’s Jazz would not have evolved the way it did. One reason people play the blues is steam, not cotton.

            Not only was jazz a union of cultures in the American south, but it spread far and wide throughout America. New Orleans, Chicago, New York, as well as Kansas City and California left lasting impressions on the history of jazz. The audience of jazz spread far beyond these cities as well. The radio made sure that every corner of America has their jazz fix.

            Prior to this course, I believed that jazz and its history were entirely black. Once again though my assumption proved flase. Through out the course, we have seen people of many races play crucial roles in jazz. The Eighth Regimental Mexican Band who changed the face of New Orleans forever, the white jazz bands in Chicago who emulated their black predecessors to make the first jazz recordings, and the white executives who presided over the spread of jazz as an American craze collectively break the all-black paradigm I had prescribed to the history of jazz.

            The error in my assumptions and notions of jazz and its history can be summed up in a single question: Who is Jazz? Ten weeks ago, I would have very foolishly said that jazz was something that poor, black people from the south played; a creation of racism and slavery. Above, I tried to briefly outline the truth: Jazz was created and consumed by people of all colors and cultures, rich and poor, across the globe.

            Art and culture are tied tightly to the people and cultures that create them. Thus, to truly understand jazz, we must understand who made it, and who continues to make it. Before this class, my limited understanding of jazz, its history and its culture did not allow me to enjoy nor analyze jazz as an aesthetic. Now, because of this course, I have a better understanding of who, and consequently what, jazz is.

Comment: Jacob Weverka