The Jazz Age:

A Profound Musical Era of Exploring New Sounds

and Exchanging Stylistic Ideas

Kelsey Mehlberg

Senior Division

Historical Paper

Paper Length: 2,429 Words

The twenties, also known as the "Jazz Age,” was the time for exploration and

discovering new jazz styles. Jazz music is an exchange of many musical styles from

around the world, the most prominent styles being African American and European.

During the Jazz Age, African American and New Orleans musicians moved from New

Orleans to Chicago. Here musicians exchanged new ideas on how to evolve the sound

of jazz. From this, musicians explored what soon came to be known as “Chicago Style

jazz.” As a result of the Jazz Age, American culture during the twenties and the

decades that followed changed dramatically.

Jazz was born in New Orleans in the early 20th century. Although Jazz is

indigenous to America, its roots can be found in the musical traditions of both Africa

and Europe. Some would even say that jazz is union of African and European music.

From African music, jazz got its “blues” quality, its “feel” and rhythm, and the

tradition of playing an instrument in an original and expressive way. This made jazz

an “extension” of the human voice. From European music, jazz got its harmony; the

chords that accompany the tunes. Most of the instruments used in jazz music

originated in Europe, and improvisation in music was a mix of both European and

African tradition. 1

New Orleans was a utopia when it came to the exchange of the elements that

created jazz. The city was home to countless ports with many people arriving from all

over the world. This made it a perfect meeting place for different ethnic groups. New

Orleans also was home to a nightlife where musicians had the opportunity to play

1 "What Is Jazz?" Jazz In America. Institute of Jazz, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

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together and exchange ideas with one another. Although jazz was being played years 2

before it earned its own era, November 12, 1917, was considered the start of the Jazz

Age when the Department of Navy closed down a 38­square­block neighborhood

called Storyville in New Orleans. The Navy closed down Storyville’s nightclubs and

brothels, fearing the health of their sailors. Jobless and oppressed by the Jim Crow

laws, hundreds of New Orleans musicians moved north to Kansas City, Chicago, New

York and a few other places. In these cities, nightclubs offered patrons entertainment 3

by small bands, playing what everyone called “New Orleans jazz.”

New Orleans jazz was played with a combination and rearranging of several

different musical forms and performance styles dating to the middle of the nineteenth

century. The blues method allowed jazz musicians to explore spontaneous

improvisation, and a personal expression of melody and rhythmic accent. The blues

method also gave rise to the short, 12­bar standards that musicians exchanged to each

other, soon traveling from town to town. As the blues audiences grew, new

compositional styles such as ragtime transformed marches, quadrille, and other old

forms of music familiar to New Orleans. Despite the fact African Americans were part

of inventing jazz, white Americans began to take it up after the Civil War for listening,

for drinking, and for dancing. 4

Soon, Jazz started to signify revolt against the bittersweet parlor music and

polite entertainment. It also symbolized defiance against Prohibition and Puritism of

2 "What Is Jazz?" Jazz In America. Institute of Jazz, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016. 3 Murchison, Gayle. "Oxford Music Online." Harlem Renaissance, the [New Negro Movement]. in. Oxford University, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016. 4 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print.

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all kinds. With the help of the national radio, the barely known jazz sound spread 5

quickly over America, and found many new supporters. Jazz often got connected with

alcohol, intimate dancing, and other “socially questionable activities.” Willa Cather 6

was a writer who found the modern world to be an uglier place than the one she

remembered. In 1921 she said in a speech, “We now have music by machines, we

travel by machines, soon we will have machines to do our thinking.” The young white 7

middle class adopted black music as an act of rebellion against the strictures of an

earlier time. New Orleans musicians arranged themselves into small groups of six or

seven, with someone playing the cornet, trombone, and clarinet, as lead melodic

instruments. Drums, stringed bass or tuba, and guitar or banjo provided rhythm.

Usually cornet played embellishments on the melody, the clarinet played a

middle­register counterpoint, and the drums filled in the bottom.2 Jazz musicians

wove a hypnotic musical braid that caught people's attention from coast to coast. Jazz

seemed to be chaotic to some people, but fascinatingly complex and expressive to

others who heard it as an accompaniment to the accelerating tempo of life in the city.

Even Duke Ellington, one of the most famous jazz pianists and composers in history

said, “You have all these wonderful young musicians who are coming out of the

conservatories, and jumping on the jazz band wagon and these people want to express

themselves. They don't want anybody telling them. The minute people start telling

them about it — it's a political thing. We've seen this illustrated very strongly. They

5 Swartz, Dennis K. "Flappers and the Roaring 20's." Flappers and the Roaring 20's The Dandy, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016. 6 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print. 7 "People & Events: The Jazz Age." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

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say, "Well don't let them do this to you, you come with us," and then when you come

with them they say, "Now this is the way you do it," which is the same thing. I mean

you do it according to their rules rather than somebody else's, which is from the frying

pan into the fire. It's alright to let the people have their freedom of criticism and all

that sort of thing, but I don't think they should get to the point where they decide what

any artist should do, no matter whether it's jazz or painting or whatever it is.” 8

Groups started to apply more jazz idioms ­ syncopation, improvisation,

polyphony ­ to old New Orleans standards. Saxophonist Charlie Parker, a trailblazer in

jazz idioms expresses why. “Music can stand much improvement. Most likely in

another 25, or maybe 50 years some youngster will come along and take the style and

really do something with it, you know, but I mean ever since I've ever heard music I've

thought it should be very clean, very precise ­ as clean as possible anyway ­ you know,

and more or less to the people, you know, something they could understand,

something that was beautiful, you know. There's definitely stories and stories and

stories that can be told in the musical idiom, you know. You wouldn't say idiom but it's

so hard to describe music other than the basic way to describe it ­ music is basically

melody, harmony and rhythm ­ but I mean people can do much more with music than

that. It can be very descriptive in all kinds of ways, you know, all walks of life.” 9

Jazz quickly moved into the mainstream via radio and sheet music publishers,

and soon dancing to jazz became favored in nightclubs, music halls, private parties,

8Ellington, Duke. "The Charles Melville Interview." Interview by Charles Melville. The International Dems Bulletin. Duke Ellington Music Society, n.d. Web. 9 Parker, Charlie. "Paul Desmond Interviews Bird." Interview by Paul Desmond.Paul Desmond Interviews Bird. Boston Radio, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

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and speakeasies. As the 1920s progressed, jazz became a recognized and 10

internationally admired art form, the signature of the United States. Soon, New

Orleans jazz fell into disfavor as the nation encountered a new form of jazz that they

came to love called “Chicago Style Jazz.” The brassy trumpet took the place of the

cornet, and smooth sounding saxophones took the place of the soft clarinet. The 11

saxophone has been known to provoke close intimate dancing, and many people were

shocked by the loud and extraordinary sound of it. This is why older people blamed

jazz to be a bad influence on the younger generation. They began to rebel and refuse 12

to follow the moral traditions. Drummers started using bigger kits of snare, toms, 13

cymbals, and bass became more prominent, giving the music an offbeat accent that

jazz is known for. The New Orleans­banjo became unpopular; the stringed bass

permanently replaced the tuba and it’s players began improvising more freely around

tonic notes in the lowest register. Instead of “breaks” performed over two or four bars

by the soloist, the solo could now go on for several choruses. The size in jazz bands

changed as well. The first ensembles were small groups that played in small clubs.

Larger halls demanded larger bands, which were also needed by radio shows. Soon

jazz was in concerts and called “An Experiment in Modern Music” by Paul Whiteman

after he started writing jazz concertos.

With new forms of jazz came new dances. A new dance called the Charleston

was extremely popular in the 1920s. It was a kick­swing dance performed while a jazz

10Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print. 11 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print. 12 See Appendix II ­ Charlie Parker, a trailblazer of a saxophonist. 13 "The Jazz Age." Jazz Age. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

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band played. The foxtrot was a dance performed by a man and women. It was a

classical 1­2­3­4, ballroom dance. When done correctly, it looks like a prancing fox.

The camel walk was a dance done by one individual, and it was a bobbing of one side

of your body to the other in an upbeat motion. The tango was also a popular dance. It

was one of the most intimate dances of its time, the male and female dancing very

closely and in a sly, syncopated motion. 14

There were some important people of jazz as well. Blues singers Bessie Smith 15

and Ma Rainey packed in crowds at traveling shows and later became the first African

American performers to release studio recordings to a mass audience. Louis

Armstrong had an astonishing natural technique that allowed him to play in the

highest registers of the cornet, and later the trumpet, both at full power and

expressiveness. In 1920, Joe “King” Oliver came north to Chicago. Here he

encountered Armstrong, and then recruited him to make the Joe King Oliver Creole

Jazz Band. In 1924, Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson band in New York, but 16

soon returned home to Chicago to create his own groups, the Hot Five and the Hot

Seven. In these bands, Louis Armstrong made stars of his sidemen, including Johnny

Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, and Armstrong’s wife Lil Hardin on piano.

White cornetist Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke arrived in Chicago from Davenport, Iowa,

with a careful and precise style that riveted audiences and musicians alike. Edward

14 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print. 15 See Appendix I 16 See Appendix III

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“Duke” Ellington was a pianist who began writing ensemble pieces, including the

Black and Tan Fantasy. 17

All these renowned musicians as well as other jazz bands played in different

places. Soon Harlem became the second capital of the new jazz style. The most

popular bar was the Cotton Club in Harlem was for whites only, who paid for

entertainment provided by blacks. Harlem also had famous clubs such as “Happy”

Rhone’s Black and White Club, Connie’s Inn, and The Nest Club. Over in Chicago, The

Pekin Temple of Music opened at 2700 South State Street, the city’s first all black

theater. In New York, Broadway, newly established as the Main Street of American

theater, was a place where jazz was commonly played. Also found in New York was a

Savoy Ballroom that opened in 1926. This was a huge building for music and public

dancing. 18

A person that arose from the Jazz Age was the Flapper. Flappers engaged in the

active city nightlife. They explored jazz clubs and vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a

common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the same carefree

attitude toward Prohibition as the males around her. Ironically, more young women

consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another

activity previously reserved for men, became popular among flappers. Women,

especially flappers, sought to eliminate social double standards. The flapper was also

less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous generations. They cut their hair and

17 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print. 18 Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print.

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wore shorter skirts, danced more provocatively, and were considered unladylike in the

eyes of the older generations. Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a

female declaration of independence. Exploration with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles

seemed liberating compared with the socially silenced woman in the generations

before them. Ellen Welles, a flapper in the 1920s, asks people of the older generation

to try to understand the younger generation. “If one judges by appearances, I suppose

I am a flapper. I am within the age limit. I wear bobbed hair, the badge of flapperhood.

(And, oh, what a comfort it is!) I powder my nose. I wear fringed skirts and

bright­colored sweaters, and scarfs, and waists with Peter Pan collars, and low­heeled

"finale hopper" shoes. I adore to dance. I spend a large amount of time in automobiles.

I attend hops, and proms, and ball games, and crew races, and other affairs at men's

colleges. But none the less some of the most thoroughbred super­flappers might blush

to claim sistership or even remote relationship with such as I. I don't use rouge, or

lipstick, or pluck my eyebrows. I don't smoke (I've tried it, and don't like it), or

drink.…

“I want to beg all you parents, and grandparents, and friends, and teachers, and

preachers—you who constitute the "older generation"—to overlook our shortcomings,

at least for the present, and to appreciate our virtues… We are the Younger

Generation. The war tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith. We

are struggling to regain our equilibrium. The times have made us older and more

experienced than you were at our age. It must be so with each succeeding generation if

it is to keep pace with the rapidly advancing and mighty tide of civilization. Help us to

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put our knowledge to the best advantage. Work with us! That is the way! Outlets for

this surplus knowledge and energy must be opened. Give us a helping hand.” 19

The flappers chose activities to please themselves, not a father or husband.

Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or acting like men. Smoking,

drinking, and sexual experimentation were characteristic of the modern young

woman. Short hair and bound chests added to the effect. Despite their reputation of

being rowdy and doing things considered socially unacceptable, they did have a great

time during the Jazz Age. 20

F. Scott Fitzgerald looked back on the Jazz Age in November of 1931, saying “It

was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of

satire.” This accurately described the Jazz Age. Musicians exchanged new ideas on 21

how to form new jazz sounds. Women explored new ways to live their lives. Musicians

explored new places to play and explored new instruments. Jazz had a bad reputation

for a long time, but is still a classically favored music till this day. People of the Jazz

Age encountered new ways to explore their freedom, and to have people hear their

music via radio. Now jazz is all over the world. Today, jazz is played and listened to by

people of all cultures and ethnicities, and it includes musical styles from all over the

world. This was a turning point in the United States and an important part of history.

Jazz has gone from being America’s music to being the world’s music.

19 Welles, Ellen. "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents." Primary Sources. Ellen Welles Page, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016. 20 "Flappers." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. 21 Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. "The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review." Echos of The Jazz Age (November, 1931): 1­9. Web.

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Appendix I

Blues singer Bessie Smith photographed in 1936.

Hewett, Ivan. "Bessie Smith: The Greatest Female Blues Singer Who Ever Lived."

The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

Bessie Smith, nicknamed the “Empress of Blues” naturally inspired and

attracted many consummated people. With a captivating voice and a

dazzling smile, she truly is one of the greatest singers in history.

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Appendix II

Photograph of the infamous saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Klawans, Stuart. "What Made Charlie Parker Great?" The Daily Beast.

Newsweek/Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

For his time, Charlie Parker was a musical trailblazer. He played

intricately fast solos, and is still one of history’s favorite jazz musicians.

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Appendix III

Photograph of the Joe “King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, 1923

Joe ("King") Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. 1923. Getty Images, Chicago, IL.

When Louis Armstrong joined the Joe “King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz band in

1922, he took the world by surprise with his miraculous cornet playing.

This is a photograph of Armstrong in the band.

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Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

Bliven, Bruce. "Flapper Jane." New Republic 9 Sept. 1925: n. pag. The New

Republic Archive [EBSCO]. Web.

This is an article I found online but was originally published in 1925. It was an

interview of a flapper, and was absolutely fascinating. The writing and terms

were unique and amazing. I didn’t use any of the information in my paper, but

it enhanced my understanding of the flapper, especially since it was a primary

source.

Ellington, Duke. "The Charles Melville Interview." Interview by Charles

Melville. The International Dems Bulletin. Duke Ellington Music Society, n.d.

Web.

I found this interview with Duke Ellington online. It was one of the few

published interviews I could find, and it really helped me understand why

musicians did what they did in the twenties, and how it affected the people.

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. "The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review." Echos of The Jazz

Age (November, 1931): 1­9. Web.

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Echos of The Jazz Age was an essay written in 1930, just a couple years after

the crash of 1929. Here he tried to capture the nostalgia of the Jazz Age. I

thought a quote from someone who lived both through the Great Depression

and the Jazz Age would really add some personal depth to the paper.

Hewett, Ivan. "Bessie Smith: The Greatest Female Blues Singer Who Ever

Lived."The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

In this article, it talks about Bessie Smith and her wonderful accomplishments.

It states how she came to be so famous, and how she’s still one of the most

renowned blues singers to ever live. A photograph of Bessie Smith can be

found in Appendix I of my historical paper.

Joe ("King") Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. 1923. Getty Images, Chicago, IL.

This photograph of the Joe “King” Creole Jazz Band featured Honore Dutrey

on the trombone, Baby Dodds on drums, King Oliver on the cornet, Louis

Armstrong on the slide trumpet, Lil Hardin on piano, Bill Johnson on the

banjo, and Johnny Dodds on the clarinet. When Armstrong joined the band, he

made stars out of his bandmates.

Klawans, Stuart. "What Made Charlie Parker Great?" The Daily Beast.

Newsweek/Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

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In this article published by The Daily Beast, it reviews Stanley Crouch’s

biography on Charlie Parker. As an introduction, there was a picture I used in

Appendix II of my historical paper.

Parker, Charlie. "Paul Desmond Interviews Bird." Interview by Paul

Desmond.Paul Desmond Interviews Bird. Boston Radio, n.d. Web. 01 Apr.

2016.

I found this interview with Charlie Parker, one of my personal all time favorite

jazz saxophonists. This interview was so mind blowing to me when it came

down to how and why he used jazz idioms and how the Bird actually viewed

jazz. It really helped me grasp the reason why jazz evolved in the fashion it did.

"People & Events: The Jazz Age." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Published by PBS, I found a lot of useful information in the online article.

There was information on the musicians of the Jazz Age, writers, authors,

people and places in the 1920s.

Welles, Ellen. "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents." Primary Sources. Ellen Welles

Page, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

This is an article I found online of a flapper of the 1920s pleading to parents to

understand their generation. This was such an eye opener to see how the

younger generation of the 1920s felt about the older generation.

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Secondary Sources

"American Jazz Culture in the 1920s." University of Minnesota, n.d. Web. 01

Apr. 2016.

This website published by the U of M was very helpful in understanding why

and how jazz moved “upriver” to Chicago and New York City.

Early, Gerald. "Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition, Freedom's

Story, TeacherServe®, National Humanities Center." Jazz and the African

American Literary Tradition, Freedom's Story, TeacherServe®, National

Humanities Center. TeacherServe, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

None of the information I found in this website I used in my paper directly. All

of it was a summary of what I had already read prior to this website in other

books.

"Flappers." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

“Flappers” was a great online article for my section on the women from the

Jazz Age. It talked about important flappers in the 1920s, the lives they lived,

and the looks on them.

Murchison, Gayle. "Oxford Music Online." Harlem Renaissance, the [New

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Negro Movement]. in. Oxford University, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

This website helped me address the why question when it came to why

musicians moved out of Storyville after it was closed by the Navy. I really

enjoyed how this article also addressed the racial discrimination during the

1920s, specifically to African American musicians.

Streissguth, Thomas. "New Homes and a New Sound." The Roaring Twenties:

An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. N. pag. Print.

This book was by far my most valuable resource. This book featured every

aspect of the Roaring Twenties, and the section I found most helpful was about

the Jazz Age. I found so much valuable information on musicians, styles of

jazz, where jazz originated and dispersed, and so much more.

Swartz, Dennis K. "Flappers and the Roaring 20's." Flappers and the Roaring

20's The Dandy, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

This article was not extremely beneficial to my paper, but it did help with

understanding flappers and their fashion. It also told me why they rebelled.

"The Great Gatsby." Jazz Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

The article “The Great Gatsby” was about the infamous novel by F. Scott

Fitzgerald, but it also gave many key facts about jazz that I used to write my

historical paper. I talked about how jazz developed from clarinet to

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saxophones and how jazz was seen as a very vulgar style of music to older

generations.

"What Is Jazz?" Jazz In America. Institute of Jazz, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

This website was originally created for teachers, but I found it incredibly

helpful to understand how jazz started in New Orleans and before. This is by

far one of the most beneficial resources I have found.

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