Jazz in the Jazz Age What Was Special About Jazz?

4/16/2020 The Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance | Discovery Education

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Jazz in the Jazz Age What was special about jazz?

The Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance: Summary Frames As you read pages 8–10, use the Summary Frames to depict the significant artists associated with the music of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance and summarize each artist’s accomplishments.

Editable Activity

Teacher's Guide

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald called the 1920s “The Jazz Age.” African America gave the world jazz music during this time. Early versions of this music h been played in New Orleans, Louisiana, since the late 1800s. However, it w in New York that modern jazz developed.

By 1920, New York City had the largest African American population of an northern city. Between 1917 and 1925, around 200,000 African Americans moved there. They came for the city’s jobs in industry. They also were attracted to the political, social, and cultural activities in the uptown neighborhood of Harlem. During the Great Migration, New York’s Harlem became known as the “black capital.” The National Association for the

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Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Marcus Garvey’s UNIA had headquarters in Harlem. Well-known civil rights activists such as W. E. B. Bois lived there. During this period, jazz music became popular in Harlem

Jazz was influenced by many different sounds and styles. African America musicians from the South brought with them the styles of blues and ragtim Jazz musicians used these styles and combined them with elements of classical music. Jazz mixed European and tribal African musical styles. It included some of the work songs enslaved Africans had sung in the fields. Musicians also added their own musical ideas as they played. This techniq is called improvising. The result was rich and enjoyable music.

Jazz became wildly popular. Some people in Harlem held “rent parties” in their apartments. People paid a fee to dance all night to the lively sounds o jazz. The fee helped the hosts pay their rent. Nightclubs and dance halls al were popular with jazz lovers. A nightclub called the Cotton Club opened i Harlem in 1920. At first, this fancy nightclub and others did not allow Afri Americans as customers. African Americans were not even welcome to h the music they had created. However, the Savoy, a large ballroom in Harle was open to everyone. The Savoy attracted musicians and dancers of all races. There were so many dancers that they had to replace the floors eve three years. The dancers just wore them out.

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