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Home , Barry Ulanov, Buddy Bolden, Eddie Edwards (musician), Henry Ragas, Jazz (word), Jazz improvisation

1. What Is ?

has been called a musical were trying to get the same gigs. The reflection ofAmerica. ButNew York generally better educated Creoles were ETimes critic Bob Herbert wrote that frequently better musicians and were jazz music is more than that. Said getting most ofthe jobs. Herbert, "It is the embodiment in music The Negroes had been forced to ofthe quintessentially American idea of improvise their lives. They extended free and talented and diverse individuals their improvisation to their music. In an working, playing, frequently fighting, but effort to combat the popularity of the most ofall improvising together to come Downtown Creoles, the Uptown Negroes up with something beautiful and great." tried to set themselves apart from the While jazz is recognized throughout Creoles by playing loudly and using the world as one of very few original techniques and tunes that appealed to American art forms (the comic strip is the base instincts of their listeners and another), its origins and definition remain dancers. They also took the then­ fuzzy. Almost everybody who has ever Buddy Bolden revolutionary step of playing without written about jazz has attempted to trace written music. its family tree and defme it. They are almost impossible A flamboyant Uptown Negro comet player named tasks and very few writers or musicians agree. Buddy Bolden began taking gigs from the formally­ Jazz, in its many forms, certainly grew out ofa wide trained Creoles by playing loudly and frequently variety of influences: European church music, African improvising, or as he put it, "playing head music." singing, Negro work songs, Negro church music, Bolden is said to have bragged that he could not read a music and the , but jazz has no clearly-defined, note ofmusic. , who played with Bolden, neat starting point It has been called "a gumbo stirred recalled that Bolden' s band ad-libbed most of the time. and seasoned by hundreds of hands." Unfortunately, Johnson said in a 1942 interview, "I liked to read and 1 much of the historical writing of the earliest years of could read good, but Bolden played pretty much by ear jazz is based on little more than folklore, hearsay and and made up his own tunes." speculation. Bolden was known as "King Bolden," apparently giving rise to such later royal jazz appellations as How did jazz begin? "Duke" and "Count." One interesting and plausible piece of speculation Other Uptown musicians began doing what they was written by Pat Carroll of the Jazz Appreciation called "ragging." They were probably subconsciously Society of Syracuse. She theorized that jazz was born drawing on all oftheir previous musical influences and out of social protest - racial protest. were taking the first unsteady steps toward what would In 19th century , there were Creoles become a major new art form. who were racially black and mixed, but were culturally Years later, New Orleans musicians Nick LaRocca European, born ofFrench and Spanish ancestors. Many and (Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe), spoke a form ofthe French language and some sent their born in 1889 and 1890 respectively, both claimed to children to schools in . They took pride in their have originated the new form of music. LaRocca, in European culture and, above all, insisted they were not 1958-59 interviews with the Hogan Jazz Archive at Negroes. Tulane University, said, "The miracle happened in Near the end ofthe 19th century, the French-speaking in 1916 at the moment when the Original Creoles in New Orleans lived east of Canal Street, in the made a fateful rhythmic adjustment area called "Downtown" (down river). On the other side to accommodate a theatrical dance team :.-. a shift from a of Canal Street was the so-called "Uptown" (up river) 2/4 pulse to a 4/4 pulse." He claimed that change district where poor blacks of African descent lived. transformed the feel from ragtime to jazz. Morton, in a In 1884, the Legislature voted a 1938 letter to DownBeat magazine, claimed he revolutionary change, to extend the legal segregation of "invented jazz" in 1902 (at the age of 12?) when he Negroes to the Creoles. The Creoles were composed "Jelly Roll Blues." Longtime New Orleans understandably extremely upset and soon found musician and historian , in his bookA Life themselves competing with Negroes for work. in Jazz, said both LaRocca and Morton apparently There was particularly strong competition between believed what they boasted. But it has become fairly Negro and Creole musicians for jobs. The Uptown clear that jazz evolved over a long period of time from Negro musicians and the Downtown Creole musicians a variety of sources and influences. 2 Cleveland Jazz History

How do you define "jazz"? Textbook author Gridley attempted to get through this Clevelander Mark Gridley, the author ofthe world's maze of inability by the art form's major practitioners to leading introduction-to-jazz college textbook, devoted articulate a defmition of the music. The Shaker Heights several pages of his book, Jazz Styles, History and resident wrote there are two essential elements: First, Analysis, to a discussion of the problems of defining "Each jazz performance must represent an original and jazz. Essentially, he said it is difficult to defme. spontaneous creation - improvisation. Jazz requires its • Historian and critic Barry Ulanov said, "There is performers to create their parts as they play them." no common defmition of jazz; it resists dictionary Critic Leonard Feather wrote, "Improvisation is the definition. " governing factor ofalmost every performance generally • Pianist , who played for years in classified as jazz." However, Gridley rejects the idea Cleveland, was once asked by a that improvisation is the only Cleveland Press reporter, "What element that distinguishes jazz. is jazz all about?" Tatum said Many other forms of music also jazz could not be explained in include improvisation. Solo words. As the reporter turned to improvisation was common during leave, Tatum called out, "Tell the Baroque period. Opera singers your editor he will never in the 1700s and 1800s were understand it in words." permitted to improvise their Some of the most important and change the repeated people in jazz said basically the melodies of their arias. When same thing in different ways: Beethoven' s Symphony No. 1 was • , one ofthe first performed April 2, 1800 in most important figures in the Vienna, the program noted that history of jazz, admitted he could part of the concert also included not define jazz. "Herr Ludwig van Beethoven • , the man improvising on the pianoforte." who propelled the art form and . American Aaron had hit records in 1926 and 1988 Copland said the unique thing (17 years after his death), had his aboutjazz is group improvisation. own simple definition: "Jazz is "When you improvise, it is my idea ofhow a tune should go." axiomatic that you take risks and • , usually can't foretell results. When five pretty articulate with words as or six musIcIans improvise well as music, once defined jazz Louis Armstrong: "Jazz is my idea of simultaneously, the result is even as "freedom of expression." But how a tune should go." more fortuitous. That is its he admitted that really wasn't a charm. Something has been very serviceable defmition. Later, Ellington said, "I developed here that has no duplication." don't think I have a definition anymore, unless it is that Jazz places the emphasis on the performance rather jazz is a music with an African foundation which came than the composition. Jazz artists create - or even out of an American environment." compose - as they play, within the limits of the style • Singer Ella Fitzgerald found it impossible to and form they select for themselves. define jazz. She said, "I don't know. You just swing!" once said he was unable to playa chorus the same way • drummer , who discovered twice. "I don't feel the same way twice," he said. Ella in the 1930s, tried to define jazz by saying, "It's "That's one ofthe things I like about jazz, I don't know like lovin' a gal, and havin' a fight, and then seein' her what's going to happen next." again." A jazz performance may be 95% improvisation of • Saxophonist once defmed jazz as variations ofthe head tune or it may be only an individual "a happiness blues." solo within a written arrangement. The Glenn Miller • Pianist Dave Brubeck said, "When there is not Orchestra, a band noted mainly for tightly-performed complete freedom ofthe soloist, it ceases to be jazz." arrangements and not considered "a jazz band" by many, • Trumpeter later said, "Jazz music proved that does exist in solos played is freedom ofexpression with a groove." within carefully written and performed arrangements. • Drummer Jo Jones said, "Jazz is when you play Miller, who started out as a jazz trombonist, attempted to what you feel." defme jazz as "something you have to feel, a sensation that What 'Is Jazz? 3 can be conveyed to others." Despite this excellent description ofjazz by Kenton, In addition to improvisation, feeling and sensation, we are still left without an adequate working defmition Gridley wrote that to qualify as jazz, the music must of the music. project what he calls ''jazz swing feeling." Perhaps Ellington was right when he said, "It' s in the • Drummer , a pioneer in "jazz swing ear of the listener. If a man has some very hungry ears feeling," defmed it as "complete and inspired freedom of for what he considers jazz, or for a pleasant noise that rhythmic interpretation." makes him feel he wants to swing - that's jazz." • Pianist Jess Stacy who, like Krupa, played with Jazz is what you or I say it is. Or, as Satchmo said, Goodman's swing band, called it "syncopated "My idea of how a tune should go." ," whatever that means. • Trumpeter Wingy Manone put it in these words: Why is it called "jazz"? "Feeling an increase in tempo, though you're still Most dictionaries say the origin ofthe word ''jazz'' is playing at the same tempo." unknown, but various historians have offered a variety Some have said the key point distinguishing jazz of possibilities: from all previous western music is a new concept of • Minstrel show performers in the 1800s used the rhythm and phrasing. word ''jasbo'' for any theatrical device that was • Perhaps one of the guaranteed to please an audience when all else failed. better descriptions of jazz • There was an early musician named James Brown was articulated on a radio who was nicknamed "Jasbo." broadcast in the 1950s by big • There was a dancer named "Jasper" who became band innovator Stan Kenton: an entertainment legend in New Orleans. "Jazz? A distinct music • There was a drummer who was nicknamed that depends and thrives on "Chaz." individuality and yet the • There was a band around 1909 called Razz's Band individual is not oblivious to and the name may have been twisted into ''jazz band." others nor is he immune to • A sign painter in Chicago about 1910 painted a their feelings. Jazz is free. sign for musician Boisey James, using the abbreviation Through spontaneous for James: "Music will be furnished by Jas.' band." improvisation, a musician Stan Kenton Willard Espy, in his book Thou Improper, Thou expresses his personality Unknown Noun, said it is impossible to prove the word consciously and subconsciously. His music, with its "jazz" derived from a proper name. More likely, he variation of melodic lines and rhythmic patterns, can said, it came from an old vulgar term. establish a changing flow of attitudes just as those Author Stephen Longstreet wrote that the word revealed by a facial expression or a gesture even without "jazz" was used by Geoffrey Chaucer in the BOOs and words. William Shakespeare in the 1600s. In both cases, it was "A session in jazz is comparable to an open forum a vulgar slang term. where theories and opinions are discussed openly and Espy said the Arabic and Hindustani languages both freely. Without inhibition or the fear of being have words similar to ''jazz'' meaning sexual desire. He reprimanded, a soloist rises and speaks without the aid of said the English word "jazz" probably began as a vulgar notes or previous preparation. Speeches with words of term for the consummation ofthat desire. various inflections and insinuations are replaced with a Ralph Burton, in his book Remembering Bix, wrote flow of melodic, rhythmic music. One soloist will speak that jazz was "music to copulate by." for himself on a chosen topic and then retire to hear the The Dictionary of American Slang says the word feelings of another on the same subject. On occasions, ''jazz,'' with its vulgar tone and meaning, was a slang they will speak of happy things, then those of a more term used by Southern American Negroes in the 1800s. serious nature, sometimes somber and even tragic. All H.L. Mencken, in his book, The American Heritage, phases of life's emotions are felt and experienced in jazz. said the word ''jazz,'' with a sexual connotation, was "Some ofthe music is complex and reaches far below used in folk speech by Negroes in Mississippi River the surface while other forms dwell lightly. There are towns in the 1800s. Sidney Bechet, in his speakers in improvised jazz who are eloquent in their autobiography, Treat It Gentle, said bluntly the word ability. Musical words flow freely. Others tend to "jass" "was screwing." Like many such words, its speak in short sentences with a simple vocabulary. meaning was obviously expanded in popular usage. "However, if sincerity prevails, everyone is felt, Around the tum of the century, Creoles in New understood and appreciated." Orleans took the French verb "jaser, " which meant to 4 Cleveland Jazz History

band," meaning a New Orleans brothel band. Rather than fight the abuse, Leonard Feather wrote that Brown changed his band's billing from "Brown's Dixieland Band" to "Brown's Dixieland Jass Band, direct from New Orleans, playing the best dance music in Chicago." The band became very popular. Arnold Loyacano, the guitarist in the band, recalled, "We couldn't play soft, didn't know what soft was!" Soon, another band, led by Bert Kelly, called itself a ''jazz band." A few months later, another Chicago club, Schiller's Cafe, hired yet another New Orleans band and called it "The Original Dixieland Jazz Band." The owner put up a sign advertising "Jazz Music." The Original Dixieland Jazz Band went to New York in 1916 and recorded in 1917. "," backed by "Dixieland One Step," sold a million Louisiana State Museum copies and is generally considered to have been the first A 1915 photo of comedian and dancer Joe Frisco jazz record. posing with 's band in Chicago babble, and expanded it to mean enthusiasm and energy. The sound and meaning ofjaser were similar to the sound and meaning ofthe old, vulgar folk verb "to jazz" and the words probably became intenningled in popular usage. The Britannica World Language Dictionary says the Creole word ''jass'' had its origins in the brothels ofNew Orleans where the new music was being played, but we know that the earliest New Orleans musicians did not call their music "jazz." RCA Records A San Francisco newspaper, The Call Bulletin, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: , claimed it first used the word ''jazz'' in print in 1913. , Nick LaRocca, and That was the year that Joe Frisco, later a famous stuttering comedian and dancer, went to New Orleans Buster Bailey, who was playing with W.C. Handy's with a vaudeville act and heard a band led by trombonist show band, said he never heard musicians use the word Tom Brown. Frisco was so excited by the music that ''jazz'' until they heard the records of the Original when he returned to Chicago, he told others about it. Dixieland Jazz Band. Historian Martin Williams, in his book Jazz Masters of Sidney Bechet, a Creole from New Orleans who New Orleans, wrote that Brown's band was hired to go became one ofthe legends ofthe new music, did not like north to Chicago in 1915 and play at a club cal1ed using the word "jazz" for the music. He apparently Lamb's Cafe. A member of that band, Ray Lopez, recalled the roots of the word "jazz" (or "jass"). recalled one night an actor named Darby Kel1y shouted, Bechet throughout his life cal1ed the music "ragtime." "Jass it up, Ray!" to the band. "I asked him why he said that and he said the music made you want to "jazz." He Regardless ofhow the word "jazz" came about, it has said it was an expression used by prostitutes and pimps become an international word to describe America's on the South Side." unique contribution to world art. Cleveland writer and According to Martin Williams, local Chicago poet Langston Hughes pointed out in 1955 that "jazz is musicians apparently felt threatened by the New Orleans a word that is the same in every language in the world." group and began abusively calling Brown's band "ajass