Jazz and the Cultural Transformation of America in the 1920S

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2003 Jazz and the cultural transformation of America in the 1920s Courtney Patterson Carney Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Carney, Courtney Patterson, "Jazz and the cultural transformation of America in the 1920s" (2003). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 176. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/176 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. JAZZ AND THE CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA IN THE 1920S A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Courtney Patterson Carney B.A., Baylor University, 1996 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1998 December 2003 For Big ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The real truth about it is no one gets it right The real truth about it is we’re all supposed to try1 Over the course of the last few years I have been in contact with a long list of people, many of whom have had some impact on this dissertation. At the University of Chicago, Deborah Gillaspie and Ray Gadke helped immensely by guiding me through the Chicago Jazz Archive. At the Williams Research Center in New Orleans, Amy Baptist provided quick access to the Jelly Roll Morton files of the William Russell Collection. I would also like to thank the History Department at Louisiana State University for granting me the T. Harry Williams Dissertation Fellowship, an award that allowed an uninterrupted period of writing over the 2002-3 academic year. For the use of their couches and floors (not to mention poorly repaid hospitality) I would like to thank Keri Dameron in Chicago, and Linda and Stephen Harris in Brooklyn. On a more daily basis, I would like to thank John Sacher, Matt Reonas, Ava and Phil Johnson, the entire Kimbrell family, and Chris Leahy for their supportive friendship (and at least for the Kimbrells, innumerable dinners). Also, the members of 1Songs: Ohia, “Farewell Transmission,” Magnolia Electric Company (Secretly Canadian, 2003). iii my committee—particularly Tiwanna Simpson and John Rodrigue—provided necessary commentary along the way. More specifically, Ben Cloyd and Rand Dotson have presented me with friends I never expected to find in graduate school, and as my roommate for the last several years, Ben deserves thanks if for nothing else than making sure I paid my bills on time. Despite an inexplicable fondness for Pablo Cruise, Bread, and Michael McDonald, Ben has served as a sounding board for many of the social, political, and cultural ideas that frame this dissertation. Likewise, Rand has offered up his time for consultation (sometimes even about history) and served as a willing conspirator in the delay of this project. My parents and grandfather have shown considerable support throughout the writing of this “paper,” and their commitment to this dissertation has been a consistent source of solace over the last few years. Perhaps more importantly, my grandfather has (for more times than I care to remember) magically transformed his support into warmly received checks. Together, my family’s patience for this project has been steadfast and profoundly encouraging. Nichole Staab, too, suffered through much of the dissertation- centered chaos of the last few years, and her friendship helped make bearable a process that often seemed without end. Finally, risking cliché but with absolutely no exaggeration, this project would not have been completed without the guidance of Chuck Shindo. From navigating arbitrary bureaucratic nonsense to encouraging a broader view of history (or at least frequently picking up the tab), his criticism, patience, and friendship can be acknowledged if never fully repaid. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION A SONG IS BORN.........................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 RAGTIME, THE BLUES, AND THE REORIENTATION OF AMERICAN LIFE..........................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 2 NEW ORLEANS AND THE CREATION OF EARLY JAZZ....................................35 CHAPTER 3 CHICAGO AND THE RECORDING OF JAZZ IN THE 1920S................................73 CHAPTER 4 NEW YORK CITY AND THE BROADCASTING OF JAZZ IN THE 1920S............................................................................................................106 CHAPTER 5 LOS ANGELES, THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY, AND THE DIFFUSION OF EARLY JAZZ..............................................................142 CHAPTER 6 THE JAZZ CONTROVERSY....................................................................................178 CHAPTER 7 AN AMERICAN MUSIC...........................................................................................202 CONCLUSION “TWENTY YEARS OF JAZZ”: BENNY GOODMAN AT CARNEGIE HALL, 1938................................................227 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................237 VITA................................................................................................................................250 v ABSTRACT In the early twentieth century jazz was a regionally based, racially defined dance music that featured solo and collective improvisation. Originating in New Orleans, jazz soon spread throughout the country as musicians left the South for better opportunities— both economic and social—elsewhere in the country. Jazz greatly increased in popularity during the 1920s. No longer a regional music dominated by African Americans, jazz in the 1920s helped define a generation torn between the Victorian society of nineteenth century America and the culture of modernity that was quickly defining the early twentieth century. Jazz and its eventual popularity represented the cultural tensions present in modern America, and the acceptance of jazz reflected the degree to which Americans rejected or accepted traditional values. This dissertation examines the historical context of this larger transformation America underwent in the 1920s and early 1930s. In general, the narrative outlines the origins of jazz in the late 19th century, its dissemination through various means after World War I, and its eventual acceptance as a uniquely American cultural expression in the last part of the 1920s. Jazz music helped define the chaotic urban culture of America in the 1920s, and cities like Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles nurtured and shaped the music of the period. These three cities—each with dynamic black communities—supported diverse jazz scenes as well as served as the center of a particular type of mass communication technology. Together, the rapid developments in recording technology, the growing popularity of radio, and the burgeoning film industry transformed jazz from a local, predominately African American music, to a nationally accepted cultural form identified as uniquely American. The vi transformation of American culture in the 1920s forced people into a new set of relationships—social, regional, and political—and the cultural ambivalence generated by this change framed much of the debate surrounding the popularity of jazz music. By viewing mass culture and popular taste through the lens of jazz, this study attempts a more complete view of American culture in the 1920s. vii INTRODUCTION A SONG IS BORN Where the past is . in the mood of any given performance, is the question to ask the music and the question the music asks.1 In 1948, Howard Hawks directed A Song is Born, a late period screwball comedy centered on an out-of-touch music professor’s introduction to jazz music.2 The film— itself a near scene-by-scene remake of Hawks’ 1941 film, Ball of Fire—gathered together a group of well-known jazz musicians known primarily from their music popular a decade earlier.3 The film centers on Hobart Frisbee, a naive music professor played by Danny Kaye, contracted to write an encyclopedia of music for the privately funded Totten institute. Seven older professors—each an expert in a particular field of musical history—assist in the production of the encyclopedia, and this group of scholars works diligently without much contact with the outside world. Early in the film, however, two black window washers, played by Buck and Bubbles, an African American comedy team, 1Greil Marcus, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997), 69. 2Howard Hawks, A Song is Born (Goodwyn, 1948). 3Hawks used many of the same sets and crew as well as the basic screenplay as Ball of Fire, a film produced in 1941. The only real distinction script-wise between the two films concerned the earlier film’s focus on linguists discovering

Load more