Ragtime, Jazz and the Meaning of Life

PreludePreface New Horizons Ragtime, Jazz and the Meaning of Life Bruce R. Boynton, MD Editor, Journal of Health and Human Experience Chief Medical Officer, CorrHealth, Ltd. 109 N. Liberty St Asheville, NC 28801 Tel: (858) 729-3220 Email: [email protected] By way of introduction... As the Beat Poets of the 1950’s prodded us to understand, the arts do not just entertain; they are always about “the more.” This is very true of music. Music is a type of hearing- mirror — a mirror in which we see and hear raw truth. Music reflects and helps us to perceive life itself: its meaning, invitations, challenges. In this spirit, the reflection that follows invites us to listen for the real music of the human experience. It is a challenging prelude to this Journal edition that calls us to remember carefully many deep anniversaries: the positives as well as those that raise up the tumults and terrors of our past and present. These anniversaries, like music, thrust us to hear and be rhythmed — both for the dance and the dirge. May the reflection that follows — and this entire edition — pulse in us a new courage to stand up and dance for the Truth and the Good, especially to raise up those who are dis-chorded by the dread dirges of despair. Some psychiatrists, like Viktor Frankl, argue that our fundamental human drive is neither sexual nor aggressive but a search for meaning in our lives. And yet the meaning of our lives is not a tangible part of our lives; it is something we must create and recreate for ourselves. Small wonder that we so often find a deeper meaning in creative works, in a painting, a musical phrase or the words of a poem. Sometimes meaning from several sources coalesces in the strangest way. In the following paragraphs, permit me to share a number of disparate memories and thoughts arising from music and the arts that have led me to ponder the meaning of life itself. Often such matters coalesce in a more extemporaneous manner than we expect. Yet as musicians, artists, and creative authors remind us, many times it is out of the disparate and the diverse that The True arises with a logic never before known. The memories that I am going to share have done that for me. Perhaps they might lead you to recall yours as well. The first time I heard Maple Leaf Rag I was transfixed by the unabashed syncopation of the upper registers and opposing beat of the bass chords that filled the music with a unique energy and excitement. I had never heard anything like it and neither had America when it was published in 1899. Written by Scott Joplin, an itinerant music teacher from Texas, it was destined to become the most iconic work of the Ragtime Era and the first piece of American Journal of Health and Human Experience Volume V, No. 2 25 PrefacePrelude sheet music to sell more than a million copies. Although Ragtime faded as a musical genre after Joplin’s death in 1917, it influenced the work of such composers as Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Irving Berlin. Ragtime experienced a brief revival in the 1970s, fueled by Joshua Rifkin’s recording of Scott Joplin’s Rags and E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel, Ragtime, which explored themes of race and injustice and featured a character inspired by Scott Joplin. But what about the name, Maple Leaf Rag? Where did that come from? The term Rag refers to a syncopated or ragged rhythm, one in which there is a shift or displacement of the beat. Syncopated beats are often unexpected and sound out of step. Syncopation makes a tune fresh, original and exciting. So far, so good. Now, what about Maple Leaf? Since Joplin was the son of a former slave and grew up during the period of Reconstruction, I imagined that the song was a tribute to Canada, the home of the Maple Leaf and a refuge for escaped slaves. Before the Civil War, an Underground Railroad spirited at least 30,000 (and some say 100,000) slaves to freedom in northern states and Canada, which was known as “The Promised Land.” I was filled with admiration for abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, William Still and John Brown who risked their lives in defense of freedom. Despite my inspired thoughts about the title, I could not have been more wrong. The Maple Leaf Rag is not about Canada and certainly not about the Underground Railroad. It’s about a bar. What? Yes, a bar. The Maple Leaf Club was a popular African American bar and dance hall in Sedalia, Missouri where Scott Joplin was employed as a piano player. I was somewhat deflated by this discovery. Why would a musical genius like Scott Joplin compose a beautiful musical number about a bar? Had I missed the point? Was there a deeper meaning? As the Ragtime Era faded a new quintessentially American musical genre emerged - Jazz. Jazz has been called the most democratic of all musical styles; every musical voice gets to have its say and yet the composite work is greater than the sum of its parts. One of the most iconic works from the jazz era is Take the A Train, written in 1939 by a shy, young composer named Billy Strayhorn and adopted by Duke Ellington and his orchestra as their signature number. Propelled by the powerful rhythms of swing and featuring a strong piano part in a sea of brass, it is indeed a memorable tune. But what about its odd title? What does it mean? After my ridiculous misinterpretation of the Maple Leaf Rag I was determined not to be misled again. Unlike most jazz works, Take the A Train has lyrics. Let me add a few of them here. You must take the "A" train To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem If you miss the "A" train You`ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem Hurry, get on now, it`s coming. The A Train (A Eighth Avenue Express) is a rapid transit line of the New York City Subway. In 1936, three years before Take the A Train was written, an extension of the line connected Harlem with African American housing areas in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Sugar Hill is a neighborhood in Harlem within Hamilton Heights that overlooks the Harlem plain. But it is more than a neighborhood, much more. Sugar Hill was the mythic center of the Harlem Renaissance. 26 Volume V, No. 2 Journal of Health and Human Experience PreludePreface Beginning around 1915, six million African Americans moved from the rural south to find jobs in northern and midwestern cities. This movement, known as the Great Migration, relocated about 40% of the African American population and created pockets of Black culture in New York, Detroit and Chicago. Harlem, located in the heart of Manhattan, experienced an explosion of African American creativity in art, literature and music during the 1920s that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The area was alive with painters, sculptors, playwrights, poets, novelists and musicians. The famous names associated with the Harlem Renaissance are too numerous to enumerate. Langston Hughes, Geraldine Brooks and Zora Neale Hurston wrote there. WEB DuBois lived there as did Thurgood Marshall. It was there that Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong transformed Jazz. The vibrant culture of the Harlem Renaissance drew people of all races, partly because they could mingle there in ways that were illegal elsewhere. White entertainers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Mae West performed in Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. Sugar Hill became a symbol of all this, a place of art, sophistication and entertainment; a place where one could interact with others without fear; a place to share ideas and dreams. Taking the A train to Harlem came to represent aspirations for a better life. It was there in the experience of music that all people of all races and backgrounds came together to celebrate --- indeed, to celebrate Life itself. It is no wonder that such locations, with music as “the call to join,” became the seed bed where the revolutions of human dignity were born. In fact, these places and historical experiences are a type of Capital City for the experience of equality, social justice and human rights to which we still aspire in our own day. Let me briefly turn from the world of music to the world of literature and cinema….. In 1979 an Englishman named Douglas Adams published a comic novel, not about the good life on earth, but about the crazy life when there is no more earth. His book, The Hitch- Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was an overnight publishing success and subsequently spawned both a movie and a television series. The plot is complicated, but the narrative follows the galactic adventures of a hapless and ineffectual Englishman named Arthur Dent who is rescued by his alien friend, Ford Prefect, just before the earth is destroyed by Vogons. During their subsequent travels through the galaxy, Ford and Arthur hear of a massive computer named Deep Thought that has found the answer to “Life, the universe and everything.” The answer, in case you are interested, is 42. Yes, that is right, the number 42. When Deep Thought is asked the corresponding ultimate question, it admits it is not sufficiently powerful to compute the answer. The number 42 became something of a running joke; and interpreting the meaning of the number, a game for fans of the book.

Load more