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" Bringing Me to Where I Am”: Jazz Autobiography in Context

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Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Farrington, Holly Ellen Baverstock (2004) "Bringing me to where I am”: jazz autobiography in context. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/13387/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Works, including theses and research projects, may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from them, or their content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). They may not be sold or exploited commercially in any format or medium without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author’s name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pag- ination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Middlesex University Research Repository: an open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Farrington, Holly Ellen Baverstock, 2004. “Bringing me to where I am”: jazz autobiography in context. Available from Middlesex University’s Research Repository. Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work’s full bibliographic details. This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. "Bringing me to where I am": Jazz Autobiography in Context Holly Ellen Baverstock Farrington Thesis su bmitted for the award of Ph.D at Middlesex University September 2004 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support of my supervisors, Professor Clive Bloom and Dr Vivien Miller, throughout the writing of this thesis. I would also like to thank Alyn Shipton and John Chilton for their insights into the composition and editing of jazz biography and autobiography. Lastly, I would like to thank Dr Shamoon Zamir, for planting the knowledge of jazz autobiography in my head during a seminar on African-American literature. This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Julia and Dennis Farrington, and to Martin, without whom I would never have got this far. Contents Introduction Page 1 Why jazz autobiography? 2 Chapter One: Jazz History in Context From Beginnings to the Worksong 9 An introduction to the problems posed by contextual ising jazz 9 The two main theories of jazz: sociological and aesthetic: an evaluation 15 Problems with aesthetic theory 20 Issues surrounding sociological theory 23 The beginnings: transmission of instruments and song 27 Conclusions which can be drawn from this 32 Worksong: musical expression in slavery 34 Chapter Two: From the spiritual to Jazz 44 The advantages of Christian teaching to white slave owners 47 A closer look at the spirituals 52 The peculiarities of the African-American spiritual 56 Narratives and accounts of spirituals 58 The spirituals, the Fisk Jubilee Singers and beyond 60 The effects of emancipation on African-American music 63 Minstrelsy to blues: music for entertainment to music for the self 66 The influence of minstrelsy on the blues 68 The rise of the performer: what are we to make of minstrels? 71 The advent of jazz 75 Chapter Three: Narratives of History, Hagiography and Hierarchy 81 'Really the Blues'? An exploration of whiteness as black text 88 Racial belonging and authenticity: defining terms 92 White jazz autobiography: a short evaluation in terms of homogeneity and Drzewiecka's 'imagined communities' 94 The jazz fraternity: narratives of history and hierarchy 98 Chapter Four: The Black Narrated Protagonist and the Ghostwriter: Racism and Self-Identity 116 The ghostwriter as the Other: hybridity reconsidered and clarified 116 The historical figure of the ghostwriter 121 Criticism of African-American autobiography: the focus on identity 140 The historical background to the style of these texts: why are they written this way? 159 A direct comparison: Armstrong and X 163 A further effect of hybridity: performance personas 165 Chapter Five: Femininity and Masculinity: Aspects of Gender in Jazz Autobiography 176 The problematics of female autobiography and authorship 178 Hierarchies and frats: 'He's funny that way' 186 Male jazz autobiography: Beneath the Underdog? 189 Concluding remarks: the social role of the African-American jazz musician 197 Chapter Six: Style, Music, Text 199 The relationship of style to the readership 221 '[I]t might not have been a literary masterpiece, but every word of it was my own' 227 The expectant audience 231 Conclusion 236 Appendix One: Short Biographies of Musicians & Autobiographical Material 239 Appendix Two: Musical Texts 249 Appendix Three: Details of Musical Excerpts 255 Works Cited 257 Abstract Jazz autobiography is an area largely unexplored in current academic discourse: a scattering of articles and chapters in textbooks on jazz or African-American autobiography is all we have. Yet jazz and the literature of jazz, whether fiction, biography or autobiography, playa crucial role in American twentieth-century culture. Historically, the roots of jazz and of African­ American music-making and performance culture are vitally important to American studies. This thesis draws together text and music, jazz autobiography and jazz performance, to suggest the impossibility of reading one without the other. In doing so, it draws on almost four hundred years of musical history in the Americas, and on more than thirty autobiographies by American jazz musIcians. The primary focus of the first two chapters is the history of jazz in North America. This is discussed from a socio-cultural perspective. Specific musical traits are considered in terms of the development of a distinctive musical persona, which might or might not then transmute onto the autobiographical self in jazz writing. The next three chapters consider this autobiographical self as found primarily in African-American jazz autobiography, and there is a focus here on African­ American cultural and literary criticism. Following on from this, the thesis moves to its concluding chapter, a bringing together of jazz music and jazz text (both autobiographical and fictional) to finalise the place of jazz in American history, literature, music and culture. Introduction A 'jazz autobiography' is considered within the terms of this thesis to be an autobiography written by, or with some involvement from, a jazz musician. A crucial aspect of jazz autobiography is the consideration of the jazz autobiography as a hybrid text: one in which multiple selves (for example, ghostwriter, protagonist and editor) may be revealed.! Jazz autobiography will be approached from an American Studies perspective. This is an interdisciplinary approach which places equal emphasis on literature, music and history. As such, the thesis \vill highlight the importance of recognising the diverse strands which form the jazz autobiography: music and the history of jazz, African-American literary tradition, autobiographical constructs and narrative theory. The word "jazz' will be used generically to refer to the field of music which is characterised by syncopation, polyrhythms, and chromaticism, and is of black American origin. Jazz is normally instrumental, without the presence of a vocal line, and utilises instruments such as the trumpet, piano and double bass. "Blues', characterised in the mid to late twentieth century by an emphasis on vocal rather than instrumental lines, \vill be used when it is necessary to refer to particular musicians generally thought of as "blues' singers, such as Billie Holiday, whose autobiography will be discussed later. In chapter one, there will be some further discussion
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