Navigating Jazz: Music, Place, and New Orleans by Sarah Ezekiel

Navigating Jazz: Music, Place, and New Orleans by Sarah Ezekiel Suhadolnik A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Charles Hiroshi Garrett, Chair Professor David Ake, University of Miami Associate Professor Stephen Berrey Associate Professor Christi-Anne Castro Associate Professor Mark Clague © Sarah Ezekiel Suhadolnik 2016 DEDICATION To Jarvis P. Chuckles, an amalgamation of all those who made this project possible. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation was made possible by fellowship support conferred by the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School and the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, as well as ample teaching opportunities provided by the Musicology Department and the Residential College. I am also grateful to my department, Rackham, the Institute, and the UM Sweetland Writing Center for supporting my work through various travel, research, and writing grants. This additional support financed much of the archival research for this project, provided for several national and international conference presentations, and allowed me to participate in the 2015 Rackham/Sweetland Writing Center Summer Dissertation Writing Institute. I also remain indebted to all those who helped me reach this point, including my supervisors at the Hatcher Graduate Library, the Music Library, the Children’s Center, and the Music of the United States of America Critical Edition Series. I thank them for their patience, assistance, and support at a critical moment in my graduate career. This project could not have been completed without the assistance of Bruce Boyd Raeburn and his staff at Tulane University’s William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive of New Orleans Jazz, and the staff of the Historic New Orleans Collection. Most of the primary source material I employ comes from the holdings of these institutions, and the expert advice I received while working in these archives helped to orient subsequent research. Along these lines, I would also like to thank Matt Sakakeeny, who, over the years, has routinely shared his ethnographic iii research, experience, and musical expertise with me, enriching my work with the benefit of his New Orleans connections. Kristen Castellana, Jason Imbesi, and Marna Clowney-Robinson at the University of Michigan Music Library were essential resources as well, assisting me in my efforts to track down additional sources and helping me to piece together the large and diffuse field of scholarship with which this project is engaged. Early morning conversations with Marna in-particular uncovered numerous important finds, often reaching back into her intriguing family tree. Under the watchful eye of such kind, passionate, and supportive library staff, my project really blossomed. I have come a long way since I first began my journey into musicology. I was fortunate as an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Geneseo to study with many energetic teachers: Anne-Marie Reynolds, the musicologist who first nurtured my growth in the field; flautist Glennda Dove-Pellito, who pushed me to excel in music inside and outside the practice room; and Russell Judkins, the anthropologist who first channeled my unbridled creativity into cultural analysis. Above all, I would not be where I am today without the compassion of Justin Behrend and Kathy Mapes, historians who were willing to help a lost music major, away from home for the first time, find her way in the world. I owe them all a great deal for their generous support, advice, and kindness. I am also grateful for the serendipitous circumstances that have allowed me to spend so much time with Richard Crawford and Paula Wishart. Both the pearls and the marbles of wisdom I have collected from them over the years have helped me to better understand the field I hope to join and the nature of the contributions I might make to it in the future. I also thank the University of Michigan Society of Fellows for bringing Martha Sprigge into my academic life, albeit briefly. Both her council and her kindness were a godsend during the final stages of the project. iv My work has been strengthened greatly by the stimulating environment provided by the University of Michigan Musicology Department. In addition to thought-provoking course offerings and conversations that have shaped my identity as a scholar, I wish to thank everyone, including members of my extended Michigan Family, who has supported my research by entertaining my curiosities and assuaging my fears over the years: Ryan Bañagale, Judith Becker, James Borders, Christi-Anne Castro, Mark Clague, Kristen Clough, Kathryn Cox, Gabriela Cruz, Joshua Duchan, Jane Fulcher, Jason Geary, Jessica Getman, Sarah Gerk, Megan Hill, Andrew Kohler, Stefano Mengozzi, and Evan Ware. I also cherish the contributions of my impromptu writing group: Monica Hershberger, my far flung dissertation buddy; Anne Searcy, equally far afield, grant proposal writer extraordinaire; and Louis Cicarelli, invaluable UM Sweetland writing coach and cheerleader. Special thanks to Melanie Batoff, Joe Ciadella, Michael Mauskapf, Matthew Mugmon, Nathan Platte, and Alison DeSimone, the advanced, good natured, graduate students I met when I was first starting out who continue to offer me helpful advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank Steven Whiting for his insights and endless good humor, and Patricia Moss for her unconditional support. Last, but not least, the companionship of Megan Murph and Meredith Juergens has proven to be an ongoing source of inspiration, reminding me that many of life’s most profound insights spring from great joy. In closing, I wish to express deep gratitude to my dissertation committee and to my family. Special thanks to David Ake, Stephen Berrey, Christi-Anne Castro, and Mark Clague, for devoting their time, energy, and expertise to this dissertation. The body of scholarship represented by them greatly influenced and enriched my work, and their kind and insightful feedback makes me want to do great things with this project. There really are no words that will allow me to satisfactorily single out the contributions of Charles Hiroshi Garrett, my committee v chair and advisor, except to say that I could not have asked for a better mentor, confidant, and professional role model. As all forms of thanks were worn out years ago by his countless efforts to foster my growth as a writer, thinker, and life hacker, all I can do is reiterate my promise to pass on his immense generosity and good humor. Special thanks also to my brother Nate, who lived the final year of this project with me, and to my parents, for all the ways in which they have shown their encouragement, support, and love. It was my father, a research chemist, who first sparked my interest in the craft of “making knowledge”; and it was my mother, the person who sent me to graduate school with my beloved box of crayons, who first taught me about the necessity of finding your own voice in the process. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF EXAMPLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xii LIST OF APPENDICES xiii ABSTRACT xv CHAPTERS One Introduction: Music, Place, and New Orleans 1 Reimaging Music and Place 5 Repositioning a Musical City 13 A Musical Interlude 19 Creating, Imagining, and Relocating Musical Place 22 Two Sounding Out A Land of Dreams: Navigating Performances of Music and Place on Basin Street 28 Storyville Sounds 35 Performing Place, Mapping Basin Street 51 (Un)Friendly Meetings 70 vii Three Hearing Congo Square: Musical Territory, Style, and the Contested Sounds of Place 78 Congo Square Sounds 81 Congo Square Resounds 116 Four Local Transformations: Placing the Music of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 136 Placing Preservation Hall 141 Preservation Hall Sounds 152 Staging Preservation Hall 156 Remodeled Modes of Listening 169 Five Coming Out of My Trombone: Troy Andrews and the Musical Revitalization of New Orleans 191 Disaster and Dislocation 196 Recovery in Relocation 214 Rearticulated Gumbo 228 Six Conclusion: Circumnavigating Jazz 233 APPENDICES 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY 274 viii LIST OF EXAMPLES EXAMPLES 2.1 Spencer Williams, “Basin Street Blues,” Chorus 55 2.2 Spencer Williams, “Basin Street Blues,” Introduction/Coda 55 ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES 2.1 New Orleans Opening Scene, 1947 29 2.2 Basin Street publicity postcard, 1910s 37 2.3 Storyville ensemble shot, 2013 37 2.4 Nightlife on Bourbon Street, 2008 43 2.5 Storyville Landmark, 2008 43 2.6 Second Liners as Envisioned by DJ Kid Koala 69 2.7 The Allen Room at Lincoln Center 71 2.8 Cover, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis, Two Men with the Blues CD 73 3.1 The Symbolic Landscape of Congo Square 87 3.2 The Public Space of Congo Square 87 3.3 National Register of Historic Places Placard for Congo Square 92 3.4 Congo Square Placard Illustration 92 4.1 The Trey McIntyre Project Dancers on Stage at Carnegie Hall 137 4.2 Vieux Carre Music Shop Jazz Directory 146 4.3 New Orleans Jazz Club Mailer 151 4.4 Los Angeles Times Advertisement, 1980 161 4.5 Animated Preservation Hall Jazz Band in “St. James Infirmary” video 172 x 4.6 Visualization of Song Introduction in “St. James Infirmary” video 177 4.7 Ponchartrain Beach amusement park in “St. James Infirmary” video 180 5.1 Trumpet/Dance Solo in New Orleans Alleyway 194 5.2 Glimpse of an Empty New Orleans Restaurant 194 5.3 “Treme—I’ll Fly Away,” Andrews and Batiste Meet at the

Load more