© Michael J. Kramer

Warning: These slides are intended for student reference only. Distributing these slides to others, whether on campus or off, is a violation of Northwestern University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

Subject to removal if lecture attendance declines. Syncopatin' Modernity: Jazz In "The Jazz Age"

Joe Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, “Dippermouth Blues” (1923) Scott Joplin b. 1867/8? d. 1917 Dick Hyman, “Maple Leaf Rag” (1989) marching through red light districts? What is modernity?

WWI, 1914-1918, US enters 1917 1920: Urban Americans outnumber rural

Technology Rise of the phonograph 1877, Edison - 1887 Berliner’s discs 1890s - nickelodeons Columbia Records, 1887 Victor Talking Machine Company, 1901 1902: 12” 78s 1909: 26 million discs & cylinders per year By early 1920s: 100 million per year ! Film/“Talkies” - Radio Standardizations & Mobilities

Standardization example: ASCAP - American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 1914 (Supreme Court case 1917)

Mobilities: City, automobile, mass transit, train, airplane Prohibition speakeasies, cabarets, nightclubs — Ragtime, dance crazes, jazz

What does it mean to be dehumanized? Or redefine the human? Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five, “West End Blues” (1928) What do you hear? “West End Blues”

famous opening credenza

starts straight rhythm, then syncopates

virtuosic balance in the “grid” of modernity

Louis Armstrong b. 1901 d. 1971 James Reese Europe b. 1881 d. 1919

“Castle House Rag” (1914)

-fusion of ragtime and Sousa military marching band Original Dixieland Jazz Band

“Tiger Rag” (1917) -the pleasure of confusion? Paul Whiteman b. 1890 d. 1967

-changing dance -changing technology, changing music -pop music as “modern” (though it sounds old to us)

“Whispering” (1920) Paul Whiteman & the Ambassador Orchestra

“Rhapsody in Blue” (1927) written by George Gershwin -fusion of jazz and orchestral “classical” music

Duke Ellington b. 1899 d. 1974

“East St. Louis Toodle-oo” (1927)

What did Ellington mean by calling his sound “Jungle Music”? What jungle? 1906 book about Chicago’s meatpacking plants. Today - Syncopatin’ Modernity: Jazz In "The Jazz Age"

Music for mobility within standardization - dance music!

new kinds of illicit transgressions: racial, class, gender, legality (Prohibition), ironic doubling

new kinds of fusions

seeking out new kinds of virtuosity to suit modernity © Michael J. Kramer

Warning: These slides are intended for student reference only. Distributing these slides to others, whether on campus or off, is a violation of Northwestern University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

Subject to removal if lecture attendance declines.