Badbadnotgood and Jazz Blasphemy
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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Locating Jazz in 21st Century American Society Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s9417q4 Author Neil, Matthew Sean Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Locating Jazz in 21st Century American Society A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Matthew Sean Neil September 2018 Dissertation Committee: Dr. René T.A. Lysloff, Chairperson Dr. Nick Mitchell Dr. Jonathan Ritter Dr. Deborah Wong Copyright by Matthew Sean Neil 2018 The Dissertation of Matthew Sean Neil is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements Writing this dissertation has been a long and arduous endeavor, one which I could not have completed without the many supportive people in my life. I cannot name everyone who has impacted me along the way, but there are some people who deserve specific thanks. I would foremost like to thank my advisor, René T.A. Lysloff, for his guidance throughout the dissertation writing stage. I was fortunate to have an advisor so interested in my research and so skilled at drawing out from me exactly what I was looking to say. I also thank my other committee members, Nick Mitchell, Jonathan Ritter, and Deborah Wong. Your suggestions, both on the dissertation and throughout my coursework at UCR, were crucial to helping me formulate my research ideas. I extend my sincerest gratitude to the musicians, educators, and dedicated jazz fans I met in the Twin Cities, of whom there are too many to name. I was lucky to have made researching such a vivacious and creatively stimulating music scene the focus of my life for over ten months. Deserving of extra thanks, however, are Chris Bates, Billy Franklin, Zacc Harris, Steve Kenny, Chris Olson, Rodney Ruckus, Mac Santiago, Janis Weller, and Benny Weinbeck, all of whom were especially welcoming and helpful in their suggestions of whom to talk to and what places to check out. Special thanks also to Femke Kuiling for always being willing to check out music late into the night; our continual conversations about jazz, and a host of other topics, were always stimulating. I am gracious for the support offered by UCR’s Graduate Division during the final two years of my degree, both in terms of finances and career development. A iv portion of this research was funded by the UCR Alumni Graduate Research Travel Award. In addition, I am particularly thankful for the many colleagues I had the pleasure of working with in GradSuccess, including (but not limited to) Maggie Gover, Richard Hunt, Emily Mattingly, Janise Roselle, and Christina Trujillo. I extend a special thank you to Hillary Jenks for always having insights on possible next directions—both in terms of my writing and my career path—and for making the Graduate Writing Center such an enjoyable place to work for over two years. Finally, I thank Shaun Bowler for his interest in whatever jazz I happened to be listening to at the moment he walked through the office to fill the tea kettle; during the doldrums of my dissertation writing stage, you likely had more enthusiasm for jazz than I did, but those conversations reminded me of why I fell in love with the music. I could not have completed my dissertation without the support of my friends. First, thank you to all my longtime friends from Temple University or elsewhere on the East Coast, including, but not limited to, Jesse Asch-Ortiz, Amaury Ávalos, Patrick and Stan Fink, Tom Gallen, Matt Leister, Ryan McNeely, David Nord, and Eli Sklarsky. Our conversations about music, and in many cases our collaborations, have always been inspiring to me. Second, thank you to my supportive colleagues in UCR’s music department, especially Josh Brown, Neal Matherne, and Paula Propst, who have already been through this whole dissertation thing and graciously lent their advice, encouragement, and comradery. Finally, thank you to my friends on NBA twitter, especially in That One Group DM—I don’t know how I wound up among such an eclectic bunch, but I am thankful for it. The distractions were always welcome, and the v community you’ve provided kept me sane during my most isolated moments in the writing stage. Without a supportive family, this dissertation would not have been possible. Thank you to my parents for always encouraging me to pursue whatever it was that I was interested in, even if they did not always fully understand it (though by the end, you did remember to attach the ethno prefix). Thank you to my brothers, Bill and Andrew, and to Yuting for their support, helpful advice, and occasional room to sleep, and to my extended family in Minnesota for welcoming me into their state. Thank you also to the Regullano family for their hospitality and the many, many delicious meals. And an extra special thank you to my hosts during my Minnesota fieldwork period, my grandparents, Roger and Pat Arent. Without your support, this dissertation literally would not have been possible. Our conversations especially about the Minnesota and the jazz you knew growing up gave me perspective I couldn’t have gotten from elsewhere. I treasured playing your piano nightly after dinner and will always look back fondly on those times. Finally, an extra (extra, extra) special thanks to Eileen, whose support throughout the dissertation writing stage has been too invaluable to fully put into words, but I’ll try. I have been lucky to have your encouragement, understanding, and love. On days where I did want to keep going, you were there to uplift me, both with your words and with your many home-cooked meals and snacks. If it weren’t for you, I would still be cooking chicken, potatoes, and broccoli for myself every night. I am enormously grateful to have had such a supportive partner who has stuck with me throughout my exam, fieldwork, and writing stages. Thank you. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Locating Jazz in 21st Century American Society by Matthew Sean Neil Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Music University of California, Riverside, September 2018 Dr. René T.A. Lysloff, Chairperson Over the last several decades, jazz has undergone a cultural shift from a music associated with social justice activism to an art music valued for its sophistication and complexity. This shift is regarded by academics as partially a result of jazz’s institutionalization within the upper segments of society, including the university, corporate sponsored music festivals, and nonprofit grant agencies. While scholars have considered these recent changes in relation to broader discourse in jazz, few have studied the effects of jazz’s institutionalization on a local jazz scene or on perceptions about jazz among the general public. Through ethnographic study of the jazz scene in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, in addition to case studies of contemporary jazz artists Nicholas Payton, BadBadNotGood, and Kamasi Washington, this project examines the effects of jazz’s institutionalization by considering how musicians, critics, and audiences have located jazz—culturally, socioeconomically, and historically—following this period of shift. vii I argue that institutions impact jazz in a number of ways. One, they provide a degree of stability for local musicians that affords them the ability to pursue creative projects with less concern for commercial viability. Two, institutions have cemented what I term a normative path of development for a jazz musician, wherein access to jazz is most abundant among more privileged segments of society. Three, institutions have resulted in jazz undergoing a process of sacralization, where jazz becomes considered as a high art music removed from material concerns, a process that is alternately embraced and contested by musicians, critics, and listeners. Four, the association of jazz with institutions has created a negative image for jazz among the general public, a perception that is only recently beginning to reverse course. As it progresses into its second century of existence, jazz in the 2010s continues to accumulate new meanings and to reflect the wider structural inequalities in American society. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Black American Music and 42 Racial Discourse in Jazz Chapter 3: The Anatomy of the Twin 75 Cities Jazz Scene Chapter 4: Institutions & Formations in the 131 Twin Cities Jazz Scene Chapter 5: BadBadNotGood and Jazz 200 Blasphemy Chapter 6: Conclusion 251 References 277 ix Chapter 1: Introduction Over the last several decades, jazz in the United States has become increasingly accepted into institutions of high art in ways that have changed the music’s cultural values and its meanings. Jazz is a degree offering in university music programs across the country, is funded by government agencies and private foundations, and receives corporate sponsorship in the form of annual festivals and concert hall programming. As it is increasingly regarded as an art music valued for its sophistication and complexity, jazz becomes more closely associated by the general public with the institutional walls of the university than with its legacy of Black Civil Rights activism. On the one hand, the institutionalization of jazz in grant funding agencies, university arts and humanities departments, and so forth has lent the music a form of legitimization as “America’s classical music,” leading to a degree of subsidy that allows jazz to survive as market support dries up. On the other hand, jazz’s relationship with these upper echelon institutions of U.S. society has created concerns that a music often seen as resisting power structures will lose this legacy of social justice as jazz becomes a high art music.