JAZZ TALKS: Representations & Self-Representations of African American Music and Its Musicians from Bebop to Free Jazz
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The University of Nottingham JAZZ TALKS: Representations & Self-Representations of African American Music and Its Musicians From Bebop to Free jazz By Alper Mazman 1University of Nottingham L Hallward Library Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, September 2009 ABSTRACT The main focus of this thesis is the representation of jazz music and its musicians, and the ways in which American (black and white) critics, novelists, and musicians interpret this music from the development of bebop to free jazz. My aim is to reveal the complexities of the dialogue between white and black representations of jazz, as well as among the self-representations of African American musicians. To this end, I discuss the discourses of jazz that are embedded within the broader cultural, political and ideological debates in this specific period, illustrating how the meaning of jazz is mediated through these conversations. Although jazz talks through the music itself, I argue that the representation of jazz largely depends on who talks about it. The introduction briefly sketches the context of earlier African American writings on music, from Frederick Douglass through the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Chapter 1 deals with bebop and the ways in which it was seen as more or less expressive of a specific African American consciousness, and how critics shaped the general view of it. Chapter 2 further explores the African American views of music through James Baldwin short story, "Sonny's Blues. " Chapter 3 traces the ways in which white writers used jazz for their own ends, focusing on some key terms such as 'hip' and `cool. ' Chapter 4 explores the complex relation between jazz and the new politics of black liberation through a number of key albums and figures, while Chapter 5 gives a more extended examination of these ideas through the figure of Charles Mingus. My conclusion attempts to look again at one of the themes of the thesis - who has the power to jazz Jazz. represent - through a discussion of Ken Burns' 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii .............................................................................................................. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION I ...................................................................................................... CHAPTERI 52°d STREET THEME: BEBOP, ITS MUSICIANS AND CRITICS 22 ............................................................... CHAPTER II JAMES BALDWIN'S BEBOP: MUSIC AND ITS MEANINGS IN "SONNY'S BLUES" 61 ................................. CHAPTER III BIRTH OF THE HIP: WHITE APPROACHESTO 97 JAZZ ................................................................. CHAPTER IV FREEDOM NOW: THE MAKING THE 1960s 144 AND THE MEANING OF JAZZ IN .............................. CHAPTER V CHARLES MING US [RE]PRESENTS CHARLES MING US: MINGUS AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF RACE 187 ............................................ CONCLUSION.............. 226 .......................................................................... BIBLIOGRAPHY 23 8 ................................................................................................... DISCOGRAPHY 260 .................................................................................................... ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to extend my deepestgratitude to my advisor, David Murray for his valuable insight and support throughout this process.This thesis would not have been completed without the guidanceof him. I also would like to thank Richard King, Graham Lock, Ian Brookes and people from the Jazz & the Blues Group for sharingtheir knowledge with me. Specialthanks go to Özge Akta§ for her patience,support and help. I am forever grateful for my parents, Fahri and Melek Mazman. Thank You For Being Who You Are! iv The music of my race is somethingmore than American idiom. What we could not say openly we expressedin music.! INTRODUCTION In one of the few existing pieces of film in which Charlie Parker appears, he is shown being given a Down Beat award for 1952 with Dizzy Gillespie. Asked if, "You boys got anything more to say," Parker says, in what appears to be a rehearsed comment, "Well, they say music speaks louder than words, so we'd rather voice our opinions that way, if you don't mind. "2 In many ways this exchange sums up some of the issues I will be discussing - the relationship between African American musicians and the critics, and the most appropriate ways of voicing opinions about music and other issues in a period of great artistic and political change, during which writing about jazz has been crucial in determining its reception and understanding and has largely taken place in a white-dominated publishing context of books, journals and magazines. My title, "Jazz Talks, " echoes Parker's comment, and its suggestion that jazz is more immediate and authentic than the words used about it, but my full title also points to the fact that jazz has inevitably been mediated through print. One of the aims of the thesis is therefore to explore white representations of African American music and musicians, but also to offer the musicians' perspective and 1 Duke Ellington, cited in Ortiz M. Walton, Music: Black White and Blue, New York: William Morrow, 1972,p. 79. 2 The be segment can seen in Gary Giddens and Kendrick Simmons' video documentary Celebrating Bird (Sony Video Software, 1987). 1 how interpretations interviews, show they counterpoint-white-driven through oral histories, personal conversations, liner notes. a limited number of TV appearancesand jazz autobiographies,although many of the autobiographies were also produced,edited and published within the bounds defined by a white- dominatedculture industry. As well as the music itself, the representation of jazz has played an important role in our understanding of it. As Peter Townsend writes in his book Jazz in American Culture (2000): "representations of jazz are more indications of the ideologies implicit in the medium, whether in film or written literature, than of jazz itself. "3 Along with the media representations of jazz, the ideological bases of jazz scholars and critics are also particularly important. American and European scholars have discussed the question of how far jazz reflects an African American inheritance or a new creation. Could jazz be used to highlight the black contribution to American society as a whole or is it merely a decorative and superficial aspect of black life? More specifically: What is the racial/cultural character of jazz? Do we consider it as black, white or both? Is jazz American per se, or should it be considered as African American expression? And in the context of the period under discussion in the thesis, what is its relationship to newly conceived ideas of freedom? 3 Peter Townsend, Jazz in American Culture, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000, p.93. 2 All those questionsare highly problematic becausethey raise further questions not only about what is really meant by the term "African American music," but also about American music and thus American culture itself. Is it an amalgamationof black and white cultures? And how do other African American musical expressions- excluding jazz and the blues - relate to the questions posed above? The period under discussion is one in which African American artists and activists both responded to and effected profound changes in the conception of freedom (or perhaps more correctly, important new public manifestations of existing African American ideas of freedom), but in terms of the representation of jazz the role of white entrepreneurs, supporters and commentators was still crucial. This is not to say that white views were necessarily negative towards jazz or to black aspirations. In fact, one of the characteristics of this white discourse, particularly that of the liberal and radical critics, is that it seems to put the African American artist at the centre, and yet we still rarely hear their actual voices or views. Hence the attention given in my thesis to some of the key debates and public arguments, where we do hear the artists expressing their opinions. For similar reasons, I give importance to the role of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, and the peculiar importance of Charles Mingus as someone who, as well as performing and publishing his music, writes and publishes an autobiography. 3 One of the things that is at issue in this period, and in my thesis, then, is the ownership of the music, and how far this relates to racial politics and history. In focusing on race, it is not my intention to assumethat jazz is essentiallya'Black Art' as the proponentsof the Black Aesthetic argued.Rather it is to throw light on the ways in which what is undoubtedly hybrid music is still nevertheless fundamentally related to racial inequalities in its representations.Music has certainly been seen as the quintessential expression of Negro, Black and then African American identities over the years, by both whites and African Americans. On the African American side it is worth pointing briefly here to a few key moments, in order to bring out just what has been claimed for music and how jazz fitted into these claims, in order to obtain some context for the discussionsof the 1940sand later. Frederick Douglass was one of the first African American writers to discuss the significance of music. In his first autobiography, writing is used as a mark of humanity, and a