This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ British Encounters with Blues and Jazz in Transatlantic Circulation, c.1929-1960 Davies, Lawrence Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 British Encounters with Blues and Jazz in Transatlantic Circulation, c.1929-1960 Lawrence Christopher Davies Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology King’s College London 2 January 2018 Abstract While existing scholarly and popular histories locate British blues interest in the cultural, social, and political shifts of the 1960s, this thesis investigates an earlier period of blues appreciation and performance that straddles the Second World War, from c.1929 to 1960. In contrast to existing scholarship that understands the blues as a standalone genre, I argue that British blues engagement during this period is inextricable from contemporaneous jazz interest. Most importantly, my research challenges assumptions around the blues and jazz’s international reception: I argue that these musics were defined by their transatlantic circulation as much as their origins, and evoked ideals of mobility and interracial affinity as well notions of African American social and cultural specificity. My thesis examines four key ‘moments’ within the period c.1929-1960; each engages critically with issues of encounter, reception, and performance. In chapter 1, I trace the dissemination and reception of blues and jazz on British record labels during the 1930s. Emerging ‘hot’ criticism and labels’ promotional strategies increasingly emphasised African Americans’ creative proficiency, but also established a complex relationship with earlier primitivist tropes and Eurocentric ideals of ‘art music’. I consider how enthusiasts’ participation in locally organised ‘Rhythm Clubs’ challenge existing interpretations of recording-based encounters with African American music, with particular reference to the concept of mediation as well as notions of geographical and cultural ‘distance’. In chapter 2, I explore the career of Britain’s first ‘New Orleans style’ jazz band, George Webb’s Dixielanders. I trace the emergence of the New Orleans ‘revival’ movement in Britain through the circulation of American texts and sounds, 2 highlighting key discrepancies in revivalism’s transatlantic spread. I argue for a revised understanding of British jazz revivalism, one that accounts for its development as a response to the impact of the Second World War on British jazz culture. In chapter 3, I compare the British reception of Josh White and Big Bill Broonzy, two of the first African American blues musicians to visit Britain. Eschewing the assumption that attitudes to White and Broonzy were formed solely during their debut tours, I show how these musicians’ reception hinged on earlier and more complex understandings of ‘folk blues’ formed at the intersection of American folklore scholarship, ‘hot’ jazz collecting, wartime propaganda, and postwar cultural diplomacy. I trace how White and Broonzy were each required to navigate this complex terrain in their British performances. In chapter 4, I examine the relationship between the British Chris Barber Jazz Band and the African American blues musician Muddy Waters during these performers’ transatlantic tours. While existing scholarship has concentrated on the British reception of Waters’s distinctive style of urban blues, I position these musicians’ encounters within an emerging system of transatlantic exchange. I suggest that this ‘economy of exchange’ indicates a shift in understandings of musical authenticity, complicating revivalist ideals of black music as a culture under threat and suggesting new modes of encounter based on ideals of reciprocity and collaboration. Ultimately, my research calls for greater attention to the importance of international circulation in understandings of blues and jazz’s meaning and value, as well as the complexity of reactions to these musics outside of their contexts of origin. 3 Contents Acknowledgements –––– 5 Introduction –––– 8 I. ‘A New Departure’: Rhythm Clubs, Record Series, and the Appreciation of ‘Hot Rhythm’ Music in Britain, c.1929-1937 –––– 31 II. ‘South London Blues’: George Webb’s Dixielanders and the New Orleans ‘Revival’ in 1940s London –––– 67 III. ‘Those Songs are Gonna be Sung All Over this World’: Josh White, Big Bill Broonzy, and the Politics of ‘Folk Blues’ in Early Postwar Britain, 1943-51 ––– 119 IV. ‘What’s On In America?’: Contact and Collaboration between London and Chicago, 1958-1959 –––– 166 Conclusion –––– 214 List of Sound Examples –––– 221 Bibliography –––– 223 4 Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the support, assistance, and encouragement of a great number of people. First, I would like to acknowledge the support of the Arts & Humanities Research Council, King’s College London, the American Musicological Society, and the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research. These organisations have provided me with the security to have time to think, and the opportunity to share my research with others. A significant part of my research was conducted with the generous support of two research fellowships: a British Council Research Fellowship at the John W. Kluge Center and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and an Edison Fellowship in recorded sound at the British Library. I am particularly grateful to Mary Lou Reker and Travis Hensley at the Kluge Center, Todd Harvey at the American Folklife Center, and Jonathan Summers at the British Library. Their personal encouragement and willingness to facilitate my research sustained me through many otherwise gruelling hours in the archives. Throughout my doctoral studies, many institutions, academics, researchers, and blues enthusiasts have been kind enough to share with me their accumulated wisdom, as well as copies of sources, articles, and unpublished research. Their generosity has saved countless hours of ‘digging’, but more importantly it has been a pleasure to read their work as I try to craft my own. Prof. Catherine Tackley shared past conference papers, forthcoming chapters, and many words of encouragement. Dr. Christian O’Connell shared his doctoral research on the blues scholar Paul Oliver. Dr. John Williamson provided me with a copy of an interview with Chris Barber. Blues researchers Paul Vernon, Chris Smith, Howard Rye, and Rob Ford 5 have kindly shared with me scans of magazines, discographical information, and research notes from their own collections. Michael Cooper, the curator of a fascinating website on the history of popular music in Portsmouth, was kind enough to allow me to reproduce a picture of a meeting of the Portsmouth & Southsea Rhythm Club, while the Leeds Metropolitan Archive provided me with copies of concert programmes for the jazz concerts held at the 1958 Leeds Centenary Musical Festival. I would particularly like to thank the staff, trustees, and volunteers of the National Jazz Archive in Loughton, Essex, especially David Nathan, Mike Rose, and Jo Blyghton. They welcomed me with open arms and provided invaluable access to early jazz and blues periodicals, concert programmes, and archival collections. I have had the immense good fortune of being part of the Department of Music at King’s College London. Prof. Dan Leech-Wilkinson, Prof. Matthew Head, Dr. Katherine Schofield, Prof. Martin Stokes, Dr. Bettina Varwig, Dr. Gareth Wilson, Prof. Emma Dillon, the late David Trendell, Dr. Fred Moehn, Prof. Cliff Eisen, Dr. Amy Blier-Carruthers, and Dr. Jo Hicks have greatly enriched my understanding of music. I have also benefitted from the encouragement and friendship of my fellow graduate students, both at King’s and elsewhere, in particular Adil Johan, Dave Marquiss, Paul Cott, Tamara Turner, Sean Lorre, Oren Vinogradov, and all the participants in the UNC-KCL Joint Graduate Music Student Conference exchange. Most of all, I am indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Andy Fry, who has encouraged (endured?) my attempts to write about blues and jazz for the best part of a decade, and has guided this project since its inception with unwavering insight and good humour. The last four years have been sustained by the constant support of family and friends. Relocating to a new country, even if only for a few months, is a big change; 6 I would like to thank L. Claire Kincannon, Alex and Paul Moorehead, and Mike and Delia Neuman for their kindness and hospitality during my time in Washington, DC. I cannot thank enough my parents, Vanessa Davies, Harold Short, and Martin Davies, as well as my in-laws, Alastair Templeton and Emma Youens, for their love, patience, and willingness to proofread. Above all, I must thank my wife, Dr. Hannah Templeton. You have been beside me throughout, and are a constant source of inspiration. And finally, my son Jamie, who has taught me more in four months than any PhD could.