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Home , Alan Crosland, Al Jolson, Bebop, Benny Goodman, Big band, Birth of the Cool

AGE

Glenn Miller, , and led other (based on musical modes), (which re- successful . While these big bands came to char- prised early jazz), and fusion, which blended jazz and rock acterize the jazz scene during the Great De- and included electronic instruments. in his pression, they were contrasted with the small, impover- later career and were two influential fusion ished jazz groups that played at rent parties and the like. artists. During this time the performer was thoroughly identified was a continuation ofbebop but in a more by popular culture as an entertainer, the only regular accessible style played by artists such as . venue was the , and African American be- (1960) developed avant-garde , came synonymous with American . The big- a style based on the ideas ofThelonius Monk, in which era was also allied with another popular genre, the was central to the style. mainly female jazz vocalists who soloed with the orches- tras. Singers such as modernized popular- Postmodern Jazz Since 1980 , although some believe the idiom was more Hybridity, a greater degree offusion,and traditional jazz akin to white than to jazz. revivals merely touch the surface of the variety of styles Some believe that the at its peak represented that make up contemporary jazz. Inclusive ofmany types the golden era ofjazz because it became part ofthe cul- ofworld music, it is accessible, socially conscious, and tural mainstream. Others, however, consider it furthest draws almost equally from its vast musical past. Perform- from the ideal of jazz’s artistic individuality. ers such as David Grisman, B. B. King, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., , and , Post-Bop, Hard Bop, and attest to this variety. Since the 1980s, Free Jazz (–1960s) education has developed, along with more serious con- Post–World War II jazz contrasted with the big bands and cern for the study of jazz documentation and scholarship. had parallels with abstract expressionist painters and Beat writers. It was not dance music and was primarily played BIBLIOGRAPHY by smaller ensembles and often called combo jazz. The Clark, Andrew, ed. Riffs and Choruses: A New Jazz Anthology. new style was more harmonically challenging, maintained and New York: Continuum, 2001. a high level ofvirtuosity, and pushed the established lan- Erlewine, Michael, et al., eds. All Music Guide to Jazz: The Ex- guage to its extremes. , Charlie “Bird” perts’ Guide to the Best Jazz Recordings. 3d ed. : Parker, and played in this new style. In the late Miller Freeman Books, 1998. 1940s and this style, described onomatopoeically as Gridley, Mark C. Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. 7th ed. Upper bebop, became even more complex. Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000. A smoother, more relaxed “cool” sound, a reaction Kirchner, Bill, ed. The Oxford Companion to Jazz. Oxford, U.K., to the intensity ofbebop, was developed by Miles Davis and New York: , 2000. in his 1949 ; it is often called main- Monson, Ingrid. Saying Something: and Inter- stream jazz and was successful into the 1970s. Cool per- action. : University ofChicago Press, 1996. formers in the 1950s, including Davis, the Modern Jazz Townsend, Peter. Jazz in American Culture. Edinburgh: Edin- , and , gained popularity for jazz as burgh University Press, 2000; Jackson: University ofMis- an art. There were many other post-bop styles, such as sissippi Press, 2000. Christina Linsenmeyer-van Schalkwyk

See also Music: African American.

JAZZ AGE. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term “” retrospectively to refer to the decade after World War I and before the stock market crash in 1929, during which Americans embarked upon what he called “the gaudiest spree in history.” The Jazz Age is inextricably associated with the wealthy white “flappers” and socialites immortalized in Fitzgerald’s fiction. How- ever, the era’s soundtrack was largely African American, facilitating what Ann Douglas has described as a “racially mixed social scene” without precedent in the . Postwar U.S. supremacy and a general disillusion Dizzy Gillespie. The pioneer ofbebop (along with Charlie with politics provided the economic base and social con- Parker) expands his famous cheeks as he plays his trademark text ofthe Jazz Age. In his 1931 essay, “Echoes ofthe Jazz bent . AP/Wide World Photos Age,” Fitzgerald referred to “a whole race going hedon-

469 JAZZ SINGER, THE istic, deciding on pleasure,” a rather glib exaggeration, as 71 percent ofAmerican familieslived below the poverty line during the . Nevertheless, a young white elite put this pleasure principle into practice by embracing jazz. As the historian Lawrence Levine ob- served, many whites identified this as libid- inal and “primitive,” the liberating antithesis ofmain- stream, middle-class conventions. White New Yorkers went “slumming” at jazz clubs in Harlem. Boosted by the emergence ofradio and the gramophone, black singers like and Clara Smith became stars. The mo- tion picture (1927) brought the music to the big screen in the first-ever “talkie,” although the eponymous hero was the white performer in .

BIBLIOGRAPHY Cowley, Malcolm, and Robert Cowley, eds. Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age. New York: Scribners, 1966. Douglas, Ann. Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the . London: Picador, 1996. Fitzgerald, F Scott. “Echoes ofthe Jazz Age.” In The Crack-Up with Other Pieces and Stories. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Pen- guin, 1965. Levine, Lawrence. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro- American Thought from Slavery to Freedom. New York: Ox- ford University Press, 1977. The Jazz Singer. Al Jolson stars in this 1927 feature film, the first with synchronized dialogue as well as (though Martyn Bone much ofit was still a silent movie using subtitles); there were some earlier shorts and features with sound effects, but this See also . motion picture revolutionized the industry. AP/Wide World Photos

JAZZ SINGER, THE, a motion picture released by Warner Brothers in , was the first successful BIBLIOGRAPHY feature-length production to include sound, ushering in Carringer, Robert L. ed. The Jazz Singer. Madison: University the end ofthe silent film era. Audiences thrilled when Al ofWisconsin Press, 1979. Jolson, in the title role, broke into song and proclaimed, Crafton, Donald. “The Jazz Singer’s Reception in the Media and “You ain’t heard nothing yet!” Directed by at the Box Office.” In Post Theory: Reconstructing Stud- (filming Alfred A. Cohn’s screen adaptation of Samson ies. Edited by David Bordwell and Noe¨l Carroll. Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 1996. Raphaelson’s play Day of Atonement), The Jazz Singer tells the tale ofJakie Rabinowitz, the young Jewish son ofa Saposnik, Irv. “Jolson, the Jazz Singer, and the Jewish Mother: cantor who would rather “sing jazzy” than Or, How My Yiddishe Momme Became .” Ju- daism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought 43 follow five generations of cantors. Jakie runs away from (1994): 432–442. home to pursue his dreams ofstardom; years later, under the name Jack Robin, Jakie returns to New York City. Matthew R. Davis Conflict arises when Jakie must decide between singing “” in place ofhis sick fatheron Yom Kippur See also Film. and opening his Broadway show. Jakie decides to chant “Kol Nidre” for his father in the , postponing his debut. This decision does not hamper Jakie. The film JEFFERSON TERRITORY was established under ends with Jolson crooning “My Mammy” in blackface to a spontaneously formed provisional government that had his mother in the audience ofhis Broadway show. The a precarious existence in Colorado from 1859 to 1861. film suggests that in America one can be both hugely suc- Legally, the new settlements that grew up in Pikes Peak cessful and remain true to one’s roots while also suggest- country following the discovery of gold nearby in 1858 ing interesting connections between African American were under Kansas’ jurisdiction. They were so far from traditions and Jewish American identity. the seat ofthe Kansas government, however, that the ter-

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