How African American Music Became Mainstream - Research Paper Example

 African American Music Becomes Mainstream Introduction Jazz music is typically assumed to have emerged from the plantations of the South. People assume it emerged in the late 1800s as African American people secured their freedom and turned the sorrowful field songs of the slave into celebration of life. Even then, these people knew something about the nature of music that science is just now realizing – it has unique healing properties that are not yet achievable through medication. “You must feel the music as well as hear it. You will experience the best healing results when you open up to listen not just with your physical ears, but when you start to feel the vibration of the music with your whole body and spirit” (Cardinal 2006). However, this isn’t exactly how the musical genre we call jazz got started. Jazz did emerge as a musical genre near the beginning of the 20th century which was also about the time that former slaves and their children were beginning to discover a voice of their own within the European-influenced cities of the South. However, it was this integration that gave birth to jazz. As African American musicians started to incorporate the musical instruments used by the Europeans into their own music, they began discovering a range of new sounds and combinations. Within these sounds, they discovered a distinct means of communicating. Bringing jazz to the mainstream public, though, required more than small gatherings of Southern African American people enjoying locally mastered jumping music. Understanding how jazz music made this jump into mainstream may help provide insight as to how to encourage new forms of music emerging today to make this important cross-over. Background Literature doesn’t provide a strong argument for a single channel through which jazz hit the mainstream scene. Some arguments point to the New York nightclub Minton’s Playhouse as the beginning of mainstream jazz. This club was started in the dining room of the Hotel Cecil by retired saxophone player Henry Minton (Goelet, 2002). To ensure his fellow musicians felt comfortable at the new club, Minton hired Teddy Hill, a well-known band leader, to manage the place. Hill’s band included many stars of the swing era, some of which were known as nonconformists. Of this first house band, drummer Kenny Clarke, trumpeter Joe Guy and pianist Thelonious Monk stood out as innovators of the new music and contributed to the club’s popularity among other jazz musicians. Clarke is attributed with the technique known as ‘dropping bombs’, “a repertoire of accents on the snare and bass drums and tom-toms” (Goelet, 2002). The timekeeping function of the drums had already been moved to the high-hat cymbals by Jo Jones, but Clarke moved it again to the large cymbal. Joe Guy had a “penchant for ‘battling’ with other trumpeters that made him the perfect jam-session host” (Goelet, 2002). Monk became known for having a “fine ear and a completely open mind” (Goelet, 2002). According to Amiri Baraka (2003), Monk’s contributions to the popularity of Minton’s included his bold harmonies that often stimulated his fellow musicians. However, there is evidence that jazz was already on its way to making the switch from ‘African American’ music to mainstream sound appealing to numerous races. Some artists who truly understood the art of allowing the music to be felt as well as heard were Art Tatum and Thelonius Monk, today recognized as one of the “giants of American music” (Cook & Morton, 2008: 1020). Beginning with his foundation of stride, Art Tatum introduced giant leaps forward in musical technique and harmony. He perfected groundbreaking improvisational techniques in his music and greatly expanded what was deemed possible in jazz piano well before Thelonius Monk began his performances at Minton’s. In fact, Monk attributes Tatum as one of his primary influences growing up. Others influenced by Tatum include Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans and Chick Corea. Justification Today’s music is full of a variety of different sounds that are developing all the time. With the advent of the internet and less expensive, widely available instruments, the market is becoming more and more saturated with these new sounds. This is great for the increased diversity of an industry that has been dominated by a few record labels dictating what succeeds and what fails, but it makes it difficult for a new band or a new style to stand out among the crowd. By understanding the factors that helped to bring jazz music out of the cultural group and into the mainstream, these techniques may be repeated as a means of bringing a new sound to the streets. The literature suggests the two primary factors that contributed to jazz’s success were Minton’s Playhouse, dominated by Thelonius Monk on his piano, and the man who influenced Monk, Art Tatum. Limitations In any given movement as large as the popularization of jazz music within the mainstream public, there are going to be numerous factors to consider. Not only are there numerous individuals that participated in playing the music, but there had to be people interested in listening to it, who understood what it was saying. Psychological factors such as how an upper class white person understand the experiences of a lower class African American person as it was expressed in the music should be considered on an individual level. Social factors such as the white person’s access to the music, the political environment that made it acceptable and the limitations this introduced to its expression all should be considered as well. However, all of this is beyond the scope of the current research. Questions The focus of the present research will be on what was done by two primary figures of early jazz. How did they become acquainted with jazz? What was their contribution to the art? What did they do to bring jazz to the attention of the mainstream public? Methodology The methodology used for the present research was a literature review into the history of two of the most prominent jazz artists at the time that the genre broke the cultural barrier. Background research into the topic indicated that Art Tatum was a great innovator of the sound and played a large role in bringing this style of music to the attention of a greater public, but Thelonius Monk, with his steady audience as a member of the house band at Minton’s Playhouse, was responsible for making it accessible. By researching the biographies of these two artists, it should be possible to determine how they learned about this style of music, what they contributed to its development and what they did that helped bring this music to the mainstream public. Understanding these answers will provide a model for new artists to follow as they work to bring new sounds into the public’s ear. Review of the Literature The great jazz musician Art Tatum was born in Toledo, Ohio on October 13, 1909 to a very musically-oriented family. His father played the guitar and acted as an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church while his mother played the piano at the same church. Although the parents anticipated a son destined to join them on the stage, Art began suffering from cataracts while still in his infancy which threatened his chances. This condition caused blindness in one of his eyes and near blindness in the other. Throughout his childhood, he received surgeries and experimental treatments to try to improve his vision. These did have some slight effect, but a physical assault experienced at the age of 20 reversed these effects and again left him mostly sightless (Tanner & Gerow, 1964). Proving that the general wisdom of the day was in error, though, Tatum developed his musical talents, innovating and experimenting with his art, to become one of the greatest jazz musicians of his time. In spite of his blindness and the perceived limitations this placed on him, by the age of three, Tatum was repeating the music he heard on the radio. Even at this age, he demonstrated a preference for the sound of the piano. His parents encouraged him, including sending him to attend the Columbus School for the Blind at the age of 16. Between his Braille lessons, he studied music both at this school and later at the Toledo School of Music under the direction of Overton G. Rainey, a renowned classical pianist. Thus, most of Tatum’s jazz talent was primarily self-taught during his childhood, but his personal instruction and developed sound proved good enough to earn him his own music show on his local radio station two years later. One year after he began at the radio, at the age of 19, Tatum was again playing his piano to a public audience at Ohio’s Waiters’ and Bellmans’ Club backing singer Jon Hendricks. News of the young player’s innovative sounds and lyrical approach began to spread throughout the African American community attracting famous jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Joe Turner and Fletcher Henderson (Tanner & Gerow, 1964). These musicians would offer encouragement and take inspiration from Tatum’s ideas. Even though he had developed such popularity, it wasn’t until 1932 that 22-year-old Tatum teamed up with singer Adelaide Hall. Hall had decided to bring him to New York as her accompanist and, for the first time in his career, his music began to be recorded. The earliest known recording is a 1932 test of ‘Tiger Rag.’ This song was professionally recorded the following year making Tatum a recorded played at the age of 23 (Ricci & Lorenz, 2009). The song was important to his career because it is an excellent example of Tatum’s techniques. It features crashing bass notes, flowing cascades on both hands and a brutally fast tempo that showed off his dexterity. Tatum also participated in ‘cutting contests,’ competing against pianists such as Fats Weller and James P. Johnson for bragging rights which he never lost. Between 1933 and 1938, Tatum traveled around playing his piano visiting many of the large cities with big jazz followings including Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and several locations in England, establishing himself as a major name in jazz circles (Ricci & Lorenz, 2009). He spent the 1940s touring America with his own jazz trio, formed with Slam Stewart on bass and Tiny Grimes on guitar. Producer Norman Granz signed Tatum in 1953, after which he spent most of his time recording. Some of the names he performed with include Benny Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster and Harry Sweets Edison (Ricci & Lorenz, 2009). In his biography of the man and the artist, Ray Spencer claimed Tatum was always “refining and honing down after each performance until an ideal version remained needing no further adjustments” (Laubich & Spencer, 1982). Tatum’s only limitations were the limitations of the people he worked with. An example of his tireless talent is found in the fact that most of his solo sessions were completed, start to finish, in two days (Laubich & Spencer, 1982). In two days, Tatum recorded 69 tracks with such brilliance that only three of them needed more than the first take. Although he was working strongly, Tatum’s musical career was cut short when he died, at the age of 47, of uremia, a form of kidney failure, on November 5, 1956. In his own biography, it is clear that Tatum received his influence from other African American musicians who were already experimenting with the sounds of jazz. In spite of this, he is today recognized as the inventor of swing for the jazz piano as he used fast improvisation techniques and strong embellishment of the melody (Laubich & Spencer, 1982). Not exactly limited under any one single descriptive, Tatum’s music is strongly based on the concept of stride, as can be heard in “Willow Weep for Me.” Tatum’s versions of popular songs are characterized by joyful exuberance but don’t lose any sense of sophistication and intricacy in the process. Even though he usually stayed pretty close to the original melodies, his inventions on the harmony later contributed to the development of bebop and future jazz. In the 30s, jazz had not yet developed the strong improvisational element that characterized it in the 50s. Sometimes, he followed an improvisational inspiration that veered far from the original melody, such as in his use of the pentatonic scale (Laubich & Spencer, 1982). This technique would later be adopted by many other improvisational jazz musicians. Tatum’s contribution to jazz was based on his ability to reharmonize melodies. He did this by shifting the supporting chord progressions or by changing the root movements of the song in order to apply other familiar harmonies (Laubich & Spencer, 1982). Several of his chord and harmonic concepts were well ahead of their time upon his arrival in New York and they would become important features in the be-bop explorations a decade later. His habit of working in some of the upper extensions of chords in his lines was mimicked by future musicians such as Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, both of whom had a significant impact on ‘modern’ jazz (Cook & Morton, 2008). Another addition Tatum brought to jazz was the concept of using dissonance in jazz, which can be heard in his recording of “Aunt Hagar’s Blues.” This song makes extensive use of dissonance as a means of achieving a strong blues-type effect. In helping to bring the sounds of jazz to the mainstream public, Tatum’s repertoires became popular standards in Broadway musicals because the chord progression he introduced gave the music a great deal of variety and energy. His work with the theatre allowed him to prove his talent in voicing, reharmonizing and embellishing melodies (Cook & Morton, 2008). His adaptable style combined elements such as stride, jazz, boogie-woogie, swing and classical techniques to create musical ideas that flowed at a very fast pace. His playfulness and spontaneity enabled him to incorporate quotes from other songs in his improvisations without ever losing his own control over them. As this music was performed on Broadway, the music was able to escape the bounds of the ‘African American’ musician and enter high society. The joyful sound was impossible to ignore while the technical brilliance inspired admiration and recognition. In breaking into the theatre, Tatum broke into the white community on a large scale. Although white people had been introduced to jazz through the theatre, it required something more to bring the sounds into the mainstream sphere. This occurred through the fingers of Thelonius Monk. Named after his father, Monk was born on October 10, 1917 in a place called Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The family would eventually consist of father Thelonius, mother Barbara, older sister Marion and younger brother Thomas (Sheridan, 2001). When he was five years old, the family moved to New York City and settled in Manhattan. It was here that Monk first began playing the piano. Although he had some lessons of his own and often listened in when his sister was engaged in her piano lessons, Monk was also essentially self-taught and spent as much of time as he could playing the piano. He attended Stuyvesant High School but never graduated, choosing instead to follow his passion for music. He’d begun playing jazz sometime earlier and was excited about exploring his ideas on the world stage. He established himself as a musician by touring with an evangelist for a while, working the church organ, but it wasn’t long before he found work as a jazz player (Sheridan, 2001). His most significant influence in bringing jazz to mainstream was during his time working as the house pianist at the famous Minton’s Playhouse, slowly increasing his recordings until he finally got a contract of his own with Blue Note in 1947. The house band at Minton’s took its cue from Monk as they actively encouraged and engaged in musical exploration. This environment encouraged other musicians to stop by whenever they could to sit in to explore their own musical ideas. “Even before the ‘bop’ sessions got under way, musicians who were working up the street at the Apollo would come by after their last show, or even between shows, and sit in with whoever was on the stand” (Baraka, 2003). Monday nights became the most popular night for musicians of all levels of talent and development to join in on open sessions made available by the band’s night off. “For years, at the start of every workweek, jazz musicians from around the city would converge on Minton’s in what Ralph Ellison called ‘a continuing symposium of jazz’” (Feuer, 2005). Musicians that dropped in to play as often as they could included such big-name stars as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. It was through these sessions that modern jazz was given birth as musicians left the strict rules of the directors and the dance floor in order to explore new musical expressions that focused on emotion, energy, harmony and rhythm. It was at Minton’s that Monk fully developed into his own talent. In the smaller setting of the clubs, musicians such as Monk found the freedom to express their creativity in a way that brought forth the new form of music. “It’s where be-bop was born and took off. The polished acts all went downtown, but the experiments took place here” (Claire Haaga, president of Housing and Services Inc. cited in Feuer, 2005). Those who listened to Monk with a well-developed sense of musical history in this genre described his early style as having a strong influence of Art Tatum-like runs and a ‘hard-swinging’ approach. Monk himself indicated his greatest influences were Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson (Sheridan, 2001). Monk developed his style in the same kind of ‘cutting competitions’ Tatum engaged in, in which the musicians would battle it out on their respective instruments. Many historians tend to present the club as if it were the Academy of Jazz in the 1940s because of the effect this had on Monk and many other musicians of the era, but Monk would be the first to disagree with this viewpoint. “It’s true modern jazz probably began to get popular there [Minton’s], but some of these histories and articles put what happened over the course of ten years into one year. They put people all together in one time in one place. I’ve seen practically everybody at Minton’s, but they were just playing. They weren’t giving lectures” (Thelonious Monk cited in Baraka, 2003). It was during these years that Monk was involved with the bebop style that he would later be credited with founding. Although it and Monk came out of the swing tradition, bebop is different from swing in a number of ways. It is characterized by asymmetrical phrasing, fast tempos, expanded rhythm sections in the drums that extended beyond the primary role of time-keeper and the inclusion of intricate melodies that were often improvised upon. It generally had a choppy, fragmented sound that seemed to convey a sense of nervous energy to new listeners, but that introduced an exciting revolution to fans of jazz music and the musicians who played it. Swing was often orchestrated and highly organized, but bebop broke all the rules, typically introducing a theme or main melody at the beginning, allowing for almost all improvisation by the various instruments in the band in the middle and returning to the main theme in the end. According to Tanner (1964), the improvisational pieces worked because they were based upon the primary chords used in the main melody, providing one of the few links holding the piece together. The other link was the underlying harmonies played by the rhythm sections. Monk’s inventiveness in this area of music was commented on by Mary Lou Williams in her columns. According to her, one of the reasons why bebop relied so heavily on improvisation was because it was almost impossible for the music to be duplicated by others without giving proper credit to the original composer. “The boppers worked out a music that was hard to steal. I’ll say this for the leeches, though: they tried. I’ve seen them in Minton’s busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth” (Williams, 1954). Monk described it somewhat differently, as if he just couldn’t bring himself to play the same thing twice. “Everything I play is different – different melody, different harmony, different structure” (cited in Paul, 2007). While many were able to learn the technique, Monk proved himself such a master that he might as well have been giving music lectures from the stage. The next few years would prove a challenging roller coaster ride of success and disappointment for Monk. His earliest confirmed studio recordings were made in 1944 with Coleman Hawkins, who actively sought to gain Monk the recognition he deserved for his innovation and improvisation. The year 1947 was a good year for the young musician. Just on the verge of turning 30, Monk began recording with Blue Note and he also married his sweetheart, Nellie Smith, who would become his greatest supporter throughout his life (Kelley). He was deeply involved in the exciting musical scene at Minton’s, which had a reputation for being the place for a jazz musician to go if they were going to make it anywhere and he was playing with some of the greatest names of the day – Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and, eventually, Miles Davis (Sheridan, 2001). He was also setting trends not only in music but in fashion, as was mentioned by Mary Lou Williams, “even our own guys, I'm afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming. Why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses” (Williams, 1954). Within two years, the successful young couple had their first child, a son they called T.S. Monk, and must have felt the world was fully open to them. This son would eventually grow up to become a successful jazz drummer, following in his father’s footsteps in all the best ways. The 1950s did not start on such a positive note for the musician however. Monk had fulfilled his contract with Blue Note in 1951, which was a shaky year for the artist. In August of that year, Monk was stopped by police as he sat in a parked car with one of his friends, Bud Powell. The police conducted a search of the car and discovered narcotics which reportedly belonged to Powell, but Monk would not testify against his friend and his New York City Cabaret Card was revoked as a result (Sheridan, 2001). This meant that he could not play in clubs that served alcohol, which severely stunted his ability to perform and promote himself. At the same time, he was viewed by many other jazz artists, diligently attempting to focus attention on the serious legitimacy of their music, to be too irreverent in his presentation style. “He would dance at the piano, wear beautifully odd hats, and when he spoke to people he didn’t much like, he tended to be evasive, or short, if he answered at all. None of this helped at first, and Monk spent the years 1947 through 1955 under a virtual African Americanout, rarely performing and recording, known unto only a few of New York’s hardcore beboppers” (Deceptively Simple). Fortunately, Monk was able to gain a new contract with Prestige Records in 1952 so he continued playing in theaters and other venues as well as touring. As a result of this relationship, he was able to make his first Parisian tour and began a lifelong friendship with the wealthy Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, who was patron to many American jazz greats and would play a significant role in Monk’s life (Sheridan, 2001). Under the Prestige label, Monk made a few recordings with Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey, among others, but these were not recognized for their greatness at the time despite the significance they achieved in later years. Even though many people recognized Monk’s brilliance in his music, his albums were not popular because his music was perceived as too difficult. “Monk was extremely sophisticated harmonically and rhythmically, his use of dissonance and the way he’s abrupt is so sophisticated. It takes time to develop an understanding of the tunes, to understand what makes the rhythms or the harmony work, and use that knowledge as a starting point” (Handy cited by Watrous). Riverside solved his problem with appealing to the masses by encouraging him to release a more accepted approach to interpreting pieces by Duke Ellington with the album Thelonius Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington. With this album released and more people listening to him, Monk developed his own music for Brilliant Corners released in 1956. In this album, the difficulty of his music became better appreciated. “Monk wrote knotty, asymmetrical pieces, built on splintered harmonies and sudden sprints and silences; they open up trap doors under any improviser who relies on routine” (Pareles, 1987). Monk signed with Columbia Records in 1962 where he would stay until 1970, when he was 53 years old. Columbia had greater resources to help market Monk to his greater achievements, giving him the means to further his musical career. His first album with them was Monk’s Dream, created in the first few weeks of November 1963 with Charlie Rouse (saxophone), John Ore (bass) and Frankie Dunlop (drummer). This album would become Monk’s best-selling album and gained him an image on the cover of Time magazine (The Loneliest Monk, 1964). With Columbia, he recorded several good albums including Criss Cross (1963), Miles and Monk at Newport (1963), Live at the It Club (1964), Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964) and Underground (1968), but he was beginning to be limited in his amount of output. Only Underground had a significant number of new pieces with the majority of his other recordings being of live performances. On February 17, 1982, Thelonius Monk died of a stroke in the home of the Baroness. Conclusion By studying these two great jazz artists, it is possible to see that they each gained knowledge and experience of their music directly from the African American artists who had come before them. Neither one seems to have accepted much influence from the European classical thinkers of their day, rejecting the music of the dominant culture for something that had greater appeal. Each artist made significant contributions to the development of the music, experimenting with it and making others familiar with this experimentation. Finally, both played a role in bringing this music to the mainstream public by finding ways of bringing it into new social spaces, such as the theatre, and making it accessible to widespread audiences, in the live jam sessions at the socially acceptable club Minton’s and through numerous recordings that documented their brilliance. Works Cited Baraka, Amiri. “Minton’s.” The African Americanlisted Journalist. (April 1, 2003). May 5, 2010 Cardinal, F. “The Music of Your Dreams.” Music and Your Mind. (2006). Cook, Richard & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz. London: Penguin, 2008. Feuer, Alan. “Where Lady Day Sleeps, A Jazz Tradition Awakes.” New York Times. (March 13, 2005). May 5, 2010 Goelet, Francis. “Jazz.” Recorded Anthology of American Music. (2002). New World Records. May 5, 2010 Laubich, Arnold & Ray Spencer. Art Tatum: A Guide to His Recorded Music. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press and the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, 1982. “The Loneliest Monk.” Time. (1964). Ricci, Michael & Michael Lorenz. “Art Tatum.” All About Jazz. (2009). May 5, 2010 < http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4818> Sheridan, Chris. Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Tanner, Paul O. W. & Maurice Gerow. A Study of Jazz. Dubuque, IO: William C. Brown Company, 1964. Voce, Steve. “Obituary: Al McKibbon.” The Independent. August 1, 2005. Williams, Mary Lou. “In Her Own Words.” Melody Maker. (April-June, 1954). May 5, 2010 Zwerin, Charlotte. Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser. Warner Home Video, 1988. Read More