Becca Lindenbaum – Tutorial One
Most jazz critics, especially during the 1920s and 1930s, were white, and jazz recordings spread the sounds of Black musical traditions to those who had otherwise never heard of them before. However, the recordings of these traditions were not always played by Black musicians, so the listeners would be listening to Black music played by someone who was not part of that culture and may not have understood the significance of the music. Something that is important to keep in mind when listening to music is the meanings behind the work. This is important to keep in mind because knowing that jazz was formed during times of terrible racial divide can impact how a listener interprets a work. This is especially important in jazz where Signifyin was often used. Signifyin is used to indicate the rhetorical sense in which a piece is meant. Within jazz, racial divisions and musical blackface were common, as was white people borrowing works, but not fully understanding the meanings behind them.
An issue that some jazz critics and listeners have is the inability to comprehend jazz music since the pieces can be better understood with context. Amiri Baraka says that “[jazz] music cannot be completely understood (in critical terms) without some attention to the attitudes which produced it” (Baraka, 257-258). This is something that most white jazz critics do not keep in mind, and it should not be something that one forgets. Not only does knowing the context add extra depth to the work, but it can also help the listener better understand the meaning of it. While the same could be said about any piece of music, it is especially important to keep in mind while listening to jazz because of the use of Signifyin to communicate hidden meanings. However, many people do not like hearing something new, and prefer to stick with music that they already know. Sidney Bechet talks about how when a Black band started playing jazz music on a boat where most of the people were white, the white people “never heard anything like it … at first they didn’t know what to make of it” (Bechet, 10). He then continues, saying that many people demanded their money back, but after a little bit “they couldn’t help themselves- they were liking it and they were feeling good” (Bechet, 10). It seems that in this situation, the main issue was not the style of music, but rather that it was Black music played by Black musicians. But once they got used to the music, they actually enjoyed listening to it. Baraka brings up a similar point, saying “…they knew it was different…” (Baraka, 258). Baraka is criticizing white jazz critics who just like jazz because it is different and not because of the meaning behind the works. Jazz was seen as “new” and “different”, and many critics liked that.
There were also racial divisions within jazz musicians. Although jazz is seen as a predominately Black-dominated style of music, the first jazz recording was made by white men. In 1917, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band performed a musical blackface. The all-white band mimicked the sounds of Black musicians, so the people who bought their records would hear Black music, played by white people, without giving credit to the Black people who originated these sounds and style. Even a few years later, when jazz became more mainstream, some non-Black jazz musicians were very racist and prejudiced against their Black counterparts. One such musician was Jelly Roll Morton. Mabel Bertrand, Morton’s wife said that “Jelly Roll didn’t like Negroes. He always said they would mess up your business” (Red Hot Pepper, 208-210). This seems very hypocritical since jazz was created by Black musicians and is a primarily Black genre of music. Morton, on the other hand, was creole, meaning he had mixed European and Black descent, and was very prejudiced against Black people. Still, Morton claimed to have invented jazz. It is very doubtful that this is the case, as jazz is a combination of Black musical styles, and works that were made during slavery could be considered the starting points of jazz.
During slavery, slaves sang for a few reasons. One reason that Fredrick Douglass and Bessie Jones both point out was because they were forced to do so. According to Douglass, singing was not necessarily by choice, the overseers and owners wanted to know where the slaves were, so as a result, the music sung was not happy nor cheerful but “they were mostly of plaintive cast and told a tale of grief and sorrow” (Douglass, 83). Since the slaves were being forced to sing, it makes sense that their music would reflect that. Jones elaborates on this, saying that “many of the games used to be what you call ‘talking to the white man in song’” (Jones, 44). This is similar to Douglass’ explanation, that the pieces that slaves sang had hidden meanings, and could be used to rebel against slave owners and overseers. These small rebellions of not being able to say something in words but putting the meaning of those words into a song is a form of Signifyin. One such example of this is when Jones describes “The Buzzard Lope”, and how slaves would “dance to it to keep the white folks from thinking exactly what they were talking about” (Jones, 45). This work was about how one day the white people will remember how they treated the slaves, and while all the slaves knew about this meaning, the white people just thought that it was some fun song.
Occasionally, white people would join in on the pieces that the slaves sung, not realizing that they were Signifyin about them. Jones, and her father, thought of the white people listening to the pieces the slaves would sing and dance to as ignorant and that “they ain’t got sense enough” (Jones, 50). The works would talk about the white slave owners and overseers, and the slaves’ hope of being free, yet they would not realize that the pieces were about them. These small rebellions most likely gave the slaves hope, as it was a way of telling off the white people without getting the punishment of actually doing so. It also provided entertainment for them, seeing the white people doing a dance that was basically telling white people that ‘they are beating us, but we have hope of getting free,’ and Signifyin played a large part in these hidden meanings. These different ways of hearing the pieces emphasize the difference between the Black people who sing these works and the people who are listening to them.
In jazz, white people would borrow pieces by Black people, but did not completely understand the meaning and significance behind the pieces, and racial divisions and musical blackface were common. Baraka and Bechet acknowledge that many jazz critics and listeners liked jazz because it was different, and not because of what the music was Signifyin. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first jazz recording, and Morton claimed to be the inventor of jazz, both of which take away from the accomplishments and originality of Black jazz musicians. Douglass and Jones both talk about music in slavery, and the importance of Signifyin, and how occasionally the people who the slaves would be talking to and about through their works would join in the singing and dancing, not understanding that the piece was about them. Overall, these racial divisions were very common in jazz music.
Bibliography
Baraka, Amiri, “Jazz and the White Critic.” Down Beat, August 15, 1963, reprinted in LeRoi Jones, Black Music (New York Quill, 1967).
Bechet, Sidney, “Sidney Bechet,” in Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now, edited by Robert Gottlieb, 8-16 Vintage Books, 1999
Bertrand, Mabel, “Red Hot Pepper” in Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz”, by Alan Lomax, updated by Lawrence Gusher, 207-222, University of California Press, 2001
Douglass, Fredrick, “Fredrick Douglass” in Readings in Black American Music, compiled and edited by Eileen Southern, 82-87, Norton, 1983
Jones, Bessie, For the Ancestors: Autobiographical Memories, edited by John Stewart, University of Illinois Press, 1983
