Upon
signing up for this course last fall I expected a number of things to come out
of the class. First, I automatically assumed we would learn of some of the big
names of jazz like Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. Little did I know, these
were just two of the many disciples of jazz and did not come close to covering
all genres of the music. While Miles and Armstrong are pinnacles of musical
achievement and innovation, their predecessors and influences were perhaps more
inventing and helped foster their sounds. King Oliver mentored Armstrong, while
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker, some of my newfound favorite jazz
artists, took Miles under their shoulders when he moved to New York in
September of 1944. Secondly, I revised my views of the origins of jazz music. I
had formerly believed that jazz was created sometime in the 1930s as modern
jazz or bebop. I had no idea as to the origin of jazz in New Orleans as a
combination of ragtime and blues, or the historical influences that enslavement
of Africans and the Latin code of slavery had on jazz’s emergence at the turn
of the 20th century. The clash and fusion of African and European,
composition and improvisation, spontaneity and deliberation… will follow us at
virtually every turn in the evolution of jazz (Gioia 27).
Of
the many concepts discussed in class, the idea of a dialogic between artist and
community, as proclaimed by M.M. Bakhtin, has most changed my outlook on how
art and culture emerges. M.M. Bakhtin argues that there must be a
dialogic involved in the creation of an art form jazz. This dialogic
imagination refers to the idea that a musician does not create a new piece
without an intended listener in mind; they take the circumstances of that time
and make it relevant in their art form (Lecture 2/7). Coming into the course this
statement seemed logical to me; the culture reflects the community. But not
until this class did I begin to understand the complex dialogic between the
community and the artists. Dialogue may not be achieved in one direction. There
must be dialogue back and forth. Not only can a community influence artists,
but artists may create and influence communities through their work. Thelonius
Monk, for example, was a product of his upbringing in San Juan Hill. The
violent nature, diversity and segregation of the area led to a distinct sound
in Monk’s piano playing. Through his playing Monk was later able to foster a
unique bohemian community (Lecture 2/26).