Translated by WALTER SCHAAP an d LEONARD G . FEATHER

COPYRIG HT, 1943 , 1944

BY ROBERT G OF F IN

a s !

YALL RIG HTS RESERVED

j 3 G5 PRINTED IN THE UN ITED STATESAT

THE COUNTRY L IF E PRESS, G ARDEN CITY,F IRST EDITION

“

Im pro v i sed ! azz i s the m o s t po ten t fo rce in m u s i c at the

presen t tim e: lo n g m ay i t rem a i n so .

CCEUROY

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONTOM -TOM IN N EW ORLEANSBETWEEN TOM -TOM AND RAGTIMEBIRTH OF JAZZ

THE PIONEERS OF JAZZJAZZ IN EUROP EORIGINAL DIX IELAND JAZZ BANDTHE FORGOTTEN WHITE BANDS

N ew Orle an s Rhythm Kin gs, Co ttOn Pi cke rs ,Califo rnia Ram ble rs

LOUIS ARMSTRONGSMALL WHITE BANDS OF THE TWENTIES

Pe n n i e s an d Mole rs,Bix an d Chicago ans

THE BIG WHITE BANDSBENNY G OODMANSATCHMO AND THE DUKETHE NEGRO BANDS OF YESTERDAYTHE SMALL NEGRO BANDSBIG COLORED ORCHESTRA SFROM SP IRITUALS TO BOOGIE-WOOGIEBEST MUSICIAN S AND RECORDSTHE FUTURE OF JAZZ

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

By A rn o ld G i n grich

Edi to r Of‘Esqu ire

ROBERT G OF F IN was the first serious man o f letters to take jazzseriously enough to devote a book to it. That was back in theearly days Of that other World War, when the word

“j azz” wasstill so new that some people were still spelling it jass .” Thatbook, as it happened, was a book o f poems“ It was n o t until

'

193 0

that Coffin devoted a full-length critical bo ok treatment to thesubj ect

,in Au x Fron tie‘re s da Jazz After that came Pan assié and

Le Jazz Ho t, and Delaunay and the Hat Disc ography, and afterall that came the belated American appreciation Of ja zz as a maincu rrent, if n o t the main current, o f authentic American music.In other words, it took this Belgian, Coffin , and the two French

men, Pan ass ié and Delaunay, to get u s Americans to s i t down

an d listen to j azz, even though we d been hearing it, simply assomething to dance to and talk above, for years .Oh ye s , it can be argued that there was a guy named Gershwinand a bandman named Whiteman and a conce rt away back inthe twenties at Carnegie Hall . But all that only confu sed thematter and delayed the recognition o f real jazz . The only truej azz presented on that intended to -be -historic occasion in ’

2 4 was

o n e number Offered purely as a novelty and meant to be c o ns ide red only as comic relief.It took another ten years , really, before the differentiation between the real thing and the fake began to be clear to u s overhere . What they knew about American jazz in the twenties i nEurope

,and articulated clearly In critical articles, was n o t even

dimly suspected o n this side o f the water until the thirties .It was almost a decade after the false dawn”

o f that GershwinWhiteman concert that the light broke over here, wi th Charles

x INTRODUCTION

Edward Smith’s first article In February ’

34, calledHo t .

” From then on , the way o f the righteous , in theand appreciation o f ho t jazz

,was clear—as clear as

made i t, in comparable articles In French , ten yearsAnd now it has taken another

Coffin on Jazz aIt’s odd that he, who was the first o f the threes io n ari e s o f the now-at-last accepted gospel o fbe the last to take his place o n the short shelffo r every jazz enthusiast. Co llege kids with crew—cut hthose passionate votaries who have made o f jazz record collectingan eighth li vely art

,were suckled on Pan ass ié and cut their teeth

o n De lau n ay’

s Ho t Di scography, but they have had to wait tilln ow fo r their Coffin .(The delay i s readily accounted fo r by thefact that the man had to get o u t o f Belgium with his life, to saynothing o f hi s manuscripts

,but that’s be side the point.)

Maybe i t’s just as well to come to Coffin after the others , atthat.Whi le it i s hard to imagine a more delightfu l initiation intothe mysteries o f hot jazz than would be provided by this boo k,still it must be Obvious that it can be most rewardingly read, orreread, afteryou have acquainted yourself with the literature o fj azz that has preceded i ts publication . Coffin takes you over thesubject as a whole

,it is true, and he does go back to the beginning

every time he takes up another phase o f it,but he augments and

supplements and goes beyond the other writin gs, rather thanattempting to supplant them. In other words , this book 15 a prettyadvanced course in jazz appreciation

,and while you can read i t

Without ever having seen a copy o f either the Ho t Di sc ography orThe Jazz Re c ord Bo ok or Jazzm e n , you c an hardly get everything ou t Of it that

’s in it fo r yo u unless and until you’ve read at

least that far in the writings that are a prerequisite to going allthe way with Coffin in this book. It’s a little like coming in Off

the street to a seminar course in co llege, wi thout at least havingloo ked in on the high school first.This is n o t to try _

to say that Coffin is necessarily the last wordon the subject , or even that this book represents hi s last word onit. But it is to serve fair warning that yo u can

’t expect to argue

INTRODUCTION xi

with him,o r even to agree with him

,o n some o f his more

startling conclusions, without doing some reading , and a lot ofearnes t listening , outside these pages .That there is a lot o f grist fo r arguments should not be surprising. There’s no field in which the experts are so embattled as thisrealm o f hot jazz . Some of them would have a hard time agreeingwith themselves , from o n e day to the next. And I can think o fhalf a dozen o f the more rabid expert-cultists who will haveconniptions over Co ffin ’

s high rating o f the records of the OriginalDixieland Jazz Band

,to cite just o n e o f the many new stands he

takes in this book . It has been fashionable to sneer at those earlyVictors, dating back to

’

17 and’

18 , as possessing merely a ratherquaint historical interest . This is reflected in the fact that

,even

though these are the first listed items in the Ho t Disc ography,and as such should form the foundation o f every record colleetion

,you can still get them with ease, through the regular col

lee ting channels, at about a dollar apiece . On the other hand, thecollectors are now driving each other delirious over o n e particularJohnny Dodds disk(We ary Blu e s o n Vocalion I 563 2 ) with bidso f forty dollars currently commonplace and no deals developing .

That record was made a good ten years after those latterly de5pi sed and low

-rated Original Dixieland Victors .It will be fun to watch what happens, within a meas u rablelength of time after the appearance of this book

,to those Dixie

land prices . After all,when a critic o f Co ffin ’

s stature swings hi sweight behind a band’s recordings

,the effect on collectors ought

to be tantamount to the proverbial value of having been seenwalking across the Stock Exchange floor with Morgan .

Here at Esqu ire , Where we’ve published some o f the ranking

jazz experts,indigenous and imported

,over the past ten years

,

we’re inclined to think o f Coffin as the most matu re,artistically

,

Of them all,and as well balanced, in his judgments , as any o f

them . He’

s picked All-American bands for us, all by himself,only to have the correctness o f his choices later confirmed by theconsensus of a baker’s dozen o f the rest o f the acknowledgedexperts . That’s a remarkable feat

,not the least surprising aspect

Of which is the fact that there ever could he a consensus,since

xi i INTRODUCTION

yo u couldn’t print most of these experts of all the

others !In the light o f that

,perhaps the obvious thing to do

,after buy

ing this boo k and reading this far,would be to lay it down and

rush o u t and buy some Dixieland Victors . Yo u might ultimatelyget the price o f the book back

,o n the investment.

In fact, that’s precisely what thi s impressionable reader has

just decided to do . Right at this point.May yo u find Mr. Co ffin

’

s words equally stimulating !

I. TOM-TOM IN NEW ORLEANS

IT MUST HAVE B EEN about 189 1 when a Negro barber in N ew

Orleans , named Buddy Bolden , picked up his com et and blewthe first stammerin'g notes Of jazz , thereby Unconsciously breaking with several centu ries o f musical tradition . A half-centu rylater

,jazz

,America’s great contribu tion to music, has crossed the

threshold o f the university and i s about to be seriously, evenreligiously, considered .

At the outset o f this stu dy, it is imperative that I dwell , if onlyfo r a moment

,o n the tru ly profound meaning o f this innova

tion . The history of jazz has a social significance of which I amquite aware and which I am fond of stressing . At the very momentwhen America goe s to war to defend the democratic sp irit againstthe totalitarian challenge

,it i s fitting to remember that, in the

last twenty years,j azz has done more to bring blacks and whites

together than three amendments to the Constitu tion have donein seventy-fiv e .

It’

s about time that America take pride in the tremendouscontribution of a music whose originality and character havealready captivated the European mind . It

’

s about time thatAmerica take pride in those who will surely rarflc high o n thehonor roll of artis tic immortality : Louis Armstrong , Duke Ellington , and some others . lt

’

3 about time that American intellectu alsadopt

,as their own

,a thing in which all Bum pe fervently be

li e v e s , and find in it a source of a new and tru ly movi ng formof sensibility.

It would be pretentious on my part to say that I di scoveredjazz , but I can claim to be the first to have paid serio u s atte n tiOnto it. In 19 19 , enchanted by the Negro jazz o f Louis Mitchell, I

2

wrote a long article in a literary review, Le Disqu e Vert . Com

ple tely c arried away by this new form o f artisti c sorce ry and, Iam proud to relate, by the playi ng of Sidney Bechet, who was amember Of the orchestra, I stated, rather clums ily i t

’

s tru e, thatj azz could touch on ly the primitive hearts among civilized people.I liked it, I said, because it was a music which appealed to thesenses and be cause, to feel it, you didn

’t have to close your eyesecs tatically an d c

iu p you r hands aroun d your ears in the man ner

o f the audience at a concert of serious music . I had already noticedthe difference betwe en jazz mu sicians

,real creators who Openly

man ifested their joy in playing, and our classical musician s, whoto o often affected a melancholic passivity.

In a slender book of poems which appeared in 192 0 wi th apreface by Jules Romains, and bearing the title Jazz Ban d, I sangi n verse o f all the elusive and di abolical emoti on awakened bythis new lyrical challenge . In 192 7 I was bu sy with the first jazzmagazine in the world

,Mu sic , and a little later I published In it

chapters from my book,Au x Fro n tie re s du Jazz, which was to

appear in 193 I . The American magazine Fortu n e was niceenough to acclaim this boo k as the first work to completelyexplain America’s new artistic message. The author Of this articledeclared fu rther that I seemed to know more of the Negroes thandid Carl Van Vechten him s elf, even adding that many details inmy book testified that I must have spent every night of my lifein Harlem .

Needless to remark, at that time I had never se t foot inAmerica ! But such was my love and enthusiasm for jazz that

,

together with all the experience which I had accumulated inalmost a quart

ier o f a centu ry during which jazz had be en con

stan tly at the ase of my emotional activity, this impression wascreated .

I am rather proud to think that I was the first In the world todraw the distinction technically between hot and commercialjazz . I even had the audacity, o n the strength of a few records ,to dedicate my book to Louis Armstrong, the real King o f Jazz,

”

explaining that Paul Whiteman had been wrapped in an u n

merited mantle .

JAZZ 3

My boo k was n o t translated because o f i ts decidedly u n c ompromising attitude . In restoring their true artistic meaning to

musical values which had been upset by clever if not intelligentco m m e rc ialize rs , I think I helped to clarify the issue . I: attacked,with violence, Paul Whiteman , Ted Lewis , and Jack Hylton ,who were then at the summit o f their renown ; I praised orchestraleaders like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington , and FletcherHenderson .

Before anyone else , I said that the great gen i uses of jazz werenone other than Louis Armstrong, Du ke Ellington , Earl Hines,Bix Beiderbecke

, Coleman Hawkins . I still back this choiceeven at the present time n o more than two or three names c an

be added to it. My right to approach this su bject again i s vindicated by the lines with which I closed my first book :

If I wished to be complete, I am afraid that many more chapterswould be necessary. But, since jazz does n o t stop but go es o n , how isit possible to complete i ts sto ry at any one point? I realize that eventswhich I believed cu rrent have already slid back into the past whichlevels all impressions; I know that things which I liked are no lon gerpleasin g when seen through the prism o f distance; I know that contacts which were intimate only ye sterday will be forgo tten tomorrow.

N evertheless there has been,“on the fronti e rs o f jazz,” a chokin g

atm osphere, a fiery climate, a strange poetry, which has agitated o u r

In the wonderful simplicity o f jazz songs, I have redi scoveredpoetry in i ts purest state; the pr0phe ti c sobbing o f popular tunes hasgone straight to my he art; n o r can I think without a shudder o f thatmarvelous N egro lyricism which Europe knows only by a few revuesand dances and songs which are but the hellish sign o f a deeperbeauty.

To discover jazz, one must go to the poem s o f Langsto n Hughes,and feel the syncopated pulse be ating in the so lo s o f Lo u Is Armstrongor in the irrational outbursts o f the St. Lo u i s Blu e s .

Jazz was the first form o f surrealism. The N egroe s fe lt the primenecessity of neutralizing rational control in orde r to give free playto the spontaneou s manifestation s o f the s u bconscious. Jazz isthe highest manifestation o f surrealism be c ause it was practiced bymusicians, some times an onymous and nev e r cultu red, who submitted

4

to this passio n without havin g first rati o n alized the ir adhe re n ce to thisfre n zi ed lyric ism.

I might have co n cluded by speakin g o f the future o f jazz an d o f i tsinfluenc e o n

“se rious” musi c. I might have me n tio n ed the in flue n ceo f Au n t Hagar

’

s Blu e s , who se theme was o f treme n dous se rvice toDariusMilhaud i n his Cre a ti o n o f the Wo rld . I might have examin eda certain pre te n tious fo rm o f jazz which I dislike in spite o f the

musico logists who have acclaimed the Rhapsody i n Blu e as the

greate st co n tribution o f jazz. I might have spoke n o f the arran tstupidity o f certain Critics , o n e o f whom wro te only a little whileago that he pre fe rred the Ted Lewi s ve rsion o f St. Lo u is Blu e s tothe Armstro n g.

Alas ! I might have said so man y mo re thin gs, but I have thought .

it bette r n o t to ove rburden the chapte rs o f a bo ok, the mo st beautifulpart o f which has n o t been writte n .

I published that in 193 2 , and I do n o t retract a word o f it. Buttoday I turn my attention back to those pages which I left u ntouched some fourteen or fifteen years ago . Since that time ourknowledge o f j azz has been considerably widened; Le Jazz Ho t

by Hugues Pan ass ié , Am erican Jazz Mu s ic by Wi lder Hobson,

Jazzm e n edited by Frederic Ramsey, Jr ., and Charles Edward

Smith are solid contributions to the stu dy of syncopated music. Ipropose to examine here the essential elements of the historyo f jazz, together with certain corollary artistic, emotional, andphilosophical considerations .Jazz 15 the American Negro branch of music . It has interested A

the intelligence o f Europe and the world inasmuch as it has beena revolution

,a rupture with musical tradition an d a

o f departure . It often happens that intelligent but ill-i npersons ask me

,

“Do you prefer jazz to classical music?” or else,

-

“

Is jazz better than classical music?” These questions are, o f

c ourse,idiotic .

In order really to understand the evolution of jazz as a parallelto

,o r better

,as o n e result o f, classical music, the most intelligible

thing that can be said is that, at the begIn n In g of the twentiethcentu ry, music experienced an evolution which was common toall the arts .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6

o r Raphael. On e must seek not the Oppositi on , but the sense o fcontinuity an d the new contribu tion .

The discoverer’s lot i s not a happy o n e . When the modernpoetry of Walt Whitman or o f Rimbaud was being born , noteven the most highly qualified pe rsons understood i ts message .Even today the great s urrealistic endeavors o f Breton, Eluard,and others are misunderstood . This is because a new art generallybreaks with the existing rules

,and, as there are no standards upon

which to base criticism, it can be studied only with difficulty. Itis only when this art has attained i ts fu ll vitality and graduallywo n popularity that it can be successfu lly codified .

Thus after twenty years a form o f poetry which was derided asunintelligible has wo n i ts way into the theater and music hall.Similarly

,the window dressers o f Fifth Avenue have rounded

the cape o f surrealism . And jazz, which only yesterday was a

source of ridicu le, has today won i ts struggle—a victory which isacknowledged by all save the older generations who se minds arestill in the past.All this mus t be explained. I should like this survey to indi catethe reaction of the intelligent youth to this new phenomenonwhose tru e importance wi ll be revealed only later. I should likethis stu dy to signify the beginning of a new consciousn ess, onewhich will demonstrate i ts constru ctive power in both the criticaland the technical field, and, more particularly, in the relationswhich jazz can an d must have wi th the theater and the cinema .We shall Speak o f the history o f j azz

‘

from both the scientificand the poetic points o f View. At each stage we shall considercertain ideas which, till now, have been neglected by the critics .

The activity of the afic io n ado s o f j azz has too often been limitedto listening to records o r orchestras and to drawing comparativeconclusions as to the value of the instrumentalists concerned. Iti s high time that jazz be subjected to a

'

serious and methodi calanalysis .N o t long ago

,a Columbia professor presented a scientific paper

in which he asserted that jazz owes nothing to African music. Ihave a good deal of respe ct for science in general

,and anthropol

ogi sts in particular, but I consider such an Opinion as a very

JAZZ 7

serious mi sconcep ti on which only s u pplem e n

published in Sep tember 9 , 1909 , by the New York Su n

THOSE CONGO MELODIESWhen Lafcadio Heam went to N ew Orle ans in 1880 or 188 1 he

was in spired by very much the same purpo se, though in a more conc en trated form, that animated Gottschalk in the 503 . He wen t thereto trace to their ori ginal sources the Congo melodi es and their strangewords. He did other things fo r a living fo r then he was very po or.He wrote edi torials and other matter fo r the Tim e s-Dem ocrat; he alsotranslated into English some o f the wo rks o f Theo phile Gauti er, PierreLoti , Cu y de Maupassant, and other French wri ters. But the realunderlying purpose o f his quest was the Congo songs, and that purpose he pursued wi th heightened and sleepless energy, un known tohi s fine “

soc iety” friends who made much o f him and have sincetalked and written much with strange fervency.

Hun dreds o f people kn ew all about Lafcadio Heam in those days,and they bri dled and chattered accordingly, but in the hour o f hispoverty and enthusiasm he lived among the voodoo ,

was housed infact wi th Marie Lavoux,

the tit u lar queen, and he studied the wildchant and the awe-soun ding v o lc e s o f the Congos in the hOpe of

locatin g their primal Spring. A quarter o f a centu ry be fo re himGo ttschalk had undertaken the same que st. He was a mu s ical genius,a pianist o f the hi ghest order

,and into the Bambou la and other aston

i shi n g arrangements o f“

Congo” melodies he injected hi s divin eafflatu s . Heam was a poe t, a dreamer, and a literary genius. Buthe had heard the music that Gottschalk wove into his compo sitions. He felt he kn ew in his amazing mind that throb and spuro f the wild symphonies an d antiphonies that enchan ted the bayo uSaint John and the Pontchartrain that stirred the souls o f students;but he li ke Go ttschalk realized at last that there was n o N egro music.The strains he heard were barbaric

,yet familiar

,and it came to him

at last as it came to all other enlightened investigators previ ously thatthe ste rling tun es he heard were more or less adaptations. The Frenchand Spanish songs and lullabies the slaves had heard in Hayti, SanDomin go, or Louisiana, through the windows o f the "

big hou s e,”

they translated according to their capaci ty in to coheren t Congochants . It is now known that the crooning songs the old Negromamm i es o f N ew Orleans utter to their little charges Les Croc o f

diles ,” “

Le s Deux Canards”—and a hundred other nursery caden zas

8 JAZZ

are n o thing mo re n o r le ss than fumblin g tran spo si tio n s an d arran gecivilized music .

i s i n this coun try, at leas t, n o African o r Co n go music . The

de scenden t n ative chants to the accompan iment o f the tom -toms aren o t music i n an y se n se o f the term. Ce rtain ly they are n o t the i n

spiratio n o f the beautiful i f me lan cho ly music to which the N egro e so f America have devo ted the ir tale n ts an d

k

i

jsti n c ts . N o thin g o f

ccours e will arre st the chase afte r African mus '

In 1909 Professor Krehbiel wrote an answer to prove that hi sfriend Lafcadio Heam was convinced of the African ori gins o fthe N ew Orleans folklore .But Lafcadio Heam himself had given an eloquent reply tothis inaccurate accusation when he had described an impressiono f syncopated scenes in Two Years i n the Fre n ch We st In d i e s ,about 1878 :

The me lan cho ly, quaverin g beauty and_weirdne ss o f the N egrochant are lighte n ed by the Fren ch , in flue n c e o r subdued an d de epened by the Span ish. Down the street he go e s le apin g nearly his ownheight—chan tin g wo rds without human s ign ific ati o n

—an d fo llowedby three hun dred boys, who fo rm the cho rus o f his chant—allclappinghan ds toge the r an d givin g to n gue with a simultaneity that testifie show stro n gly the se n se o f rhythm e n te rs i n the natural musical feelin g o f the Afric an —a fe e lin g powe rful e n ough to impo se itself uponall Span ish-Ame rica an d the re create the un mistakable characteristicso f all that Is called Cre o le music.His chan t is cave rnous, abysmal—bo oms from hi s ches t like thesound o f a drum be aten In the bo ttom o f a we ll an d all Chantafte r him , in a chan ting like the rushin g o f many waters, an d withtriple clappin g o f han ds.

Albert Friedenthal‘

has explained in his book Mu szk Tan z

u n d Di chtu n g be i de n Kre o le n Am e rikas , how rhythm passedfrom the Congo to America

From a musical po in t o f View,the in flue n ce o f the African o n the

West In dian Cre o le has been o f the gre ate st sign ifican c e, fo r through

their c o—ope ratio n there aro s e a dan c e fo rm—the Haban era—whichspre ad itse lf through Roman ic Ame rica . The e sse n tial thin g i n pureN egro music, as is kn own, is to be sought in rhythm. The melodic

JAZZ 9

phrase s o f the N egro e s c onsist o f en dless repe titio n s o f sho rt se riesof notes, so that we can scarcely speak o f them as melodies in o u r

sen se o f the wo rd. On the o ther han d, n o Europe an shall escape theimpre ssion which the se rhythms make. They literally bo re themse lvesinto the consciousn ess o f the li stene r, irresistible an d penetrating tothe verge o f to rture .

This was the music described by Vem ey Lovett Cameron in hi sboo k Ac ro ss Afri ca , speaking particularly of a Congo m u s i cIan

On arrival he seated himself on the ground,surrounded by his

friends, and then c omm enced a mon otonous recitative. In this heaccompanied himse lf by shaking a rattle made o f baske twork shapedlike a dumbbell

,while the circle o f attendants jo in ed in a cho rus,

sometimes strikin g their be lls and at o thers laying them down andc lapping their hands in a kind o f rhythmic cade n ce.

This rhythmical influence of the tom -tom had been remarkedin hi s Prim i tiv e Mu s i c :

ican m u SIc , the n ,is the pre fe re n ce fo r

rhg hm over me lody (when this is not the so le consideration) ; theun ion o f song and dance; the simplicity, not to say humbleness, o f thesubjects cho se n ; the great imitative talent in co n nection with the

music and the physical excitem ent from which it arises and to whichitappears appropriate.

Jazz, like any artistic phenomenon , represents the su m o f anaddition . The factors of this addition are

,to e mind , African

music,French and American music

,and folklore .)

It would take too long and be hardly worth the/tro u ble to drawup a complete balance sheet of the relationship between jazz andAfrican music—i t would require a full boo k to do it well . I shouldlike merely to point out that Coeu roy and Schae ffn e r have paidparticular attention to this question in their boo k, Le Jazz. Weshall content ourselves here with an attempt to gain some insight

in to it through a brief review of the history of slavery .

The white European colonists n eeded labor to replace theIndians

,who had the unfortu nate habit of dying o ff when in

enforc ed serv itude . They found the answer in a third race o n/a

third continent . From the beginning of the seventeenth century,

IO

the cruel an d in human slave traders were se IZIn g the blacknatives o f Africa and transporting them in foul

,overcrowded

vessels to America .The poor slaves , roughly torn away from the ir

'

n ativ e soil, theirand their families

,were treated like cattle. What could

they brin g with them from their native vi llages in the Congo?g—o r rathe r, no ma terial goods . The re rem aincdo n ly the

hidden mi ght o f memory,and this

,deep down in their hearts,

their former lifeWith an emo tional significance.explains why African music—in all i ts simplicity, an d

its lowes t common denominator, the tom-tom—re

flu e n c e , sym bolic o f a happier existence.has Visited the Congo an d been present

ceremonials will recognize the same expression still flourishingin o u r present-day drumm ers .At first the Negroes of Loui siana had more liberty than those

o f the English colonies . This partly explains why the necessarycrystalliza tion was later to take place in New Orleans and notelsewhere.The control o f the puritani cal Anglo-Saxons over their slaves

was such that it qu ickly stifled any ancestral survivals . On theother hand, the Negroes in the cotton fields o f the MississippiValley could continue to express their artistic folklore . For severalgenerations the cult of the tom-tom survived as an essential andall-powerfu l element in the social life o f the slaves !Lafcadio Heam had been much interestedby is new form

o f music and had noted in his book, Two Ye ars i n the Fren ch

The o ld African dance s, the Cale i n da an d the Bélé (which latte ris accom panied by chanted im pro v iza ti o n ) , are danced o n Sundaysto the soun d o f the drum on alm ost every plan tation in the lan d. Thedrum,

in de ed, is an instrument to whi ch the coun try-fo lk are so muchattached that the y swear by it, Tambou! being the o ath uttered uponall ordinary occasion s o f surprise or vexation. But the in strument i squite as o fte n called “

ka,” because made out o f a quarter-barrel

, o r

quart, in the patois “

ka .

” Bo th ends o f the barrel havin g be en re

mo ved, a we t hide , we ll wrapped about a couple o f h00ps, is drive n

JAZZ I I

o n , an d In drying the stretched skin obtains still further ten sion. The

other end o f the ka is always left Open . Across the face of the skin astring is tightly stre tched

,to which are attached

,at intervals o f about

an inch apart, very thin fragments o f bambo o o r cut feather stems.These lend a certain Vibration to the tone s .In the time o f Pi ne Labat the N egro drums had a somewhat di f

fere n t form. There were then two kinds o f drums—a big tamtam an d

a li ttle one, which used to be played together. Bo th consisted o f skinstightly stretched over o n e end o f a cylinder, or a section o f a hollowtree-trunk. The larger was from three to four feet long, with a diam e te r o f from 15 to 16 inches ; the smaller,

“

Bao u la,”

was o f the

same length, but on ly eight or nine inches In di ameter.

The skilful player(be l tambouyé) straddles hi s ka stripped to thewaist, an d plays upon it with the fin ge r

-tips o f bo th hands simul

tan eou sly, takin g care that the v ibrat ing strin g occupies a horizonta l

positi on. Occasionally the heel o f the naked fo o t is pressed lightlyor vigo rousl

yagainst the skin so as to produce changes o f tone. This

is called gi v in g heel” to the drum—bailly talon. Meanwhile a boykeeps striking the drum at the uncovered end with a stick, so as to

produce a dry, clatte ring accompanimen t. The sound o f the dru mitself, well played, has a wild power that makes an d masters all theexcitement o f the dance—a complicated double ro ll, with a pe cu liarbillowy ris ing and falling. The creole o n om atOpe s , b

’

lip-b’

lip-b’

lipb’lip, do not fu lly render the roll; fo r each stands . really fo r a serieso f sounds to o rapidly fli pped out to be imitated by articulate spe ech.

The tapping o f a ka can be heard at surprising distances ; an d expe ri

e n c ed players o ften play fo r hours at a time withou t exhi biting we ariness, or in the least diminishing the vo lume o f sound produced.

ev olution which took place can readily be imagined . Bythe second gen eration

the French language had be come themeans of communicati on . Some remn ants o f Katanga o r of theUeles ’ tongue were mixed in

,but little by little the linguistic

heritage died away. Lafcadio Heam even discovered some traceso f Voodoo influence

,and he wrote in a letter :

Your friend i s right, n o doubt, about the“Tig, tig, m alabo in

La chelema che tangoRedjo u m !

”

12. JAZZI asked my black n urse what it me an t. She o n ly laughed an d shook

he r head : “

Ma i s c’

e s t Vo u do o , ca ; je n’

e n sa i s ri e n !”

“We ll, said I,“do n "t yo u kn ow an ythin g about Vo u doo songs?

”

“Ye s , she an swe red;

“I know Vo u do o so n gs; but I can’t tell yo u

what they me an .

”An d she broke o u t in to the wilde s t, weirde st ditty

I ever he ard. I tried to write down the wo rds ; but as I did n o t kn owwhat they me an t I had to write by soun d alo n e , Spe lling the wo rdsaccordi n g to the French pronunciatio n .

But the African o rIgIn of certain words and o f the music wasdemonstrated before 19 14 by H . E . Krehbiel when he explained

v/

(

The re is n o thin g pe cu liar to these Ame rican fo lksongs i n this recurrent re frain

,but it i s wo rth no ticin g that the fe ature in the fo rm

o f an altern ating lin e o f im pro v i zati o n an d a reite rated burden isfound throughout Africa.

“

The ir style is the re citative broken by afull cho ru s,

” says Sir Richard Burton, speaking o f the pe ople o f thelake regio n o f Central Africa. Carl Mauch, i n hi s “

Reise n in Sti dAfrika, says o f the music o f the Makalaka that it usually consistso f a phrase o f eight measures , repeated ad i n fin i tu m ,

to which are

sun g im pro v ized ve rses with a re frain.

Heam was so deeply moved by this African music that he haddecided to stu dy the evolution o f this expression

,and he wrote

to Krehbiel about his intentions

Somethin g about the curious wanderin gs o f the se grio ts throughthe yellow de se rt n o rthward in to the Maghreb coun try

,o ften a so li

tary wan derin g; their pe rfo rman ces at Arab camps o n the longjourney, when the black slave s came o u t to liste n an d weep; thenthe hazardous voyage in to Co n stan tinople , whe re they play o ld Co n goairs fo r the great black popu latio n o f Stamboul, whom n o laws orfo rce can keep within do o rs when the soun d o f grio t music is heardi n the stree t. The n I would spe ak o f how the blacks carry theirmusic with them to Pe rsia an d eve n to myste rious Hadram an t, wherethe ir vo ic e s are he ld in high e steem by Arab maste rs . Then I wouldtouch upo n the transplan tati o n o f N egro me lody to the An tilles andthe two Ame ricas, whe re its stran ge st black flowe rs are gathered bythe alchemists o f music al sc ie n ce an d the pe rfume the re o f extractedby magic ian s like Go ttschalk.(How is that fo r a begin n ing?)

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I4 JAZZ

prolonged rattling o f two huge beef bo n es upon the head of a cask,o u t of whi ch had been fashio n ed a so rt o f drum o r tambourin e calledthe bamboula . As the dan cers took the ir plac e s

,the rattlin g settled

into a steady drummin g, which the N egro who wi e lded the bonesmain tai n ed, wi thoutsun set put an e n d to o f the slave swere the Calinda, a the Voodo oce remon ie s , an d the dance o f the Bamboula, bo th o f which wereprimari ly based o n the prim itive dance s o f the Afric an jungle, butwith c0p io u s borrowin gs from the c o n tre—dan se s o f the French. The

movemen ts o f the Calin da an d the dan ce o f the Bamboula were verysim i lar, but for the evo lutions o f the latter the male dan cers attachedbits o f tin or othe r metal to ribbons tied about their ankles. Thusaccoutered, they pranced back an d forth, leapin g into the air andstamping in unison, oc cas ionally shouting “

Dan se z Bambo u la! Badoum! Bado u m !” while the women, scarcely lifting their feet fromthe ground, swayed their bodies from side to side an d chanted an

ancient song as mo n oto n ous as a dirge. Beyond the groups o f dancerswere the children, leaping an d cavortin g in imitatio n o f their elde rs,so that the enti re square was an almost solid mass o f black bodiesstamping and swaying to the rhythmic beat o f the bones upon thecask, the frenzied chanting of the women, and the clan ging o f thepiece s o f metal which dangled from the ankles o f the m e n .

2

”

This eviden ce leaves not the slightest doubt as to the survivalOf‘t he African tradition . I think it certain that the importantrole o f the drummer, from the very beginning of jazz, m ay betraced back in d ire c t line to the African tom-tom beaters . At thebase of jazz , then , we rhythmic expression forming acounterpoise to the traditional music o f the inhabitants o f theMississippi Valley)A friend of mine, who had just arrived from the BelgianCongo

,accompanied me to the Savoy in Harlem a few months

ago . For quite a while we stood watchingthe drumm ers of LuckyMilli n de r and the Savoy Sultans . My fri end was bowled overwith surprise, for, he exp lained, certain solos by each drummerhad exactly the rhythm of the Congo tom-tom, and furthermoretheir gestures reproduced the physical motions of thei r ancestors

”Raid , pp. 2 42-43 .

15

‘ of two centu ries ago, in so far as these are exemplified by theidentical movements o f the contemporary CongoHe added that certain parts of the Lindy Hop

” are very sim ilarto analogous movements of the Congo dancers , aroused by thetom -toms hammering out a simple but very moving rhythm intothe tropical night.What was the second factor Which went to make up jazz? InL iana, and particu larly in New Orleans, the tradition ofFrench po pular music survi ved . To understand exactly whattook place

,gaps in the remaining historical evidence must be

bridged by the use of poe tical imaginati on .

The slave trade was a monopoly of the Mississippi Company,which landed the first Negro slaves in Louisiana in 17 12 . By172 5 the Negroes outnumbered the whites in a population o f

about five thousand . This was the time when GovernorBienvillepromulgated his Black Code, the first article of which, strangelyenough, was directed at the Jews .

Toward the middle of the centu ry the new governor, theMarquis de Vaudreuil , tried to trans plant the splendor o f Ve rsailles to the far-o ff colony . It was a period of considerabledevelopment for New Orleans . It contained six taverns . The saleof alcohol to Negroes and Indians was prohibited . It was a colorfu lperiod in which the only inhabitants of Louisian a were whiteadv enturers who made the perilous journey to the far-o ff banksOf the MISSISSIPPI . The problem o f marriage became acute, andthe French Co v em m e n t tried to solve it by the whole sale expedition of women o f easy virtu e , such as Manon Lescaut. Thesewere married o ff as soon as they landed

,regardless o f the fact

that they came straight from prison .

The pres e nce of handsome children o f mixed blood in thefollowing generations demonstrated that the settlers to ok greatcare to break their own inhuman laws . This intermediary p0pu lation o f quadroons and oc toroons was generally released from thebo nds o f slavery.

The end of the century was the period of Spanish rule,a

pe riod which left few traces,inasmuch as France became once

again the mistress o f Louisiana in 1800 . Soo n the expansion o f

pro longed rattling o f two huge bee f bo n es upon the head of a cask,o u t o f whi ch had been fashio n ed a so rt o f drum o r tambourine calledthe bamboula . As the dancers to ok the ir place s

,the rattling settled

into a ste ady drummin g, which the N egro who wielded the bone smaintained, wi thoutsu nset put an e n d to o f the slaveswere the Calin da, a the Voodooceremon ies , an d the dance o f the Bambo u la, bo th o f which wereprimari ly based o n the pri m itive dances o f the African jungle , butwith copious bo rrowin gs from the c o n tre—dan se s o f the Fren ch. The

moveme n ts o f the Calinda an d the dan ce o f the Bamboula were verysimi lar, but for the evo lutions of the latter the male dan cers attachedbits o f tin or othe r metal to ribbons tied about their ankle s . Thusaccoutered, they pranced back an d forth, le apin g into the a ir andstamping i n uniso n , o ccasionally shoutin g “

Dan sez Bamboula! Badoum! Bado u m !” while the women, scarcely liftin g the ir feet fromthe groun d, swayed their bodies from side to side an d chanted an

ancient song as mo n o to n ous as a dirge. Beyond the groups o f dancerswere the children, le apin g and cavortin g in imitation o f their elders,so that the entire square was an almo st so lid mass o f black bodiesstamping an d swaying to the rhythmi c beat o f the bones upon thecask, the frenzied chantin g o f the women, an d the clangin g o f thepieces o f metal whi ch dangled from the ankles o f the men.

2

“This evidence leaves not the slightes t doubt as to the surv ivaloi t he African tradition . I think it certain that the importantrole o f the drummer, from the very beginning of jazz, _

may betraced back in d i re c t line to the African tom-tom beaters . At thebase of jazz, then , we find

—

Affifi fi rhythm ic expression forming acounterpoise to the traditional music o f the inhabitants o f theMississippi Valley!A friend of mine, who had just arrived from the BelgianCongo

,accompanied me to the Savoy in Harlem a few months

ago . For quite a while we stood watching the drum m ers of LuckyMillin de r and the Savoy Sultans . My friend was bowled overwith surprise

,for

,he explained, certain solos by each drummer

had exactlythe rhythm of the Congo tom—tom,and furthermore

their gestures reproduced the physical motions of their ancestorst id., pp. 2 42

—43 .

15

of two centu ries ago, in so far as these are exemplified by theidentical movements o f the contemporary Congo

,"

He added that certain parts of the Lindy Hop are very sim ilarto analogous movements o f the Congo dancers, aroused by thetom-toms hammering o u t a simple but very moving rhythm intothe . tropical night.What was the second factor Which went to make up jazz? InL ian a, and particularly in New Orleans, the tradition ofFrench popular music survived . To understand exactly whattook place

,gaps in the remaining historical evidence must be

bridged by the use of poe tical imagination .

The slave trade was a monopoly of the Mississippi Company,which landed the first Negro Slaves in Louisiana in 17 12 . By172 5 the Negroes outn umbe red the whites in a populati on o f

aboutfiv e thousand . This was the time when Governor Bienvillepromulgated hi s Black Code

,the first article of which, strangely

enough, was directed at the Jews .Toward the middle of the centu ry the new governor, the

Marqui s de Vaudreuil , tried to transplant the Splendor o f Ve rsailles to the far-ofl colony. It was a period of considerabledevelopment for New Orleans . It contained six taverns . The saleof alcohol to Negroe s an d Indi ans was prohibited . It was a co lorfu lperiod in which the only in habitants of Louisian a were whiteadventurers who made the perilous journey to the far-o ff banksof the Mississippi . The problem o f m arriage became acute, andthe French Co v em m e n t tried to solve it by the whole sale expedition o f women o f easy Vi rtu e, such as Manon Lescaut Thesewere married o ff as soon as they landed

,regardless o f the fact

that they came straight from prison .

The presence of handsome children o f mixed blood in thefollowing generations demonstrated that the settlers took greatcare to break their own inhuman laws . This intermediary p0pu lat ion o f quadroons and octoroons was generally released from thebonds o f slavery.

The end of the century was the period o f Spanish rule,a

period which left few traces,inasmuch as France became once

again the mistress o f Louisiana in 1800 . Soon the expansion o f

t s JAZZ

comm erce and the development o f New Orleans multiplied thenumbers Of taverns , cafés , gambling dens, and joints in general,which

,nestled in i ts pictu resque slum s

,gave the port i ts reputa

tion as a great city of pleasure.Soon a new century brought considerable changes; France soldLouisiana to America, and, o n e by o n e , the French tradi tionsglimmered away. This was the attractive period o f rich Creolecotton planters, with their ho i table mansions and their romanticduels under the mossy oaks . e an while , French music, whichhad been temporarily steeped in the Spanish, maintained i tsVigor. A French Opera house was built, and it became a centero f the social life o f N ewOrleans.But the Negro slaves did not frequent the theater. The musicalpatrimo ny to which they did have access was French popularmusic . Folk songs

,dance tu nes of the pe rIOd, polkas, mazurkas ,

quadrilles,military marches , fu neral marches—these were thewhich the Negroes were in contact"

succeeded generation , tITe twhmusical poles o fAfrican rhythm and

,folk song fought against each other fo r

control o f the interior\Iife of the Negro . By some strange proc esso f osmosis, m u tu al infl

uence, and fusion , the two gave birth to

jazz many decades later..The middle of the

“

n ineteenth centu ry was the troubled andpassionate period in which an aristocratic society, with i ts socialtraditions

,outmoded codes, and formalistic duels, was slowlyay, to die in the convulsions of the Civil War.affairs—for example, the celebrated Quadroon Ballsgallant planters selecte d mistresse s from among the

beautifu l girls of mixed bloo d—the Negroes learned the populartunes . These they unconsciously transformed, because their ins tin c ti v e rhythmic sense alte red the melody of the French songsto fit a syn copa ted background.

Toward I 8so certain ma‘

sq/uerade groups organized remarkable

parades,replete with song , which developed later into the internafamous Mardi Cras celebration .

was the cultu ral medium in",which was nou rished thegerm which was to develop into jazz.

JAZZ 17

Fre ed by the Civi l War,the Negroes could celebrate in the

Ope n what they had previously perform ed in the shadows . After'

188o the tradition o f the dances in Co ngo Square continued .

Dancing to the tom-tom was still a source o f high elation to theN egroesCI3Ke picturesque scenes of Congo Square came to an end whenthe city adm inistration divided the place into lots . Henceforth

,-o n

Sunday afternoons , the Negroes o f the town and its environscame together in an abandoned yard o n Dumaine Street . TheSpectacle hadn’t changed; entranced couples swayed and stampedtheir heavy feet, and the same grimaci ng and ecstatic black buckbeat o u t the rhythm on a donkey skin . Asbury cites the words ofa correspondent of a New York newspaper who attended o n e o f

these African orgies

A dry—go ods box an d an old po rk barrel fo rmed the o rches tra . The sewere beaten with sticks o r bo n es , used like drumsticks so as to ke epup a continuous rattle, while some o ld m e n an d wome n chanted aso n g that appe ared to me to be purely African in i ts man y voweledsyllabific ati o n . Owing to the noise I could n o t even attemptto catch the wo rds . I asked several o ld women to recite them to me,but they only laughed an d shook their heads. In their pato is theytold me—“no use, yo u c ould never understand it. C’

eSt le Co n gOI—i t

is the Congo !” The dance was certainly pe culiar, an d I observed thatonly a few o ld pe rsons, who had probably all been slaves, knew howto dance it. The women did n o t move the ir fee t from the ground.

They o n ly writhed their bodies and swayed i n un dulato ry mo tionsfrom ankle s to waist. The m e n leaped an d perfo rmed feats o f

gym n astic dan cin g which remin ded me o f some steps i n the jo taArago n e sa . Small bells we re attached to the ir an kle s. “

Vo u s n e c om

pre n e z pas c e tte dan se -ld?”

an Old woman asked m e . I did n o t altoge the r unders tan d it, but it appeared to be mo re o r less lascivious asI saw it. I o ffe red the woman some money to rec ite the wo rds o f theCo n go so n g. She co n sulted with anothe r and bo th we n t o ff shakingthe ir heads . I could obtain no satisfaction.

“

After the Civil War the generation o f former slaves kept themSense o f inferiority . Their children made better use o f their)

8Herbert Asbu ry, The Fren ch Qu arter, pp. 2 52—53 .

18 JAZZ

liberty. You ng Negroes tried to strenuou s labor ofplantati on and port, attempting to o u t o f their love form u sic a supplementary profession5 Soon the N egroes began to imitate musical ceremonies o f

tes . At picnics,balls

,and burials/, music was a neces sity.

y but surely a hybrid form of music—wi thout rules andwithout limits—was developed .

To un derstand this phenomenon, we must try to recaptu re itsa tmosphere. About I 890 some Negroes who could not readmusic compensated for their ignorance through exceptionalqualities of inventiveness and memory. Ou t Of such an i n s ign ificant fact W

as to Spring an essential and pe rmanent featu re o f

jazz 11195l !

These N egroes were po or and illiterate, but from father toson they had handed down the melancholy work songs o f thecotton fields and docks . The song was altered to suit the circu m stan c e : the stone breakers accompanied their hammer blowswith tu nes marked by a strongly accentuated beat; the water v e ndors uttered long, syncopated wails . All o f these intermingledand developed, working toward a now-imminent crystallization .

Those who had the inclination were chosen for the occasionswhich called for musical celebration . Being poo r people

,they po s

se ssed only the cheapest instruments . There was a sort of classstruggle going on among the musical instruments . Only therich owned th e nobler instruments—Violins, cellos, pianos—theNegroes had little contact with them . In the beginning they hadto content themselves wi th lesser instruments , particularly thosepracticable for military bands . The purchase o f an old tu ba o r aclarinet was an important event in the life of a Negro . It was aform of liberation w ich permitted the musician to avoid themore arduous labors .In certain u n méhtio n able dives reserved for criminals andlongshoremen

,the musical labor o f Negroes replaced that of

whites because it was cheaper. Thus gradually the dregs o f theNew Orleans population were subj ected to a hybrid music, wi thout a name but with ce rtain characteristics which revolted re

spe c table people and which they mocked .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 0 JAZZ

tunes persisted fo r several generations . For example, there wasa march played by the bands of every French Village, whichwas tran s rm ed into H igh So c i e ty . Just remove i ts syn copatedrhythm and you’ll have the original theme .Th ere should be musical scouts entru sted with the task o f

tracing these songs to their sources . Another piece on the repertory o f the military band o f my village in Belgium was a quickstep whose melodic line was modified at N ew Orleans

,where it

became known as Pan am a .

This kind o f reincarnation i s o n e of the most im po rtan L an dinteres ting phenomena in the stu dy o f this American music . It i sreally incredible when you think about it : tunes born in Franceand popularized some five thousand miles away by trainedmusicians

,then passing into the realm of folk song

,where they

were transmuted by ignorant musicians who repeatedly alteredthem until the day arrived when a more gifted instrumentalistfixed their basic themes forever,[ Before arriving at this final stage, that o f jazz, Negro music

passed through a number o f more or less transitory types . Therewere the coon-songs or lullabies , plan tation songs, and the songswhich the N egroe s sang while dancing the cakewalk, thatgrotesque dance which dated back to the dark days o f slavery.

There were the melancholy plaints which were finally to become the blues

,and there were the Spiritu als, an arranged music,

codified and controlled by the preachers .JohnMason Brown , in the Lippi n c o tt

’

s Magazi n e of Decem be r1868 , analyzed the primitive music of the slaves in the Southernstates and traced the following subdivisions :

1 . Religious so n gs, e .g. ,

“

The Old Ship o f Zion,” where the refraino f

“Glo ry,halle lo o

” in the cho rus ke eps the congregati o n well togetherin the si n gin g an d allows time fo r the le ade r to re call the next verse.

2 . Ri ve r so n gs, compo sed o f single lin e s separated by a barbarousan d un me an in g cho rus an d sun g by the deck hands and roustaboutsmain ly fo r the howl.3 . Plan tati on so ngs, accompanyi n g the mowers at harvest

,i n

which the stro n g emphasis o f rhythm was mo re impo rtan t than thewo rds .

JAZZ 2 1

4. Songs o f lo n ging; dre amy, sad, an’

d plaintive airs de scribin g themo st so rrowful picture s o f slave life, sung i n the dusk whe n returning home from the day’s wo rk.

5. So n gs o f mirth, who se o rigin and meanin g, in mo st cases fo rgo tten, were pre served fo r the jingle o f rhyme an d tun e an d sun gwith me rry laughter and with dancing In the even in g by the cabinfires ide.6. Descriptive songs

,sun g in chanting style, with marked em

phas is an d the pro longation o f the concludi ng syllable o f each line.On e o f these songs

, founded upon the incidents o f a famous ho rserace, became almost an epidemic among the N egro e s o f the slav eho lding States .

The birth of jazz was now imminent. The music was no longerfolk song and n o t yet jazz . It was something strange and i n

definable ; i t was a cry of lament and of joy pi ercing through thenight from the fabulous red-light district

,Storyville . Arn o n g the

unbelievably numerous bars of Basin Street,inside the legendary

ho t Spots i n which gambling,alcohol

,and vice flourished

,there

came into the world an as yet u n baptizAn incredible period which was later to prove a gold mine forthe American stage and screen ! Storyville was the only section o fan American town legally se t aside fo r vice . Guidebooks gave allthe available information about the best addresses : The G re e nBo ok o r The G e n tlem an

’

s G u ide to N ew Orle an s , the Red Bo ok,the Blu e Bo ok. Here were listed all the names o f creatures whoalready belong to the past : Tom Anderson , the evil saloonkeeperand boss o f the reserved quarter; Mamie Christine ; Lulu Whi te ,the madame ofMahogany Hall ; Abbie Reed, madame of a houseo n Delo rd Street, who was seriously wounded by her lover;Gertrude Livingston—“Queen Certie” o f the red-light district;Kate Townsend ; Minnie Haha ; the elegant mansion of JosieArlington ; Countess Willie Piazza, and the evil frequenters o f“The Real Thing .

”

The red lights gleamed in the warm nights . A clarinet wailedout i ts woes into a narrow gaslit street which never felt the heavytread o f the policeman . Customers drank hard liquor, the girlsonly half listened to the music as they discussed the latest scandal .

2 2 JAZZ

Nothing remains of all this but a music which has con que redthe world . Nothing remains but the cruel memory o f the days o fslavery

,when Creole planters spent money recklessly

,fought

duels on the slightest provo cati on, and kept beautifu l quadroo nsas mistresses .Walk through the streets o f New Orleans . Yo u may glimpsethe shades o f these haunted figures o f the past—see ! perhaps thatface which fades into the blackn ess o f the night at the com er o fPerdido Street is the phantom of the handsome

‘

Marquis deVaudreuil . There, a bit farther o n , is the asylum where the firstgreat jazz musician gasped o u t hi s last breath in 193 1 . The echoo f a sob still reverberates in the deserted streets of the FrenchQuarter but it i s only the first tragic cry o f a new artthat jazz to which the gates o f every city in the world were toOpen . There, i f you but look, lie the romantic and passionateelements of the music which we all love.

II. BETWEEN TOM-TOM AND RAG TIME

IT IS G ENERALLY made to appear that by some miraculou s strokeof good fortune Buddy Bolden appeared like a bolt from the blue,and jazz was born . That i s the impression given by most accountsof his career . The evolution of jazz a§ described in Jazzm e n hadno intermediate stages between the tom-tom and King Bolden .

Fo r Ramsey and Smith have taken the description o f the CongoSquare tom-tom background from Asbury’s Fre n c h Qu arter, andhave proceeded immediately to Bolden’s syn copated playing .

Until very recently I too thought that this was indeed the case .I was wrong . This inaccurate impression was due to the lack ofdependable information as to the popular music o f New Orleans .From the description given by Herbert Asbury we have beenable to reconstruct the origin and the culmination o f this NewOrleans music

,but not the intermediary period o f transition . As

a matter of fact, a long and unknown evolution had slowly trans

JAZZ 2 3

formed the tom -tom beat into jazz music considerably before thefirst great c om e ti s t o f the Delta City made his appearance in189 1 .

Asbury describes the dances of Congo Square as a v eritablyAfrican scene in which one or more tom-tom beaters hypnotizedthe Negro participants .80 it was when these Congo Square dances were first in au gurated, an d during the first half o f the century . But

,little by little,

the Negroes were afle c ted by contact with the melodic music o fthe whites . The process is readily comprehensible . The Negroes,underprivileged, were impressed by the music of their richmasters and incorporated it into their playing . On the other hand,the whites , proud and complacent, di sdained the crude be auty o fthe African rhythms .Slowly but s u rely the music o f Congo Square evolv ed . Anorchestral music was substituted for the primitive tom—tom. Ev i

dence is necessary to prove that this natural transformationactually took place

,and I had the good fortune to discover a

few extremely important pages which illustrate this proc ess ofevolution from pure rhythm to polyphony .

Lafcadio Hearn has given a description of the music whichoriginated in New Orleans be tween 1860 an d 1880

I fear I kn ow nothing about Creole music or Creo le Negroe s. Ye s ,I have seen them dance; but they danced the Congo and sang a purelyAfrican song to the accompaniment o f a drygoods box beaten withsticks or bones and a drum made by stretching a Skin over a flourbarrel. That sort o f accompaniment and that sort o f music you knowall about; it is precisely similar to what a score o f trave llers havedescribed. There are no harmonies—only a furious contretemps . Asfo r the dan ce—i n which the women do not take the ir feet o ff theground—i t is as lasciviou s as is possible. The men dan ce very differently, like savages , le aping in the air. I spoke o f this Spectacle in mysho rt article i n the “

Century.

”

The Creo le songs which I have heard sung in the city are Frenchyin construction, but possess a few African characteristics o f me thod.

The darker the singer,the more marked the oddities o f in tonation.

Unfo rtunately, the mo st o f tho se I have heard were quadroons o r

24 JAZZmulatto e s. On e black woman sang m e a Vo u do o so n g, which I go tCable to write—but I could n o t s in g it as she san g it, so that the musicis faulty. I suppo se yo u have se e n it alre ady, as it fo rms part o f theco lle ctio n .

After many researches Lafcadio Heam had even discovered aCreole song with direct African i n flu e n ée s . Afro -Am e ric an Fo lkSo n gs , by H . E . Krehbiel

,quotes this private letter

He re is the o n ly Cre o le song I kn ow o f with an African re frain thatis still sun g—don’t show it to C .

, it is o n e o f o u r tre asure s .1

(Pronoun ce “

we n day,”

Ou e n dé, oue n de, macaya !MO pas barrasse, macaya!

Ou e n dé, o u e n dé, macaya !Mo bo is bo n divin, mac aya!

Ou e n dé, o u e n dé, macaya !Mo man gé bo n poulet, macaya !

Ou e n dé, ouende, macaya !Mo pas barrasse, macaya !

Ou e n dé, oue n de, macaya !Macaya!

I wro te from the dictati on o f Louise Ro che. She did n o t know the

me an in g o f the re frain —he r mo ther had taught he r,an d the mo ther

had le arn ed it from the gran dmo the r. Howeve r, I foun d out theme an in g, an d asked he r if she n ow remembe red. She le aped i n the

air fo r joy—appare n tly. Ou e n dai , o r ouende, has a difle re n t mean ingin the e aste rn Soudan ; but i n the Co n go , o f Fio t, dialect it means “

to

go ,” “

to co n tin ue to ,” “

to go o n . I found the wo rd in Je an n e st’

s

vo c abulary. The n “mac aya I foun d i n Tu riau lt’s “

Etude s u r le Language Créo le de la Martin ique ”

:“

ca veut dire mange r tout le temps”“

exce ssivement.” There fo re , he re is o u r tran slation

Co o n ! go o n ! e at e n o rmously!I ain ’t o n e bit ashamed—e at outrage ously!

Co o n ! go o n ! eat prodigiously!I drink go od wine!—e at fe ro c iously!

Co o n ! go o n ! e at unce asin gly!I e at go od chicke n —go rgin g myse lf!

Co o n ! go o n ! e tc .

IH . E. Krehbi el’

s , Afro -Am eri c an Fo lk So n gs , pu bli shed by G . Schirm er, In c .

2 5

How Is this fo r a linguistic dIsco v e ry? The music is almo st preciselylike the American river mus ic—a chant, almo st a recitative, unti l thee n d o f the lin e 15 reached : then fo r your mo cking music!

An d in the N a tio n of May 3 0, 1867, we find thi sf

im po rtan t

descri tion o f the assa e from the “

s iri tu al to s in in scenesP P 8 P 8 8

But the benches are pushed back to the wall when the formalmeeting is over, and old an d young, men and women, sprucely dre ssedyoung men, gro tesque ly half—clad field hands—the women generallywi th gay handkerchie fs twi sted about their heads and with sho rtskirts—boys with tattered shirts and men’s trouse rs

,youn g gi rls bare

fo o ted, all stand up in the middle o f the flo o r, an d when the “sperichil” is struck up begin first walking and by and by shuffling around,o n e after the o ther, in a ring. The fo o t i s hardly taken from theflo o r, and the progre ssion is mainly due to a jerking, hitching mo tionwhich agitates the entire shouter and soon brings out stream s o f perspiration. Some times they dance silently, sometimes , as they shu fli ethey sing the cho rus o f the Spiritual

,and sometimes the song itself

is also sung by the dancers . But more frequently a band, compo sedo f some o f the be st singers and o f tired shouters , stand at the side o fthe ro om to “b ”ase the others

,singing the body o f the song an d

clapping their hands together or on the kn ees . Song and dance arealike extremely energetic, and often, when the shout lasts into themidd le o f the night, the monotonous thud, thud o f the feet preventssleep within half a mile o f the praise-house.

To tell the truth,by 1880 the dances of Congo Square no

longer were as described by Asbury. The author of The Fre n c hQu arte r was deceived by ou tdated witnesses . No o n e has yetnoticed that his account of that extraordinary Spectacle was takenfrom the diary of J . C . Flugel

,a G e rm an traveler who had been

in New Orleans in February 18 17 .

That is why the book Jazzm e n leaped all unknowingly fromthe prIm ItIv e period to jazz itself. By 1880 j azz was in gestation ,the conditions which were to make its birth possible were underpreparation . What had be come of the music which had se t theNegroes dancing In Congo Square? The lines which follow willshow how the orchestra was gradually built up . The evolution o f

2 6 JAZZ

the drum toward i ts present manufactu red form was clearly indic ated. The banjo appeared as the indispensable instrument itwas to be for the early jazz orchestras . Finally came the wind instr umen ts . One fact stands o u t clearly in the following doc ument :until this time the orchestra was almost exclusively rhythmic

,and

rhythm was to rem ain as the solid background of a jazz orchestra .The time was at hand fo r the melodic instrum ents to be addedThis magnificent page

,which reveals hitherto obscure facts

,

was written by George W. Cable in the Ce n tu ry Magazi n e for1885 :

The drums we re very long, hollowed, often from a single piece o fwood, Open at o n e e n d having a sheep or go at skin stretched acro ssthe other. On e was large, the other much smaller. The tight skinheads were not held up to be struck; the drums were laid along o nthe turf an d the drummers bes trode them, and beat them on the headmadly with fingers, fists , an d feet, with slow vehemence on the greatdrum and fiercely and rapidly o n the sm all o n e .

Sometimes an extra perfo rmer sat on the ground behind the largerdrum

,at i ts Open end, and beat upon the wo oden sides o f it with two

sticks . The smalle r drum was o ften made from a jo int or two o f verylarge bamboo, in theWest Indies where such could be got, an d thi sis said to be the o rigin o f i ts name, fo r it was called bamboula.

On e impo rtan t in s trumen t was a gourd partly filled with pebbles orgrains o f co rn, flourished v i o lently at the end o f a stout staff withone hand and beaten upon the palm o f the o ther.Other pe rfo rmers rang trian gles, an d o thers twanged from jew’

s

harps an astonishing amount o f sound ! An o ther in strum ent was thejawbone o f some ox, horse, or mule, an d a key rattled rhythmicallyalong i ts weather-beaten tee th. At times, the drums were re in forcedby o n e o r mo re empty barrels or casks beaten o n the head with t heshan k bones o f cattle.

The author continue s his de scripti o n o f this ensemble,which

included at least six musi cians, and adds others, including o n ewho played a sort of marimba, and then notes :

But the gran d instrument at last, the first Vio lin, as one might say,was the ban jo. It had but four strings, not six : beware the dicti onary.It i s not the “

favorite instrument o f the Negroes o f the southern

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 8 JAZZ

The y were Creole songs ! The extract quoted by Cable wasfrom an old Louisiana ditty called Ma Layo tte . The Negroe s,who had long ago broken down the French o f their masters intoa delightfu l pato is , handed down touching plaints in this dialectfrom generation to generation . The French words were mutilated : fo r instance , the old Negroes were called c o c odrille s(a c o rruption of crocodiles . Can this have any relation to the alligators” o f and the younger were baptized tro u lo u lo u s(c o rruption o f a slang word fo r crabs) .

Specialists are needed to study these moving songs which dotthe threshold of jazz . The primitive psychology o f their authorsmerits particular attention . As Cable remarks, they have a po e ticalaspect which 15 most interesting. They are the songs of a downtrodden and long-suffering race for whom outward nature offerslittle o f interest. There Is no trace in these naive couplets o f thebeauties o f landscape 01 season , o f verdure o r flower

,of su n o r

!The Negro confined hi s song to the fiv e or s ix fu nctions whichencompassed the whole of hi s earthly existence. Love was hi s ,and toil , and anger, and superstition , and malady.

” Love hi s 1111mediate and most impo rtant goal , sleep his balm, food hi sstrength , dancing his pleasure, rum his cup o f forgetfulness, anddeath the gateway to the great unknown which might permit thedisinherited to return to the African paradise o f hi s ancestorsthese were the things o f which the Negro sang .

Such airs were very popular be tween 1880 and 1890 . Somehad different rhythms and were the accompaniments for variousdances called the Babo u ille , the Cata , the Co u n jaille , the Calinda,the Voudou , and the Congo . In these dances we can find all thechoreographic elements of the contemporary Susy Q, Big Apple,and Lindy Hop . Cable noted particularly that the movements o fthe dancers were unique in that they were o f the upper bo dyrather than of the legs and feet.Certain parallels are most intriguing . I couldn’t help thinking

o f the Saturday night amateur contests at the Savoy in Harlemwhen I read the following description of the Congo Square orgiesof the ’

8o s

JAZZ 2 9

N ow fo r the fran tic le aps ! N ow fo r frenzy! Ano the r pair are in thering. The m an wears a be lt ofilittle be lls, o r, as a substitute, little ti nvials o f shot “

hram -hram so n n efte t i ’ An d still ano ther couple enter thecircle.What wild—what te rrible delight! The ecstasy rises to madn ess;o n e—two—three o f the '

dan c e rs fall—blo u c o u to u m ! boum! -with foamon their lips and are dragged out. The mus icians know n o

fatigue; still the dancers rage on.

Qu an d pata te la c u i te n a 17a m an ge li .

(Whe n that ta ter’

s c o oked do n’

t you ea t i t u p .)

The author mentions certain nonsense lines which are aclear Indication of the scat songs o f a later date .

N0 o n e has yet studied this very interesting period of Louisianafolklore . Ye t this m u SIc is highly important . It is indeed surprisi n g that the Americans of the time did n o t savor i ts appeal . Itwas almost universally disdained as an unworthy manifestation o fart. N o t until after the birth of jazz was this rich poetical veinfirst tapped , and then by a New Orleans composer who hadstudied in Paris , Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Between 1890 and1905 Gottschalk devoted his time to recapturing the moods ofthe plaintive and fervent Creole music . During his concert tourin Europe at the beginning o f the present century he seems tohave enchanted Dv o iak with these new rhythms .Hi s sister

, Clara Gottschalk, wrote in 1906

Dr. Dvo rak has claimed there i s in time to be a native schoo l o fAmerican music based upon the primitive musical utterances o f theIndians and the N egro e s among us. Then truly these melodies o f theLouisiana N egroes, which, quaintly merry or full o f a very ten derpathos, have served to ro ck whole generations o f Southern children,are historical documents o f some interes t to the studen ts and loverso f music.

After a concert o f Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a European criticwrote : “Nothing i s more interesting to hear than the compositionso f these young Creoles . Listen to the Bam bo u la , and you willunderstand the poetry o f this tropical clime .”

These various popular songs which inspired Loui s MoreauGottschalk are collected in a bo ok/o f Slav e Son gs from the Un i ted

3 0 JAZZ

State s , edited by Charles P .Ware . The titles alone illustrate thenaive po etry of these di tties : La Be lle Layo tte , Voyez Ce Mu le t-la,Po

’ Pe ti ’ Mam ze , En Av an t , G re n adie r, Papa Va a la Riv i era.

Here i s the translation o f the fin al triplet of this last song, whichi s about the calalo u , a Creole soup made with crabs :

Papa go e s to the riv er .

Mam m a go e s to fish for crabs .

Sle ep on , sle ep o n , crabs i n calalou .

Here are the unexplored headwaters of jazz. About I 890 theof Congo Square came to an end when the

Negroes trans ferred their activi ty to the vacant lo t o n DumaineStreet.Little by little the great choreographic Sabbath changed i tsaspect

, as contact wi th the whites increased . Certain colo redmusicians were permitted at the Quadroon Balls

,as we are t e

minded by another old couplet which informs u s that only thetro u lou lo u musicians could penetrate into the sanctu m where thewhi te patricians received the beautifu l quadroons.)

Ye llow girlgo e s to the hall,N igger lights he r to the hall.

Fiddler m an !

N ow wha t is that to yo u ?

Say what i s tha t to you ?

Fiddle r m an !

Thus Cable concludes hi s vibrant testimony,in 1886

Times have changed an d there is nothing to be regretted in the

change that has come over Congo Square. Still a glamour hangs overi ts dark past. There is the patho s o f slavery, the po etry o f the weakOppressed by the strong, an d .o f limbs that danced after toil

,and o f

barbaric love-making. The rags and semi-nakedn ess, the bambouladrums, the dance, an d almo st the ban jo are gone but the bizarremelodies and dark lovers o f rhythm live on.

Times had changed and a new era was beginni ng—the e ra o f

ragtime . Ragtime music existed before it was so christened, and it

JAZZ 3 1

was to retain that name until about 19 15, when it was rebaptized“j azz .” Many o f the attributes o f j azz music already were presentin the earliest rags .In 19 14 Irving Berlin , when interviewed about the

'new musical phenomenon

,called syncopation by the magazine The a tri cal

M irro r, s tated, “Syncopation i s nothing but another name forragtime. The compositions o f the old masters pq

sse ss it in a stiffand stilted way. Modern ragt ime isJust what was ragtime

,really? Irving Schweike , an American

music critic, gave a long explanation o f it, which I quote

The m u s i c al term ragtime is not o f recent in ven tion. It originatedyears ago at a southern dance when one o f the darkies present askedthe band to repeat a certain piece. To their ques tion which piece hemeant, th e darky replied, “

The one that had a ragged tim e to it, a so rto f ragtime piece.” His explanation was so nice that, years after theyhad forgotten the originato r o f the expression, the players con tinuedto

l

refe r to the piece as “the -ragtime nu m be r.”

\\ About 1890 some Negro amateurs had diges ted and unifiedthis multiple musical folklore : African music

,Creole songs ,

popular French tunes , Congo Square tradition, Colored music ian s had attended the Quadroon Balls

,where they had picked

up the popular dances : polkas,mazurkas , quadrilles . At the time,

this dance music was so important that explanatory books werepublished . A m an named Wirth published a Com pleCall Bo ok in which he describes the fiv e figures of the newdance

1 . First four forward to center2 . Chase by couples to right between side four in a star3 . Join right hands, circle in a star4. Circle back with left hands5. First four chase to the left to center.

At the time there was a considerable number of tunes whichhad been imported from France and other countries

,notably

She ldo n ’

s Po lka Qu adrille , the Pres ide n tial Po lka , the Lan c e rs ,the Pra iri e Qu e e n , the Fre n ch, and the Cake -Walk Qu adrille s .

3 ° JAZZ

State s , edi ted by Charles P .Ware . The titles alone illustrate thenaive po etry of these ditties : La Be lle Layo tte , Voyez Ce Mu le t-la ,Po

’ Pe ti ’ Mam ze , En Av an t, G re n adi er, Papa Va a la Riv i ere .

Here i s the translation o f the fin al triplet of this last song , whichi s about the calalo u , a Creole soup made with crabs :

Papa goe s to the riv er.

Mam m a go e s to fish for crabs .

Sle ep on , sle ep o n ,crabs in calalou .

Here are the unexplored headwaters of jazz . About 1890 the

scen es of Congo Square came to an end when the

Negroes transferred their activi ty to the vacant lo t o n DumaineStreet.

by little the great choreographic Sabbath changed i tsaspect

, as contact with the whites increased . Certain coloredmusicians were permitted at the Quadroo n Balls, as we are t eminded by another old couplet which informs us that only thetrou lo u lo u musicians could penetrate into the sanct u m where thewhite patricians received the beautiful qu adro o n s l

Ye llow girlgo e s to the ball,N igger lights her to the hall.

Fiddle r m an !

N ow what i s that to yo u ?

Say wha t i s tha t to you ?

Fiddle r m an !

Thu s Cable concludes his Vibrant testimony, in I 886

Times have changed an d there is nothing to be regretted in thechange that has come ove r Congo Square. Still a glamour hangs overits dark past. There is the patho s o f slavery, the po etry o f the weakOppressed by the strong, and .o f limbs that danced after toil

, an d o f

barbaric love-makin g. The rags and semi-nakedn ess, the bambo u ladrums

,the dance

,an d almo st the banjo are gone but the bizarre

me lodies an d dark lovers o f rhythm live o n .

Times had changed and a new era was begIn n In g—the era o fragtime. Ragtime music existed before it was so chris tened, and it

JAZZ 3 1

was to retain that name until about 19 15, when it was rebaptized“j azz .” Many of the attributes o f j azz music already were presentin the earliest rags .In 19 14 Irving Berlin , when interviewed about the

'

n ew musical phenomenon called syncopation by the magazine Thea tri c alM irror, stated,

“Syn copation i s nothingbut another name fo rragtime . The compositions o f the Old masters possess it in a stiffand stilted way. Modern ragt ime is syn copation .

”

Just what was ragtime, really? Irving Schwerke, an Americanmusic critic

,gave a long exp lanation o f it, which I quote

The mu sic al term ragtime is not o f recent inven ti on. It originatedyears ago at a southern dance when one o f the darki es presen t askedthe band to repeat a certain piece. To their ques tion which piece hemeant

,the darky replied

,

“The one tha t had a ragged time to it, a so rt

o f ragtime piece.” His explanation was so nice that, years after theyhad forgo tten the originator o f the expression, the players continuedto re fer to the piece as “

the ragtime number.”

\ Abou t 1890 some Negro amateurs had diges ted and unifiedthis multiple musical folklore : African music

,Creole songs ,

po pular French tunes, Congo Square tradition, Colored musi

c ian s had attended the Quadroon Balls, where they had pickedup the popular dances : polkas

,mazurkas , quadrilles ! At the time,

this dance music was so important that exp lanatory boo ks werepublished . A m an named Wirth published a Com ple te Qu adrilleCall Bo ok in which he desc ribe s the five figures of the newdance :

I . First four forward to center2 . Chase by couples to right between side four in a star3 . Join right hands, circle in a star4. Circle back with left hands5. First four chase to the left to cente r.

At the time there was a considerable number of tu nes whichhad been imported from France and other cou ntries, notablyShe ldon ’

s Po lka Qu adrille , the Pre s ide n tial Po lka , the Lan c ers ,the Pra iri e Qu e e n , the Fre n ch, and the Cake -Walk Qu adrille s .

3 2 JAZZ

There are some who assert that ragtime began at St. Louisand then worked i ts way down to New Orleans v ia the Mississippi Ri ver bo ats before 1890 . There was a great improvisernamed Louis Chauvin who played tu nes by ear, S i nce he couldn

’tread . This Is the period when the rags o f Scott Joplin , a coloredmusician who even essayed an Operetta

,were in vogue . Played

by illiterate pianists like Louis Chauvin and Tom Turpin, theScott Joplin rags were all the rage about 1890 .

3 Such ti mes as these were the music heard by fifte e n -year-o ldNegro boys of the ’

905. They knew the veritable African sceneso f Congo Square only by reputati on , and their musical folklorewas already the mélange we have jazz originatedby choral and orchestral groups of i s a possibility.

Here i s what Herbert Asbury has t ay about origin o f j azzan account used by Edna Ferber to provide the background toher best seller

,Saratoga Tru n k:

, On e o f the mo st popu lar o f these combin atio n s—though n o t fo r

dancin g—was a compan y o f boys, from twe lve to fifteen years old,who called themse lves the Spasrn Band. They were the real creatorso f jazz, an d the Spasm Ban d was the o riginal jazz band. There wereseven members besides the manager and prin cipal organizer, HarryGregson, who was the singer o f the o u tfit—he crooned the po pularsongs o f the day through a piece o f gas-pipe , sin ce he couldn

’t affo rda prope r megapho n e. The musician s we re Emile Lacomb, otherwiseStalebre ad Charley, who played a fiddle made o u t o f a cigar-box;Willie Bu ssey, bette r kn own as Cajun , who pe rfo rmed entrancinglyupo n the harmo n ica ; Charley Stein, who man ipulated an o ld kettle,a c ow-be ll, a gourd filled with pebble s, an d o the r traps and i n laterlife be came a famous drumme r; Chin e e , who smo te the bull fiddle ,at first half a barre l an d late r a c o ffin -shaped co n trapti on built by theboys;Warm Cravy ; Emile Be n rod, calledWhisky, an d Frank Bussey,kn own as Mo n k. The thre e last-named played whistles and variousho rn s, mo st o f them home -made, an d each had at least three i n strume n ts

,upo n which he altern ated. Cajun Bussey and Stalebre ad

Charley could play tun e s upon the harmo n ica an d the fiddle, an d the

o the rs c o n tributed whatever soun ds chan ced to come from the irin strume n ts . The se they playedwi th the ho rns i n hats, standin g uponthe ir he ads, an d in te rruptin g themselves o ccasionally with lugubrious

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

34 JAZZ

selves or learned a friend’s style o f playing, and thlrs the verymethods of playing instruments were transformed .

The European school taught the technique o f the slap tongue”

fo r the brasses ; that Is to say, the player didn’t puff out hi s cheeks

,

and he m i nimized the work o f the brea th . Fo r this,the Negroes

substituted an em pirical system which may seem grotesque atfirst

,but which gave s u ch extraordin ary results that profes sors in

Europe an conservatories couldn’t believe their ears when they

heard Louis Armstrong play.

The new Negro school went i ts own way. At the time whenBuddy Bolden began to play, there were several orchestras whichfunctioned at private parties , picnics , and burials . One such bandwas that of Adam Olivier

,which had Tony Jackson on piano and

Bunk Johnson on com et. New Orleans was indeed a city withan enormou s appetite for music . During the Mardi Cras carn ivalsome two hundred m u s ic 1an s—professionals and amateurs—weremobilized into active duty.

tMan y o f these musicians were hired during the day to playon large wagons which toured the streets , advertising dances o rother events . It would have taken a very clever person to predictthe fu ture o f this embryonic art . There were no fixed laws regulating even the most essential elements o f jazz. There was only agroup o f Negroes who had unconsciously discovered a newprocess

,and who continued to play without knowing just how

to go about it. Its environment inevitably reacted upon the formation of the syncopated music . The early orchestras

,having to

march in the streets of uptown New Orleans o r to play in thelimited Space of a moving wagon , were forced to discard heavyand unwi eld

yinstruments like the piano, and sometimes even

the dru m s .t

/

For several years the soul o f jazz was absent from i ts music

!jazz was at the crossroads . What remain ed o f the great fusion o flthe African music of Co ngo Square and the French music of theQuadroon Balls? The Negroes were now using European i n struments and seemed to have abandoned the complicate d pe rcu ssm napparatus which had served them so well in the pasts

JAZZ 3 5

Then Buddy Bolden brought his group together behind hi sshOp in Franklin Street. By day he cut hair and Shaved beards ;by night he blew his horn at dances . Soo n his talents as impro v i se r and instrumentalist made him a celebrity, and therewas a great demand for the services of his fiv e -piece band , whichin cluded Willy Cornish o n valve trombone, Jim mie Johnson onstring bass, Brock Mum ford o n guitar, and Willy Werner o rFrank Lewis o n clarinet.

'At the present time Buddy Bolden is made out to be an epochalfigure, his importance in the history of jazz seems to be overwhelming

,and legends are woven abo ut his person : he was some

what o f a scoundrel and sot, he never pa id his musicians , hedelighted in regaling or Shocki ng his audience by singing obscenecouplets

, hi s instrumental talents and hi s powers of improvisat i on earned him the sobriquet o f “Kin g Bolden ; he used to placehimself near the Open window and blow his horn like

'

a maniac,he could be heard miles away across the river, and all withinrange, attracted as if by a magnet by thi s clarion call , would flockaround the great c om e ti st . We are witnessing the birth of anep ic o f our own times .Whatever be the actual truth o f the ma tter, King Bolden wasindisputably the greatest trumpet o f the Delta City. He was theidol o f all the kids from Perdido to Rampart and from Franklinto Basin Street. King o f the rag and the ramble , he was adoredb y countless women who carried hi s paraphernalia and gave himpresents . When two of the musical advertising wagons met inthe street and locked wheels fo r a “cutting contest,

”

wo e beti dethe ban d that dared to contest the sway of King Bolden .

In 1895 he modified the composition o f his orchestra . Afterhaving played without a drummer for five years , he added Co rn eli u s Tillman o n drums . Then Frank Lewis , the clarinetist whosometimes played together with Warner

,joined another band,

and Bolden had to find someone to replace him . Clarinetists n o t

being easy to find, Bolden decided to add a second com et instead .

Thus came into being the classical form o f the New Orleansjazz band . The new com et was Bunk Johnson , another legendarygreat

,who is still living and to whom we are indebted for much

3 6 JAZZ

o f our information . A little later Frankie Dusen replaced WillyCornish on the trombon e . During the s u cceeding years severalchanges modified the compo sition o f the grou p : Bob Lyons

,bass;

Sam Du trey, clarinet;“

Zino,” drums ; and even Jimm ie Palao ,

vi olin , became members o f the band . These Changes are similarto the personnel changes o f present-day orchestras.

In the beginning jazz was restricted to a limi ted field—the cityORN ew Orleans and the surrounding territory. Then it spreadup the Mississippi Valley o n the river boats ,“which employedNegroes only for the mo st meni al tasks

.

and fo r playing music,

the latter a Step or two higher in the social hierarchy.

of two o r three dozen musicians created jazz and firstfe into it; we know the names of the best of them .

There were two or three good orchestras headed by featu red stars ,and ten o r so others of lesser quality . The same names bob up ato n e time or another in several o f these orchestras . Some of thesebands have left us a legendary reputation . There was , fo r ex

ample,the Olympia Band with at least two peerless musicians

,

Freddie Keppard the com et and Picou the clarinet, as well asJoseph Petit on trombone and “

Ratty” John Vean and later Lou is

Co ttrelle on drums .VTlIe se orchestras shed their names almost as readily as theychanged their personnel . After King Bo lden was put away in aninstitu tion the group was re -formed as the Eagle Band with BunkJohnson on com et. The Olympia Band became the OriginalCreole Band, with Freddie Keppard o n com et, George Baquetclarinet

,Eddie Venson trombone, Jimmie Palao violin, and No r

wood Williams guitar.There were other groups, such as those of the Frenchmen ,

so called because they came from the down town Creole sectionand stemmed from the French rather than the African musicaltradition . These included the Imperial Band, with EmanuelPerez

,and the orchestras of John Robichaux and Piron .

Little by little these bands evolved a set pattern . The drums,

which had been momentarily cast aside in the beginning,once

more held free sway as the main counterpoise to the melodic instru m e n ts and soon were to se e a spectacular development.

JAZZ 37

At thi s glorious epoch, inspiration made i ts own ru les . Thedrum came back

,never again to leave the jazz orchestra . The

piano,once so neglected

,suddenly found itself in great demand

,

thanks to fortuitous circ u mstances—namely, the need o f the sporting houses o f Storyv i lle fo r “professors” to entertain their inmatesand guests . Fo r the dawn of a new century brought a boomperiod to the reserved quarter o f New Orleans . The houses o f illrepute, bars , gambling dens, and barrel house s, where rav

valcohol was sold, needed music to bolster up their artificial gaiety.

Once again i ts environment was to condition the Orchestra .The raucous ou tfits which played o n the wagons would be unbearable indoors . Plush interiors called for nobler and more subduedinstruments . The coarseness o f the early jazz bands gave way tothe piano

,and

,thanks to some musicians o f great talent

,a m o v

in g po lyphonic style was developed on that instrument. Whenthe piano was j oined to the other in struments, the balance of aperfe ct rag band was created .

Many o f these pianists who wo n the applause and the smallchange of their pleasure-seeking audience are anonymous . Others

,

like JellyRollMorton, Clarence Williams, and RichardM . Jones,have become famous . This infiltration o f the piano into the sporting houses had an important aftermath fo r the music which wasstill developing . Until this time ragtime minstrels were self-taughtamateurs, but the piano cannot be learned in the same way asthe tru mpet. The pianist, with few excepti ons , has to know music,and he thereby added a bit o f co ordination to the savage and u ntrained art. Gradually the music was adapted to its function .

A young lad named Sidney Bechet was intrigued by this newmusic . He began to play clarinet

,learned how to read

,and soo n

became a member of“ the Eagle Band,where he was considered a

first-rate instrumentalist . Still in knee pants , he played next tosu ch musicians as Bunk Johnson

,Frankie Dusen

,Tubby Hall

,

POP Foster, and Cliff Stone .

By degrees these orchestras gathered a repertory ; Each grouphad i ts favorite tunes : the Eagle Band inherited the compositionsof Buddy Bolden , the Olympia Band featured Pi c o u

’

s numbersMany o f these old tunes are still p0pu lar : High So c i e ty, Pan am a

,

’

3 8 JAZZ

Tiger Rag, Mu skra t Ram ble , Sn ake Rag, Alligato r Hop, Frog’

s

Legs , Olym pia Rag, Steam boa t Blu e s , Pepper Rag, Maple Le afRag, Ro se Le af Rag, Lowdown Blu e s , We s t En d Blu e s , Ge ttysbu rg, G e t It Right, The Old Cow Di ed, Le t

’

s G o arou n d the

Be lt, M iln ebu rg Joys , Didn’

t He Ram ble , Ki n g Porte r Stom p,

What was the real worth of these pioneers o f j azz? In the firstchapter o f Jazzm e n

, William Russell and Stephen W. Smithprai se them to the sky. They give

,in addition to the mine of

information which has been o f great help to me, an aura ofalmost godlike genius to the reputation o f these early musicians .

W hether they are right or wrong depends on your point o f View.

Taking their era and their local reputation into account, therecan be no question but that King Bolden was a very great m u sI

e'

ian , that Bunk Johnson played with sincerity and feeling, thatPicou was a fine clarinetist, and that Keppard really earned hi swide renown . On this reduced scale, there can be no debate .But it is a different matter to try to judge these dead andextinguished stars by the same criteria as Louis Armstrong o r BixBeiderbecke . For we have no way of evaluating their way o f playin g except by hearsay, which Is a decidedly different thing fromactually hearing them play, if only on wax.

How is i t possible to compare the pioneers of jazz wi th thegiants who followed them? An absolute judgment Is impossible;at best we can attempt only a relative verdict.We mortals are inclined to overembellish the past and endowthe great names of yore with more glory than they perhaps deserve . I think i t pretty certain that the playing o f Buddy Boldenand his contemporaries was but a confused, albeit moving , stammering next to that o f men like King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke,and Louis Armstrong .

I have,moreover

,a certain point o f comparison which enables

me to make such a statement with some authority. In 19 18 Iheard the orchestra of Louis Mitchell, the first to arrive and re

main in Europe . As I shall explain later, it was one of the bestto be heard at the time . Suffice it to say that Sidney Beche t was amember o f it and that his partners were up to his level, to give

JAZZ 39

yo u an idea o f the excellence o f the orchestra, an all but u nkn own orchestra to which American critics will o n e day pay homage. The compositio n o f the group was : Louis Mitchell , dru ms;Cricket Smith

,drums ; Vance Lowry, banjo ; Walter Kildare,

piano; Frank Wi tte s s , trombone; and Sidney Bechet, Soprano .Cricke t Smith was an improviser o f the highest class , and SidneyBechet c on tinually demo nstrated that he lay in the direct lineof the New Orleans mas ters .In 1920 the orchestra left Brussels for Pari s . I retained the

most marvelous impression o f it, payin g particular venerati on toCricket Smith . Fo r man y years I considered him the King ofthe Trumpet

,and later

,even after hearing such masters as Arthur

Briggs, who has played with Noble Si ssle and the Georgians, Istill kept Cricket Smith at the apex of my hierarchy o f tru mpets .In 192 6 he retu rned to Bru sse ls, leading hi s own orchestra thistime, but still playing in the old way. A few minutes sufficed toconvince me that I had been grievously mistaken . My error wasin continuing to judge the Cricket according to the enthusiasmhe had aroused in me seven years earlier. My illusions were shatte red; I had poeticized the

‘past. There was really n o comparisonbetween Cricket Sm ith and the later musicians who followedhim.

I have told this story to show how the emotions and e n thu si

asm s o f the past can lead a critic astray. Those who have heardKing Bolden and Bunk Johnson have retained the impressionsthey then received, but critics who accept these impressions attheir face values err in judging from an absolute point o f View.

My own impression is that these pioneers were somewhat morethan mere discoverers, but the halo with which they have be encrown ed i s a goo d deal exaggerated . Let’s conti nue to reverencethem, but let

’s reserve o u r real praise and emotion for those whomo u r own ears have confirmed as belonging to the Valhalla o f greatjazzmen .

One man who has remained o n the top for thirty years i sSidney Be chet. He himself has confessed to me that there arelayers and layers of quality between hi s earliest style and the wayhe plays today. E ach epoch has i ts own standards of judgment

40

and points o f reference . There are only two or three geniuses o fjazz whose pe rsonalities have surpassed their periods . The othersare only unconscious discoverers who accepted the heritage o f

ragtime and did their bit toward fu rther fertilizing it unti l j azzitself was ready to take name and substance .To give oneself a rough idea o f what the music of the earlyepoch was like, one must listen to two record albums which haveappeared in the last few years .The first is the Jelly Roll Morton album o f New Orleans

Memories” to which Charles Edward Smith has contributed adescriptive “Blue Book” named after the once-famed publicationo f Tom Anderson . Here we find some adm irable solos o f thatfine pianist who

,alas

,passed away two years ago .

Jelly Roll sought to convey the impression o f that troubledperiod in which jazz was being formed . He plays the old themesand tries to revive the emotion which he felt as a youth back in1890 . I shall not mention the blues here , but I should like topoint o u t that the rags—Origin al Rag, M i ster Jo e , Ki n g Po rterStom p—have a simplicity o f interpretation in which the sweetnaivete, marked with the imprint of sensibility and beauty in i tspurest state, succeeds in re—creating the atIn o sphe re o f those earlyda 5 .

It 15 well to point out that the first pianists were self-made menwho had to create their own peculiar style . This fact accounts fortheir plentiful use o f a powerfu l left hand; a tradition which persists in the playing o f certain great pianists o f the present day

, in

cluding Fats Waller and especially the boo gie—woogie specialists .The album put out by Delta Records goes even more directly

to the heart of the problem : Heywood Broun , Jr ., who had it

recorded,went to the trouble o f digging up some genuine New

Orleans old—timers and let them play the good old tunes : Lowdown Blu e s , G e ttysbu rg, Pan am a , H igh So c i e ty, We ary Blu e s,G e t It Right, Clari n e t Marm alade , M iln ebu rg Joys . Listen tothese records and you will get a rather exact idea o f the beginn i n gs o f jazz . Bear in mind, however, that the musicians used o nthis date were old men and that some of them had not playedfor many years .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

42 JAZZ

theater and literatu re . Chaplin and a few others have mademotion pictures ; the rest have m ade plays .Jazz was an independent art of improvisation which shouldhave been left to develop as the pioneers wished, independen tlyof past orchestral conceptions and overarranged com binations .King Bolden, Alphonse Picou, and a few others made jazz; therest

,those o f today, have made music .What charm and what power beneath the awkwardness andnaivete! There are more potentialities in this simplicity than inall the arrangements o f the world . This music really demonstratesthat jazz is a new phenomenon which comes from the heart andgoes to the heart. Technique i s only a means; the end i s thetrance .An cient authors used to say about eloquence,

“

S i v i s m e fle redo le n du m e s t [If yo u wish to make me cry, first cryCertain talented and clever musicians have tri ed to supplant thespontaneous creation which comes from the heart, with a reasonedorganization which comes from the intellect. As far as I am c o n

cerned,this would sign ify the bankruptcy o f j azz . Collective

improvisation—o f itself—sometimes throws o ff Sparks o f genius . Awritten arrangement is but a difficult and complicated substitute .Only geniuses like Duke Ellington can successfully replace thesensibility of improvisation by cold intelligence.What excites me about jazz i s not the product of a learnedski ll, but, on the contrary, the naive art o f men who have something to say. Jazz is a retu rn to primitive instinct, and those whoattempt to transform it into an art o f the intellect are wrongthey are quite as misguided as an aestheti c dilettante o f Congowood sculpture would be if he tried to transform these fetishesby a technical expression comparable to the perfection o f Rodin .

Jazz has no need of intelligence; it needs o nly feeling .

musicians o f New Orleans had plenty o f feeling to spare . That i swhat I love about them, and I fervently express the hope thattheir message will not be forgotten .

JAZZ 43

III. BIRTH OF JAZZ

D TO DEP ICT the origins o f j azz and i ts first hesitant notes . find ourselves n ow at the point where syn copatedmusic—i n form o f rags , rambles, and stomps—had beenflourishing for several years but Was sti ll a purelyn om e n o n , confined to New Orleans.

We have already shown how i ts formative process was due toa series o f interdependent causes . This was an evolution whichproceeded along logical lines . The most favorable circumstancesprepared the way until the point was reached when custom andexperi en ce fixed certain laws which would endure, although theywere to be continually revised .

At the very beginning them s of this new music were closelyallied to burlesque and all that was grotesque in the world o f

entertainment. Just as in comedy scenes certain Negroes dressedup in top hats and painted their mouths white .

and their faceseven blacker in order to gain a few cents

,so did rag music earn

i ts way. It was a music sym bolic o f the proletariat, a revenge o fthe people who suffered from the apathy of the bourgeoisie .The intellectuals and the whites of New Orleans easily c o nfused these two forms of a single manifestation , and tended togroup the music together wi th the bu flo o n e ri es of the cakewalk .

Bu t soon the rag developed, thanks to the workings of the lawo f supply and demand . Jazz players

,dressed like clowns, played

the bu ffoon o n the musical advertising wagons, to the great joyo f the neighborhood kids and the rather shocked amusement o frespectable people; they accompanied fun eral processions , againfollowed by a “second line” o f kids proudly aping the mo vementso f their favo rites ; small orchestras were an integral part of picnicso n Lake Pontchartrain o r at Mi lneburg ; singers were invited toprivate parties or clubs ; Negro bands were used fo r dances in thered-light district, as their music seemed to fit the atmosphere and

JAZZ

certainly was more suitable fo r the low-down dancing . In all

these ways the seed was sown , and soo n it was ready to Spread .

A few musicians had unconsciously inspired a new gospel,

and their message was received by c ertain youth,predestined to

glory by some strange form of divine grace, who in tu rn devotedtheir own lives to Spreading the new gospel .This evangelical power o f jazz i s a thing which has always impressed me . Even in Europe I kn ew some young men of promisewith distinguished and well-paying positions who chucked theirfutu re in order to play trumpet or saxophone in a jazz band.

What is this extraordinary effect, which I have felt myself,and which i s quite unparalleled save by the attraction o f certainpoets to a few kindred elite souls? Jazz has an obvious appeal fo rsimple an d sentimental souls, but it has likewi se gained numerousco verts ampngAha. i ntellectuals o f Euro e . Try to understandho

n

w\1t§ callwas received by aybfifigi fi d ifn

p

pe tu o u s throngwhichwas converted into fervent devotees o f a c u lt

l

o n ly half a century

What i s astonishing i s that a new musical Spirit has been bo rnin this way . moment when all art was in a state of flux and

,

ready to burst the chains which bound it to outmoded classicforms—at this very moment, the phenomenon of improvisationin a trance—like state came into being . Poetry broke o u t of the c o nfines o f the academies and se t out to search for adventure . Beforelong the naive and fervent fantasies of the Dou anier Rousseauwere widely appreciated . European intellectuals began to understand the be auty o f primitive Negro art; poetry tried to find itsstride along the tortu ous paths o f dadaism and surrealism .

!Something new was in the air, something new In humanhearts and sensibilities . Soon even the White folks of NewOrleans were interested in the curious phenom enon o f syncopation .We must try to understand what too k place

!,

At that time there were several white orchestras used for thesame sort o f work as the Negroes . The success of the coloredbands soon forced these whites to adapt their playing to the newmusic . Jack Laine

,a drummer, rapidly transformed his orchestra

into “Jack Laine’s Ragtime Band .

”

JAZZ 45

It even appears that the new music helped to reconcile the twoproletariats . Racial mottoes are useful only to a leisure clas s whichwishes to protect i ts goods an d n o t to those whites who are justas poor as the Negroes . Having the same task to perform andthe same bread to earn

,the musi cians of both colors even united .

Thus Jack LaIn e ’

s band was composed o f both colored andwhite musicians

,although the color o f the former was light

enough to permit the orchestra to pass for white . Fo r the firsttime music consti tuted a factor of social reconciliation .

The orchestra consisted of Jack Laine, drums; Achille Baquet,clarinet; Lawrence Vega, com et; Dave Perkins, trombone; WillyGuitar, string bass ; and Morton Abraham, guitar. Note that thisfirst group had no piano .The band was qui te successful. It had i ts own repe rtory; o n e

old plaint which they called Me at Ballhas been handed down to

posterity as the well known Li v ery Stable Blu e s .

About 1905, still in the heroic age, the composition o f theorchestra changed, and it ass u med the name o f

“

Reliance BrassBand,

” with Yellow Nunez o n clarinet,Johnny Lala and Manuel

Marlow on com ets,Jules Caso if o n trombone, Mike Stevens o n

small drum, and Jack Laine on bass drum . The presence o f twodrummers is probably due to the fact that this was a marchingband rather than a dance band .

It i s n o t easy to depict the atrn o sphe re o f New Orleans duringthe first decade of this centu ry. Jazz was growing up in spite o fthe scorn of the bourgeoisie

,who considered i ts enthusiasts as

rav In gmaniacs .To get an idea of the exten t o f this scorn on the part o f the

“wiser population of the Crescent City, listen to this quotationfrom an article In the Tim e s—Pic ayu n e of 19 18

Why i s the jass music, and therefore, the jass-band? Jass was amanifestation o f a low streak in man’s tastes that has n ot yet come outin civi lisatio n ’s wash. Indeed o n e might go farther and say that jassmusic is the inde cent story syn copated an d coun ter-pointed. Like theimproper anecdo te , also , in its youth, it was listened to blushinglybehind closed do o rs and drawn curtains, but, like all vi ce, it grewbo lder until it dared decent su rroundings, and there was tolerated

46

be cause o f hi s oddity o n ce rtain nature s soun d loud an d meani n gle ss has an excitin g, almo st an in toxicatin g effect, like crude coloursan d stro n g pe rfumes -the sight o f fle sh o r the sadic pleasure i n blood.

To such as the se the jass mus ic is a delight.In the matte r o f jass N ew Orle an s is particularly in te re sted, sinceit has been widely sugge sted that this particular fo rm o f musical vicehad its birth in this city—that it c ame, i n fact, from doubtful su rroundin gs in o u r slum s . We do n o t rec ogn ise the ho n our o f parentho od, but with such a sto ry in circulati o n , it behove s us to be the lastto a ccept the atro c ity in po lite so ciety, an d .whe re it has crept in Weshould make it a po in t o f civic honour to suppre ss it.

These grotesque words form a fitting com anion piece to theJim Crow laws as evidence of the stupidi ty and

)

injus ti ce prevalen tin the South(though not only there) .

The man who penned those lines i s a lineal descendant o fthose centuries ago which couldn’t forgive the theater i ts loworigin and likewise dreamed of suppressing it as a matter o fcivic pride . For the theater to o was born in circumstances whicheducators have tried hard to forget. Everything that has beensaid abou t jazz can be applied, m u ta tis m u tan di s , to the theater.To my mind t his i s no reproach to jazz; it is, rather, the indicationo f an exciting parallelism which gives u s good cause to believethat jazz will know the same glory as i ts fellow art , which hasrisen from the baptismal font of vice .N o t more than three or four years after the publication o f the

Tim es -Pic ayu n e article, Aragon , a leader of the surrealist school,characterized the new form o f poetry in just about the same term sas the New Orleans reporter used, but praised its consequencesinstead of damning them .

As for the expression “musical Vice, the unknown journalis tnever wrote a truer word . From the Vi ewpom t o f the intelligence,it is a musical Vice . Those who have been caught up by thesebewitching melodies are so oblivious to the rest of the world thatsyn copated music becomes the very reason for their existence.

’ Iknow a dozen or more musicians, whom I am proud to call m yfriends , all o f whom are gifted with a high and lucid intelligence.

JAZZ 47

Fo r them,j azz i s a vital neces sity, o n e which occupies their every

instant.But don’t Speak to me o f a sexu al art. Exactly the Opposite istrue . A devotee of jazz does not slacken the rein which checks hislower passion s . On the contrary, when I hear a good jazz bandnothing exis ts outside this all—su fli c in g, shadowy power which actso n my emotions like pure poetry. An d I am not the only one whofeels this way.

If this was what the reporter meant, i t’

s true enough . If hewished to indicate the bizarre and sordi d atmosphere in whichjazz developed

,he wasn’t mistaken . But hi s conclusions from

these facts are ridi culous .Until about 19 10 j azz was a plant which could only grow inthe fertileMississippi delta .When white men Spoke of it, they would indicate, with a ge s

tu re in the direction o f the Negro quarter,“Jazz came from

there .” The meaningfu l gestu re conveyed the feeling that it camefrom the red-light district.-~The French Qu arter! Those narrow and sordid streets whosenames already are famed in song and legend . A district whichcame to life only after the bedtime o f respectable people . A neighbo rhood into which the bourgeois never strayed at night unless

guarded; dim, gaslit streets whose mysterious atmosphere madetheir ladies shiver in frightened anticipation .

“Through the night the great port hummed with activity. Atnightfall, illicit pleasure came o u t with the moon , to reign as

mistress o f the Crescent City. The nocturnal revelry began .

Doors closed, o thers Opened . The red lights blinked on , o n eby o n e . The women who had slept through the day, those womeno f the night who hadn’t seen the su n fo r years, awoke and beganto ply their trade . There was pleasure to fit any purse . Likeattracted by a flame , a motley group of men fluttered around thered lights , sym bolic o f the warmth to be had within .

f fSoon a syn copated wail o f m USIc rose above the fetid atmosphere o f the low-down dance halls

,the reekin g fumes o f the vile

liquor o f the barrel houses,the verminous cribs , and the marble ,

48 JAZZ

p,

lush and gilt-decorated public houses . But this Spasmatic

melody did n o t cater to the lecherous beast which sleeps In everyman; it enhanced, rather, the melancholy and tragic aspect o fthese dem ze n s o f the night. Jazz was a balance wheel to theirpassions

,an essential backdrop to the scene .

Tom Anderson , boss o f the reserved quarter, rah a saloonwhich served as the vice-City Hall as well as the City Hall o fvice. This king of the underworld knew all his subjectsgangsters

,gamblers, Idle rich, perverts , and playthings o f passion

-and greeted them by their first names . They swelled hi s cofferswith an unending flow o f tainted gold . Much of this was divertedin turn to those who made their living by catering to the passionsof others : barmen , dope-peddlers ; ample-bosomed madames withpearl necklaces

,prostitu tes with faces ravaged by liquor, i n

som n ia, and s in ; scar-faced pimps, hustlers who could tell yo uthe price of each miserable girl; white musicians, colored trumpeters with rosy lips; pianists who partially dismantled their Instru m e n ts so that they made more noise and kept the customersawake.M Listen to this great c ry of melancholy, the melody surging fromthe heart of an Oppressed people, singing o u t i ts sadness and wo e .

This slow and majestic cantata, akin to the spiritual and thefu neral march , i s the blues . No o n e yet knows what it is, nor justWhat there is about it

,but sensitive souls weep .

At Countess Willie Piazza’s, at Ranch 10 1 and later Ranch102 , atLuluWhite

’sMahogany Hall , at Josie Arlington’s,at Pete

Lala’s—in short, everywhere In the quarter bounded by Perdido,Rampart, Bienville, and Basin streets where nocturnal revelrywas the rule, musicians forgot the night, the stifling atmosphere,the drunks , and the prostitutes , and shut their eyes i n order betterto express the passion o f the hot art which was a driving forcewithin them .

This is the great period o f the as yet unnamed art. ThroughOpen doors the rhythms pulsed out into the night. All the music ian s thought of the giant who had crystallized the soul o f ageneration in the shouting notes o f hi s tru mpet. Buddy Bolden ,King Bolden, surpassed them all in talent. He became famous;

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

1

50

tu ne and the who le town would kn ow that Buddy was there ,an d in a few seco n ds, why, the park wo u ld start to ge t filled.

Of course, no trumpet ev er could be heard fiv e miles away, butthe giants of jazz have ass u med the Gargantuan dim e n s io n s/ o f

folk heroes anywhere . Roland once played a powerfu l horn too .

Jelly Roll Morton played on Josie Arlington’s piano the themeshe had heard as a boy, and a new bunch o f kids hung aro und theOpen doo r to hear the hot music . There were dozens o f themmany now famous : Zu tty Singleton, Wingy Man n o n e

,Spencer

Willi ams, Shelton Brooks . Pale—faced white boys stood next tocoal-black pickaninnies drinking in the sound.

A friend of mine who left New Orleans before the first WorldWar once described this enthusiasm to me :

,We planted ourselves again st the wall, ears wide Open. A po liceman passed slowly alon g the sidewalk, and we shru n k back until theheavy hobnailed tread had faded i n the darkness . Then we r esumedo u r Vigil. The gigglin g o f dru n ken women se eped throughdo o rways . We were alre ady well acquain ted with the vio lent odoro f alcoho l an d vice. Then a sudde n sile n ce split the night. Ou rhearts stopped beatin g. The night be came alive with an everlastingsong which throbbed o u t to us an d quicken ed the blo od i n our veins,and we retu rned home singing the blue s and the stomps.

Spencer Williams,

has e tten

All along this stree t of pleas u re the re were the dance halls, honkytonks, an d cabarets ; an d each o n e had its music. Myold friend TonyJackson who compo sed “Pretty Baby” an d

“Some Sweet Day” used to

play piano at a house ru n by Miss An to n ia G o n zale s who san g an dplayed the com et. The largest o f the cabare ts o n Basin Stree t was theMahogany Hall, owned by my Aun tMiss LuluWhite an d when mymo ther di ed I went to live with her an d became he r adopted so n . I’dgo to sleep to the soun d o f the mechan ical pian o playing ragtimet u n es, an d whe n I woke i n the mo rn ing it would still be playing.The salo ons in tho se days never had the doo rs closed an d the hinge swere all m sty an d dusty. Little boys an d grownups would walk alon gthe avenues swaying and whistling J azz-tunes.

JAZZ 5:

Soon a young Negro formed the Magnolia Band . It was JoeOliver

,who

,fascinated by the new art, had learned to play

com et. Hi s orchestra had Edward (Kid) Ory o n trombone,

Johnny Dodds o n clarinet, Edward Polla o n violin, Edward Garland o n bass

,an d’I-Ie n ry Zeno o n drums 3

The great individuals o f ragtime had finally appeared on thehorizon . The musicians who were to compose the nucleus o f theOriginal Dixielan d Jazz Band, which was to stand New York o ni ts ear, and King Oliver

’s Creole Jazz Band, which was to do thesame fo r Chicago

,were n ow working musicians . Others there

were—Albert Nicholas , Sidney Bechet, Buster Bailey, SheltonBroo ks , the futu re composer o f Darktown Stru tte rs Ball, theBru nies brothers, Tom Brown , Larry Shields , Emmett Hardy.From door to door they fli tted, these boys whose heritage was

to bring them greatn ess . Among them you might have seen acoal-black newsboy with coral—colored lips and intelligent eyesstanding

,silent

,next to a pale lad with feverish eyes and mois t

lips—Louis Arm strong and Leon Rappolo .

We all know Louis,the Ki ng of Jazz, who, more than any

other,molded the new Am erican music . But Rappolo was n o t

long enough wi th us to create so profound an impression .

Wha t was to be the strange destiny of these two boys? Loui sArm s trong found his father’s pistol in the house, o n e Chri strn asmorning, took it out with him,

and fired it to celebrate . He wasimmediately arrested and sent to reform schoo l . At the reformatory he learned how to play bugle and com et, and was thuslaunched o n the career which brought him world-wide fame .As for the other boy, he learned the Violin and then theclarinet. He had to learn fast, fo r his days were numbered . Jazzbewitched him ,

seared him,and finally consumed him . Rappo lo

had just enough time to wax a scant dozen improvisations, whichwould preserve his name for eternity . Then he blew himself out,and the great Leon Rappolo spent the rest o f his wretched dayssanitarium

,where jazz was not permitted .

The war o f 19 14 was n o t far o ff. The bawling baby which wasjazz had developed into a sturdy brat

,and i ts lusty manhoo d was

in the offing . At the time the path it was to take in its peregrina

52 JAZZ

tions about the Uni ted States had n o t yet been determin ed. Butthe river boats o f the Mississippi provided a logical exhaust valvefo r the New Orle an s m u src .

Soon both singers and musicians were hired to ply the Mississippi . At first their rags were but an e ntertainment musi c

,played

in front o f a humorous backdrop fo r the amus ement of week—endouting parties . The drums became a Spectacular part o f theseriver-boat bands . No mere skin—beater, the drummer vented hi sire o n a whole battery o f cymbals and other percussive i n struments

,to the delight of the audience . There were any number o f

grotesque utensils to replace the drums of Congo Square . Then oisemaker had made its appearance. Afte r seeing such an arrayo f percussive paraphernalia in Europe in 19 18 , I desc ribed it inmy first boo k

An en o rmous bass drumwith a bo ld in sc ript io n which is illuminatedfromwithin , a ki n d o f co n tin uous-acti on pe dal to wo rk the drumstick,a drummoun ted o n a tripod fo r in troducto ry ro lls, gourds rese rved fo rde lic ate passage s with o rie n tal shadings; a cowbe ll moun ted over thedrums

,smalle r bells, wo ode n blo cks with a tun eful soun d, no isy me tal

boxes, a min iature xylopho n e , a metallic fan fo r be ating o u t crescendo s , nume ro u s cym bals beate n with blows that would fell an ox,covered po ts, bo ttle s filled i n gradua ted series , e ar-Spli ttin g siren s ,barre ls studded with coppe r-he aded nails , whistles blown with deepbre aths

,no isy traps wi th ecce n tric actions

,and many o the r utensi ls .

And I added luckily : “That is not what I like abo ut jazz,and

had this been my only contact with it I should probably sharethe opinion o f all those who hate its infernal racket and have remained prejudiced against it .And I Should like to add fu rther that jazz had to have manyadmirable qualities to escape this infantile malady .

A comedian , destined for fame, happene d to be in NewOrleanswhen he was hired fo r a Chicago engagement. He decided tobring along Tom Brown ’s Band, then the sensation Of Lamb’sCafé .But even before this, the contagion o f jazz had spread to everycity touched by Old Man River. Memphis

,St. Louis

,Kansas

JAZZ 53

City,all succumbed to the feverish new music . Every time the

showboats doc ked, the ki ds would rush o u t, and some o f themwould retu rn home humming the melodies to themselves .A Memphis N egro

,William Christopher Handy, p layed in

minstrel shows and heard a tune which ripened in his head untilit blossomed as the St. Lo u is Blu e s .

E . Simms Campbe ll recalled those wonderful days when shipsladen with syncopated cargoes sailed majestically down the river

They streamed up from N ew Orle an s an d Memphis an d playedJazz the length an d breadth o f the Mississippi an d man y was the ho tsti cky summer night when I, alo n g with many o f my frie n ds, listenedbreathless as the se maste rs o f we ird me lodie s sho t the ir go lde n no teso u t over a muddy river. Durin g the summe r o n Mo n day N ights, theN egro e s o f St Louis we re privileged to use the o lde r o f two paddleWhe el ste amers fo r their bo at excursion s . I remember the n ame s o fboth o f them—the J .S . an d the St Pau l. The S t Pau lwas the o n e weused. Lodge s an d frate rn al o rders o f all so rts would ge t toge the r an dhave a be n e fit—to this day I have n ever found o u t what the benefitswere fo r—but they always mean t plenty o f ice-cre am an d cake fo r us,and above all—music

,the blues . These bo at ride s Usually ended up In

fis t fights , kn ife fights , an d bo ttle throwing contests . Drinking StLouis co rn , packed o n the bo at like cattle, bunny huggin g to the tun eso f Jelly Ro ll Mo rton

,some too ardent boy friend would cut it o n

another’s girl then firewo rks ! I can still see an excited crew,red

faced an d pantin g among a se a o f black faces, trying to restore o rder—an d then the clear strains o f Charlie Creath’s trumpe t drown ing o u tthe noise and the sc u ffli n g. Charlie had cut loo se on the “St LouisBlues .”

Charlie Creath led one of the first river-boat bands . A powerfultrumpeter, he was famous in his day. On another boat FateMarable, a pianist, di rected the rhythm .

About the same time jazz was spreading also to the rest o fAmerica . Companie s of singers and entertainers traveled fromc ity to city . It would be a grave mistake to believe that NewOrleans still enjoyed a monopoly of the syncopated music.In a small town in New Jersey a young Negro named James P .

Johnson heard the early jazz . Even sleepy Philadelphia was

54 JAZZ

sti rred by the new music; another young Negro, Louis Mitchellby name

,decided to give up his theatrical ambitions fo r/this

music . Mitchell went traveling with minstrel shows about 19 10and after

,while Johnson played wi th Barron Wi lkin’s orchestra

in a N ew York cabaret .In New Orleans orchestras succeeded each other

,passing away

and resurrectin g themselves like the phoenix . The Sporting houseschanged their names , but the red lights remained . Spencer William s

passed his childhoo d as the adopted so n o f Lulu White

,

the madame o f the celebrated octoroon house o f North BasinStreet

,Mahogany Hall . On the same street was the house of

Marnie Christine, an d a bit farther o n was Queen Gertie’s. After

going to bed,Williams used to hear the popular themes which hewas later to wri te down as IAi n ’

t G o t N obody and Bas i n Stree tBlu e s .

Larry Shields was hired by Tom Brown . Every day at Ranch102 , three young white musicians rehearsed their syn copatedrepertory of the traditional tu nes . These were Alcide Nunezclarinet

,Henry Ragas piano, and Johnny Stein drums .

The celebrated madame, Josie Arlington, died in 19 14. Onewinter’s morning she was buried in the grand style

,piped to the

grave by the traditional band, playing funeral marches o n theway to the cemetery and rags o n the way back. The marble andgilt o f her famous mansion were duplicated in her elegant tomb

Fate plays i ts ironical tricks . The cemetery was skirted by a railroad line, and, as an almost unbelievable coincidence would haveit,a red signal lamp shone fu ll on the white shaft Of Josie’s tomb

stone . Even in death , She kept watch over a red-light district.This lovely anecdote has been used by Edna Ferber. But I canvouch for the truth o f it. A friend of mine returned to New Orleans from a long trip and wanted to hear the orchestra at the

’

Arlington Annex . He asked a cabdriver to take him to Josie’s,in

the red—light distri ct. He was surprised to se e the cabby take aroundabout route, and completely flabbergas ted when the cabstopped at the cemetery. He understood what it was all aboutonly when the driver pointed out the stone of Josie Arlington

JAZZ 55

with i ts halo o f red light. Then they drove slowly back to the city.

Clusters o f kids still hung around the Open doors of the StoryVille establishments listening to the same old music, but someo f them had graduated into positions with the bands . At Ranch102 Ragas caressed the ivory keys o f the pIan o . A woman sanga rather fast tune the orchestra had taken from an old quadrille .

She was called “The Tigress .” Ragas was in love withhe r. So he called the number Tiger Rag. Meanwhile thenames o f the Original Creole

,

Band,the Louisiana Six, and Kid

Ory’s Band were already celebrated .

N . THE PIONEERS OF JAZZ

IT IS DIF F ICULT to draw an exact distinction between the important stages of the history of jazz . The periods bestraddle o n e an

other,the orches tras are continually changing their personnel,

musicians sink back into obscurity and then return to the Spo tli ht.gBy 19 10 jazz was still without a name . But the infant had left

i ts cradle . Jelly Roll Morton was in Chicago, and Tony Jacksonwas o n the way. Ragtime was still associated with burlesquecomedy scenes, and even in Chicago colored bands blared forththeir music o n publicity wagons .Negro musicians were seeking employment throughout theworld . I remember that at the Bru ssels Exposition o f 19 10 , crowdswere drawn by a cakewalk act. This consisted o f Negroe s withwhitened mouths and loud-checked suits

,who danced to the

accompaniment o f a piano,banjo

,and traps .

Who were these scattered missionaries?In 192 0 , when I was first possessed by the jazz demon , I

Shopped in all the record stores and was particularly attractedby the reco rds of one orches tra . Although no o n e has ever spokeno f it, the So u them Rag and Jazz Band which recorded Tiger Ragand Mam m y 0

’

Mi n e was certainly the first to reveal pure syn Co

56 JAZZ

pated music to me .When I wrote my first boobered the group and had this to say about itorchestra with an amusingtormented music; n o t yet istion

,but rather a kind o f

It would be inbeen reissued by Winner in ight enlightenus as to whether we have any illusions a nature o f theazz .

We c an only judge the early orchestras by their reco rdings andby the words o f those who heard them . As to this hearsay evidence

,it i s hardly trustworthy. They Speak o f the orchestras

,they

praise the musicians , but they neglect to inform us as to the realcharacter of the music .Many musicians tell us that Buddy Bolden was the greatest.George Brunies says Emmett Hardy was the best. Preston Jackso n grants the palm to Mutt Carey. Many remember how JoeOliver and Mutt Carey met one day and decided to settle theirold rivalry by a tru mpet duel . Mutt Carey was proclaimed thevictor

,and King Oliver threw away his com et in disgust

,vowing

never to play again .

Such facts we know. But just how did they play? On this pointit is impossible to deliver a documental Opinion . It is my impression

,however, that the music played by these uncultivated

musicians consisted o f confused and syncopated ensembles ratherthan solos .I base this Opinion on my remembrance o f the early recordingswhich I tenaciously sought o u t and listened to . I remember hearing

,when they first came out, the records o f the Southern Rag

and Jazz Ban d,N aylo r

’

s Seven Aces, and the first King Olivers,all o f which presented this character. I may be mistaken

,but I

believe that I first heard improvised solos on records by whitebands

,especially the New Orleans Rhythm Kings

,whose orig

in ali ty and importance have not been sufficiently recognized .

Many people believe that jazz first hit N ew York with theOriginal Dixieland Jazz Band . This is not the case . It is indeedstrange how many erroneous ideas are in circulation about a

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

58 JAZZ

with the seventy-fiv e -piece colored orchestra o f the Clef Club.

As a tenor soloist, he played Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond,and Washington . At Richmond a lo cal journalist wrote

In man y re spects the mo st remarkable concert eve r give n in Ri chmond was o ffe red i n the City Audito rium by the Cle f Club, ‘

afi

o rgan isati on o f N egro Singe rs an d instrumen tali sts un de r the dirc etion Of the we ll known James Reese Europe, ass isted byWilliam H .

Tye rs. Louis Mitche ll in the marching so n g o f the Englishso ldie r “

Tippe rary” has his who le audience with him .

This James Reese Europe is the celebrated Jim Europe wholater won a European reputation with a band which includedNoble Si ssle . At this po int it is well to remark that jazz was stillat the crossroads . The musicians still sought a definite solution asto the nature o f their art. Jim Europe believed that the rag shouldbe in terpreted by enormous ensembles o f singers and i n strumentalists . For several years this was the commonly acceptedformula .Louis Mitchell soon left this group and returned to London

,

where he Opened on August 6, 19 15. At the Empire in Londonhe received equal billing with Helen Hayes . He was later e ngaged by Ciro’s . His greatest hits were ragtime numbers which hesang with Jordan .

Bu stan oby, the proprietor o f the Beaux-Arts , wrote Mitchellin October 19 15 begging him to retu rn to New York . He hadcombe d the country looking for an attraction to replace Mitchell .Alas ! he wrote, Mitchell was irreplaceable and he had to contenthimself with an Argentine quartet which didn’

t bring in as mu chbusiness as the syn copated group had .

At Ciro’sMitchell was billed as a ragtime drummer; hi s famousorchestra, the Seven Spades, consisted Of Vance Lowry, banjo;Walter Kildare , pianist ; Set Jones, rag singer; Ferdie Allen ,bandoline; S . Edwards

,bass ; F . Jones , mad dancer.

They were a hit and drew big crowds . They were called eitherrag band o r coon band, the word

“j azz” not yet having beencoined . A journalist who heard the Seven Spades wrote,

“

Th ere

JAZZ 59

was a coon band, but a coon band can be almost pleasant in avery large building .

”

Another dev oted a long article to Ciro’s“Ciro’s is altoge ther charming—firs t-rate fo od and surroundingspleasant. But, i f I m ay venture to offer a tip, I should say : Waterdown the music a bit! On e goes to a place like this n o t only to dance,but to talk. At Ciro’s only the loud lunged have a chance. For at oneend o f the ro om are many indefatigable black men who bang drumsand cymbals an d even sound mo tor horns.

During this engagementMitchell once played at a private ballin the home of Mrs . Evalyn Walsh McLe an . It was a big societyaffair with the Prince of Wales , Tallulah Bankhead, and theDolly sisters among those present. A special reception was o r

gan ized for the prince in a salon on the second flo o r . The poorSeven Spades

,flanked by the Dolly sisters

,were installed o n the

ground floor far away from the reception . But when the Princeo f Wales arrived he spent the whole evening listening to theorchestra and encouragi ng the musicians . The swanky receptionupstairs was ignored and had to be called o ff.About the same time Al Jolson was in London and tried toengage the orchestra permanently

,to accompany hi s mammy

songs . On another occasion the famous dancer, Vernon Castle,

who considered Mitchell’s gro up o n e o f America’s best, sentMitchell a letter : “Send me some piano copies o f rags,Mem phi s Blu e s , o r some real rags .New Orleans , t o rs

—Freddie Keppard, the celebrated com et,had left for Chicago ; the heyday o f Storyville was drawin g to aclose; Spencer Williams wrote hi s first tu nes; the Original Dixieland Jazz Band was soon to be formed, and three o f its membe rswere playing together at Ranch 102 ; a new star, Joe Oliver, hadappeared in the musical firm am e n t .

On the banks o f the Mississippi more than a hundred Negroand white musicians played syncopated music . Most had beeninspired by the playing of Buddy Bolden

,whose career had come

to an end .

The poor fellow had played himself o u t in a few years . Accu s

6O JAZZ

tom ed to earning only a few cents a day as a barber, he had begunto make rea l money, which he spent like a drunken sailor . Lackof sleep

,liquor

,women

,hot musi c, gradually sapped his stre

Only at certain moments did he still sound like the greatBolden ; at other times his sidemen noticed that he played hiscom et as i f mad . Possessed themselves, they came to fear thisinsane music which attacked their minds . Finally, in 19 14, itbecame known that Bolden had to be put into an asylum . Keppard took his place in the Eagle Band, and when he left for

Chicago young Joe Oliver be gan his career.He was born 1n New Orleans 1n 1885 and , at a very early age,learn ed to play. His talent did not be come rapidly apparent

,and

,

at the age o f seventeen, he played with an amateur band Of‘

youths . On an outing , one day, he got into a fight and waswounded in the eye . The injury was permanent and earned himthe nickname of “Bad Eye Joe .

”

There were mighty few occupations left Open fo r Negroes .Oliver became a butler and Spent several years o f his life servinga white family

,with respectful “

Ye ss irs .

” All his leisure time wasdevoted to mastering the com et. Bunk Johnson helped him to

learn the instrument, and the day arrived when Joe was capableOf filling Keppard

’

s place in the Eagle Band, then composed ofJoe Oliver on com et, Frank Dusen on trombone, Fran k Lewison c larinet, Alcide Frank o n violin , Brock Mumford on guitar,Bob Lyons o n bass, and James Philip o n drums .For two years Jo e Oliver remained with the Eagle Band ln NewOrleans . At first he was greatly inferior to King Bo lden or Freddie Keppard. Gradually he improved, and he composed hi sfamous improvisation o n Dippe rm ou th which later be came theSu gar Fo o t Stom p . Joe left the Eagle Band fo r the Onward Band

,

directed byManuel Perez, which played ln Storyville .

Here Oliver gradually gained his reputation . Intense rivalriesflourished among the several bands , which played practicallynext door to each other. When two music wagons bumped intoeach other o n Basin o r Perdido Street, they would lock wheelsand hold a cutting contest. It was a regular musical bombardmen t

,

a barrage o f syncopation in which trumpet and trombone, the

JAZZ 6 1

units of heav y artillery, fired broadside after broadside of ho t andheavy notes . Thus Joe Oliver found himself pitted against theleading lights o f the tim e

,and he wo n a reputation equal to Bunk

Johnson or Perez .

By this time Jo e was -playing with his own orchestra in a cabareto n Bienville Street. With him were “Big Eye” Louis Nelson onclarinet, Richard Jones on piano, and Deedee Chandler on drums .

One night he successfully challenged both Perez and Keppard,by striding out into the street

,blowing loud and beautiful horn

in their direction . After this feat Joe was “King” Oliver as wellas “Bad Eye .

”

The new King soon organized the Magnolia Band , with Zu eRobinson o n trombone

,Lorenzo Tio on clarinet

,Buddy Chris

tian o n piano,and Zeno o n drums , to fill an engagement at Pete

Lala’s cabaret.“At the beginning Of the first World War the Original CreoleBand left Californ ia fo r Chicago

,i ts drummer, Dink Johnson ,

remaining on the Coast to organize his Louisiana Six . Anothergroup followed Horace Greeley

’s advice,and Kid Ory’s Band,

th Mutt Carey o n com et,played the Co ast . Texas was visited

Iby a band which boasted Bunk Johnson , Sidney Bechet, andlClare n c e Williams among i ts members .Chicago had called the Original Creole Band—Eddie Venson ,

ltrom bo n e ; Jimmie No o n e , clarinet; Lottie Taylor, piano ; BillJohnson , bass ; and Paul Barbarin , drums—which had an engage1ment at the Royal Gardens Café

,as well as another New Orleans

band compo sed of Sugar Johnny,Lawrence Dewey

, Ro y Palmer,Herbert Lindsay

,Louis Keppard, to which were added, in Chi

lc ago , Sidney Bechet, Lil Hardin , Wellman Braud, and TubbyHall . Both these bands needed a com et star

,as Keppard had left

the Original Creole and Sugar Johnny had made too muchwhoopee for his own good .

So both these orchestras sent for Jo e Oliver to come up to theWindy City . The King had to decide which group Of friends tojoin

,and he solved the dilem m a neatly by playi ng with both .

With the arrival Of King Oliver in Chicago ,the era Of jazz can/

be said to have begun .

62 JAZZ

In Au x Fro n tiéres du Jazz I delved into the questi on o f the

derivation o f the word “j azz” and the origin o f jazz music. Ihadthis to say

Many have doggedly but vainly sought to find o u t whe n ,where

,

and how jazz was bo rn. A thousand an d o n e explan atio n s have be enadvanced, e ach believes that he alo n e has the truth, eve ry city inAm e rica puts fo rth a sto ry o n the strength o f which it claims the creditfo r the o rigin ation o f jazz; pro foun d mystery o f human mo tives andactions, jazz, bo rn o n ly yesterday, already is e n te rin g the realm o f

lege n d an d ove rtakin g the glo ry o f o ld Homer,o f whom seven

Grecian cities claimed to be the birthplace.The word “jazz” owe s i ts o rigin to a co lo red musician named

who played in a certain raggy way; he became so popular that thecommon expression was “

to play like Jess,” and by contractionplay Jess

,

”an d by co rruptio n jazz; such 1s the explan ation which

given to me by many N egroes I’ve questioned. Others say

, as do

Coeu roy an d Schae ffn e r, that a common expression in the N ew Or

leans barre l houses was “Jazz them, boys, o r else that jazz came fromthe n ame o f a perfo rmer in a Negro cabaret, Jasbo Brown, to whomhis en thusiastic audience cried : “

More Jasbo,more Jas .

”

Others, such as Schwe rke , fix rather clearly o n N ew Orleans,an Old Fren ch town ,

a s the cradle Of jazz, declaring that theword jazz” is from the ro o t of the French word “

jaser, an d jazzwould be a cacklin g.

That 1811’

t all, an English author, Stanley R. N e lson,wro te an im

po rtant arti cle o n the e tym o logy o f the wo rd ln the May 1930 numbe ro f Rhythm . You will no te that no n e o f the hypo theses which herepo rts co incide s with tho se I’ve given. Here 13 what he says .

‘W hat i s thi s wo rd jazz’

?“How man y times has it been said that jas , jass, jaz, jazz, jasz , or

jaszz, o riginated in the Afric an diale ct o f the N egro e s in their nativecountry.

”

In the Li te rary Dige st (August 2 5, 19 17) Walter Ki n gsley ad

vances this the o ry, sayin g that the N egro e s, n ewly tran spo rted to thecotton fie lds o f the early plan tatio n s, used it to in duce i n thems elvesa de lirious joy.

We co uld also cite that dile ttante write r, Lafcadio He am , who ,forty years previ ously, expressed the same Opin io n ,

writin g that “the

creo les o f N ew Orleans used the wo rd Jazz, take n from the Negro

JAZZ 63

patois an d signifyin g‘excite , to de signate a music Of syn copated

an d rudimentary type.An o ther rather in genious theory mentions a quartet which played

i n N ew Orle ans about 1903 un der the name o f“

Razz Band”: the

initial consonan t R was in the lo n g run tran sfo rmed in to J . This explanation is scarcely plausible

,fo r phonetic tran sfo rmatio n s generally

are into a harder sound(rather than from the re sonan t R towards theso fter J) .

The o ft—c ited explan ation o f Vincent Lopez attributes it to a stardrummer called Charles Washin gton,

” who se name was contractedto

“

Chas” o r“

Chaz” (as is Often the case) . This man po sse ssed an extrao rdi n ary tale n t an d se n se o f rhythm. It is said that he generally had to be repriman ded at rehearsals, an d the o rche stra le ader usedto say, Come o n , Chaz,

” when it was time fo r this co n to rtionist todo his numbe r.From this it was deduced that any form o f exaggerated syn copationwas called chaz an d later jazz.It was further suggested that the word o rigln ated i n the dance halls

Of Western mining town s, where o n e had to be a bit ribald simplyas a rele ase . The wo rd was used with an obscene meaning, and thecontempo rary sugge stive dances are analogous(in the Opinion o f the

propoun der o f this the o ry) to the antics o f these drunken miners andtheir loo se companio n s .

After exami n in g all these exp lanations, it can be safely assumedthat the Opin ions o f Kingsley and Lafcadio Heam are clo sest to thetrue o rigin o f the wo rd.

Ferdie Gro fe has said that it was commonly used in San Franciscobefore the war with the meaning “

e n semble” ; but this can be takenas an example Of a ge ographical difference in inte rpretation, 3 frequent philo logical phenomenon .

After this long citation, Ico ncluded

Of course,I am n o t content with the Opinions o f N elson or o f

Lafcadi o Heam fo r the ve ry good reason that we have no preciseknowledge about this etymo logy, which will provide a re ally toughjob fo r the linguists an d epigraphers o f a hun dred ye ars hence. Theonly thing that

d

m atte rs is that jazz was n o t bo rn on a certain day. Itexisted befo re it was given a name; the ragtime era encroached on thejazz era, just as the blues, which became a classification about 192 5,was at first only the ti tle o f a few no stalgic tunes .

64 JAZZ

But examining these same theories today, twelve years laterand in America

,I hesita te to express any judgment . A new

the ory, adopted by Jazzm e n,has it that the word “jazz” was born

in Chicago during the engagement o f Tom Brown ’s band atLamb ’s Café in June 19 15. As his m u 51c 1an s were not unionmembers

,the local musicians’ um on picketed the place, carrying

s1gn s saying that the music in Lamb’s was a “

jassm u s i c .

” Thismeant that Tom Brown played whorehouse music . The wordwas actu ally the ugliest slang term to designate relationships i nhouses o f prostitution . As it happened, however, the picketingboomeranged

,people wondered what jass music was like, and the

café proprietor took advantage Of this interest and billed the

orchestra as “Tom Brown ’s Dixieland Jazz—Band . Thus was bornthe word “j azz” as applied to hot music .All this is open to extreme doubt . According to this story, theword “jazz” had never been used in N ew Orleans . If LafcadioHearn

’s statement is true this Omission seems Very astonishing .

Also,i f the word “jazz was first used m 19 15 it must have

spread with incredible rapidity, since Louis Mitchell was alreadyusing it in London by 19 17 .

Meanwhile, a catastrophic event had occurred in New Orleans .After the United States entered the war the Army made the citygovernment close down Storyville . On e

'

n ight in N ovember 19 17the police be gan to enforce rigorously the decision o f the Secretary of the Navy

,and the doors o f those elegant mansions , deco

rated with mirrors, gilt, and marble, were closed once and fo r all .Tommy Ladnier

,a few days before his death, told me the story

o f this episode . At the appointed hour the girls , madames , dancers,pimps

,and musicians were moved out

,and they remained in the

streets until daybreak,playing , drinking , and discussing this

change in the old order Of things .SO were thrown into unemployment more than o n e hundred

N ew Orleans musicians , and the musical proletariat o f Louisianawas subjected to a severe depression . The sudden loss o f the chiefmarket fo r New Orleans musicians explains why the Delta Cityhas not since developed any great m u 51c 1an s .

,

Gradually,the better and the .m o re adven turous part of these

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

66

greatest glory. The Ki ng brought young Armstrong up from PeteLala s in New Orleans, to play second com et in the Creole JazzBand .

During this period the band was recorded by both Gennettand Paramount . These disks are a milestone in recorded jazz

,and

they constitute a new point o f departure which enabled Negrojazz to develop into the magnificent thing it was to become . Imust confess that

,contrary to the Opinion o f most critics

,I am

more deeply moved by the records which certain white bandsthe Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the New Orleans RhythmKings—had been making since 19 17 . These King Oliver recordsfeature improvised ensembles which are somewhat more unevenand confusing than those o f the above-mentioned white bands

,

but,in spite o f the poor recording o f the music

,they stand out

fo r their biting ensembles and fo r the first recorded solos—andvery good Ones

,too—Of Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds .

Little by little the pre eminence o f King Oliver was challengedby the rising glory o f Louis Armstrong . In 192 4 the Creole JazzBand was broken up fo r the first time; Oliver, Louis, Lil Hardin ,Buddy Christian on banjo, John Lindsay on bass , Albert N icholaso n clarinet, Rudy Jackson on saxophone, and others, went on theroad ; while the Dodds brothers and Du trey remained behind withanother group .

After this trip the star o f King Oliver be gan to fade in the brillian c e of the newly arisen sun . Everyone who knew the two menaffirms that Oliver taught Armstrong

,but all the musicians recog

nize that the pupil surpassed his master. N obody knew yet thatLouis was the genius who would be the very body and soul o fj azz

,but he was Obviously the most original man they had ever

heard . King Oliver s renown declined . Louis marrie d hi s pianist,

Lil Hardin,and left the band . His great pe riod over

,Oliver had

to join Peyton s Symphonic Syncopators at the Plantation Café,

as a featured soloist but not the leader . His eaglet flew o n i ts ownwings toward a greater glory ,

o n e which we shall exam ln e later .In 192 5 King Oliver formed another fine orchestra, the DixieSyncopators . It is astonishing to se e the unparalleled sureness Ofjudgment with which Joe Oliver chose the members Of his su c

JAZZ 67

c e ss iv e groups. This o n e had Luis Russell(piano) , Paul Barbarin(drums ) , Al Nicholas (clarinet) , Barney Bigard (tenor) , andKid Ory(trombone)—a firs t-rate outfit .In 192 7, when playing at the Savoy in Harlem,

he added twogreat musicians : Henry Allen

, Jr.,as second trumpet

,and Pop

Foster as string bass . From among hundreds of trumpets , Oliverhad unerringly chosen the one who was to be second only toArmstrong ,

“

Red” Allen .

In 192 8 King Oliver turned down an engagement at theCotton Club

,and his place there was taken by the obscure band

Of a young pianist,Duke Ellington . From then on , misfortune

after misfortune be set the King, who died in obscurity in April193 8 . The letters he wrote hi s sister during the months before hisdeath

,as reported in Jazzm e n , bear wi tness to the fac t that King

Oliver was a great man as well as a great musician .

The importance of King Oliver i s that, arriving at a difficultperiod when jazz still knew no law

,he definitely established the

classic New Orleans formula for the composition o f the orchestraand fo r its music of collective improvisation . His intelligence andinstinct cleared the way for Loui s Arm strong . Himself a verysincere and very touching musician , he stamped a whole periodwith hi s influence . In Louis Arm strong

,you will still find many

o f King Oliver’s ideas,albeit developed

,digested

,and perfected .

Louis Armstrong had something more than King Oliver and therest—genius . But that’s another story.

But just consider the magnificent pro c e ssm n of musicians whopassed through the school o f King Oliver. Draw up a list o f theirnames . True

,some have”disappeared from the firm am e n t of jazz,

but n o t o n e was a mediocre musician . Most still shine forthamong the greatest names o f the jazz o f today. So we can say thatthe greatn ess of Ki ng Oliver still lives in the playing of thosewho were his pupils .

66

greatest glory. The King brought young Armstrong up from PeteLala’s in New Orleans, to play second com et in the Creole JazzBand .

During this period the band was recorded by both Gennettand Paramount . These disks are a milestone in recorded jazz

,and

they constitute a new point o f departure which enabled N egrojazz to develop into the magnificent thing it was to become . I .

must c onfess that, contrary to the Opinion o f most critics, I am

more deeply moved by the records which certain white bandsthe Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the N ew Orleans RhythmKings—had been making si nce 19 17 . These King Oliver recordsfeature improvised ensembles which are somewhat more unevenand confusing than those Of the above-mentioned white bands

,

but,in Spite of the poor recording o f the music, they stand out

fo r their biting ensembles and fo r the first recorded solos—andvery good ones

,too—Of Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds .

Little by little the pre—eminence o f King Oliver was challengedby the ris ing glory o f Louis Armstrong . In 192 4 the Creole JazzBand was broken up fo r the first time ; Oliver, Louis , Lil Hardin,Buddy Christian on banjo

,John Lindsay on bass

,Albert Nicholas

o n clarinet, Rudy Jackson o n saxophone, and others , went on theroad; while the Dodds brothers and Du trey remained behind withanother group .

After this trip the star o f King Oliver began to fade in the brillian c e o f the newly arisen su n . Everyone who knew the two menaffirms that Oliver taught Armstrong

,but all the musicians recog

nize that the pupil surpassed his master. Nobody knew yet thatLouis was the genius who would be the very body and soul ofjazz

,but he was Obviously the most original man they had ever

heard . King Oliver’s renown declined . Louis married his pianist,

Lil Hardin,and left the band . His great period over, Oliver had

to join Peyton ’s Symphonic Syncopators at the Plantation Café,as a featured soloist but not the leader . His eaglet flew on i ts ownwings toward a greater glory, one which we shall examine later.In 192 5 King Oliver formed another fine orchestra, the DixieSyncopators . It is astonishing to see the unparalleled sureness o fjudgment with which Joe Oliver chose the members o f his su c

JAZZ 67

c e ss iv e groups . This one had Luis Russell(piano) , Paul Barbarin(drums ) , Al Nicholas (clarinet) , Barney Bigard (tenor) , andKid Ory(trombone)—a first-rate outfit.In 192 7, when playing at the Savoy in Harlem,

he added twogreat musicians : Henry Allen

, Jr., as second trumpet, and Pop

Foster as string bass . From among hundreds o f trumpets , Oliverhad unerringly chosen the one who was to be second only toArmstrong ,

“

Red” Allen .

In 192 8 King Oliver tu rned down an engagement at theCotton Club, and his place there was taken by the obscure bando f a young pianist

,Duke Ellington . From then on

,misfortune

after misfortune beset the King, who died in obscurity in April193 8 . The letters he wrote hi s sister during the months before hisdeath

,as reported in Jazzm e n , bear witness to the fac t that King

Oliver was a great man as well as a great musician .

The impo rtance of King Oliver i s that, arriving at a difficultperiod when jazz still kn ew no law

,he definitely established the

classic New Orleans formula for the composition o f the orchestraand fo r i ts music of collective improvisation . His intelligence andinstinct cleared the way fo r Lo u i s Armstrong . Himself a verySincere and very touching musician , he stamped a whole periodwith hi s influence . In Louis Armstrong

,you will still find many

o f King Oliver’s ideas,albeit developed

,digested

,and perfected .

Louis Armstrong had something more than King Oliver and therest—genius . But that’s another story.

But just consider the magnificen t processi on of musicians whopassed through the scho ol of King Oliver. Draw up a list o f theirnames . Tru e, some have”disappeared from the firm am e n t of jazz,but n o t o n e was a mediocre musician . Most still shine forthamong the greatest names Of the jazz o f today . So we can say thatthe greatness of Ki ng Oliver still lives in the playing of thosewho were his pupils .

68 JAZZ

v . JAZZ IN EUROPE

UN TIL TH E PRESENT TIM E,Am erican critics have ignored tho se

early j azzmen who , far from their native soil, remained isolatedfrom the mainsprings o f j azz but nevertheless had considerablehistori c importance, inasmuch as they gave rise to that curiosityabout the new music which was prevalen t in Europe before itwas in Ameri ca .We left LouisMitchell, the first to bring a jazz band to Europe,at the time o f hi s second visit, when he was leading hi s own bandin Londo n . He went to Paris fo r a three—week engagement andthen retu rned to England . Here he picked up a dancer who wasnone other than the handsome Rudolph Valentino . The Englishpress

,it must be said

,was far more partial to Louis Mitchell

,

“thegenius o f agility and noise,

” than to the future Sheik and hi sbeautiful partner, Leonore .In 19 17 the orchestra, still known as the Syncopated Band,was playing in Belfast, Ireland, but soon it returned to Paris,where it assumed the title o f “

M itchell’s Jazz Kings . His o rche s tra , the first Negro jazz band Iever heard, was composed o fLouis Mitchell o n drums , Cricket Smith on trumpet, Joe Meyerson guitar

,Dan Parish piano,Walter Kildare bass , FrankWithers

trombone , and James Shaw saxophone . Vance Lowry, unless Iam mistaken

,had gone to the celebrated Boeuf su r le Toit, where

Wiener and Doucet were to be such a great piano sensation thatJean Cocteau , Picabia, Radigu et, and other poets took turns insitting in on drums . Mitchell went from the Alhambra to theCasino de Paris .On e extremely important fact must be noted . When LOUIS

Mitchell left London fo r Franc e, he was replaced by the OriginalDixieland Jazz Band . Mitchell’s band was then being handledby Volterra, who, with an eye for business , left Mitchell with athree-week contract in Paris and went back to London to hearthe band which had replaced his . Unconvinced by the music o f

JAZZ 69

the white musicians,he decided to keep his colored orchestra

,

whose reputa tion was increasing by leaps and bounds .An American correspondent

,Ralph Tyler

,reported

The big attracti o n at the Casin o Theatre here an d the big a ttractionfo r eve ry Parisian the atre that c an '

bid high e n o ugh fo r hi s se rvices,is Louis A. Mitche ll

, a co lo red American , who just drummed hi s wayto Paris an d into the hearts o f Parisian s . Mitche ll ove r he re is knownas

“the lightning trap drumme r” an d“noise spe cialist” who has intro

du c ed into his busin ess over fifty effects an d who ,by his “

n o ise,”

has

se t Paris theatre-goers wild .

Paris , at the end o f the war, was a wide-Open and excitingplace . Louis Mitchell earned money hand over fist . He receivedseven thousand francs fo r a week’s engagement

,or just about ten

times the salary of a Cabinet member .The band supplied the music at the gala Ope n m g of the Perroquet of sainted memory. It scored another triumph ; LouisMitchell had become the most popular star in Paris . He recordedsome sides for Pathe, the first j azz recordings made in Europe ,records which remain completely unknown over here . It is u nlikely that any copies are still in existence

,but

,if found

,they

would make an important and highly interesting addition to o u rstore o f recorded jazz . I remember a few o f the numbers : Whe nBu ddha Sm i le s , Pe ache s , Bright Eye s , Jada . Cocteau, who wascorrecting the proofs o f his Co q e t l

’

Arle qu i u , expressed hi samazement in a note which became celebrated

The American band accompanied them o n ban jo s an d big nicke lplated ho rn s . On the right o f the small black-clad group was a barmano f no ise behind a gilded stand laden with be lls, rods, bo ards, andmo to rcycle ho rns . He poured these into cocktails, puttin g i n a dasho f cymbals every n ow an d then, getting up, struttin g, an d smiling tothe angels .M . Pilcer, in full-dress suit, gaunt an d well rouged, an d Made

m o i s e lle Gaby De slys , a gre at ventri loquist’s do llwith po rc e lain face,

c om —co lo red hair, an d o strich-fe athered gown , danced through this

to rn ado o f drum an d rhythm,a so rt o f domesticated catastrophe

which left them, in toxicated an d myopic, be n e ath a shower o f s ix

anti-aircraft se archlights .

70 JAZZ

Mitchell, the king Of noise, won fame and fortune far awayfrom his country, long before any other American orchestra . Thepapers adulated him and made much of his accomplishments . H i sprograms announced that he would pay five francs fo r any newnoisemaker which he could u se .

On January 18,19 19 , Louis Mitchell signed a contract with

Volterra which provided for the formation o f a fifty-piece Negroorchestra . He left for New York to recru it his musicians

,and

Harlem received him like a god . The New York Age headlined :“FRENCH NOW WANT COLORED

'

MUSICIANS .

If yo u will cast your mind back to that time, you will realizethat jazz had reached a turning point. A new formula was in thewind . We have seen the sort of huge orchestra that Jim Europeenvisioned . And at the very same time King Oliver was in Chicago with his small band

,which was to be the seed fo r the future

development Of jazz.At the time

,who could have predicted which would win o u t?

Jazz narrowly missed taking the other path .

Will Marion Cook organized a big jazz group in 19 18 and,after having trained it in Philadelphia, left for London in May19 19 . The name o f the band was “Southern Syncopated Orchestra .

” The composition o f the musical sections was pretty strange,

and revealed some West Indian influence, even in the choiceOf some horns and musicians . Here is the complete formation asgiven me by the pioneer, Bobby Jones : two pianos : Mattie Gilmore

,Ambrose Smith; four bandolines : Joseph Caulk, Carl Mo r

gan,LawrenceMorris, Henry Saparo ; two basses : Santos Riviera,

Pedro Vargas; o n e drum : Buddy Gilmore; o n e

l

tym pan u m :

Bernie Peyton ; two tru mpets : Arthur Briggs, Bobby Jones ; threetrombones : Frank Withers, John Forrester, Jacob

‘ Patrick; o n ecello : Joseph Porter; one clarinet : Antonio Riviera ; one flute :Salnave; two sax0pho n e s : Mazie Mullins, Fred Coxi to ; twoViolins : Angelita Riviera, George Smith .

With these exponents was a choir directed by a leading ladysinger

,Hattie Revis , and helped by Lottie Gee . In this singing

group was a quartet : John Payn e, Earl McKi n n ey, C . C . Ro s

mond,Bob Williams ; two baritones ; one bass ; and four extra

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

72 JAZZ

nets; Gustave G regh, W. N ehe c om b, violins ; Dan Pa rish, Ambrose Smith

,Jess ie Williams, James Short, George Davis , pianos;

Peggy Holland, Victor‘Greene, Edgar Miller, drums ; Ed Hardie,

banjo; C . Jackson , O . Jackson,E . Ross , James Wheeler, Joseph

C ould, Robert Young, bandolines ; Andrew Copland,Bernard

Debs,James Parker, singers ; Harry MacDan i e l, Nathan Nunez,

Harry Sapiro, trio .After receiving the cable, Louis Mitchell left fo r Paris , bringing only Dan Parish , Cricket Smith , Joe Meyers,Walter Kildare,Frank Withers

,and James Shaw with him . He brought this o r

c he stra to the Alhambra in Brussels in 19 19 , and, shortly after,I heard them there with Sidney Bechet playing soprano sax.

It was the greatest emotion I had ever experienced . A sort o fphysical shoc k marked me fo r life . As far as I can remember

,their

music cons isted mainly o f raggy and bumpy ensembles . They leftan extraordinary impression . That night something new was bornfo r me and took i ts place beside the poems o f Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Ce n drars and the paintings o f the DouanierRousseau and Chagall .What were my previous experiences wi th syncopated music?In 19 18 I had been the civilian interpreter f or the 72 n d ScotchBattalion from Vancouver. Among the soldiers there were someAmericans who taught me their songs : Are Yo u from Dixi e

, I

Wan t to Be , Robi n son Cru so e , Sm ile s , Ov e r The re .

Then,as a student at the University o f Brussels

,I heard Bel

gian and French orchestras play jazz . An Englishman,Billy

Smith,was the first person to bring to Belgium a bass drum

worked by a foot pedal .I still remember the words Of a friend who told me to go tohearMitchell : “It’s funny. Yo u can’t recognize the tunes

,but you

are electrified by them .

”

Of course I spent most o f my days listening to Bechet,

Mitchell, and the rest. I didn’t know Bechet at the time

,nor did

Iget to know him until twenty—two years later, when Iheard himat the Mimo in Harlem :

As I say, this orchestra introduced me to one o f the great passions of my life

,but what was the exact impression I received?

JAZZ 73

Under its influence I contributed my articles to the Di squ e Ve rtin 192 0 . Possessed immediately by a sort o f frenzied lyricism,

Iwrote Jazz Ban d, a collection Of po ems in praise of the newmusic

,abo ut the same time . A great cubist artist contributed

four woodcuts representing musici ans,to illustrate it NO more

copies o f this book are to be had, and Idoubt if more than twentysti ll exist.As fo r my impression

,I transcribed it a bit later in my book

Au x Fro n tiére s du Jazz:

Mitche ll was the le ader an d pre sided ove r the de stin ies o f thegroup. The re we re seve n o f them

,these m e n who we re plo tting

aga i n st the future o f music . Mitche ll, a fin e Cre o le he ad, supple an dhappy

,always dre ssed me ticulously 1n the late st style , as are all the

N egro e s i n Europe,a marvelous jazz drumme r with a wo rld o f

imagin ati o n,irradiatin g n e rvous tics which he de licate ly transmitted

to his in strume n ts,to the amazement o f the women who ado red him;

after Mitche ll,the o n e who conducted the o rche stra , always o n his

fee t, exhaling his n o stalgia in to a sho rt co rnet , Cricket Old boy, withhi s appe aran ce o f sturdy bamboula an d an embouchure o f ste el

,with

the fin e eyes o f the go od N egro, expre ssive and humid; the n there was

Jo e [Meye rs! , an extrao rdin ary ban jo ist who se han ds fluttered, without a pick, ove r the taut strin gs o f hi s in strume n t; a me lodious saxophone who moved hi s re ed from Side to side o f hi s puffed—u p mouthwhile playi ng [I was alluding here to Sidney Beche t, who se name Ididn’t yet kn ow! ; Parish, an eno rmous pianist, who partially disman tled hi s pian o to make it n o isier; a bass fiddle; an d fin ally FrankWithers, called the king o f the trombone.The Mitche lls

,as they were called fo r Sho rt, brought ove r a fine

cargo o f Ame rican tun e s which so o n became all the rage; translated,they we re sung by such stars as Mi s ti n gu e tte an d Ro se Am y, andsome, in cludin g H i n dou s tan an d La q u e re tte e t le Ve r Lu i san t[ tran slated from Ju s t a Baby

’

s Praye r a t Tw i light ! , became POPULAR Fre n ch so n gs which are n ow to lerable than ks o n ly to the be n e fi c e n t actio n o f memo ry.

Oh fo r tho se first co cktail hours I spent,tucked neatly in to a little

com e r o f the bar, re ligio u s ly taking in the caden ced scro llwo rk o f theMitche lls ; the illumin atio n behin d me, the difficulty o f settin g thehiccoughs

,the bre aks

, an d the c oun te rpo in t, i n o rde r, so that a diffusean d in tan gible me lody could se ep through; the joy o f fin din g the

74 JAZZsame frie n dly face s in stalled at the same place s an d refle c ted in the

same min o rs, an d especially tho se mome n ts whe n the e n tire audience, carried away, was shakin g an d clappin g han ds in ac c om pan i

ment to the music and deman di n g an o the r n umbe r whe n the jazzwas turn ed o ff .

The en ume ratio n o f these e arly t u n e s enable s m e to re c apture mystate o f min d : Jada , Pe li can , I

’

llSe e Yo u i n C-U-B-A Swan e e , Cro codi le , Pe ache s , San d Du n e s , Mam m y o

’

Mi n e , Yo u ll Be Su rpri sed,Old Man Jazz, Pan am a

,By He ck.

How can Igive you precise indications about the mus1c o f thattime? The problem presents enormous difficulties, as I fully re

alize. To get a rough idea,you can listen to the music o f the

Original Dixieland Jazz Band,but Mitchell’s technique was less

vibrant and bumpy. The instruments were interwoven into theensembles and seemed to answer each other, as in the first G e nnett recordings of King Oliver.The bass drum

,of course, kept up a two—to -the—bar be at

,while

the hands kept up a rapid and bewildering percussive action . Thebanjo was more of a melody than a rhythm instrument. SidneyBechet was already improvising moving solos , which differedfrom the raggy style of the orchestra . FrankWithers , who unlessIam mistaken succeeded Bechet, was a great musician . He playeda very hot trombone somewhat in the style o f George Brunieswith the New Orleans Rhythm Kings o n Gennett.Louis Mitchell soon left to retu rn to Paris, and his place inBrussels was taken by Joe Clark and His Hawaiians

,which

co‘uldn ’t be called a jazz orchestra even wi th the greatest stretcho f the imagination . Paris, which had been dying o f boredomwithout Mitchell , welcomed him back with Open arm s . A littlelater

,Mitchell won enough in a crap game to take over the Grand

Duc night club,whose reopening was another triumph .

Revelers in fu ll-dress suits and their elegant ladies covered withjewels frequented the Grand Duc . The patronage which jazzenjoyed presents a curious paradox . In New Orleans and inChicago at this time jazz was the preserve of the dregs o f thepopulation . In Paris the cream o f society went to hear Mitchell.

JAZZ 75

In the short space o f two o r three days the following personagespassed through the portals of the Grand Duc : Mrs . GeorgeGould;M . van Dongen

,the great painter; Nita Naldi , the famous

cinema star; Mrs . Forester A gar; Billy Jordan ; Miss ElizabethMarbury; the Duchess o f Sutherland ; the Marquis de Polignac;Deering Davis; Weston Stevens ; Lady Aldy; Princess Cystria ;the Marquesa de Salamanca ; and the Grand Duchess Marie o fRussia . Included among the frequenters of the Grand Duc werethe Prince o fWales and Carol o f Rumania .Who do yo u suppose was the doorman o f this famous estab

li shm e n t? None other than the fine Negro poet, LangstonHughes , who was later to writeWe

ary Blu e s

Today, Loui s Mitchell i s back i n Harlem,and I sometimes

see him, looking exactly the sam e, in front o f a Seventh Avenuebar. We Speak o f the present day, but the former King of Parisonly lives among his memories . He earned millions in Paris , buthe liked to play the horses and shoot dice. Today he passes u nnoticed

,a member of the anonymous throng

,and nobody knows

that this still elegant man,now approaching his sixtieth year

, was

Once the idol o f Paris,the man who introduced jazz to Europe,

a man whose importance in the history o f syncopated mu51c wasunsurpassed in hi s day.

Meanwhile , the Syn copated Band had broken up .WillMarionCook returned to America with his string sections

,and the musi

c ian s who remained naturally grouped themselves into smallorchestras . I still have fond memories o f one o f them

, Wllso n’

s

band , which played at the Gaieté . I found the band even be tterthanMitchell ’s . Its members were an admirable trumpeter, BobbyJones , Frank Withers, later to be the trombone with Mitchell

’sJazz Kings ,Wilson at drums , Felix Vem ar o n piano, and Narc i sso n banjo . Wilson’s band brought some new tunes with themYo u

’

ll Be Su rpri sed, Margi e , Av alon ,San d Du n e s , Dardan e lla,

Che’

ri e , Ali c e Blu e Gown . I can still picture it all in my mind . Ican se e the cellar o f the Gaieté in Bru ssels or of Chez Pan inOstend where the orchestra played . I remember the coal-blackbanjoist, a ho t singer, who moved his Adam

’s apple with hi s left

76 JAZZ

hand,to the great amusement o f the audience . This action, as

a matter o f fact, gave him an unusual vibrato . Bobby Jones wasan excellent com e t who doubled on alto sax (one se ldom saw atenor sax in those days) . It’s strange

,but this fine musician

,who

would surely have become a star in the American jazz world,

remained in Eu rOpe‘

all those years . Every time I went to ParisI used to see him there ; even on that last occasion , o n May 10

,

1940 ,after the chutist attack on Belgium,

I found him sittingwith Arthur Briggs in a bar on the rue Pierre Charon . BobbyJones was to return to America a few days later, and, after twentytwo years in Europe , he immediately joined an American band .

Another one o f these groups which was formed in Englandsoon left for the Continent . It featured the drummer HarryPollard

,who

,to my mind, was the greatest drummer o f the heroic

age . He already possessed that wonderfully supple s obriety whichonly Chick Webb was later to equal . Strangely enough , Pollardwas the first and the only one to u se a four-to-the—bar rhythm onthe bass drum . With him was Arthur Briggs, the first N egro touse the trumpet instead of the com et . Briggs was the very backbone o f transatlantic jazz . Possessing an amazing technique

, an

exciting feeling fo r hot music, and a characteristic swing (longbefore the swing era began) , Briggs was one o f those great American pioneers who taught jazz to all Of Europe .In 192 2 ,

when I played trumpet in a humble orchestra whichsome friends and I formed, Briggs gave us lessons . It was he whoexplained ho t o r, as we then called it, New Orleans music to u s .

Today,Arthur Briggs , that great and sincere m u S1c 1an

,IS 1m

prisoned in a German concentration camp in France . Only onewitness is necessary to prove the class o f this musician : LouisArmstrong

,himself, was a great admirer o f Briggs and compli

m e n ted him on more than one occasion .

Besides Briggs there was Burnett on alto sax ,a trombone who

must have been Forrester, and a white Italian pianist namedGabriel . They played more new tunes : Stu m bli n g, Sw e e the art,Yo u n gMan

’

s Fan cy, Mo n tm artre Ro se , Red He ad G al, Dappe r

Dan , Su n n y Jack.

Another outfit,the International Five

,arrived in Paris . This

JAZZ 77

consisted mainly o f choral sections which,swaying to the slow

rhythm o f the piano,sang sorrowful blues which enchanted the

heart o f Paris .About the same time I heard a n u xed band which was led by

a famous contortionist drummer, Buddy Gilmore , whose reputation was great although

,to my mind , he was not Harry Pollard

’sequal . Imustn ’t fail to mention another o rchestra

,which suc

c e eded Louis Mitchell at the Alhambra in Bru ssels . I even believe that it was organized by Mitchell himself

,since the twelve

young colored musicians billed themselves as “

Mitchell’s JazzFi n zz .

” The only thing I remember o f them is that they playeda new tune

,the Wan g Wan g Blu e s . I hope that someday we

shall know the names o f these completely forgotten musicians .I think it was about 192 3 that I first heard the Ge orgians atthe Claridge in Paris . Although few Americans know it

,they

were extremely important in their day. When the recordings o fBix Beiderbe cke and Red Nichols began to arrive in Europe, theEuropean jazz fans too k them in their stride , Since they had hearda similar and equally fine music from the late Frank Guarenteand hi s Georgians .The importance which Mitchell had had at the e n d of the warhad been gradually dissipated

,and the halo o f glory had passed

to the Georgians . I must dwell quite a bit on the importance o fthis group . The course o f jazz was marked by i ts influence, yetsince Pe n ass ié was to o young to have heard it, and Since theAmerican critics had n o contact with the European orches tras ,it to o has unfortunately remained Obscure .Frank Guarente , more than any white m u s1c 1an , helpedthe uncultivated Negro jazz to evolve toward a clearer an d moremusical medium . An excellent musician

,he had an extraordinary

classical training and as a trumpeter could be compared only toLouis Armstrong . He didn’t have Louis’s savage power, but atcertain moments

,playing without a mute

,he held notes which

had the tone o f a violin .

He was born in Ajaccio,Corsica

,Spent hi s childhood in Italy,

and was hired by the Creatore orchestra which toured America .He fell ill in New Orleans in 19 13 , and this enforced stay in the

78 JAZZ

Crescent City changed hi s plans fo r the futu re, Which he hadintended to devote to classical music .Frank Guarente was fascinated by the ragtime orchestras o fNew Orleans . He haunte d the night clubs and cafés , enchantedby this music

,which had so little in comm on with his traditional

training in the European conservatories . Gradually he mingledwith the musicians . Joe Oliver was hi s friend ! They admired eachother considerably; Fran k 'was impressed by the original ideas ofthe uncultured musician

,and Joe was impressed by the amazing

technique o f the European, from which he profited . For hours heused to try to swell o r to thin o u t his notes .In 19 14 Frank Guarente was the featured soloist at the Kolb

Restaurant, and then he joined the Mars Brass Band, o n e of thefirst white orchestras . They accompanied outings to Pontchartrainand Milneburg , and during the Mardi Gras parade all the : kidsin New Orleans followed Guarente , the city

’s best trumpeter. In19 15 Tom Anderson himself hi red Frank fo r o n e o fh i s RampartStreet houses . At the same time the Original Dixieland Jazz Bandwas Opening a few blocks away on Iberville Street.Soon G u are n te ’

s reputation Spread . He toured Texas as a featu red soloist and was known as “

Ragtime Frank .

” Then he playedConey Island with the Alabama Five . His career was interruptedwhen he joined the Army .

3

Back from the war in 19 19 , Frank joined Charley Kerr’s o r

che stra . In Philadelphia he met a wandering guitarist namedEddie Lang

,and

,a little later, he found a young unemployed

Italian vi olinist named Joe Venuti who had amazing qualitieswhich he developed .

Jazz was going fu ll blast at this period . Until this time it hadrecruited only untrained musicians . Frank Guarente was to bringrhythmic c o—ordinati on to jazz . After a period with Paul Specht’sorchestra he headed the Georgians , wi th Arthur Schutt o n piano‘

,’

Donnell on clarinet, Chauncey Moorehouse on drum s ,and Ray Stillwell on trombone . They recorded early, waxingChi c ago and S i s te r Ka te for Columbia, the first record on whichthe transitions were orchestrated (by Guarente and ArthurSchutt) while the solo parts were left Open for improvisation .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

80 JAZZ

which relied on pure improvisation .Whereas the Georgians werean orchestral forerunner o f Benny Goodman , the Lido-Venicewas the equal o f an yh o t orchestra o f i ts time . It was as good as o rbetter than the Wolverines or the N ew Orleans Rhythm Kings .The Lido—Venice failed to match the success o f Arthur Briggsin Brussels fo r more than a month . Their formula was so ad

v an c ed that they disappointed the dancers . I well believe that itwas the hottest music I have ever heard, since I never had thegood fortu ne to hear the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . Alas ! theLido-Venice band never played in America . If it had only left ussome recordings

,it would perhaps be even more famous than the

Chicagoans .It is strange that none o f these musicians acquired great fame .

Circumstances were against them . When they arrived in Europethere were only a few o f us who could understand t heir message .Each afternoon this faithful handful stuck .to their posts

, e n

tranced from the first note to the last . Judging from the comparative impres sion which I felt, these were the most immortal moments Ihave ever spent.After their short stay in Brus sels the Lido-Venice band moved

o n to Berlin , and then to the Four Hun dred Club on ru e Daun o u in Paris , where I heard them fo r the last time . At this time,when all the dance halls in Brussels sought hot orchestras

,the

Paris market wished only melodic jazz . After only a few days theLido-Venice was replaced by Sleepy Hall’s orchestra which had

,

on saxophone, Rudy Vallee , who was replaced by JimMoynahan .

The Lido-Venice band broke up , some o f its members re tu ming to N ew York, and Others trying their luck in Paris . The mostextraordinary band o f i ts time had passed out o f existence . It hadleft behind it an overwhelming impression , one which was toshape my taste fo r hot jazz . Let me quote a piece Iwrote around192 9

On e fin e afte rn o o n the Lido -Ve n ic e made i ts appe aran ce befo re a

curious publi c , whi ch was rathe r disc o n c e rted by the n ew rhythms.It was the first ho t o rche stra i n Brusse ls . A huge pi an ist, Willy, who sefe ature s I thin k I have re c ogn ized i n a pho to o f Red N icho ls’

o rche stra ; an exci tin g vio lin ist, N athan , who played i n the style o f Jo e

JAZZ 8 1

Venuti; Barn ey, who alte rn ated be twe e n the trombo n e an d the basssax; Davie, the ban jo ist, who so o n jo in ed Billy Arn o ld’s o rche stra ,an d who also played Soprano sax; Haro ld Smith, an exce lle n t drumm e r; an d a pe e rle ss saxopho n ist who must be playin g wi th RayMiller’s o rche stra at the pre se n t time.The se music ian s brought us, fo r the first time , wi de , light-c o lo redtrouse rs, square—to ed sho e s , small po in ted mustache s, an d, i n the bargain, a music al we ll—be in g which astoun ded u s from the firstThe o rche stra played o n ly ho t ; a crisp lyricism grasped them all as

acrobatic so lo s succe eded sin uous ensembles . They we re in dividualto such an exte n t that afte r o n e o f them had played a particularly fin ebre ak, the music ian s all laughed an d applauded, o r else made the ve ryAme rican gesture o f strikin g the right fist into the le ft palm.

The Lido-Ven ic e bo ys improvised to such an exte n t that we we resometimes surprised to fin d that we failed to re cogn ize a n umbe rwhich we ourse lve s played. The stran ge pe rfume o f the ir fre n ziedplayi n g stillhaun ts m e afte r all these ye ars . I still remem be r So u the rnRo se s , Ye s S ir I

’

m G o i n g So u th, Ple ase Do n’

t Shim m y whi le I’

m

Go n e , Som e of The se Days , Hard He arte d Han n ah, an d e speciallySom ebody S to le My G al, which Barn ey used to sin g i n hi s n asal,froggy vo ic e , that o ld an d ve ry Am erican tune which had such i ncomparable succe ss with all the bands .

In Spite o f this overflowing enthusiasm, I did n o t do the o rche stra justice when Iwrote my first book, because I was n o tobjec tive enough . Had I compared their performances with the

records which were then arriving in Europe,I should have said

that,next to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band

,the Lido-Venice

was the best group o f the heroic era Of j azz .What a shame that they never recorded ! A small orches trawhich somehow or other gets o ff fo r only two minutes on waxwill live eternally

,while no thing remains o f a marvelous group

like this .Nathan , the violinist, actually played clarinet and sometimeseven trumpet as well . He was one of the hottest characters to befound . I know whereof I speak

, sm c e I heard some Gennett records in 192 9 and discovered Rappolo . I contribute this great truthto the history o f jazz . Nathan was at least as good as Rappo lo .

No other clarinetist has left so grea t an impressi on on me .

82 JAZZ

What has happened to him? I have never s1n c e heard o f anyo f them . Some months ago , however, while walking along Ce ntral Park South, I happened upo n a face which I hadn

’t forgottenafter nineteen years . It was the pianist,Willy Heidt . It turned outthat he was playing in a waltz and rumba band at the EssexHouse . Last year in Maine I discovered at least the name o f thetrombone : Benny Russel ; but he had died four years ago .

With the Georgians and the Lido—Venice band , the Europeanheroic age came to an end . Not until 193 0 did new groups bringfurther obscure personalities to the honor roll o f j azz .However

,we cannot leave the subject o f jazz in Europe with

o u t discussing its great influence o n European culture . Bes idesthe crowds which went wild over certain colored revues andespecially stars like Florence Mills and Josephine Baker

,the in

telle c tu als found food fo r thought in it.It is important to note that during this whole period jazz andsurrealism

,the two sides o f the same coin , developed along paral

lel lines but without any mutual influence . As most of the American jazz musicians had little general cultu re, the artistic problemfo r them was limited to their musical experience . Likewise, AndréBreton and others like him have never attacked the importantquestion of the relationship be tween the school o f which he isthe chief and the new musical means of expression, for Bretonclaims to be impervious to music . I have at various times tried tointerest him in the question , but he simply replies that music isa c o n fu s i o n i st art.European intellectuals rapidly succumbed to the charm o f the

American music . What is the reason for their di sc o v e n n g it before the Americans themselves? The answer is rather simple :race prejudice played

,as it still plays, an important part in the

critical considerations o f many Americans . It was inconceivableto them that a race which they looked down upon could possiblyhave contributed an immortal art to their country.

Consequently, the orchestras which emigrated to Europe werejust as important as those that remained in America . If it was inAmerica that jazz developed and was propagated , thanks to theinvention o f the phonograph, it . was the European orchestras

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

84 JAZZ

Darius Milhaud understands this essential distinction . A fewmonths ago he told a frien d

,who passed it o n to me

,tha t he

would trade his whole work fo r the St. Lo u i s Blu e s . I would n o t

go as far as that, but this is a further proo f that good jazz mustc ome from the heart. An d to paraphrase Verlaine, all the rest i sliteratu re .

VI. ORIG INAL DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND

THIS B OOK DOES NOT PROCEED in strictly chronological order;e very now and then th e author is compelled to anticipate himselfo r to cast a backward glance . Having thus far studied the historyo f black jazz from i ts origins to the epoch-making entry of LouisArmstrong

,we shall return to the beginning o f jazz as such, about

19 16 , and concentrate on the history o f white jazz.Until this time syncopated music had been considerably de

v e lOped by N egroes, who'se extraordinary lyrical po tentialities

c ompensated fo r their lack o f musical knowledge . Their strivingswere sincere and praiseworthy, but it must be acknowledged thatthe hearts o f these musicians were greater than their fingers . Imean

,by this phrase, that their feeling fo r music was superior to

their technique .Then

,in 19 17, appeared the white orchestra which, like the

dislodged pebble on a mountain peak that sets an avalanche inmotion

,was to se t going the great movement o f syn copated music .

After twenty-fiv e years we can look back objectively at the

phenomenon called jazz, and attempt to define its main currents .Jazz really brought something incredibly new into the world .

Until it appeared, a piece o f music continued to be played ac

c ording to the same unchanging conception ; Beethoven’s Fifth

Symphony, fo r example, will remain identical to the las t syllableo f recorded time . Once a composer o f genius has translated intowritten terms an Opus conceived in his brain the work has exhan sted i ts lyrical potentialities . The musician s task is simply to

JAZZ 85

interpret, as faithfully as possible, the conception o f the composer.Unlike musicians , actors can modify their vehicle by puttingin a greater or lesser amount of emotional expression or stagebusiness . They are interpreters whose m ission is to convey theemotion conceived by the dramatist in whatever way they deembest . Musicians, however, are subordinated to the composer

’sprescription

,the written text; their personality is perceived only

through that o f the creator; they are but the projections of anothergenius

,who se sole duty is to reflect his greatness as perfectly as

possible .Jazz i s another matter entirely; it is a sort of c o m m edia de ll

arte . The original manuscript i s only a rough outline,to be given

“

body and soul by the musician . What i s important in jazz is n o tthe written text

,but the way it is expressed by the musician . Zola

once defined art as nature perceived through a temperament . Fo r ‘

classical music,it is nature(or beauty) perceived through a c om

position ; for jazz, it is beauty perceived through aperformer.In classical music

,the composer i s the prime element; In jazz,

it is the musician . Jazz,as I remarked a decade ago , is a sort o f

m usical revolt of the proletariat against the sacrosanct caste of thecreators . For the first time in the history of music the power tocreate has been torn from the hands of the masters and passed

gian to those of the servants who have endowed it with a strangeand savage sense

,o f beauty.

A symphony i s eternal j azz is dynamic and many—sided . Inthe words of Baudelaire’s famous sonnet

,

“It shifts its lines daily .

”

An d the most extraordinary thing is that this revolution (whosetremendous significance fo r the history o f all music will be fullyappreciated only in a century’s time) was prepared and launchedby simple folk with no knowledge of music .Jazz has gone along its own way

,a strange un trod path which

must be retraced conscientiously and obj ectively by the sincerecritic . I se e first of all in jazz a perpetual stru ggle betwe en therevolutionary elements and the traditional elements o f music .This struggle is but a recapitulation of the history o f all art

,

which is the recital o f the eternal triumph o f new ideas overtradition .

86 JAZZ

When a new school of po etry, painting, o r sculpture first makesits appearance, it is not understood, because of i ts newn ess . It’sthe old

,old story o f the failure o f the public to appreciate great

artists during their lifetime . Poe,Whitman

, Rimbaud, OscarWilde

,Manet; Renoir, Zadkine, Modigliani—none o f these were

understoo d when they started .

As soon as they made their appearance,conservatives e n

trenched in high places attacked the newcomers to defend theirown unmerited glory . Then

,through a gradual transitory process

,

the new artistic tru th came to be ac c epted‘

an d appreciated .

Jazz proceeded in the sam e fashion . When syn copated musicfirst entered the worldly scene, it was greeted by the glacial scorno f nearly all musicians . Just as the formally attired purveyors of“music” were Shocked by the informal and loud garb o f thedisciples o f the new music, so was their attitu de o f academicformalism outraged by what they called the “cacophony o f

savages .”

Then some of the best of them fell under the Spell o f syncopation . Immedi ately the conserv atives resorted to half-measures andcompromises which deformed the new music in order to flatterthe taste of the public . Am erica fell under the sway o f PaulWhiteman

,and England under that o f Jack Hylton .

I am getting a bit ahead of my story, since o ther phenomenadeserve our attention before we reach the era o f Whiteman andHylton . The most remarkable thing about the first school o f j azzis its characteristic collective improvisati on . All the instruments ,generally no more than seven in number, 1m pro v i sed as theywent along . Clarinet, cornet, and trombone played together, theideas o f each intermingling with those o f the Others . Usually o n eo f the three instruments held the lead, which it relinquished inturn to each o f the others . Occasionally one o f them took o ff in asolo . su ch a technique was possible only-when the players werereal creators

,linked together by a sort o f common trance . Reason

had nothing to do wi th this spontaneous miracle; sensibility andthe subconscious were the sole guides o f the musicians .Extraordinary qualities on the part o f the instrumentalists .

were necessary to obtain this ephemeral beauty. The heart alone

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

8 8 JAZZ

fesses that he never heard Bolden, and that his recollection ofPapa Laine 15 o f a cacophonic band .

The little group was led by La Rocca , the left-handed com et,a n d before long there was a new band playi ng such tunes asUn de r the Bam boo Tre e , Chin a town ,

My Li ttle Dream G irl,

Pan am a , Dow n Hom e Rag, at Crescent City affairs . They hadthree melody instruments which improvised continuously whilepiano and drums marked the rhythm . A sort o f majestic divinat ion led them toward the musical texture which was the verye ssence of jazzBut the boys couldn’t find a steady job . The Bru nies brothers

were working at Ranch 102 , but La Rocca and Shields had to gofar afield to seek employment.In 19 16 Harry James(not the Harry James) signed them upfor the Schiller Café In Chicago . Judging by the words of Somereporters

, people o f culture did not conceal their aversion to“the

blatant shrieks o f the Original Dixieland .

”

Why was their name changed from “New Orleans to Dixieland”

? I asked Eddie Edwards , who told me that it was becausethey were disgusted with N ew Orleans , which had rejectedthem :

“The town was like a mother which disowned her child .

Casting around fo r a new name, they lit o n“Dixieland .

” Aboutthe same time the word “jazz” was introduced, and Harry Jamesadded “Jass Band” to their billing .

At first they flopped at the Schiller. Only the appreciation ofHarry James kept them there after the first disastrous week . Theywere not so popular as another N ew Orleans band

,directed by

Tom Brown , which was playing a few blocks away. This bandboasted a marvelous sax named G u s Miller, who is still greatlyadmired by those who heard him .

Gradually the patronage as well as the repertory of the Dixieland Band began to grow. On e o f the first great successes addedto their repertor

ywas the TigeL Rag. This was taken from an o ld

theme,familiar In New Orleans , where the boys had picked it up

bit by bit from a N egro pianist. La Rocca published it under hisown name, which started a quarr

‘

el which nearly broke up theband since all claimed equal patem i ty.

JAZZ 89

Among the foremost admirers of the band was the famousgangster

,Johnny Torio

,who showered them with gifts . He

wanted to hear more of them than Chicago’

5 o n e o’clock closinghour would permit, so he Opened a place called Coney Island

”

in Bu m ham ,Illinois . Every night when the Schiller closed its

doors,the members of the Dixieland band could be seen piling

into To ri o ’

s powerful limousine, which took them o u t to “

ConeyIsland

,

” where they played till dawn .

While the Original Dixieland Jazz Band was playing at theSchiller

,there was a mediocre pianist

,Ernie Erdman , who ac

companied the singers . Inspired by their syncopated music,he

wrote Oc e an a Ro ll, one o f the year’s big hits

,and Oh fo r the Li fe

o f a Fi rem an , which made a fortune for the publisher , to whomhe sold it fo r a few dollars .Meanwhi le Eddie Edwards became the band’s manager andbegan to improve its financial status . Chicago was getting usedto jazz and even liking it

,although nothing in the column o f

Dru ry Underwood of the Chicago He rald indicated particulartenderness toward the new music o r the men who made it. Ohscure m u 51CIan s appeared on the scene . A colored pianist at theElite(whose clientele did not live up to i ts name) sang the wordsand played the tune which was to become famous as the Darktown S tru tte rs Ball.An agent namedMax Hart became interested in the DixielandBand and procured it an engagement at Re is e n webe r’

s , in NewYork . They opened on January 2 7, 19 17, and promptly fell flat.The public , accustomed to the Hawaiian orchestras o f Jo e Clarkeand Do reldin a or the waltzes and mazurkas of Joe Figey, thegypsy violinist

,turned a deaf ear to the infernal Dixieland

racket. Only a few kindred Spirits sensed the inner beauty behindthe unaccustomed noise . On e friend had them appear at a bigcharity affair at the Century Theatre

,where the program featured

such diverse e n te rta1n m e n t as Billy Sunday and the great Caruso .

Then , sudde nly, they were a success , the rage of New York .

Ragas, the pianist, did not live long enough to enjoy the fameand fortune which followed the hard upward climb . He died,and the others found Sidney Lan c efield, whom Edwards cori

90 JAZZ

siders the best pianist the band ever had,to replace him

,but

Lan c efie ld soon qui t.With fame came a recording contract with Columbia and a“

long string o f recordswhich made them the world’s best—knownband .

The personnel of the band underwent several changes . Edwards went to the Army and was replaced by Emil Christian onthe trombone . Robinson succeeded Lan c efield on the piano

,and

in tu rn gave way to B i lly Jones fo r a while .At the height o f their glory they were engaged by Albert de

Courville fo r a Show starring George Ruby and Frank Hale, andthey toured the country on the Keith circuit. Then they left fo rLondon in March 19 19 and scored a success in Joy Be lls , inwhich the big hit was The Be lls of S t. Mary

’

s . Successive engagements at Rector’s , the 400 Club, and the Dance Palace followed .

They re tu m ed to NewYork fo r a sensational engagement withthe Folies Bergeres

,the culminating point of their career. Eddie

Edwards,back from the Army, resumed his trombone chair.

Record after record popularized the Dixieland style. They Wo nany number of eager converts—Frisco

,Frankie Farnham

,De

Sylva . Other musicians tried to imitate them .

In 192 3 they were playing at the Balc o n ade s o n the cornerof Columbus Avenue and 66th. Every night regularly

,at a few

minutes before o n e,a slightly tipsy young man entered the dance

hall and drank deeply o f the intoxicating music . Sometimes hewent to the bandstand and played his own composition , In a M i st .It was Bix Beiderbecke . About this time Frank Sign o rell

'

placed Robinson , who quit the orchestra in a huff because theydidn’t play his numbers enough .

But the fickle public began to demand new stars,and the

popularity o f the Original Dixieland Jazz Band waned . Fo r s ix

years the group o f friends had remained together. Success hadnot tu rned their heads ; they had kept intact the excitement whichflamed in their music . Now dissensions split their ranks .On e o f them quit and went back to New Orleans . Unable to

find a capable replacement, the orchestra broke up . Shields andLa Rocca went back south, and Robinson joined the police force .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

92 JAZZ

knit ensembles . In o n e fell swoop the Original Dixieland JazzBand reached the summit o f all beauty, the highest emotionallevel

,and this without any compromise with commercialism

,wi th

new and original means . Aided by a new spirit whose techniquethey had not quite mastered

,they played their raucous melodies

and broke decisively with all musical tradition . So magnificent agesture o f independence would not have be en possible fo r a music ian with even the ru diments o f traditional schooling to havedared .

The Dixieland ensembles were so frenzied that anyone withthe slightest idea o f what jazz i s '

abo u t realizes that such creationis possible only fo r completely entranced musicians . Here is o n egroup at least that didn’t give a dam about the commercial c o ndi ti o n s o f their art . They played as their hearts dictated, and thatwas all they needed . Sudden halts in their playing , unexpectedoutbursts

,growls , c o n trastIn g breaks , showers o f drumbeats , i n

cessant repetitions of cowbell sounds—these were their stock intrade .Today all this seems a bit outmoded and corny. But it i soutmoded because later musicians didn ’t completely digest theirmessage and didn’t have the courage to keep their music u n

adulterated . Their technique in attacking the beat is also calledcorny because the Dixieland Band hit after the beat

,whereas

modern swing bands hit be fore it.Wilder Hobson has ex

plained this evident basis o f syncopated

music often in a jazz performance the only instrumentsplaying regularly o n the be at are, say, the bass drum and stringbass; the rest are playing rhythms variously suspended around thebeat . often

,in fact, n o o n e is o n the beat, which Is felt’ but

not hearI am sure that

,in fifty years’ time, the Original Dixieland Jazz

Band wi ll stand o u t in all i ts glory, blotting out the insignificantmusicians o f today who play meaningless riffs and copy eachother’5 phrases without putti ng the least bit o f feeling into theirplaying .

The Dixieland Ban d didn’t possess swing , because they didn’t

need it. They had something be tter. They were right in the

JAZZ 93

pulsing heart o f j azz,where improvisation was at its purest .

The only thing that interests me in jazz is its original c o n tributions . The later musicians content themselves with seeking techn i c al proficiency . If only they had followed in the path whichthe Original Dixieland had marked out for them

,what might

they not have accomplished with their superior gifts ?I will go even further and say that the fu ture o f j azz lies alongthis path , and nowhere else . And as I write these words , I cannothelp but think o f the phrase o f Lautreamont, the great surrealistprophet,

“Poetry will be made by all,not by one alone .” So too

will jazz be made by all and not by o n e alone .N o o n e admires the great figures of jazz more than I do

,but,

as in football,it is the great team

,not the great star

,that wins

games . Besides,no tru ly great figures have appeared in recent

years,since o u r present conceptions stifle that precocious e n

thu s iasm which has been the mark of every great jazzman .

What excites me is the Spectacle o f a group creating together,infused with a Spirit which makes each one surpass himself andthe others s o that a unified pattern o f beauty is achieved . Thesubconscious and the sensibi lities, n o t logic and technique, c ollabo rate to produce this sort o f beauty . This new process of creation proved so awe-1n sp1r1n g and so difficult that it had to beabandoned .

The miracle of the uncultured musicians o f N ew Orleans wasduplicated by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . The formergroup produced many fine themes which remain as vibrant witnesses to their greatness : M i ln ebu rg Joys , High So c i e ty, I Ai n

’

t

G o t N obody, Pe rdido S tre e t Blu e s , Ki n g Po rte r Stom p, Shim —m e

shaw-wabble , Bas i n S tre e t Blu e s , Pan am a,and a host o f others .

What was the original contribution,

o f the latter group? It wassomething which has never since been equaled . Nearly everynumber they waxed was their own creation

,nearly every tune

was a model o f simple,yet powerful

,composition . Many o f their

themes have been used or just plain plagiarized by other composers . Os tri chWalk, for one, was shamelessly copied to produceWan gWan g Blu e s .

What was the impression on those who ac tu ally heard the

94 JAZZ

orchestra? I have met some o f them, and I was astonished to se ehow the memory lights up their faces , even after a quarter o f acentu ry. I am told that Bix Beiderbecke received one of thegreatest impressions o f his life

,one that helped stamp the char

acter o f his futu re greatness . When you speak o f these superhuman pioneers to Muggsy Spanier, Frank Guarente, BradGowans

, o r Jim Moynahan, they just shake their heads . Theykn ow they’ll never find the words to express what they feel .How could it be otherwise? After twenty-fiv e years, the reign

o f the clarinetist Larry Shields is still acknowledged by countlessmusicians who u se his ideas and phrases on that instrument.Larry Shields was for the clarinet what Louis Armstrong hasbeen fo r the trumpet. He organized the role o f the clarinet andbreathed life into it; he gave it his vitality of improvisation , hisexcited expression

,his liquid tone, and his crackling breaks .

As fo r La Rocca, he was the first great classic trumpet. Muchhas been said about Bix’

s debt to King Oliver and Louis Armstrong

,but not enough about the inspiration he drew from Nick

La Rocca . La Rocca had the perfect temperament fo r a hot music1an . He excelled in playing the tune almost note for note, hi stone and his mas tery o f the attack before the beat producing asimple yet amazing effect.Listen closely to Pale s te en a o r even Margie , fo r example . La

Rocca accented the notes v ery Simply " by swelling or flutteringthem . Listen next to S i n gi n g the Blu e s and you will note howdeeply Bix was inspired by La Rocca . In Be ide rbe cke ’

s lovelysolos it seems that he is trying to recapture the general impressiono f the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. He attempts to achieve theinterwoven play o f trumpet, clarinet, and trombone, but is fru strated by the inadequacy o f his musicians .This is not said in depreciation o f Beiderbecke ; far from it . Irealize the greatness of Bix’

s character and the contribution hehas made to jazz . But knowing him so well, I can justifiably assertthat B ix’

s records may well be forgotten long befo re those of theOriginal Dixieland Jazz Band . I hOpe this is not blasphemy, butI listened studiously to most o f Rix

’s recordings the other day,

and,with two or three exceptions, they were not, worth listening

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

96 JAZZ

first the role o f the N egro musicians had been ignored . Thentheir importance was fu lly recognized, and certain criticsgrouped around periodicals like Jazz In form ati o n and books likeSmith and Ramsey’s Jazzm e n —have dug out innumerable detailso n Negro jazz from Bolden to Armstrong . These groups havedealt almost exclusively with the N egro pioneers, so that now,

amazingly enough,the importance o f the early white musicians

is hidden behind the glory o f their colored colleagues .Nobody has been more appreciative than I o f the role of the

N egro in the development o f jazz, and therefore I am entitledto express the Opinion that the music would never have becomewhat it i s i f it were not fo r orchestras like the Original Dixieland .

I am a great admirer o f the colored New Orleans musicians whomade their headquarters at Chicago, bu t the willful and system at ic neglect o f their white contemporaries is cruel and u h

just . Before Louis Armstrong and Fletche r Henderson , n o coloredorchestra reached the level attained by the Original DixielandJazz Band or the New Orleans Rhythm Kings . Great as he was

,

the recordings o f King Oliver are confused and fumbling nextto those of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings .Where can you hear a pre—192 4 N egro ensemble with theunity

,consistency, character, and continual explosiveness o f the

Original Dixieland? Only sporadically did black jazz reach thoseheights . Later, it i s true, the balance swung in the other dire ction

,when white jazz was sidetracked away from the paths o f

pure jazz .I am certain that those who, like me, prefer music o f pure im

pro v i satio n will confirm my Opinion i f they have taken the troubleto listen to the m iraculous polyphony o f the Original Dixieland .

The two records they made in 19 17(Dixi e lan d Jass On e StepLi v e ry Stable Blu e s , Darktown S tru tte rs Ball—In dian a ) are admirable . Larry Shields is astounding , the hard and clear rhythmo f the drums is eloquent in its Sim plICIty, the low notes o f thetrombone go straight to the heart.The 19 18 recordings attain a peak o f mu51cal interpretation .

The trombo ne sometimes plays in a very original staccato style;Shie lds ’s clarinet is as good as ever . Shields’s work and Sbarbaro ’

s

JAZZ 97

drumming,especially in Os tri ch Walk and A t the Jazz Ban d

Ball, are ample proof o f the debt o f j azz to N ew Orleans marchmusic . Jazz was not yet an exclusively dance music .These first recordings are highly important, since they givethe conscientious critic valuable information about the variousinfluences which shaped New Orleans jazz . A bizarre tangorhythm in St . Lo u i s Blu e s , for example , reminds one that Spanishm usic played its part in the Mississippi delta .In these recordings and those o f 19 19 , Larry Shields demonstrates the greatness o f his talent . The three melody instruments(com et, clarinet, and trombone) supported by the two rhythm(piano and dru ms) interweave their improvisations very cleverly.

One o f them always leads this collective creation , directing i tsmovement and animating the play of the others . This is the admirable formula which later musicians were to discard in favor o fmore commercial c om prom lse s .

La Rocca , as we have said, plays SIm ply a bare skeleton o f thetheme as compared with the surging notes of Bobby Hackett

,fo r

example . Shields’s style of playing has unfortunately disappeared ,as all modern clarinets insist on using a stereotyped and colorlessstyle . He didn’t give equal value to all his notes

,holding some

,

gli ss in g some, swallowing some, as his inspiration‘ dictated . Larry

Shields played after the beat, unlike the technique perfected byBenny G oodman , which hits before the beat . The influence o fBenny Goodman has been so considerable that everybody sincehas followed his form ula, except for a few musicians of the oldschool such as Jimmie No o n e and Sidney Bechet.Following the five records waxed in 19 19 , of which Tiger Ragand Clarin e t Marm alade (played more slowly than in the laterversion) are my favorites, the composition o f the band waschanged . Emil Christian replaced Daddy Edwards , and J . Ru ssell Robinson succeeded Henry Ragas , who died in his hotelroom only a few days before their departure for England . At

several recording sessions in London from April 19 19 to July192 1 , they waxed many fine , and a few not so fine , disks . Barnyard Blu e s , for instance, a faster version of Liv e ry S table Blu e s,i s n o t nearly so good . Sa tan i c Blu e s , o n the other hand , is marked .

98 JAZZ

by a diabo lical kind of beauty. On the return of the orchestra tothe United States, they found the situ ation had changed in their

e, and wrongly decided to modernize their band by addingBenny Kr u eger o n sax and Al Bernard as vocalist.For a while they enjoyed the same s u ccess as of yore . Theywere a big hit at a number o f balls, and they inspired a host o fmusicians . Brad Gowans sometimes took La Rocca’s place on thebandstand. B ix, as he confessed to his friends , modeled his playing after the pattern o f the Original Dixieland .

Margi e , a composition o f the new pianist, became a hit tuneand a standard

,but

,o n the whole, the band had exhausted its

creative vein,and did nothing but repeat itself. Daddy Edwards

came back on trombo ne, but Larry Shields gave way to ArtieSeaberg

,Benny Krueger to Don Parker, and RussellRobinson to

Henry Van i se lli .The band had had fiv e years o f glory and had given the wo rld

many tunes which are now established classics . But the first bandin the discography o f j azz outlived i ts great period . At the end itcomposed no new numbers

,playing its big hits—T

Som e o fThe s e Days , Tige r Rag, and Barn yard Blu e s—over againo n i ts record dates . Like poets who have said all they have to say,they went o n repeating their Old stuff wearily. The old feeling

,

was gone, their numbers did not have the drive o f yesteryear. Asalways when heart and youth have given way to routine

,all

lyrical quality was missing .

What do es it matter? The Original Dixieland Jazz Band hadfiv e great and fruitfu l years . There are very few instances o fsuch character and unity in the history o f American music . Andthey have left us a pile of records which I play over and overagain

,as they represent the purest sort o f j azz .

Eddie Edwards today is the coach o f a foo tball team,

and has been completely forgotten by those who have photographed and reprinted all the minor details concerning the mostinsignificant ban jo stru m m e r of N ew Orleans . It is all right forresearchers to try to re -create the conditions o f N ew Orleans jazz,but it is high time that we pay just homage to the first white jazzimmortals : Shields

,Edwards

,Sbarbaro

,and the rest.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

100 JAZZ

say abou t this great band, which has been so unjustly and so

completely forgotten these many years. Neither the Hat Di scography o f Charles Delaunay nor Charles Edward Smith

’s Jazzm e nmentions them. Ye t they were great in their dayTo realize this, you have only to listen to their records : Mam a

Lo v e s Papa , Lan d of Co tto n Blu e s , Sn ake H ips , and Farewe llBlu e s . Played in the blended style o f the Memphis Five and theCo tton Pickers, these records are bathed m an invigorating atmos

phe re . In 192 3 Frank Guarente was the best white tru mpet to befound . Hi s playing in Lan d o f Co tto n Blu e s will indicate thedebt Bix owed him

,and Dan c i n gDan might be said to be Bixian

before Bix . The imagination o f the Georgians is brilliantly di splayed i n the unusual ending o f Sn ake H ips , and Lov ey Com e

Back is fine from the rhythmic bouncing trombone o f the beginning to the soulful clarinet improvisation o f the end . JohnnyO

’

Do n n ell, the clarinet, improvises a solo on Farew e ll Blu e swhich is identical to Rappolo

’

s o n the same tune . I leave it forothers better informed to decide which came first.This was one o f the great periods o f white jazz . Coloredorchestras had not progressed nearly as much; contact with thewhites was necessary to set them going again . Only with KingOliver did Negro jazz live up to i ts earlier promi se . At the sametim e the N ew Orleans Rhythm Kings were very close in manyrespects to King Oliver. If tru th be told, both white and Negrobands reacted on each other; each copi ed the other

’s inventionsuntil the point where they became a part of the public domain .

The core of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings , a band whichhad a preponderant influence on the musicians o f the time

,con

sisted o f Leon Rappolo and the Bru nies brothers . They were bornin New Orleans about the tu rn of the century and, as kids, followed the marching bands at Mardi Gras time . They stu di edmusic at an early age, Rappolo learning the Violin, which he discarded fo r the clarinet, and the Brunies studying with PapaLaine . Th eir first job was in Storyville .The band was organized about 19 19 , and it continued to playin the N ew Orleans tradition o f collective improvisation . Beforetheir trip to Chicago and fame

,they played In their native city

JAZZ 101

and toured Texas,which was a sort of testing ground fo r Delta

City bands.At this point I interpolate a long aside to consider a little fact

which has had tremendous repercussions o n the history o f jazz,

a fact which might be glossed over were it not fo r the insight itgives into the psychological problem o f jazz . Leon Rappolosmoked marijuana

,a narcoti c weed growing wild in Mexico and

all over the South,and peddled at prohibitive prices in all Ameri

can population centers .Ye s

, Rappolo smoked mari juana, and it helped him along theroad to madness . I hesitate to delve into his private life like this

,

and if addiction to reefers had rem aIn ed a foible o f Rappolo

alone,I should not . But the habit Spread to a great many musi

c ian s and even today is not uncommon . Why i s this so ?I have already explained that jazz is basedwhich

,to be successful

,must be freeers . Every man possesses a faculty

o r reason , which controls the actions ofthe sensibilities and the subconscious mind . It is a sort o f headsupe rvisor which maintains the equilibrium of its subordinates .Every psychologist i s acquainted with this distinction in theorganization o f the human mind .

Jazz and surrealism upset this balance . No longer is the intellige n c e the faithful supe rintendent of the mind ; its ac tlo n is redu c ed and the other faculties are given free rein . The great jazzmen are those who can

,o f themselves

,neutralize the role o f

reason . Me n like Louis Armstrong can do it; this is the psychologic al explanation o f their genius . Louis Armstrong can puthimself into a trance-like state in a few seconds

,and

,from then

o n , he is o u t o f the world, Speaking only from the heart.This phenomenon o f trance or frenzy is the musician S means

o f inspiration . Nor is this to be wondered at ! Poetry springs fromthe same source . A tru e poet cannot write with his intelligence .The highest lyrical peaks have been scaled only by frenzied poets .Unfortunately, exalted moments are rare; one cannot enter thissta te at will . The great moments o f poetry are few and far between . The same is true fo r that other form of poetry

,j azz .

102 JAZZ

I affi rm that such a trance i s the very base o f all jazz, and thosewho love and create this music ceaselessly strive toward it.WhenI hear an orchestra which reaches straight into my heart

,I know

that i ts members are carried away by this frenzied Spirit andwelded into a miraculous unity. There can be no jazz withoutfrenzy. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was frenetic; so wasKing Oliver; and so was and is Louis Armstrong . Rappolo , too ,for Rappolo had found, in marijuana, an artificial means o f i ndu c i n g the trance-like state .The great clarinetist had noted that i t was difli c u lt to enterinto the necessary state o f grace . He realized that two or threemouthfuls of marijuana fumes would neutralize the severe co ntrol o f reason and leave the sensibilities free to examine the u mexp lored possibilities Of music. He discovered for himself andfo r others an easy way o f inducing this condition . It appears

,

furthermore,that the weed enhances the musical qualities o f i ts

addicts ; no longer checked, their auditory faculty expands andtriumphs over both time and Space . I have asked many of theseunfortunates just what was the power o f their drugged elation .

Most tell me that they hear better, create better, and take morepleasure in the music . This is purely illusory.

Many musicians still smoke marijuana, and the habit has givenjazz much of its vocabulary (and very likely many o f its bestefforts) , as the following titles indicate : Mu ggle s , Se n di n g the

Vipe rs , Texas Te a Party, and Chan t of the We ed.

This is the reason fo r the prevalence o f the habit among jazzmusicians . It serves the same psychological function as an aid tothe creative power as Opium does for Jean Cocteau . It is re

gre ttable , however, that the most insignificant saxophonist inHarlem thinks that all he has to do to become a great creator isto smoke muggles . Needless to say, n o t everyone is a Rappolo o r

an Armstrong . Marijuana is a means, not a cause . Those whohave nothing to say deep down inside o f them can Smoke tea alltheir lives without creating one single bar o f beautiful music.Moreover

,in the long ru n it will be found that the production

of a man who is under the influence o f dru gs will end in i n c ohe rence . The artificial trance leads to exaggerations which a natural

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

104 JAZZ

b i le Blu e s . [Thi s last was re ally Ti n Ro o f Blu e s , whi ch Ihad c o n

fused withM obi le Blu e s as bo th be lo n ged to the Me lro se co lle ctio n .!If my memo ry is accurate, the group played ve ry ho t po lypho n ic

e n semble s such as n o o rche stra has sin c e attempted, ye t which po rte n ded gre at thin gs fo r the evo lutio n o f jazz. This fo rmula , to mymi n d, is n o t a fo rgo tte n expe rime n t—the se re c o rds can stand c om

pari so n with the be st o f today. The accompan ime n ts are pe rfectlybalan c ed, an d I particularly remember the trombone’s coun te rpo inti n Skim m e -sha—w abble , who se savage beauty tops an ythi n g I havehe ard sin c e .

I would willingly sign th1s statement today, and I am happyto mention in passing that the trombonist was George Bru nies

,

whose playing still hits me square on the button .

Besides Brunies,the fine musicians o f the orchestra included

Rappolo on clarinet, Paul Mares o n trumpet, Elmer Schoebel o npiano

,Lew Black on banjo, Arnold Loyo c an o o n bass

,Frank

Snyder on dru ms, and Jack Pettis on sax .

Yo u will notice that this composition is a reinforced version o fthe Dixieland setup . The Rhythm Kings , like the Original Dixieland i n 192 3 , added a saxophone and amplified the rhythm se c

tion . Their personnel changed frequently as they moved fromtheir Wisconsin debut to the Cascade Ballroom and Friar’s Innin Chicago .

It is interesting to trace their evolution by means of theirdiscography. Very few o f their fine recordings are available inAmerica today

,and this is greatly to be regretted . They should be

reissued,fo r, as jazz advances , records like those o f the Rhythm

Kings stand out in bolder relief.Their first recorded period consisted of seven sides on Gennett(Ori e n tal, Farew e llBlu e s, Di sc o n te n ted Blu e s , Bu gle CallBlu e s ,Tige r Rag, Pan am a

,Ec c e n tri c ) played by the musicians listed

above,except that Steve Brown had replaced Loyo c an o .

Note the propulsive power o f the rhythm section,especially

the rhythmic rebo und o f the banjo supported by the bass anddrums . The playing o f the three melody instruments is interwoven in true Dixieland style . Here you will find two great jazzmen , Rappolo and Brunies . Paul Mares is good, but he lacks the

JAZZ 105

power of his two friends . After due reflection I have come to theconclusion that the band’s chief driving force was George Brunies

,

a contemporary yet ignored giant. Without him the orchestra islifeless . Three or four other musicians of almost equal talentcould have been found to replace Rappolo .

A bit later the orchestra was somewhat smaller,consisting o f

the same melodic base—Mares , Brunies , Rappolo—and a rhythmsection composed o fMe lStitzel, piano , and Frank Snyder, drums .They madeWe ary Blu e s , Wo lv e rin e Blu e s

,Da-Da Stra i n , Shim

m e -sha—wabble , Swe e t Lo v in g Man,and Maple Le af Rag, all

tunes which bring back,the memory o f the days when jazz first

hit me . Da—Da S tra in and Shim -m e -sha—wabble are and will remain among the peaks o f recorded jazz .The orchestra was enlarged after 192 2 , the solid basis o f

Mares,Brunies

,and Rappolo remaining to breathe life into a

new body . Jack Pettis,Don Murray, o r Glenn Scoville play

’edsax,and the rhythm section consisted o f Lew Black and Steve

Brown back again,Charlie Pierce on piano, and Ben Pollack on

drums . They waxed An gry, Sobbin’

Blu e s , Clari n e t Marm alade ,Mr . Je lly Lo rd, M iln ebu rg Joys , Margu eri te , Lo n do n Blu e s ,Mad.

Many of these were beautifully played; the ensembles o f Clari n e tMarm alade and especially An gry were among the records whichinspired me most .After this group of recordings the individuality of the NewOrleans Rhythm Kings was lost. Its great triumvirate was brokenup

,Rappolo or Brunies being absent o n each occasion . The loss

of its two greatest musicians was irreparable . Without the purityo f Rappo lo and the power of Brunies, the orchestra no longercame up to i ts earlier standard .

The end of Rappolo’

s career is a tragic story . His dependenceo n m ar1ju an a increased from day to day . He had begun by takingtwo o r three mouthfuls

,which was enough to send him into a

trance . Friends have described him to me—feverish, thin , panting

,with dark rings around hi s eyes . He played marvelous solos ,

eyes closed in ecstasy,then rushed into the alley to relight hi s

reefer. He took a few puffs , holding it with the ends of his fingersso as to breathe in smoke and air together, extinguished it again ,

106 JAZZ

and went back to the han d. He would remain high fo r an hour.His creative power was raised to a high pitch, and few who sawhim realized that here was a person who was committing suicidein order to produce beauty.

Before long the dose needed to affect him was doubled andtripled ; he now smoked five or s ix reefers a day. He had terriblefits , no longer ate, no longer drank. He passed the stage wherecreativeness was stimulated, and spent all hi s time in a dream .

Frightful apparitions haunted him; he alternated between theheights of musical passion and the utmost depths o f despair.Finally he reached the point where

,half dead from the weed o f

despair, he flung his clarinet into Lake Pontchartrain . The greatmusician , Leon Rappolo , was no longer a musician—he wasscarcely even a man . Laid low by the malevolent fumes

,he Spent

the rest o f his life among the fantasies which the dru g hadproduced . A man without a mind, he became an inmate o f alunatic asylum . His fingers ran idly up and down the keys o f aclarinet which someone had given him . He still had the fingers

,

but his control was gone, his sensibility was gone . Such i s thefrightfu l story which must be told to all . Rappolo died in thesanitarium in 1943 .

In the folklore o f the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and theNew Orleans Rhythm Kings lies material for two o f the mosttouching films Imaginable . I feel their attraction

,I know their

story. God grant that someday I may produce them .

When the Original Dixi eland broke up, its great founders disappe ared from the musical scene, and no vestige o f it remained .

The story o f the Rhythm Kings is somewhat the same . Thoughthe Brunies brothers tried to resurrect the orchestra in 192 5 underthe name of Meritt Brunies and His Friars Friends, the attemptwas not very successful . Very seldom does a jazz orchestra givebirth to a direct descendant .Santo Pecora

,the last trombonist o f the Rhythm Kings

,and

Ben Pollack,its drummer o f 192 4, formed a small orchestra

known as the Bucktown Five. In this group we find the initialappearance o f Muggsy Spanier, who was to become one o f thegreatest white c om e ti sts ; Volly de Faut, a new clarinetist; and

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

108 JAZZ

superior. He i s the one who modified the staccato style o f GeorgeBrunies . I believe that Pan ass ié has pronounced a wrong verdic ton this trombonist. Miff Mole’s influence o n jazz has beenequaled by very few others . In jazz there are not only the ins tru m e n tali s ts o f genius ; there are also the musical organizers,those who shape the characters of the orchestras with which theyare associated . From this point o f ViewMiffMole was an ace . Hewas the very life o f the Memphis Five and the Cotton Pickers .And those who say they don

’t like the way Miff Mole playedmake me laugh . He was the equal o f almost any present-daytrombone, and the best o f today, like J . C . Higginbotham

,who

has progressed considerably in the last few years , are very closeto the nuanced style of Miff Mole . N o longer do we find H iggyplaying the passionate outbursts o f Jack Teagarden or Brunies .On i ts own level, the Mole style has a melodious unity whichonly the obtuse will fail to se e .

The Memphis Five and the Cotton Pickers had a great character which was all their own . Like the Dixieland style and theRhythm Kings style , there was a Cotton Pickers style . It was agreat orchestra

,o n e which I really loved . If i ts critics would be

silent long enough to listen closely to the admirable polyphony ofS ta te S tre e t Blu e s , Down an dOu t Blu e s , G o t to Co o lMy Doggi e sN ow , Cope n hage n ,

Ram part S tre e t Blu e s , and Ju s t Ho t,they

would realize the many fine qualities o fMiffMole and the band .

I admit that their performances were not so pure as those ofthe Original Dixieland

,yet anyone who faces the fact will realize

that they had more personality than most o f o u r modern bands ;this orchestra had a soul , not a motor.At the present hour there are no more ensemble personalities .Excepting a few orchestras , which can be counted on the fingerso f one hand, they all play alike . I don

’t want to hurt anyone’sfeelings , but nothing sounds so much like o n e colored orchestraas another colored o rche stfa . They are reduced to the same levelby the mediocrity o f arrangement . And the same goes fo r thewhite bands . The spirit is gone . Fo r a price , they deliver the samecold dish every night in the week.

JAZZ 109

The Cotton Pickers were head and shoulders above 90 per cento f the big mechanized bands . Among the whites the only thingI find acceptable is the small Dix ieland outfi ts o f the Chicagogroup . And unless some big bands return to the old tradition o fpure improvisation , the only real jazz will continue to co me fromsimilar small groups .Fo r two years I have heard the New York bands time andagain . Save for two o r three, I am extremely bored by theirshallow and spiritless performances . If a band like the CottonPickers could be formed—o f course, the evolution o f j azz wouldmake certain changes in its style necessary—i t would eclipse thereputations o f all the highly publicized name bands as far as anytrue lover of jazz is concerned .

I have just spoken o f several successive and even parallelgroups . The strength o f the white orchestra o f the heroic agehas come down to us only through examples preserved o n wax .

Who now remembers that the Memphis Five played at theBalc o n ade s on Columbus Avenue in N ew York?Jimmy Lytell was an excellent clarinetist who i s almost worthy

o f~

being ranked among the greatest . His style reminded me o fthat o f N athan

,o f the Lido-Venice band . It is with emotion that

I remember three of the tu nes o f the golden age—Aggrav a ti n’

Papa , IWi sh ICou ld Shim m y Like My Si ste r Kate , and Ru n n i n’

Wild, whose hot and savage style indicates that this was the earlyperiod without the balance o f the Dixieland Band .

Among the best o f the pile of interesting records which demonstrate the band’s vitality

,I cite Shu fii i n

’

Mo se , Si ou x Ci ty Su e ,Way Down Yo n de r i n N ew Orle an s , Sn ake H ips , and especially

Ju s t Ho t.

These last recordings were attributed to the Cotton Pickers .The true Cotton Pickers was a somewhat different organization,consisting of N apoleon, Mole, Chuck Muller o n clarinet, LucianSmith and Frank Trumbauer on saxes

,and Rube Bloom on

1ano .PAt a later period Red Nichols replaced Phil Napoleon . This

band produced two excellent records : Stom p Off Le t’

s G o and

1 10 JAZZ

Caro lin a Stom p (without Trumbauer) , and Falli n’

Down andWhat Did I Te llYou which was the last Cotton Pickers recordwhi ch reached Europe .

Th e character o f this band was very different from that o f theDixieland Band or the Rhythm Kings

,which had been domi

n ated by an improvising tri umvirate . The influence o f N icholsand Trumbauer led it along another path . After the Red N icholsperiod

,or perhaps concomitantly

,Phil Napoleon was associated

with the Dorsey brothers and Arthur Schutt, who had been theGeorgians pianist . On certain records Eddie Lang and HoagyCarmichael were among those present.But the same process that we have already noted in the other

bands was repeated . The personality of the group was dead; i tsOffspring had very few hereditary traits . I should like to se t downhere what I had to say about the Cotton Pickers some fifteen yearsago 2

From the first, the Co tto n Picke rs to ok care to avo id me lodic ban alitie s, an d to se ek tun e s which we re n o t domin ated by the ri tom e llo .

Fo r this re aso n they we re n aturally led to improvise an d eve n to c om

po s e tun es suited to the ir tale n t an d mo od. The ir exc itin g characteri s revealed i n Ju s t Ho t an d Shu fili n

’

Mo se , especially i n the fo rme r,which is so kn o cked o u t that all that remains is the rhythm whichin troduce s a comple te ly n ew cade n ce which has sin ce be e n copied byall the ban ds—fo r o n e , the Ge o rgian s, who have in co rpo rated thefamo u s theme mi so lmi so lmi so l so lm i ” i n Cope n hage n an d Swe e tSixte e n . [The Wo lverin e s’ Cope n hage n , it should be no ted, is anexact duplicate o f the Co tto n Picke rs’, un less it is the o ther wayaroun d !In Ju s t Ho t the Co tton Picke rs attain ed an irreproachable pe rfe ction; n o flourishe s, n o squallin g, n o static, just a pure an dmo v i n g lin ewithout an y o f the few e rro rs i n tas te (wa-wa , c om -fed rhythm

, e tc .)which m ar the ir earlie r wo rk. It is in te re stin g to study the ir evo lutio nfrom the se reco rds; the trumpe t be come s mo re an d mo re sobe r, an dthe clarin e t use s a style which we will fin d furthe r developed by Pe eWe e Russe ll . By the time they reco rded Blu e Ro se , o n e o f the summits o f jazz mus i c , they had a suren e ss an d an imatio n which was nolo n ge r foun d i n the o the rwise excellent Falli n ’

Down . Here o n e c an

se n se the pro foun d chan ge brought about i n jazz by the co n siderable

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I I2 JAZZThre e kin ds o f in strume n ts played theho t parts—sax

, c larin e t, an dtrumpe t. I thin k this was du e to the in c re asin gly evide n t supe rio rityo f Adrian Ro llin i, Jimmy Do rsey, an d Red N icho ls . The ro le o f thetrombo n e was limi ted to accompan ime n t, an d, o n the re co rds I he ard

,

the ban jo simply played rhythm, usin g all four cho rds an d n o t demons trati n g an ythi n g un usual i n the way o f te chn ique . Jimmy Do r 'seyve ry quickly attain ed a fin e ho t style which had mo re to it than the

trumpe ts . I am n o t sure who played this last in strume n t [it wasac tu ally Red N icho ls ! , but o n the reco rds I’ve he ard—So u the rn Ro se ,Li ttle Old Clo ck, N ashv i lle Te n n e sse e , Red Ho t He n ry Brown , N 0

body Kn ow s , an d some o the rs—i t se ems to m e that he had n o t ac

quired e i the r the virtuo sity o r the se n se o f jazz which was late r dev e lOped, an d which the N ew Orle an s [Rhythm Kin gs ! trumpe t hadalre ady fo re shadowed .

How can I help but feel grateful to the Ramblers? They werethe first to introduce me to jazz in which individual improvisationwas substituted fo r the collective im prOV1sati o n I already knewand loved .

I propose that the record companies reissue an album o f theCotton Pickers and California Ramblers . I should like to be ableto choo se these records at my leisure, since I am sure that bothbands made at least a few records which would suffice to rescuethem from their present state o f neglect . Remember that thereputation o f many a musician is founded on one record

,and

consider that here is more than merely a solo inspired in a happymoment : there is a spirit o f cohesion , a character, and a lyricalsoul

,which constitute a veritable trade-mark which makes them

identifiable after only a few bars .On e very important critical observation on the history of jazzmust be made here . As orchestra succeeded orchestra , the streamo f jazz became more and more polluted . The Spirit was watereddown continually. Paul Whiteman became known as the Kingo f Jazz . He organized a huge orchestra which played melodic oreven “symphonic” jazz, and was extremely successful . Hot music ian s swallowed their principles and catered to the public taste .The purest orchestra o f them all was the Original DixielandJazz Ban d . The New Orleans Rhythm Kings were somewhat

JAZZ 1 13

more musical and made some c o n c e SS1o n s to the public taste . TheCotton Pic kers went even further, m ixing written arrangementswith in spiration ; the Georgians su bordinated irn prov i sati o n to acentral idea; and finally the Ramblers completely revolutionizedthe creative principle . Instead o f a tripartite collective improvisation

,they relied on a melodic part and the improvisation o f a

single instrument accompanied by an ensemble background . Thismarked the be ginning o f the big-band formula which was to leadjazz into an impossible impasse , since really creative improvisation demands that all the musicians be in a trance . It looks as ifthe great soloists of the futu re will not be i n spired men sm gm gfrom their hearts

,but m e cha n i cal men wi th dexterous fingers .

The present formula stifles an y great individuality, which can n olonger develop freely as in the heroic age .We Shall return to thisquestion later

,when we discuss the big bands.

Anyway, no o n e can deny that the evolution o f j azz at thistime was chi efly due to white musicians . The contribution of theclassi c white bands has given me many lasti ng memories . TheNegro bands o f the same period had little to say, if truth be told .

Their performances certain ly cannot be compared to those o f thewhi tes . Ye t in Chicago there was King Oliver’s orchestra, whichcontained elements which were to shape the futu re o f jazz. Allfu ture ensembles were to profit from Oliver’s example, ju st as allfu tu re irn pro v i se rs were nourished, consciously o r unconsciously,from the genius o f Louis Armstrong . The present Negro

’

o r

che stras are a projection of the creative spirit o f King Oliver. Thewhite name bands have unfortunately forgotten the marv elousflowering of white hot music and n ow try to play like Negrohan ds . They have n o t profited from the example of their predec e sso rs . Who will be the first great white musician to get outo u t of the rut and return to a really creative formula? Fo r my part,I shou ld like to see someone like Benny Goodman return to thetripartite “hot” conception he has loved so well , acting in conjunction with the Chicagoans, who are at present the only oneswho have profited from the teachings of their great forerunnersand who have strenuously avoided commercialism by playing , inthe old lyric al vein , a music which sends me each time I hear

“

It .

JAZZ

VIII. LOUIS ARMSTRONG

WHEN I WROTE Au x Fron tiére s du Jazz, Paul Whiteman wasknown as the King of Jazz . No one in either America o r Europedared to deny his right to this symbolic crown . He had emulators

,

all right; Jack Hylton , in England, for o n e . The purpose o f mybook was to smash these two popular idols, whose music wasutterly worthless as jazz . The history of these usurpers had to beretold in order that people might realize that the real king wassomeone else entirely. I dedicated my book to Louis Armstrong

,

the tru e King o f Jazz, as an expression o f my fervent admirationfor him . I made this decision after hearing a dozen o r so Armstrong recordings , so overwhelming was the impression

,and I

have never had cause to regret it.This choice still holds good . Armstrong is more than the Kin g

o f Jazz; he is its soul , he is jazz itself, he is the great standardagainst which all other jazzmen are measured . To my mind he i sthe o n e indisputable genius American music has produced

,and

,

as years go o n , he appears ever more outstanding . N o true loverof jazz denies his predominant position .

Still alive and active, he is already a legendary figure. H i scareer is now well known , and I do not intend to repeat the manydetails which have been recounted in Armstrong’s autobiography

,

Swi n gTha t Mu s i c , and elsewhere .

He was born in New Orleans at the beginning o f this century,and lived the banal day-to—day existence of the Delta City pickaninny. With hi s friends, he wandered through the picturesquestreets of the uptown Negro quarter.The reveille of jazz had already been - sounded by the com et o fKing Bolden by the time Armstrong was a lad . The strangemelodies which floated through the open doors o f Storyville establi shm e n ts went straight to his heart.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

II6 JAZZ

Sidney Bechet, Albert N icholas, Baby Dodds, and Zu tty Singleto n .

Armstrong was married about this time, but domestic bliss wasin terrupted by frequent Spats with his wife . Deciding to get awayfrom it all fo r a while, Louis quit his job and joined FateMarable

’

s orchestra, which played on the river boats . Togetherwith such musici ans as Boyd Atkins(sax) , George Foster(bass) ,Eugene Sedri c(sax) , Johnny Dodds(clarinet) , and Zu tty Singleton (drums) , he spent several seasons on the flowing stream ofOld Man River. Then he went back to the Verger cabaret inNew Orleans (which has contributed one o f the figures o f theLindy Hop to posterity) , and played with the Tuxedo MarchingBand .

He was t0ps in New Orleans, and his reputation spread, byword o f mouth, everywhere jazz was played. In Chicago, hometown musicians praised the boy wonder to King Oliver. Joe mayhave been worried about keeping his crown and desirous o f safeguarding i t from any direct challenge, but, whatever the reason,he decided intelligently to send fo r Louis to j01n his band at theLincoln Gardens(3 1st and Gordon streets, in Chicago) .

Armstrong quickly revealed himself as a star of the first m agm

tude,but so long as he remained as second trumpet to King

Oliver he co uld not expand . He was ambitious,and others

,

especially Lil Hardin , the band’s p ian 1st, were ambitious for him.

She was the one who took him aside and taught him music,

transcribing for him some typical transitions which were to bethe very base o f Armstrong’s style . She helpe d develop hi s talentand urged him to strike out on his own . Armstrong became firsttrumpet at the Dreamland .

Louis married Lil in 192 3 and left in the winter to try hi sluck w ith Fletcher Henderson

’s orchestra at the Ro seland inNew York . He took adv an lage o f his stay in Manhattan to makeseveral recordings

,with Henderson , with ClarenceWilliams, and

as accompanist for featured vocalists . Returning in November192 5 to the Dreamlan d in Chicago , he doubled as a soloist withErskine Tate’s pit band at the Vendome Theatre .As a cornetist, vocalist, and actor, Louis revealed himself a

JAZZ H 7

peerless performer. A goo d-natured showman,he seemed the liv

ing expression o f the enthusiastic soul o f hi s race . His singingsounded ridi culous at first, but there was something to the warmvibrato o f his throaty voice, something to the guttural slang. heconfided to his megaphone, something instrumental in his scatphrasing, that went straight to the heart once you got used to it.In his playing and singing was glory pure and simple .When Louis Arm strong formed his own orchestra the firstperiod of jazz, which may be called the New Orleans period,came to

,

an end . Before we examine the new phase‘

o f his greatartistic career

,which opened in 192 6, we might do well to c o n

sider the first part o f his life in retrospect. During all this timeArmstrong was little more than o n e musician among others . As amember o f orchestras led by other men, he could n o t inspirethem with hi s own conceptions . His own personal qualities

,

except for his talent as instrumentalist, were kept hidden . Thisexp lains the diverse character of the recordings he made duringthis period

,with King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson , Clarence

William s,and as accompanist to Bes sie Smith and other blues

singers . During this Stage o f development he participated in e n

sembles whose atmosphere was generally that o f New Orleanscollective improvisation . It should be noted, however, thatFletcher Henderson’s was a big band, impractical for pure impro v i sati o n ,

whi ch had to resort to written arrangements to prese rve i ts balance .There i s n o doubt but that Louis is an extraordinary in stru

mentalist,head and shoulders above the rest. His playing o n these

early recordings is the most interesting thing about them . Fo r

example, Chim e s Blu e s , o n which i s Louis

’s first recorded solo,

is interesting to the extent that Armstrong participates in it. Thegreat talents o f the other musicians—Johnny Dodds and SidneyBechet, to name but two—add additional sparkle to hi s improvisations . The spirit of the Old New Orleans and river-boat orchestrascan be found in these old tu nes : Can al Stre e t Blu e s , Dippe rm o u th(better known as the Su gar Fo o t Stom p) , H igh So c i e ty,Bu ddy

’

s Habi ts, Camp M e e tin g Blu e s .

Playing with Louis in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra W’

ere

1 I8 JAZZ

such jazz greats as Bus ter Bailey(clarinet) , Don Redman(alto) ,Coleman Hawkins (tenor) . Lo uis’s outstanding greatn ess becomes evident when yo u compare his already—mature talent withthe almost ludicrous playing of Hawkins at that time; listen toAlabam y Bou n d, Cope n hage n ,

and I’

ll Se e Yo u i n My Dre am s .

In records like Su gar Fo o t Stom p the tru mpet section i s betterbalanced, thanks to the addition of Joe Smith .

I am very fond of the records which Louis made at the sametime with Clarence Williams’ Blue Five, a band which played inthe old New Orleans tradition o f collective improvisati on . It wascomposed o f Armstrong , Sidn ey Bechet, Clarence Williams(piano) , Buddy Christian (banjo) , and Charlie Irv i s (trombone) .

During the second period o f Armstrong’s career he led smallbands o f his own which still relied o n collective improvisation.

This was probably his greatest epoch from the pom t o f view o f

pure jazz . He was still a band musician , with"

hi s own partin the collective playing, but now he directed the ensemble. IhOpe you will grasp the di fference between this and his previousrole ; it stands out clearly in the recordings . Unti l this time thegeneral expression o f each record was under the control o f a bandleader who had hired Louis along with the other musicians . Fromthis point on the improvisations were directed according to Louis’sown conception . He was the orchestra leader

,cornetist

,singer

,

and the driving force .The band was generally known as “Louis Armstrong and HisHot Five

,

” although it recorded under other names(such as Lil’sHot Shots

,

” in honor of his wife) . Besides Louis,the group in

cluded Kid Ory o n trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, LilHardin Armstrong on piano, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo . Theywaxed a succession o f beautifu l sides , including G e orgia Bo -Bo

,

Ye s ! I’

m i n the Barre l, Co rn e t Chop Su ey, -He ebi e Je ebi e s , Mu sk

ra t Ram ble .

In 192 7 the Hot Five became the Hot Seven , with the additiono f a bass and Baby Dodds , Johnny

’s brother, o n drums . Th ey contin u ed the unbroken string of musical masterpieces, all the wayfromWi ld Man Blu e s to Sav oy Blu e s . Louis was n ow becoming

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

1 I8 JAZZ

such jazz greats as Bus ter Bailey(clarinet) , Don Redman(alto) ,Coleman Hawkins (tenor) . Louis’s outstanding greatness becomes evident when you compare his already—mature talent withthe almost ludicrous playing o f Hawkins at that time; listen toAlabam y Bou n d, Cope n hage n , and I

’

ll Se e Yo u i n My Dre am s .

In records like Su gar Fo o t Stom p the trumpet section i s betterbalanced

,thanks to the addition of Joe Smith.

I am very fond o f th e records which Louis made at the sametime with Clarence Williams’ Blue Five, a band which played inthe old New Orleans tradition o f collective improvisation . It wascomposed of Armstrong , Sidney Bechet, Clarence Williams(piano) , Buddy Christian (banjo) , and Charlie Irv i s (trombone) .

During the second period o f Armstrong’s career he led sm aflbands o f his own which still relied on collective improvisation.

This was probably his greatest epoch from the point of view o f

pure jazz . He was still a band musician , with“

hi s own partin the collective playing, but now he directed the ensemble. Ihope yo u will grasp the difference between this and his previousrole; it stands out clearly in the recordings . Until this time thegeneral expression of each record was under the control o f a bandleader who had hired Louis along wi th the other musicians . Fromthis point o n the improvisations were directed according to Louis’sown conception . He was the orchestra leader

,cornetist

,Singer

,

and the driving force.The band was generally kn own as Louis Armstrong and Hi sHot Five

,

” although it recorded under other names(such as Lil’sHot Shots

,

” in honor o f his wife) . Besides Louis,the group i n

cluded Kid Ory o n trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, LilHardin Armstrong on plano, Johnny St. Cyr o n banjo . Theywaxed a succession of beautifu l sides, including G e orgia 8 0-8 0,Ye s ! I

’

m i n the Barre l, Co rn e t Chop Su ey, He ebi e Je ebi e s , Mu sk

ra t Ram ble .

In 192 7 the Hot Five became the Hot Seven , with the additiono f a bass and Baby Dodds, Johnny

’s brother, o n dru ms . They contin u ed the unbroken string of musical masterpieces, all the wayfromWi ld Man Blu e s to Sav oy Blu e s . Louis was now becoming

JAZZ 1 19

as the steel-lipped c om e ti st whose ideas and techniqueallwho heard him .

2 8 we find him with a new Hot Five, o n e which has lostthe New Orleans flavor. This band had Earl Fathe r”

n piano,Fred Robinson o n trombone, Jimmy Strong on

Mancy Cara o n banjo, and Zu tty Singleton o n drums .5 now at the height o f his artistic and technicalu rro u n ded by other outstanding jazzmen who

pired by the power o f their great leader. Earlgreatest o f all jazz pianists

,never

t punch o f Fireworks , We s t'

En d

Drops , A Mo n day Da te , Su gar0 De u c e s , which rank among

a great recording which jazzfollows

merged as thes ic ian and the

pro v i se r, but he became the man o f j azz, indeed jazz itself.anius o f Louis Armstrong was henceforth to shape thes o f jazz . All the trumpeters imitated him ; they tried tois technique

,his fingering , his breathing , his imagination,

asing . This plagiarism became so flagrant that many evenhis solos note fo r note

,and even then only the best su c

in making them sound anything like Louis . Only o n e

t was not subjected to Armstrong’s influence,and de

1hi s own lyrical style—Bix Beiderbecke .dominan t role which Louis Armstrong has played in the>ment of jazz is hard fo r u s fully to realize today. N o t

a n y are aware of the fact that most o f o u r present-dayts are simply repeating from memory ideas which Louisalmost twenty years ago . It was he who fertilized the newe n s ified it, animated it, and gave it the lift which hasit to the present time .1 Don Redman was added to the band 1as saxophone andar, and a long series o f records, including St. Jam e s In

12 0 JAZZ

firm ary, Bas i n S tree t Blu e s , I Can’

t G iv e You An ythi n gbu t Lo v e ,and Ai n ’

t M i sbehav i n’

,followed . Durin g this period Armstrong’s

fame spread far and wide . The whole pattern o f jazz was changedby his influence. The white bands, whose development hadbeen arrested, were completely obliterated by the new tendency.Arms trong’s personality was so powerful , his improvising so pure,that nothing mattered besides him . So it happened that the admirable phenomenon o f collective improvisation gave way to theindividualist conceptions o f Louis Arm strong .

I wrote as long ago as 193 0 :

Armstro n g is sublime to such an exte n t that he has cleansed musicfrom all un n ecessary flourishes. His wo rk is full o f exquisite ideas,fre sh an d Spo n tan e ous . He has in troduc ed themes and transitionswhich have be en copied by hi s who le ge n eratio n . A skyscraper m u

s i c ian ,he is able to climb into the uppe r registe r with a facility which

disconce rts all hi s rivals. A wi tty musician , he in jec ts a bit o f theRhapsody i n Blu e at o n e po in t, a glimpse of Ki tte n o n the Keys atano the r, in co rpo rate s the beginn in g o f the Black Bo ttom into Afte rYo u ’

v e Go n e . In Mahogan y HallStom p he ho lds a no te fo r ten bars,an d repe ats a group o f five no tes seve n time s; an d while this so rt o fplayin g might se em crude an d barbarous at first, Louis’s gift fo rrhythm an d phrasin g makes it extreme ly e ffe ctive . An d thisextrao rdinary in te rpretation will be copied by all the name bands;Duke Ellin gton’s Ri n gDem Be lls use s the e ffects o f Mahogan y Hall.

Un til Armstro n g, jazz seemed to be baffled by wo rds; Louis putheart an d se n sibility in to his sin ging; he swallows his words, chewsthem,

pulve rize s them,fo rgets them,

an d substitutes inarticulate syllable s which re soun d like trumpe t no te s. His singing is a veritableoracle

,like the frenzied utte ran c e s o f the D e lphic pytho n e ss po s

sessed by the Spirit.

There is nothing to add to these hyperbolic words of praise,save that Louis has maintained his unfailing greatness for twentyyears now . As we shall se e in exam 1n 1n g hi s technical development during the third phase of his musical career

,he remained

the greatest o f jazz musicians .After many recording sessions, notably the famous Kn ockin ’

a

Ju g date when Jack Teagarden, Happy Cauldwell, Jo e Sullivan,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

12 2 JAZZ

one o f Duke Ellington’s trombones, and Lionel Hampton ondrums .Band succeeded band . Louis made a series o f recordings with

Ziln e r Randolph and some others ; my favorites are Whe n It’

s

Sle epy Tim e Down So u th, Yo u Rasc al Yo u , Ge o rgia o n MyM i n d, and S tardu s t. Then Chick Webb

’s band became Armstrong’s supporting vehicle .Meanwhile, Armstrong made a successfu l tour o f Europe. Returning

,he made a dozen o r so more records with Ziln e r Ran

dolph again,th is time with Teddy Wilson o n piano . On another

tri umphal jaunt through Europe he played with a bunch ofcolored musicians whom he found in Paris : Jack Hamilton

,

Leslie Th omson , trumpets ; L . Guimaraes, trombone; Pete Ducongé

,Henry Tyree, and Alfred Pratt, saxophones ; Herman

Chi tti so n ,a fine pianist; M . Jefferson, guitar; O . Arago

,bass; O .

Tines,drums . With this combination he waxed some very rare

Sides : St . Lo u i s Blu e s , Su per Tige r Rag, On the Su n n y S ide ,

ofthe Stre e t(two parts) , So n g of the Vipe rs , WillYo u Wo n

’

t you .

Armstrong went back to America in 193 5. He divorced LilHardin , from whom he had long been separated, and marriedAlpha . Luis Russell’s band, which had been o n tour, was hiredagain to play with Louis , and it has remained with him to thisday

,although i ts outstanding members—Red Allen , J . C . Higgin

botham,Charles Holmes , Al N icholas , Pop Foster, and Sidney

Catlett—all left it about two years ago, and Russell himself leftlate in 1943 . Louis has also recorded with several other groups o flate—o f the most diverse character imaginable : with white bandsincluding musicians such as Jimmy Dorsey and Bunny Be rigan ;with exotic outfits like Andy Iona and His Islanders

,the Poly

n e s ian s with Lionel Hampton , the Mills Brothers, with a mixedNegro choir; and finally with a New Orleans band which i ncluded Bechet.The mechanism o f gen1us i s a difficult thing to determine

,the

more so when the art is new and the artist still living . The task,

however,imposes itself on the conscientious critic

,and one could

fix o n no better case than Louis Armstrong . I have often ponderedthis problem

,and wondered what was the reason for his superi

JAZZ 12 3

o ri ty. Why do so many excellent musicians recognize that Louisis way ahead o f them ,

in a class by himself?The answer is Simple

,but it doesn’t explain very much . Louis

Armstrong has the precise balance which is necessary fo r the fullexpression o f a great jazz musician . All the necessary elements

,

and these o f the required strength , are providentially broughttogether in him . He has the spirit which is needed in order toconceive, and the tool which is necessary in order to put intoeffect. These two qualities, developed to such a degre e , . a1e to befound in one man only once in a generation . There are othermusicians who have the ideas , who have the creative power, butwho have not been able to master their means of expression . RoyEldridge

,for example

,is exciting and brilliant

,but he lacks Arm

strong’s sureness and perfection . Some have the necessary i n telligence and memory to serve their creativeness

,but they do n o t

have Louis’s Spontaneous Spirit—they only repeat his ideas indilute form . Others have somewhat less imagination and somewhat less techn ique than Louis but

,even so , are top-flight

trumpets .

Af ter Louis, there are a dozen o r so front-rank trumpets whomI greatly admi re . For many of them

,their misfortune is to have

come into the world at the same time as Armstrong,whose trail

blazing has limited the po ssibilities o f their expansion . I canreadily imagine that, had Armstrong never existed, men like RedAllen, Cootie Williams , and Roy Eldridge

‘ might have been ableto develop o n their own

,eventually reaching a position as great

as Louis has . But with Louis having shown the way, it becomesvery difficult to develop a personal path aside from the o n e whichArmstrong was the first to explore .This sort o f thing is common in any art form

,as witness the

various schools of literature . When a genius appears he gathersa group of disciples around him

,and their influence is reflected

even among artists of the second rank . Th e mold is shaped bythe dominating genius

,and it is well-nigh impos sible for any of

his schoo l to develop a distinct personality o f his own .

As I say, there are a dozen o r so admirable trumpets wi th ex;c eptio n al qualities, yet all lack a certain something . There is per

124 JAZZ

haps o n e whose extraordinary balance o f invention and techniquemerit him a higher position : I refer to Charlie Shavers . He hasthe individuality an d the ingenuity which almost permit him toescape Armstrong’

s domination . He Is exc 1t1n g, bo ld, tasteful ,witty

,facile . Time will tell whether or not I am mistaken

,but

every time I hear him play at o n e o f the jam sessions run by myfriend Harry Lim , I sense an emo tion which has become i n c re asingly rare these days . I have but one regret : the splendid buto v e rrefin ed formula of John Kirby’s band may smother his powero f improvisation .

But let’s get back to Louis Armstrong. The most phenomenalthing about Louis is that it is as easy and as everyday a thingfo r him to create beauty as it is for an apple tree to bear apples .The second he hits a note, hi s emotions and hi s heartbeats flowinto it.I have previously Spoken Of the process which permits Louis

to maintain his uniformly high level : namely, the trance . Besidesthe two qualities which I have just mentioned—imagination andtechnique—Louis possesses the great gift which permits him al?

most automatically to enter into a trance and then to express hi ssensibility by means of his instrument. The other two qualitiespossessed to a greater or lesser degree by the musicians we havejust compared to Armstrong . Here is a fact I want you all to mullover. Many musicians, particularly among the whites , haveplenty o f natural talent; yet, fo r these, the phenomenon o f thetrance is rare if not completely no nexistent. Armstrong’s gift ispresent In a few Negro e S—Charlie Shavers and Leo Watson , toname but two—but I kn ow o f no white musician who is able toforget himself

,to create hi s own atmosphere

,and to whip himself

u p i n to a state of complete frenzy.

Louis Armstrong is indeed an exception to the common ru n ofmortals . I think I kn ow other Negroes who can work themselvesinto a state o f trance, but these, unfortunately, do not play thetrumpet. And there are many other Negroes who play the trumpet but who seldom can get out of this world .

How then,you may ask, can I class certain white orchestras

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

12 6

English the n was a good deal more approximate than it i s now .)He made a gesture to indicate his failure to comprehend me . Ipointed to his case and asked

,

“Saxophone?”“N he replied,

“

fox terrier!I moved on toward a pretty girl with a bouquet in her arms .

She looked at me with obvious English distaste . Finally I perc e iv ed a dark-skinned face . I went up and asked,

“Are yo u waiting fo r Louis Arms trong?”

His rosy mouth Opened to Show hi s dazzling white teeth .

That’s me,Sir.”

Ten minutes later he was calling me Gate, and I was callinghim I gave him a copy of my book, the first to appearon jazz. He saw the dedication and was very moved by it, evenkissing it. We left fo r the rehearsal together with the musiciansI knew from Paris—Charlie Johnson, Joe Haymes, and a fewothers .Until late in the evening I remained in the hall listening toLouis rehearse . It was unbelievable . He shut his eyes, flourishedhis trumpet

,twisted his handkerchief, sang in tears , climbed up

to hit notes with his neck and cheek so distended that I thoughtthey would burst . What a revelation it was !This Still was during the era o f American prohibition . Sud

de n ly Armstrong’

s manager, Johnny Collins , came into the hall,soaked to the gills . He had been making up for lost time ever‘since his arrival in London . He started drunkenly to argue withLouis

,and then tu rned to leave . Blotto as he was

,he tried to exit

through a mirror which the actors used . He broke the trem e n

dous cigar which he had been puffing so furiously.

Monday at the Palladium was a sensation . N ever have I ex

pe ri e n c ed such an emotion . Sle epy Tim e Dow n Sou th, Them

The re Eye s , Whe n Yo u’

re Sm i li n g, Tige r Rag. The place wasrocking like a steamship in heavy weather. Young chaps sank totheir knees ; young girls wept.I went to join Louis in his box. Jack Johnson

,the old world’s

heavyweight champion , was there ; so were Nat G o n ella andsome other British musicians , who could scarcely believe the11eyes and ears . Some young trumpeters asked to examine Louis’s

JAZZ 12 7

Io u thpi e c e ; they couldn’t believe that anyone could achieve such

ower without some mechanical aid . Fanny Cotton , the hand)me singer, came up in a taxi, having flown to London, buttlpha was keeping close watch over her man .

Together with the manager and Alpha,we left very late, to

o to the Monseigneur, where Joe Crossman and Nat G o n ellarere playing . They seated us in the balcony. Only five minutesmained during which liquor could be legally served . Johnnyollins whispered a few words in the waiter’s ear

,and a few

i i n u te s later, up came a tray loaded wi th thirty big glasses o f ale ..fter the sixth glass the manager had just about passed out.o u i s

’

s eye was still alert. I said to him,

“What will you do if,h e n you get to Paris, you find you aren

’t well received because)u don’t Sing French?Louis answered with a broad grin

,

“I’ll sing ’em I’

ll Be G lad

he n Yo u’

re De adYo u RascalYou .

”

At that moment Collins spoke to me, Can you fight?“Ye s ,

” I said .

“

Th en I won ’t pay, Collins shouted .

This started a terrible riot . We had to carry Collins o ff like ack of potatoes

,and Arm s trong signed for the check.

I saw Louis several times after that—in Paris , Brussels , andcame friends . When hegreat pomp at the home

f the Bar Association . He spent an evening atg I Ai n ’

t G o t N obody and ICo v e r the Wa te r

Chi tti so n playing the piano . We played somehe listened appreciatively

,keeping time to

the Chocolate Dandies’ G o tN 0. When he heard this last

,

roached the phonograph,interested

,and listened

his eyes . “What’s that fine han d?” he asked.

Louis Armstrong,

” we told him .

So diverse is his playing that he hadn’t recognized himself.Is Armstrong a moving musician? He is emotion itself. I should

n t . I had often discussed,

12 8 JAZZ

violinist. He had received a classical training, and denied thatthe new American music had any artistic value whatsoever. OneSunday morning I took him with me to hear Armstrong play inRotterdam . On the train he laughed at my enthusiasm in anticipating the music we were about to hear.I ’ll never forget that concert, which began with a terrific rendition o f the St . Lo u i s Blu e s . I closed my eyes to hear it better.It finished with a jolt . Suddenly I heard a strident yell next to me .I Ope ned my eyes , and there was Ysaye Standing on his chair,Shouting

,stamping , weeping . I had to calm him down . Louis

Armstrong had convinced (and how !) a confirmed disbelieverin jazz . And Ysaye proclaimed,

“Armstrong is the greatest music ian in the world .

”

After this trip in Europe, Armstrong wrote

During my own three years playing in En glan d an d o n the Co nti n e n t, the very first music critics would come back to my dressingro om,

or call upon me at my ho te l, and talk with me fo r hours aboutthe significance o f o u r music and what they thought it me antThat had never happened to me befo re in M en ca.

Then came my trip to Amer ica, where I spent several eveningswith Armstrong, and finally my exile during the bleak days o f1940 . A half-hour after the parachute blitz on the Low Countries

,

I had broken with my past. Now, here I was in N ew York, wo r

ried about the futu re, and looking up all my old friends . I wentto se e Louis , who was playing at the Paramount Theatre . Hewas resting in a huge armchair and held o u t his light palms tome . H i s wife was putting on make—u p . He didn’t say anything infront o f her but, in his dressing gown , took me out into the c o rrido r . He took my hand, looked me in the eye, and said, whilerolling his expressive eyes,

“

My dear friend, if you need money,no matter how much, don

’t you ask anyone else but old

I went o ff, weeping . He was the only o n e of my friends whohad given a thought to what my situ ation might be . Jazz meanta lot to me at that tragic moment of my life . I dried my tears

,

joined the anonymous throng in the theater, and listened to

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

130 JAZZ

Nichols and Miff Mole, were easily the most prolific o f thesebands.Whatever be their faults , the stamp o f their sens iso n ali ty had an undeniable charm .

As fo r the second group , the centripe tal power o f a great musieian

,Bix Beiderbecke, drew together some transitory groups o f

musicians who lacked the team play o f the Nichols group . Butthe lyrical qualities o f Bix

’

s flawless tone and imagination madeup fo r this . The big bands with which he played even tried tore create a similar atmosphere fo r him .

The Chicagoans possessed the Spirit, the formula, and the feeling

,rather than a unified ensemble o f outstanding personalities .

The name has be en applied to a group o f young white musiciansfrom Illinois and Indiana who tried to follow in the direct lineof the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and the Original Dixieland .

Theirs was improvisation pure, featuring the all-out final emsemble . The group was not very definite; they got together fromtime to time bu t didn’t record very often . But some o f the recordsthey m ade around 192 8 were so perfect that, unlike those - o f theN ichols an d Beiderbecke groups , every note still stands o u t asa thing o f beauty and a joy forever.Red N ichols was born in California and spent his childhood inSan Jose

,in the Sierra Nevada, near San Francisco . He used to

play trumpet in the marching band o f his natal town . He wenteast and played in the band of the Culver Military Academy.

Here, George Olsen happened to hear him and hired him on thespot . Arriving in N ew York with Olsen , N ichols heard twocornetists who made a lasting impression o n him : Louis Armstrong at the Roseland, and Bix Beiderbecke at the Cinderella .Red also met a charming and well-mannered young man , Miff

Mole by name, who had won a great reputation with the Mem

phis Five and the Cotton Pickers . The two hit it o ff immediately,

and soon they were playing together with the California Ramble rs . And the recording groups which we shall describe are buta prolongation o f this old band .

The musici ans who figured ln these groups were, on the whole,an outstanding lot. There were the now-famous Dorsey brothers

,

Jimmy and Tommy,who had received musical training at an

JAZZ 13 1

arly age . There was Arthur Schutt, who had been an i n s ign ifim t small-town pianist who played in a motion-picture theaterthose were the days before the talkies) , when he was discoveredy Paul Specht and featured with the Georgians .Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti had been wandering troubadourse fo re Frank Guarente came along and recognized their possiili ti e s . Adrian Rollini, an important member o f the CaliforniaLam ble rs , had a tremendous influence, though one which hasisappe ared completely, as a bass saxophonist . He went to Engu id in 192 8 to play with Fred Elizalde

’

s band in Londo n . Welu s tn

’

t forget Fud Livingston , a great clarinetist, o r his s u cces)I

'

S,Bobby Davis

,Pee Wee Russell, Babe Rusin , Benny Good

1an , Sid Stoneberg , Bud Freeman , Frank Teschemacher. Among1e trombonists were Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jack Teaarden—n o t a bad assortment!The basses o f the band during i ts first period consisted o f RedJ ichols , Miff Mole, Jimmy Dorsey, Arthur Schutt, and Vicie rto n .

Red Nichols, who appears to have been the organizer and soulf the group, used it to express his reaction against the big bands .h ey tried to play hot, mingling the inspiration of improvisedazz with orchestrated music . Red Nichols and hi s friends relined the heritage o f solo improvisation but dropped the tradio u o f collective improvisation .

The Re d Heads was the first o f these Nichols groups , all o frhich had their own personality and resonance . The contexturef the group—both in technique and in sentiment—(is easily recgn izable .

Nichols himself was an excellent instrumentalist but n o t areat improviser . This should not be held against him; neitherre Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson

,n or is their glory

1e least bit dimmer for it. For a whole decade Red Nicholson du c ted a work which played an important role in the e v oluon o f j azz . At hi s side constantly was Miff Mole, an extrao r

in ary trombone whose solos can be heard time and time againri tho u t los ing interest.I remember the first records which came over and captivated

13 2. JAZZ

o u r European hearts : Falle n Arche s , H i Diddle Diddle , Dyn am i te , Hu rrican e , That

’

s N o Bargai n ,He ehi e Je ebi e s . To my

mind,they represent something great

,an effort which has been

very unjustly condemned.

What else was there at the time? Nothing ! The great origi n ato rs had retired, the Chicagoans were still kids learning howto play

,and even Bix had not yet decided What lyrical path to

follow. When Hugues Pan ass ié passed judgm ent on these threegroups in 193 2 , it was simple for him to make the choice to whicheveryone has since concurred . His reaction against Red Nicholsin support o f the great tradi tion was quite unnecessary, yet therewas a great deal o f difference between this Opinion and refusingall consideration o f the many fine products o f the Pennies-Mole rs

group between 192 5 and 1930 .

Moreover, Nichols was the first to bring public attention to

many great musicians who then were lost in the big bands aroundNew York : Eddie Lang, for example, o r Pee Wee Russell, orAdrian Rollini .The period o f Red Nichols an d His Five Pennies which datesfrom 192 7 has been shamefully mistreated . In the long series oftheir recordings are some unquestionable masterpieces . The bandhad a pleasing individuality, a moving expressiveness , and a genn ine soul . Though Nichols was surely n o Bix, his orchestra stoodfo r a happy reaction against commercialism . And I think it likelythat the N ichols ensembles will still be listened towith interestwhen the banal orchestral contextu re which surrounded Bix willbe absolutely unbearable to hear.My particular favorites are Washbo ard Blu e s , Tha t

'

s N o Bar

gai n ,Bu ddy

’

s Habi ts , Bon eyard Shu ffle , Bu gle Call Rag, Ida ,

Fe e lin CN o Pa i n , Riv e rboat Shu ffle .

What do I care if other musicians hav e greater power,if other

records are more effective? There are many reasons for liking aband—because o f i ts atmosphere, because of o n e musician in it,because of its swing, or simply fo r some intangible subjectivereason . I like these Red Nichols records fo r their individual andsustained flavor, fo r certain solos by Jimmy Dorsey, for such m as

te rfu lly orchestrated passages as in Bon eyard Shu file , fo r the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

134 JAZZ

bands until two or three years ago , has disappeared from the jazzworld . Miff Mole confined his activity for many years to theradio

,but was with Benny Goodman in 1943 . The Dorsey broth

e rs had a ban d , Split, and n ow each leads o n e o f America’s mostpopular bands . Adrian Rollini now leads a trio at Jac k Dempsey’so r elsewhere, playing vibraharp . Benny Goodman has long sincebecome the King of Swing .

Thus the spo tlight has picked out some o f these old comrades,and others have been left forgotten in the shadows . But thosewho laugh at Red N ichols and Hi s Pennies fail to rememberthat the bands they praise to the skies are led by alumni o f theNichols-Mole aggregation .

Bix Beiderbecke has already be come a legend,and it i s diffi

cult to distinguish between fact and fiction in hi s career. Withjazz

,as with painting and po etry, death imparts great qualities

which are never discovered in living artists . Bix had no need o fthis halo

,yet h i s my impression that his importance had been

deformed and made to appear more important by this attitu de.Make no mistake abo ut it .When I cite the great hot musicians

,

I always mention Armstrong , Beiderbecke, Coleman Hawkins,an d Earl Hines . Others perhaps have played equally importantroles in the history o f j azz, it is tru e . Ye t , even though Louis Armstrong is the only one who has completely withstood the test o ftime and continues to play great j azz, I stick to this list. Othershave assumed much greater importance in the last decade

,not

ably Benny Goo dman and Jimmy Lunceford, who have shapedwhite and colored swing respectively.

But we must reconsider o u r Opinion o f

young man with a horn .

” Already he hasfor a novel . All that his career needs is a good love story to makean extraordin a ry theme fo r the movies .Leon Beiderbecke was born in Davenpo rt, Iowa, where, as aboy

,he first was stirred by the call o f the new music. He used to

listen to the river-boat bands , and, pale and deeply moved, he’d

go home, his destiny whirling about in his brain . In the eveninghe listened to the : phonograph and dreamed o f being able to makemusic himself. He taught himself to play the c om et and later

remained faithful to that instrument even after it had hee rally superseded by the trumpet.There has been a good deal o f verbiage wasted in di sthe various influences o n Bix . King Oliver, Louis ArnPaul Mares, and Emmett Hardy have been menti oned ,have seen that Nick La Rocca and Frank Guarente alsoo n the list.Some have sought to include among these influences th

o f Johnny ‘Dunn,the reputed inventor o f the wa—wa s tyle

going a bit too far. I have often listened to Johnny Du 1I fail to se e how his banal playing could possibly have infBix s passionate style .Around 192 1 Bix entered Lake fi o

rgsté c adem y, near CAt this time he was a shiningfaced young man for whrhad become a daily need .Whereas I u se up the better pa1time in listening to bands and buying records , Bix foundsolution to the problem o f the jazz fan . He played it himmingled with those o f his own age who felt the same e n thAround 192 2 a small group o f pure m u sm ran s—half ahalf profess ional—began to gig around in Ohio aAmong i ts members were Dick Voyn ow (piano) ,so n (sax) , Jimmy Hartwell (clarinet) , Al GandeBob G o n ze lm an and later Vic Berton (dthis bunch and rapidly became its inspBix

, the band, which left i ts Midwesternde rella Ballroom in New York

,boasted

c ian s, although George Bru ni

played with it for a while . Im

Brunies , and Teschemacher might have acbeen allowed to develop together in theconjectu res are vain . In jazz

, o n e plus o n ee ssarily equal three . Psychological factors are soa group of obscure musici ans often produces betan all-star band .

This band is another convincing demonstration thai n v e n tlv e n e ss varies inverse ly with musical culture .should always

136 JAZZ

and many o f i ts greatest moments were due to illiterate musicians .Such is the case here, since scarcely any o f the W

'olverines wereable to read music .Why is this so ?Why? Because reliance o n written music kills o ff inspiration .

Bix was great be cause he taught himself and adapted his technique to fit his need and mood . Those who stu dy music

,and try

to modify their own personalities to acquire the proper technique,

should keep this in mind .

The Wolverines , in records like Cope n hage n , inspired thewhole white school o f music. Bix

,who had accompanied the

band to New York, where he Spent much o f his time listening tothe Original Dixieland, had already begun to drink heavily before he left it.Returning to Chicago, Bix played for a while (so the bo oks

o n j azz inform us) with Charlie Straight’s band at the Rendez

vous . The group was in rather close contact with Ethel Waters .But Bix was dissatisfied with Straight; he failed to find the echoto his emotional craving for creation , and quit. He left for St.Louis

,where he joined Frankie Trumbauer at the Arcadia Ball

room . The two men understood each other and complementedeach other perfectly.When this outfit broke up, both Bix and Trumbauer joined upwith Jean Goldkette, who was building up the best big band inAmerica . Bix was teamed with Ray Ludwig and Fred Farrar inthe trumpet section . But Bix was bored by the written sectionwork and felt stifled by the general atmosphere, which left himfree only for a bar o r two here and there in its recordings . WithJean Goldkette

,Bix made some lasting friendships with such

musicians as Do n Murray and Chauncey Moorehouse . Thepresence of Bix finally determined Goldkette to split hi s o r

che stra in two—a hot band, and a melodic band .

Mezz Mezzrow has often told me of the admiration and affe ction he felt for Bix. Me zzrow himself had fallen under the swayo f jazz, and learned to play saxophone and clarinet in Chicago .He used to go o u t to -hear G oldke tte ’

s band, half asleep at thetable behind his bottle o f bootleg liquor until the warm and flow

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

13 8 JAZZ

his recordings is a list o f pitiful failures in which the be auty ofthe pu rest and hardest gem is marred by the inadequacy o f i tsse ttln

Hisg first recording band, Bix and His Rhythm Jugglers , c o n

ta in ed Do n Murray and Tommy Dorsey. Next he recorded hi sdeeply moving piano solo

,In a M is t, o r Bixo logy. Then came his

best recording period, when he s u rrounded himself with a groupo f friends fo r a number o f sessions : Bill Rank(trombo ne) , DonMurray (clarinet) , Adrian Rollini (bass sax) , Frank Signorelli(piano) , Howdy Qu icksell (banjo) , Chauncey Moorehouse(drums) , were the basic group , although the personnel variedfrom session to session . At the Jazz Ban d Ball, Jazz Me Blu e s ,RoyalGarde n Blu e s , Go o s e Pim ple s , So rry, S i n c e My Be s t GirlTu rn ed Me Down , Som ebody S to le My G al, Rhythm Ki n g,Lo u i s ian a, are the numbers which will outlive most o f Bix’

s

recordings"

.

8

About the same time, recording under the name o f FrankieTru mbauer, he made some fine Sides , including Si n gi n g the

Blu e s and Clarin e tMarm alade . There are sparks of genius in theother recordings , but the constantly changing personnel neverpermitted the various groups to attain a real orchestral unity. Thelarger bands o f a Slightly later date, which produced Cryin g AllDay, Li la , My Pe t, and Du sky Ste v edore , were insipid in character. The re ’

llCom e a Tim e and M i s s i ss ippi Mu d,however

,are

still moving renditions . The others , like the recordings with Goldkette and Whiteman , can scarcely be listened to with a straightface .The all-star recording sessions organized by Hoagy Carmichael

,

when B ix,Bubber ~Miley, Benny G o odm an

hthe Dorseys

,Bud

Freeman,Jack Teagarden , Gene Krupa, Joe Venuti, and Eddie

Lang made Ro cki n ’

Chair, Barn ac le B ill, and Ge orgia , did n o t

produce the best B ix items . They were made when Beiderbeckewas already well along the road to his premature grave .During the winter o f 193 1 PaulWhi tem an

’

s band played withone chair left vacant—f the chair o f Bix Beiderbecke . His friendsrealized that a genius had committed suicide, and that his placecould never be filled .

JAZZ 139

Somewhat later,when the young man with a horn had al

ready become legendary,a group of musicians made the long pil

grimage to Davenport. They arrived early and went Straight tothe cemetery

,from which they saw a woman in mourning em e rg

ing . It was Bix’

s mother. The men knelt before the grave o f thegreat jazz hero

,not saying a word . The su n was rising above the

near—by forest; the wind was playing with the leaves and theflowers . The men remained wordless

,but they Spoke to Bix in

the only language he ever understood . They took o u t their instru m e n ts , muted, and played In aM i s t .The

“

Chicagoans” and “

Chicago style are terms which wereput into currency by Hugues Pan ass ié . They refer to a smallgroup of musicians

,gathered in the Windy City during the late

twenties , who played in the old New Orleans tradition , slightlymodified . They fulfilled the same m i ssm n as the New OrleansRhythm Ki ngs and the Cotton Pickers had before them .

This,however

, was n o definitely constituted and durable o rche stra . It was Simply a bunch o f fellows attracted to the Old conc ep ti o n o f pure jazz music . Its nucleus was drawn from severalmediocre Midwestern bands , whose ho t membe rs go t together,wherever the Opportunity presented itself, fo r j am and recordingse ssm n s .

AS a matter o f fact, the Chicagoans contained amateurs as wellas professionals . Love rather than necessity drew them to jazz .They were ,not after money; they were satisfying an emotionalneed . That is why their conception remained pure and theirattitude uncompromising . That is why

,amidst all the musical

fans o f recent years,they are still the ardent zealots o f their

youth . They prefer to play as they please i n small bands ratherthan pull down big salaries as members o f name bands . Theirintransigence has saved their integrity, and we all owe a debtto Hugues Pan ass ié fo r having helped in arousing their consciousness o f their mission .

The groups o f Red Nichols and Bix Beiderbecke compromised;bo th o f them served as the well-paid stars o f big bands . Nothingremains except musicians who felt the Spirit, made a few finerecordings, and passed o n the torch to others . The poet Lamartine

JAZZ

said that poetry made only those at the two extremities o f lifeweep—the young from hOpe , and the Old from regret. The sameis true of jazz .The nucleus o f the Chicagoans was a group o f schoolmateswho met o n the common ground o f their admiration for jazz.They found idols in Rappolo and Beiderbecke . They listened tothe Cotton Pickers and the California Ramblers , whose recordswere then popular, and grasped the distinction be tween tru e i nspiration and i ts substitutes . They began to play instru mentsthemselves . Once agam , weHave the astonishing Spectacle o f menwho

,from the academic point of View, scarcely knew music, yet

produced some of the finest and purest music o f all time.There were the MacPartlan d brothers, Bud Freeman , JimLannigan

,and Frank Teschemacher—all schoo lmates at Austin

H igh . To them was added a smiling , blue-eyed youth who hadearly joined the ranks o f j azz musicians : Benny Goodman . Fo r

this child o f a working-clas s Jewish family, jazz must have rept esented the noblest means of rising above his station in life.Others were drawn into the circle : Joe Sullivan , the pianist,Dave Tough

,the drumme r, and Floyd O

’

Bri e n, a University o f

Chicago student who bought himself a secondhand trombone.The boys went to hear King Oliver and the New Orleans

Rhythm Kings, modeling themselves o n the white band and calling themselves The Blue Friars after it.Soon the young Chicagoans were launched professionally.Jimmy MacPartlan d was chosen to replace Bix with the Wolverines . Milton Me zzrow and Fud Livingston were playing i n a

carnival band . Thosewere indeed carnival days in Chicago,days

o f musical fireworks .The night air o f the Windy City was Splitby the explosive trumpeting o f King Oliver and Louis Armstrong .

Benny Go odman has told me the details o f those nights,which

were so Similar and yet so different. Jazz, a n d only jazz, was thebasis o f the nocturnal life of those young bo ys : the jazz to whichthey listened, and the jazz they played .

A new rhythmic conception inspired them . They played o n

the beat,and their collective endeavors began to distinguish

them from the other bands round about. New converts joined the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

142. JAZZ

do n and Hi s Footwarmers, Eddie Condon’s Hot Sho ts , Milton

Mes irow an d H i s Orchestra, Mezz Me zzrow an d His SwingBand

,Bud Freeman an d H i s Orchestra, Bud Freeman and H i s

Windy City Five, Bi lly Banks and His Orches tra, The Rhythmakers

,Jack Bland and His Rhythm ake rs , Louisiana Rhythm

Kings,Kentucky Grasshoppers

,The Lumberjacks, Whoopee

Makers, Ten Blackberries , Jimmy McHu gh’

s Bostonians, Varsity

Eight,Jack Pettis and His Orchestra, Irving Mills

’

Ho tsy To tsyGang

,Benny Goodman and Hi s Orchestra, Gil Rodin and Hi s

Orchestra, Arcadian Serenaders, Barbecue Jo e and His Hot Dogs ,WingyMan n o n

’

s Orchestra .“

Chicago style,”

i f we may generalize about it, consisted o f athree o r four-part pure improvisation (clarinet, trum pet, tenorsax,and/o r trombone) in which the clarinet was often the

domi nating instrument. As in Dixieland , each of the instruments1soloed in tu rn , with backing supplied by the others, and finalchorus was an all-o u t ensem ble climax . This is , to my mind, themost successfu l formula which hot jazz has found . Such

,

a combination permits polyphonic discoveries o f a savage, hauntingbeauty.

The glory of the Chicagoans was firmly established by justthree records made in 192 8 . These records are among the veryfew jazz masterpieces that will live forever . If I had to chooseonly twenty records

,a quarter o f them would be by the Chicago

an s . I would have to include Su gar and Chi n a Boy, N obody’

s

Swee theart and Liza , I’

v e Fo u n d a N ew Baby, and The re’

ll Be

Som e Chan ge s Made,Margi e and Oh Pe te r, Mu skrat Ram ble

and After a While (the last two sides by Benny Goodman ,whose Ro om 14 1 1 , Bas i n S tre e t Blu e s , and Beale Stre e t Blu e s ,with Jack Teagarden

,would be hard to leave out) .

Ye t , o n May 10,1940 , I had to leave home on half an hour

’snotice

,to flee the Nazi invaders . Which_ o f my three thousand

records did I take with me? The choice was too heartbreaki ngIleft them all behind !But I could very easily Spend the rest o f my days listening tothe best Chicagoan riff s . What wonderfu l musicians ! FrankTeschemacher

,Pee Wee Russell, and Benny Goodman are all

JAZZ 143

among the greatest and most moving clarinetists ;Muggsy Spanier,Jimmy MacPartlan d, and Wingy Man n o n e are direct and sensitive trumpeters ; Mezz Me zzrow

’

s plaintive accents stamp him asone o f jazz’s leading personalities ; Eddie Condon is swing itselfon the guitar; Joe Sullivan was and is one o f the world

’s hottestand most sensitive pianists ;We ttlin g, Krupa, and Tough are threeo f the greatest drummers anywhere .This Spirit still persists with little change . Chicago musicianswere among the first to attempt to break down the barriers between black and white . Me zzrow and Goodman were the firstwhite band leaders to use colored musicians . And a Chicagoanrecord of 192 9 mixed jazzmen o f both races to produce o n e o f

the hottest sessions ever preserved o n wax . The musicians wereall good : Red McKe n zie (blue—blowing) , G lenn Miller (trombo ne) , Pee Wee Russell(clarinet) , Coleman Hawkins (tenor) ,Eddie Condon(banjo) , Jack Bland(guitar) , Al Morgan(bass) ,and Gene Krupa(drums) .

Never was Coleman Hawkins a greater mu51c1an than on thatday. His solo on On e Hou r is o f the most serene beauty imagin able , and on He llo Lo la he attains a savage fury which u m

leashes the greatest power a saxophone can produce . Excited bythe great saxophonist

,Pee Wee Russell surpasses himself. And

the rhythmic section i s extraordinary. All in all,it is another o f

the greatest records ever issued .

The Chicagoan s have been treated by fate in her usual randommanner. Frank Teschemacher

,the chief animater of the group

,

was killed m an automobile accident some ten years ago. Othershave deserted jazz

,such as Jim Lannigan

,now with a symphony

orchestra . Some—Benny Goo dman,Glenn Miller

,Jack Te agar

den , Muggsy Spanier, Gene Krupa, Bob Zu rke , Wingy Man

none—have had name bands o f their own .

jMost, however, still conti nue the old tradition , playing together in small NewYork Spots rather than seeking the big moneyof the large orchestras . I have heard them often

,at Nick’s and

elsewhere : Muggsy Spanier,still the most moving o f white cor

n e ti s ts ; i Bobby Hackett, Max Kam ir’

i sky, Jimmy MacPartlan d,B ill Davison, all still echoing the glory that was Bix; Brad G o vw

144 JAZZ

ans,a great trombonist humbly improvising a solid ac c om pan i

w

ment; Pee Wee Russell, with his amazing throaty tone on theclarinet; Jo e Sullivan , tinkling the keys beautifully.

These are the men who are giving me my greatest impressiono f contemporary jazz . I remember hearing them ‘ play a while agoat the WaltWhitman School . All of them were there

,intelligent

,

sensitive people . Louis Armstrong was there too,and together

they played a couple of palpitating numbers that I’ll “

n o t soonforget. This i s true jazz, jazz with a capital J, or, if yo u prefer,just plain jazz.

X. THE BIG WHITE BANDS

WHEN PAUL WHI'I'EM AN usurped the title of King of Jazz,he

threw real jazz o ff i ts course . For hi s conception was utterly diffe re n t from that o f King Oliver o r the Original Dixieland JazzBand .

This man who had such a great influence on the course o fj azz began very modestly as a violinist in insignificant orchestrason the west coast. His first big engagement was at the FairmontHotel in San Francisco . His success was assured and his famespread by a concert which he played in Carnegie Hall before histrip to Europe about 192 1 .

At the height o f his glory Paul Whiteman organized concertsin most of the cities o f America . He had a radio program andplayed in the first talking pictures . After a while he scarcelyplayed for dancers at all

,and his friends could hear him only o n

the phonograph and on the radio . He had a one-hour radio program Sponsored byOld Gold which paid him ten thousand dollarsa week. He recorded forVictor and later for Columbia, whose topstar he became . His most important engagement took place in192 8 , when the famous film The Ki n g of Jazz was built abo uthim . The film Showed him alone with a big bag from which hedrew o u t all his musicians, whom he proceeded to inspire with

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

146 JAZZ

going fo r several years , but Paul Whiteman ceased to be a Sign ifi c an t figure after 193 2 .

Pau lWhiteman had many imitators during the twenties . On e

o f the most famouswas Ted Lewis . Born Theodore Louis Friedman

,he became known to his admirers in his native Ohio village

as “the poet o f Circleville . On e day he heard an orchestra ledby the barber of the town , one Cricket Smith, who may have beenthe same man who played trumpet in Louis Mitchell’s band . Itse ems that this barber had the charming habit o f Singing spiri tuals o r ragtimes as he served hi s customers . At any rate, TheodoreFriedman decided he would become an orchestra leader andchanged hi s name .In 19 10 he had a dance band in Circleville . After many oddjobs he left fo r Chicago, where he played minor parts in a fewreviews ; then he found a job with Earl Fuller, who had a wellknown band in Coney Island . Next he went to Rector’s in NewYork, and by 19 17 he had acquired a reputation . By the time theOriginal Dixieland came to New York, Ted Lewis was alreadyfamous on Broadway, and he even Opened a night club .

Speaking o f his music, he himself said :“Sure, I used to make

ten dollars a night and now I m ake five thousand a week . Butthis progress is only financial , fo r I still play the same music asin the old days at Circleville .”

In other words,hi s music has always been banal , colorless , and

unbearable . Ye t , on other occasions, Lewis seems to have had illusions as to his own worth . After o n e o f his trips to Europe thesurrealist poet Robert De sn o s wrote : “Ted Lewis, the King o f

Jazz,is never tiresome . Those who have had the privilege of

hearing him at the Apollo know that the man is worthy o f hisvoice . This big and singularly elegant brigand leads a band o f

rogues who create rhythmic noise in an atmosphere o f mystery.

And Ted Lewis recited poetry.I heard him at Ostend in the summer o f 1930 . At. the t1me TedLewis had some great soloists in his band—Muggsy Spanier

,the

Chicagoan com et; George Brunies , the New Orleans trombone ;and Jimmy Dorsey on saxophone . But I confess that I was greatlydisillusioned by the han d. These three fine musicians were com

JAZZ 147

ple te ly stifled by the musical ideas and antediluvian jlv e of theirleader.It

’

s a strange thing that Ted Lewis, a believer in melodic o rnovelty music, should have had the good taste to hire clarinetistslike Jimmy Dorsey

,Benny Goodman

,and Frank Teschemacher

,

and use musicians like Muggsy, Brunies , and Fats Waller.Europe to o had its Whiteman imitators

,o f whom Jack Hylton

was the foremost. In Au x Fro n tiére s du Jazz I attacked him merciles sly. I am sorry that I hurt him so , but my problem was tochoose between two conceptions—Whiteman and Armstrong . Ihad made my choice . There is no need to enumerate all themelodic orchestras which followed the path indica ted by PaulWhiteman . They have already fallen into the obscurity whichthey so richly deserve , and I, fo r o n e , do not intend to turn theSpotlight o n their pitiful endeavors .Other orchestras

,however

,followed the line of Fletcher Hen

de rso n . The best o f these was led by Ben Pollack, the formerdrummer of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings . He had in hi sband

,in 192 6 , suc h stars as Jimmy MacPartlan d (trumpet) ,

Glenn Miller(trombone ) , Benny Goodman(clarinet) , and JackTeagarden , who later replaced Miller. The ho t musicians o f thePollack band formed a small recording band which made a fineseries o f records , under various pseudonyms, now generallygrouped as the Whoopee Makers .Pollack’s band o f the thirties was the nucleus of the presentBob Crosby aggregation , with such fine musicians as CharlieSpivak

,Eddie Miller

,Matty Matlock, and Ray Bau du c . In 193 6

Harry Jame s made his debut in big time with Ben Pollack, an da bit later Muggsy Spanier came o u t o f retirement to play withPollack .

For all this,Ben Pollack did not succeed in finding the

formula which makes great swin g bands . H i s han d o f the twenties was neither flesh

,fish

,nor fowl , sometimes swinging to

ward the Whitema'n conception and sometimes toward that o fimprovised jazz . As a developer o f fine hot musicians , however,Pollack has few equals .The case o f Jean Goldkette i s very Similar to that of Pollack .

148 JAZZ

Am ong his musicians he nu mbered such outstanding stars as BixBeiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Jo e Venuti, Eddie Lang,Jimmy Dorsey, and Tommy Dorsey. Ye t he too never s u cceededin finding the formula which would allow free play for theirtalen ts .

The pro blem was indeed difli cu lt. Fletcher Henderson hadsolved it

,and other Negro bands had followed in his tracks . But

the white bands stumbled about, Slowly seeking something new.

A change was in the air. The formula of collective improvisationgave way to a mechanized orchestration : Instead of individualdiscoveries based on a general trance came an incessant repetitiono f prefabricated phrases, known as

“riffs,” which substituted the

power o f loudness and repetition fo r the vital spirit o f pure jazz .So

,swingwas born .

This transition from melodic bands to swing bands was notaccomplished overnight. It took several years o f adaptation

,ex

pe rim e n t,and perfecting . The problem appeared almost insoluble

,

and certain critics believe that it has not yet been solved andnever will be . Spectacular jazz requires at least a dozen musicians

,

but where there are whole section s o f instruments, improvisationi s impossible . Band leaders hesitated between the two c o n c eptions

,and only after stumbling into many false passageways did

they finally discover the empirical rules of swing,which is nothing

more than a mechanizati on and a vulgarization o f im pro s iv atio n .

We have already told how, some months before his death, BixBe ide rbe cke

'

alm o st became a member of the Casa Loma band .

What "made the friends o f the great c om e ti s t think that Bixwould be comfortable among the musicians o f this new band?It was because they thought that the Casa Lorna band had comeclosest to the goal o f all the large orchestras .The Casa Loma band was formed by a group of obscure musi

c ian s who had had a long engagement at the Casa Loma, inToronto

,Canada . After that they played in many of the big

American hotels,but their fame came chiefly from their engage

ment o n the Camel Caravan radio program and a series of bookings at college proms throughout the United States .The composition o f the band was Joe Hostetter

,Frank Mar

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

150

semble improvisation . The big bands had finally found a su cc e ssfu l

'

fo rm u la fo r commercial hot music .Fo r the flights of spontaneous fancy had been substitu ted thecontrolling force o f the intellect. A vicious circle had been com

ple ted. Jazz is a musical revolution which broke the mono poly o fthe composer in order to give the musician a greater importancean d a role in creatio n . But the new scho ol tried to write out i tsarrangements beforehand

,once again subordinating the in

dividual musician . This was a backward step, a complete breakwith the New Orleans tradition and Spirit.We critics are often asked whether swing is better than the

old Dixieland jazz . Let us make clear at first that no categoricalanswer can be given to this question . It is a question o f whoseswing and whose Dixieland . Just as improvisation depends uponthe talen t o f the musician , orchestrated music depends o n thetalent of "the arranger.Nevertheless , it would take a musician o f great genius to t ecreate by cold intellect alone the same atmosphere as improvisation . This is not merely theory—just look at the results . We believe that swing has done a good deal of harm to jazz. And fromthe tremendous production o f the big bands o f the last ten yearshas come only a quarter as many worth-while records as fromthe unpretentious groups o f the past.The problem is easy to understand . In pure improvisation thegreat individuals have free rein for their genius

,and

,playing

together,the musicians are inspired to surpass themselves . Fo r

written music , the arranger must supply all this genius from himself alone . And this is where the trouble lies . For there are onlytwo o r three arrangers who stand o u t above the throng thatprovides the music for the daily consumption o f America .In reality there is only o n e great genius among these arrangersDuke Ellington . He has succeeded in find ing something new

,in

creating his own individual atmosphere, in establishing a newmeans o f lyrical expression . After him come some other finearrangers : Fletcher Henderson , Benny Carter, Sy Oliver, DonRedman , Gene Gifford . These are men of great talent

,certainly,

but there is no unity to their work . They worked first for o n e

JAZZ 151

orchestra and then fo r another, and, as each orchestra plays somewhat differently

,the personality o f the arranger is submerged

and n o t permitted to develop along i ts own lines .Around 192 8 there were a dozen o r So orchestras which employed genuine ho t musicians in contrast to the purely comm e rc ial bands . In the following years all these orchestras tendedtoward swing and went after the big money . The leader of a su cc e ssfu l big band coined money; it was possible for a saxophonistearning fifty dollars a week in an Obscure orchestra to lead a bigband a month later and become a Rudy Vallee— a temptingprospect. This explains why the best musicians moved from bandto band in search o f gold and glory. It i s rather diffi cult to followthe movements o f these men who played with one band fo r amonth and then went on to the next.One of the first swing bands was that o f the Dorsey brothers ,

who gathered many outstanding musicians around them : MannieKlein , Glenn Miller(whose day was yet to come) , Joe Venuti ,Eddie Lang

,Arthur Schutt.

Looking back o n the recordings o f the Dorsey brothers , o n erealizes that it was never as great a band as it seemed at the time .They made some good records

,such as their Ho n eysu ckle Ro se ,

but they lacked vitality.

Most of those who were to become famous band leaders in thesucceeding period wo n their reputation as improvisers in smallgroups . Just look at the list : Benny Goodman , Tommy Dorsey,Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden , Gene Krupa ,Wingy Man n o n e , Muggsy Spanier, etc . How many can yo uname who are the products o f the big orchestras like Paul Whiteman’s?Ye t these m en who have risen from the ranks o f a small bandhave never ceased to betray the kind o f music that first gave themfame . It’s hard to explain just why this is so . Just imagine whatjazz might have become had they stuck to the old formula ! Butmusic is not made with might-have-be e n s . We must discuss thesituation as it actually was and i s , and try to understand it. BennyGoo dman , to whom we shall devote the next chapter, made swinga success . His han d was and is the best o f the swing bands , and

152 JAZZ

all the others were to copy hi s style to a greater or a lesser degree .A successful swing band is achieved through fusion o f the

Spirit o f improvisation and the ability to dazzle by Spectacularmusicianship . And it must be confessed that Showmanship hastriumphed over art in most cases .Look at the bands o f Gene Krupa and Harry James, fo rexample . Both earned their reputation with Benny GoodmanKrupa fo r his Spectacular drum breaks , James fo r his brillianttrumpet solos . Fame assured, each went after the big money byorganizing his own orchestra . Kru pa

’

s band, founded o n thequalities o f i ts leader, went in for long and wearisome drum solos,and Kru pa is responsible more than anyone else for such noisyand contortionist exhibitions

,which generally are not worthy of

being called music. They certainly have nothing in common withgoo d jazz .Harry James

,one of the youngest o f the great jazz stars

,broke

into big time with Ben Pollack’s orchestra in 1936 and thenpassed into Benny Goodman’s outfit . His tremendous power

, hi s

ability to climb into the upper register, his gifts for im provisation ,and the showy qualities o f hi s playing made him the favoritetrumpeter of America .Soon Harry James formed his own recording bands

,wi th musi

c ian s drawn from the orchestras of Benny Goodman and CountBasie . Finally he broke away from Goodman and formed his owngroup , a loud, blaring outfit featuring hi s own trumpet work ingaudy show pieces . AS with Louis Armstrong’s later bands, theorchestra is o f little importance, serving only as a backdrop toshow o ff the Spectacular, Skyscraper solo work of the le ade rfI remember hearing Harry James play at the Savoy, in Harlem,

o n e night in 193 9 , when he had already achieved the pinnacleo f success, at least as far as the j itterbugs were concerned . H i s

band was overloaded with brasses : Jack Palmer, Claude Bowen ,Jake Schaeffer(trumpets) ; Tru ett Jones , Dalton Rizzotto, BruceSquires (trombones) ; Dave Matthews, Drew Page, and ClaudeLakey(saxes) ; Jack G ardner(piano) ; Red Kent(guitar) ; Thurman Teague (bass) ; Mickey Scrima (drums) . No great j azzmen here

,except possibly Dave Matthews.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

IS4 JAZZ

Shaw was forced to give up the idea o f a string section . Heformed a conventional swing band which, at first, sounded likeany other. Soon, however, the band found i ts stride and skyrocketed to fame, thanks to i ts clever arrangements and finishedperformances (for example, Begin the Begu i n e , In dian Lo v eCall) .

Shaw now enjoyed the success which his revolutionary Swe e tStri n gs had never achieved . It was almost like a Horatio Algerstory : he played at the best hotels, his records sold like hot cakes,he married a Hollywood star.But Shaw was a strange fellow, and a cultured man in thebargain . From time to time he felt like giving up music andsettling down to write . He had no compunctions whatsoever aboutinsulting the j itterbugs who worshiped him . And, at the height o fhi s career, he abandoned his orchestra o n the Spur of the momentand went o ff to dream in Mexico . He was by now the most sensatio n al figure in the jazz world, and when he returned he beganto organize a band according to his own conception . This meantthe reintroduction o f a String section in the orchestra . Hi s mostrecent band was a huge group which featured hot stars

,both

N egro and white (Ho t Lips Page and Maxie Kaminsky playedSide by side in the trumpet section) . But neither did this bandlast very long ; either its Size proved too much o f a financial straino r i ts capricious leader didn’t care any more, I can

’t say which .

The band which succeeded Artie Shaw as the most popular inAmerica was conducted by a very different character—GlennMiller . M iller is a hard worker, a drill master, and a capablebusinessman upon whom fortune has smiled . He is a fine trombonist who used to play in bands like Red Nichols’ and theChicagoans’ whenMiffMole, Jack Teagarden , or George Brunieswas n o t available . On the Mound City Blue Blowers On e Hou r

and He llo Lo la he was certainly the weakest man on the date .But he was a good trombonist, as his career from the Wolverinesand Ben Pollack down through N ichols , the Charleston Chasers,and the Dorsey brothers indicates . He developed into a finearranger whose orchestrations were generally loud, finely balan c ed, and often inspired by the latest N egro technique.

JAZZ 155

Fo r many years Glenn Miller was merely one musician amongthe others . He had a band which recorded

,without very great

success , in 193 5. But in 193 9 his big band , modeled along thesame lines as Benny Goodman’s and Tommy Dorsey’

,s became

an overnight sensation . Its success was due to the quality o f itsarrangements and the precision o f its playing rather than to anyindividual skill in improvisation . It had its hot stars

,however,

notably Miller himself and the tenor soloist,Tex Benecke .

The appeal o f this orchestra to i ts j itterbug fans can readilybe understood by listening to his greatest su c c e SSe S : Tu xedo

Ju n c tio n , In the Mo od. All the ingredients in these performancesare minutely counted

,measured

,weighed . The slightest effect i s

calculated, and a mechanical rhythm is maintained .

The Dorsey brothers,Tommy and Jimmy, have entered our

story from time to time as they starred in various orchestras andrecording bands . We have already seen how they organized o n eof the be st big bands o f the early thirties . A quarrel between thebrothers put an end to i ts promising career, and each formed aband of hi s own .

Tommy Dorsey’s band, as it was formed i n 193 5, had the fol

lowing personnel : Andy Ferretti,Sterling Bose

,Bill Graham,

Cliff Weston (trumpets) ; Tom Dorsey, Ben Pickering , DaveJacobs (trom bo n e s) ;

PSid Sto n ebu m ,

Noni Bem ardi , ClydeRounds, Johnny Van Eps (saxes) ; Paul Mitchell (piano) ; Mac

Che ike s (guitar) ; Gene Traxler(bass) ; Sam Rosen (drums) .

He later added several ho t stars, such as Max Kaminsky andBunny Be rigan (trumpets) , Bud Freeman (tenor) , JohnnyMince (clarinet) , and Dave Tough (drums) . Together withTommy himself

,on trombone

,this made a nucleus fo r an excel

lent jazz band within the band—the Clambake Seven , whichswung o u t in the Dixieland vein . The full band excelled chieflyin sweet and choral numbers (fo r example, the theme G e tti n gSe n tim e n talOv e r yo u ,

Mar i e,and later I’

llN e v e r Sm i le Agai n ) ,although it has produced some fine jazz mu51c (So n g of In d ia;Stop, Lo ok, an d Li s te n ) .

Since the sensational success o f his arrangement o f Mar i e ,

some seven years ago,Tommy has continuously ranked among

156 JAZZ

the leading thre e or four bands of the country . In recent years hehas featured the arrangements of Sy Oliver and the trumpetwork o f Ziggy Elman.Jimmy Dorsey took a longer time really to get going . His han dat first was composed o f the following m u 51c 1an s z Joe Meyer

,

Toots Camarata, Sy Baker (trumpets) ; Bobby Byrne, BruceSquires

,DonMatteson(trombones) ; Jimmy Dorsey, Fud Living

ston or DaveMatthews , Charles Frazier, LeonardWhitney(saxophones) ; Freddy Slack (piano) ; Ro c Hillman (guitar) ; JackRyan(bass) ; Ray McKin ley(drums) .

Jimmy kept his band on the Coast fo r several years and wasscarcely known to Eastern listeners . He played mostly sweetmusic ; his attempts at ho t j azz were rather a hybrid, novelty swingfeaturing wacky breaks(fo r example, Parade o f the M ilk Bo ttleCaps , Dors ey De rv i sh

, John Silv e r) .

Since coming east, a few years ago, Jimmy has become o n e o f

Decca’s best sellers . But nine tenths o f his music i s sweet and

has nothing in common with hot jazz .We might devote a few pages to the bands o f Jack Teagarden

,

Charlie Bam e t, Woody Herman , Will Bradley, Bunny Be rigan ,

Tony Pastor, George Auld , Charlie Spivak, and Claude Thornhill . But what’s the use? Their music is practically in di s ti n gu i shable : they resemble each other like twin brothers . They havesimilar arrangers, similar musicians , similar ideas , and Similarsuccesses . That seems to be all they care for, and it is all theirpublic demands .There are a few bands worthy of special notice . Red No rv o , awonderful xylophonist, has created a music all of his own . Hehas had the help o f his wife, M ildred Bailey, one of the bestvocalists

,many outstanding musicians, and such fine arrangers as

Eddie Sauter. But Red N o rv o’

s type o f music is a sort of jazzchamber mus1c and is o ff the direct line of j azz tradition . Somemonths ago I heard him in the Three Deuces with a wonderfulyoung pianist

,Hank Kohout.

Special mention must be made o f the o n e big band which hasmade a continuous attempt to keep up the Dixieland tradition : Irefer to Bob Crosby’s . Bob is a brother of Bing , and he sang with

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

158 JAZZ

It must be state d that all these years o f swing music have notgiven us (m e musician o f the stature o f the greats o f the hot jazzera . The big bands impose a uniformity on all their members , andno longer can a great improviser develop freely. For me

,this

indicates the artistic bankruptcy o f present—day jazz, in whichnothing resembles one white band So much as another whiteband

,unless it be a Negro band .

The name bands come and go . One musician alone has succ e ssfu lly withstood all his rivals, and he alone emerges fromamidst the swing era . He is the man who started swin g , the manto whom we devote o u r next chapter—the King of Swing . BennyGo odman .

XI. BENNY G OODMAN

ON E WARM EVENIN G in the summer o f 1941 a clamorous m ob

besieged the box office o f Lewisohn Stadium and o v e rflowed ontothe street . But not a seat was to be had, and hundreds had tobe turned away .

What was the magnet’

which had drawn these thousands sofar uptown? They had come to pay homage to the King o f Swing

,

who was scheduled to extend his sway to classical music as wellas jazz .Inside

,the audience was going crazy. Tho usands o f shoulders

shook to the intoxicating rhythm , thousands of hands clapped inunison

,and thousands o f feet went up and down in an automatic

cadence reminiscent o f a well-trained ballet corps or the violinsection of a symphonic band . Special police were necessary tokeep the enthusiasm o f the horde within limits . After the thirdnumber a bunch o f youthful enthusiasts tossed their hats in theair to indicate their approval ; a dowager, Sitting near me, eventhrew away her lorgnette and kept com plaining thereafter thatshe couldn ’t read the program . Before the concert was over someirrepressible j itterbugs had burst the re straln m g cords and were

JAZZ 159

c u ttin g

’

the rugs o f the aisles with their frenzied lindy hops . Andabove them all

,the clarinet-scepter in his hand, stood Benny

Goodman with a broad grin on his face .Who is this King o f Swing? Who is this musician who wasunknown

,except to hot jazz fans

,only ten years ago, and who

has led America’s most popular jazz band fo r the last Six years?Who is this boy who rose, through music , to fame and fortune,who married an heiress o f an o ld American family? His story i smade to order for Horatio Alger, though the theme o f j azz whichruns through it would have baffled o ld Horatio .

The Goodman family emigrated from Poland and settled inChicago . The father was a poor tailor, a religious man whoObserved the Sabbath and the Commandments . Life was hardfor him . He raised a family o f nine children

,and the thought o f

nine little bodies to clothe and nine hungry mouths to feed wasn o t an entrancing one .Benny’s childhood knew n o luxury; he lived from day to day.

What could the future hold in store for him, hi s brothers , andhi s Sisters? Jobs as clerks, perhaps—maybe even shops of theirown —but certainly no more than that. Or so it seemed .

Benny had few toys , but he had the will to make a success o fhimself. The kids’ band organized at Hull House provided himwith both plaything and Opportunity. The clarinet was his instrument; he was so young and frail, and this was the only i nstrument cut to his size . He joined the Hull House band and tooklessons from a bespectacled music master named Franz Schepp .

After a few months o f scales and exercises , he attacked the easierpieces of Mozart and Brahms . This was to influence him for therest o f his life . He kept a nostalgic sentiment for seri ous music

,

and, even at the height of his jazz career, he remembered FranzSchepp’s scorn for the noisy music of the streets . This explainshis later excursions into the classics .One day Benny asked hi s teacher about some strange numbershe had heard around town

,in the night club section . It might

have been King Oliver o r Louis Armstrong,but whoever it yvas ,

it began to haunt the lad . Schepp,however

,burst out laughin g

and ridiculed the idea that this was music .

160 JAZZ

But there was something about this low-down N egro music,

i ts compelling and somehow tragic rhythm, which struck a reSpo n s iv e chord in the heart of the Jewish boy . Soon he was ableto recognize some of the tu nes . He saw the last Of the musicalpublicity wagons and heard Kid Ory’s tailgate trombo ne. Morethan once he felt the glare from Joe Oliver’s bad eye

,as he sought

to hide himself behind the bandstand where he could hear better.He heard Rappolo , and his fingers strove to produce similarbeauty from his secondhand clarinet.On e day when a musician at the small

~

Central Park Theatrefell sick

,the Goodman youngster took his place and got quite a

hand for his Ted Lewis imitation . He began to gig around withother boys at Waukegan and o n Lake Michigan excursion bo ats fLegend has it that B ix Beiderbecke, playing a boat date, founda kid in Short pants fooling around with the instruments duringan in te rrni ss io n . He chased the boy away, but Bix was soon tohave a great Shock . Fo r when he came back to the stand for thenext se t, there was this same kid in Short pants , little Benny Goo dm an ,

playing clarinet with the band .

About this time the Chicago group began to come together.The Austin High gang began to play in a small café

,the Three

Deuces . There were half a dozen young men , friendly rivals o nclarinet and sax—Frank Teschemacher, Bud Freeman, Pee WeeRussell , Milton Me zzrow , Benny Go odman—who tried to cuteach other in jam sessions after work, or went around togetherto hear King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Benny didn’t makemuch money playing , but he could hear Larry Shields, LeonRappolo , Johnny Dodds, and Jimmie Noone .Then one . fine day Ben Pollack, the New Orleans drummer,blew into town

,looking fo r musi cians . He Signed Benny and

Harry Goodman, Jimmy MacPartlan d, who had succeeded Bixwith the Wolverines , Glenn Miller, and Gil Rodin . Later JackTeagarden and Ray Bau du c came . Pollack organized o n e o f thefinest bands of the day.

V/In 192 8 jazz was going strong : Louis Armstrong had su c

c e eded to King Oliver’s throne, Red Nichols and Bix were gaining recognition, the Chicagoans were ‘waxing their greatest

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

162 JAZZ

fine recording dates . The numbers were arranged by BennyCarter, Deane Kinc aide, and Will Hudson and left the impression that Goodman tended toward the Negro style o f FletcherHenderson rather than toward the mechanical arrangements ofCasa Loma .Personnel changes took place which brought in Frankie Fro eba

o n piano, Toots Mondello o n sax, and Pee Wee Irwin and N ateKazebi e r successively

“

o n trumpet. The band went into BillyRose’s Music Hall, improving all the t1me . Jack Teagarden s at

in o n trombone for a date or two , and one o f the greatest of allwhite trumpets

,Bunny Be rigan ,

who died recently, became afeatured soloist with the band . An d the Henderson brothersbegan to contribute some o f the greatest swing arrangements ofall time to the Goodman books .f

—fThe u se of Henderson arrangements was a logical Step forBenny Goodman

,who realized that Negro jazz had developed an

exciting vitality which put the more restrained white bands toshame . A partial explanation fo r this apparently racial differenceis that white orchestras generally played in big hotels and had tocater “

to the musically bad taste o f their well-to—do clients , whilecolored bands generally played in dance halls for N egro dancers

,

who loved fast an d marked rhythm and hot playing . Goodmanrealized that black jazz at this time was the only worth-whilemusic

,and he went to work to make his white customers ap

pre c iate it.After the Music Hall period, Goodman Signed a contract fo ra radio program

,every Saturday for thirty-Six weeks . Meanwhile

the band played one-night stands around N ew York . Success wasslow in coming

,but the program was building up a considerable

and very appreciative audience of young folks , and the name o fBenny Goodman became one to conjure with . He was o n the

road to glory .

Goodman ’s style became more and more distinctive, beautifullybalanced with full-toned brasses , delicately nuanced saxes , and agalaxy of fine soloists with Benny

’s own clarinet featured . On e

thing Was lacking , however : Goodman himself was neither acomposer n o r an arranger. Fletcher Henderson might provide a

JAZZ 163

wonderful arrangement of Ki n g Porte r S tom p and Edgar Sampso n an equally terrific scoring fo r Stam pi n g a t the Sav oy, fo rexample

,but the orchestral unity o f Duke Ellington could not

be achieved under such conditions . The full-time services o f agreat arranger are necessary to atta in such unity .

Benny Goodman realized whe re in lay his Strength and hisweakness . He realized that his full orchestra could not providea wholly satisfactory solution to the basic problem o f improvisation

,and to remedy the situation he se t up

.

a smaller group alongside the band

,which cou ld g i ve free re in to its improvi satory

talents . With this dualist formula Goodman began , like Ellingto n ,

to veer toward the concert stage.With a big swing band and a freer small combination

,Good

man was able to secure a Wider range o f effects . This happy ideao f a Goodman Trio was born one night when Benny played withTeddy Wilson and a drummer at a party in Mildred Bailey’shouse . Benny Goodman

,Teddy

,and Gene Krupa formed the

first Trio,which scored a huge success both i n person and o n

record . Most o f the other big bands followed Goodman ’s lead In

developing small j am combinati ons within the orchestra .On e interesting fact must be clearly brought out . Until 1934Benny’s musical career had been bound up with the DixielandStyle

,in the tradition inaugurated by the Original Dixieland Jazz

Band,continued by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings

,and de

v e lOped by the Chicagoans . Ye t in organizing a jam band withinhis white swing band

,he turned to Negro mus i ci ans and music

rather than organize a small group a la Joe Sullivan,Pee Wee

Russell , o r Bobby Hackett . This was be cause Benny was a greatadmirer o f Negro jazz

,and he didn ’t lack the courage necessary

for any white band leader who might have the audacity to wantcolored musicians in his orchestra . Benny was the first of thename leaders to break down racial barriers in this way

,and others

have Since followed in hi s steps .The Trio was certainly an excm n g one . Benny played aclarinet which everybody was to imitate in a year o r two ; TeddyWilson

,playing his own modification of Earl Hines’s style

, a t

least came close to deserving hi s reputation as the best jazz

164 JAZZ

pianist; and Gene Kru pa was demonstrating the talent which wasto make all America drum-conscious very Shortly. The Trio became a Quartet with the addition o f Lionel Hampton

,the master

o f the V ibraphone .

This band within a band showed a persistent tendency to expand . The Quartet became a Quintet with the addition o f a bassplayer(John Kirby or Artie Bernstein) . One by one the memberso f the original Quartet left to form his own orchestra . Kru pa

,

the first to go , was replaced by Goodman’s drummer of the

moment—Hampton , Dave Tough , Buddy Schutz, N ick Fatool;Wilson by the pianist of the moment—G u am i e ri , Fletcher Hende rso n ,

Me lPowell, although Count Basie sat in o n some recording dates . Hampton was irreplaceable , although a substitute wasfound in the person o f the late Charlie Christian, a fine coloredelectric guitarist.The Quintet became a Sextet and finally a Septet with theaddition o f trumpet (Cootie Williams) and tenor sax (GeorgeAuld) . The Septet presented at least the external appearance ofthe old N ew Orleans and Chicago bands , with its four rhythmand three melody instruments . Its Style of playing was very diffe re n t, however . It was modern , smart—a bit like the small Negrogroups o f Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson , and Red Allen .

Goodman has had the good sense to leave pop tunes to theheavy orchestral arrangements , and the small group generallyplayed jazz classics

,usually the best pop tunes o f the twenties

and early thirties,but often old New Orleans o r Dixieland airs .

But we’ve gotten past o u r story; let’s get back to the birth o f

swing . The Goodman aggregation went through the heartbreaking stru ggle which all young bands experience—a dreary succession of one—night stands in the hinterland, with hundreds o fmiles to cover each day. There were moments o f hope andmoments of despair. The band was booked at the Hotel Rooseveltin N ew York, but Guy Lombardo was hurriedly called back toreplace them after two unsuccessful weeks . They secured a nicecontract to play at a Denver Spot, but the horrified prOprle to r sentthem packing after just two days . They wound up this disheartening transcontinental trek at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

166 JAZZ

Gus Bivona , George Auld(saxes) ; Bernie Leighton, soon to bereplaced by Mel Powell (piano) ; Charlie Christian or MikeBryan (guitar) ; Artie Bernstein (bass) ; Harry Jaeger (dru ms) .

Th is was an excellent band, well balanced, with almost perfectsection work. Fletcher Henderson continued to be the mainstayo f the arranging staff , although there were occasional c o n tributions from the pens o f Jimmy Mundy, Mary Lou Williams, andothers; and Eddie Sauter, a white musician , began to assumemore and more importance until he superseded Henderson .

With the depart u re o f Big Sidney Catlett, the death of CharlieChristian

,and the defection of Cootie Williams , who formed hi s

own band, the Goodman orchestra lost i ts colored musicians .Benny’s most famous musicians have made their reputations

as Spectacular musicians rather than as“

ho t” personalities . Fo r

some strange reason the big bands o f the last ten years have n o tbeen able to produce outstanding individuals known and ap

pre c iated throughout the world as hot jazzmen . Georgie Auld,

Jerry Jerome, and LouMcG ari ty, fo r example, are excellent mu sic ian s . But since they were brought up in the school o f the fullorchestras

,they substitute fo r the exciting trance o f the old days

an academic and rather conventional jazz based on intellect andtechnique .But it is an impressive demonstration of Benny Goodman’s importance when yo u consider how many musicians acquired suchreputations with him that they were able to start bands o f theirown . Bunny Be rigan , Gene Krupa , Teddy Wilson , Harry James,Ziggy Elman , Lionel Hampton , and now Cootie Williams are thecases which leap to mind most readily.

On e after the other the stars whom Goodman has developedand brought into the limelight have deserted him to form theirown han ds . But such losses n ever seem to worry Benny. Hi s

standing is so impregnable and his income so great that " he i sable to replace any musician with a more than capable substituteat a moment’s notice .

JAZZ 167

XII. SATCHMO AND THE DUKE

LOUIS ARM STRONG IS a fu ll-blooded Negro . He brought thedirectness and Spontan eity .o f his race to jazz music . Other fullblooded Negroes—Tricky Sam Nanton

,Harry Carney, Cootie

Williams,Leo Watson

,etc . -are likewise noted fo r the exp losive

force o f their playing .

Future critics may make much o f this fact in noting that themusical expression o f mulattoes like Fletcher Henderson andDuke Ellington i s very different frOm that o f Armstrong . Boththese conductors seem ‘to unite symbo lically within themselvesthe musical conceptions o f both races . Both strove to find aformula which would combine the power o f Negro jazz with therefinement o f white jazz.Fletcher Henderson was studyi ng pharmacy at Atlanta Un i

versity when he decided he preferred the piano to the mortarand pestle . He went up to New York and found that the chanceso f a musician were much better than those o f a pharmacist inHarlem .

At the time the hot c olle c tlv e im pro v i satlo n s o f King Oliver’s

band had won the heart of New York’s colored folk . The whitesstill went in big for stuff like Paul Whiteman an dVincent Lopez,commercial and showy jazz . There was room for someone whocould be original enough to attract interest

,and yet conventional

e nough not to alienate the un i n i tiated . Along with others n o t sotalented as he , Fletcher Henderson tried to solve this eternalproblem o f the struggle between novelty and tradition .

Fo r o n e thing , the small jazz band had to be enlarged . Thedistinctions between instrumental sections had to be established

,

and they had to be properly balanced . One had to be careful toprevent individual improvi sa tion from getting out o f hand

,and

even more careful not to efface it completely,as Paul Whiteman

had done . In a word, better orchestrations were needed, which

168 JAZZ

would preserve the appearance o f excitement and permit soloiststo get o ff .

Fletcher Henderson has received a good deal of well-meritedpraise . It must be said, however, that he led true jazz astray andmodified i ts original essence and expression . What had beenspo ntaneous joy in Joe Oliver

’s band was carefully prepared beforehand by Henderson . Fo r the first time

,intelligence and Skill

too k the place o f sensitivity an dSpontaneity. Here,again

,lies the

problem o f all art, o n e o n which definite judgment cannot yet bepassed .

Too often in m u S1c as m literature clever persons have tried tosubstitute intelligence fo r the genius which they lack . N aturally

,

they cannot succeed . They may be able to deceive their contempo rari e s , but time invariably Shows them up . So has it been withFletcher Henderson : the best parts o f his recordings are tho sewhich were not worked out beforehand . The arrangements haveproved all to o mortal, but the solo work of his inspired mu sicianswill live eternally.

It must be said, however, that Fletcher has Shown remarkablygood taste in selecting his musicians ; the arrangements he hasprovided for them are beautifully balanced, full o f swing , andallow ample room fo r individual solos against well-planned ho tbackgrounds . His work has won him o n e o f the greatest reputations in jazz

,o n e which haslas ted right down to the present day.

I like him,although my critical sense tells me that Fletcher

Henderso n has had a deleterious effect o n jazz music . He prepared the way fo r swing, which was to devitalize jazz . The swingera

,still going strong, has not made any Significant contributions

to pure art.Put seven real musicians in a room, let them play together

fo r a while, and when they feel the Spirit they will create something unique

,a musiawith a character all i ts own . It’s an entirely

different matter when you put fourteen musicians together in aroom . Collective improvi sation becomes impossible

,and it’s a big

job to replace it with ersatz inspiration .

Why is this? Because three melodic instruments—trumpet,trombone, and clarinet—can create individual melodic lines which

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

170

Creole Jazz Band, a young man named Louis Armstrong . Armstrong and Henderson skyrocke ted to fame together, and all thewhite musicians in .New York went to the Roseland Ballroomto hear this sensational orchestra . Here was a music they couldunderstand

,yet a vital music which put Paul Whiteman

,Ted

Lewi s, and Paul Specht to shame .A number o f adm irable recordings marked the progress o f theband : Ev erybody Lo ve s My Baby, I

’

ll Se e You i n My Dre am s ,

Alabam y Bou n d, Cope n hage n . Compare these with the recordso f the OriginalDixieland Jazz Band, the New Orleans RhythmKings

,and the California Ramblers, and you wi ll se e the i n

flu e n c e o f white jazz on Henderson .

During this period all the great blues Singers chose contingentsfrom Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra to accompany them o n

record dates : the Smiths—Trixie, Clara, and the incomparableBessie—Ida Cox,

Maggie Jones, Ma Rainey, and a host o f others .Louis brought with him from Jo e Oliver

’s band a New Orleansnumber called Dipperm ou th wi th a trumpet solo which has become the oldest tradition in jazz . Rebaptized Su gar Fo o t Stom p,it became a stand-by o f Fletcher Henderson

’s orchestra,and only

the first o f a series of N ew Orleans tunes which were convertedinto riffs and added to the Henderson repertory.

Fletcher continued to develop his orchestra, and most o f thegreat names o f j azz played in it at o n e time o r another. RusselSmith and the incomparable Joe Smith joined Louis in thetru mpet section , and after Armstrong went back to Chicago hi schair was occupied by such great com ets as Rex Stewart, TommyLadnier, and Bobby Stark . Fats Waller sat in o n piano

,and a

new trombonist named Jimmie Harrison was added .

Jimmie Harrison was o n e o f the jazz immortals who was n o t

long fo r this world . Many musicians and critics agree that hewas the greatest trombone o f all time . Certainly his style o f playing has influenced all the Negro trombo nists Since and

,through

Jack Teagarden,most o f the whites as well . But none o f his

imitators can match the feeling which Harrison put into everynote he ever blew.

With men like Harrison , Rex Stewart, Tommy Ladnier, and

JAZZ 17 :

Jo e Smith i n the brass section , the orchestra was at its peak .

Listen to Fidge ty Fe e t and Se n sati o n , and you’ll realize that what

has become an aimless mechanism in present-day orchestras po ssessed a tremendous power in Fletcher Henderson ’s old han d. Ifit i s true

,fo r example

,that Henderson’s Clari n e t Marm alade can

not stand comparison with the Original Dixieland’s,it is even

more obvious how fine the Henderson recording is,compared to

most commercial performances by big bands .In 192 8 the line—u p of the Henderson orchestra presented anunbroken front o f outstanding musicians : Russel Smith

,Bobby

Stark, Rex Stewart(tru mpets ) ; Jimmie Harrison , Be n n y ‘

Mo rto n

(trombone) ; Buster Bailey, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins(saxophone) ; Fletcher Henderson(piano) ; Clarence Holiday o rCharlie Dixon (guitar) ; June Coles (bass) ; Kaiser Marshall(drums)About this time an event in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra

Shook the jazz world with sensational repercussions . The tenorsaxophone, thanks to the sudden. development o f Coleman Hawkins

,took i ts rightfu l place among the solo instruments . The first

jazz bands had only o n e reed instrument—the clarinet. When thesaxophones were added to the orchestra the alto sax was thefeatu red solo in str ument—as witness Jimmy Do rse y

,Frank Tru m

bauer, and Don Redman . Adrian Rollini won fame o n the basssax, but the tenor remained the orphan of the reed section .

Hawkins himself played a heavy,uninspired tenor as late as

192 7 . Then he changed his style, and his new inspiration wo nhi m universal acclaim as the greatest o f all saxophonists . Hawkinsbecame fo r the sax what Armstrong was for the trumpet

,and

under his influence all, save a mere handful of recognized altostars

,deserted the alto sax fo r i ts broader-toned brother in s tru

ment.In the early thirties Henderson was playing at Connie’s Innup in Harlem with the following band : Russell Pro c 0pe , HarveyBoone

, Coleman Hawkins (saxophone) ; Russel Smith , BobbyStark

, Rex Stewart(trumpet) ; Claude Jones and Benny Morton(trombone) ; Clarence Holiday (guitar) ; John Kirby (bass) ;Walter Johnson(drums) ; Fletcher Henderson (piano) .

172 JAZZ

The mid—thirties saw Henry Allen (tru mpet) , Dicky Wells(trombone) , Hilton Jefferson (alto) , and Coleman Hawkins(tenor) as the featured soloists with the band . In 1936 and 1937Ro y Eldridge (trumpet) , Buster Bailey (clarinet) , Chu Berry(tenor) , and Horace Henderson (piano) provided most o f thesolo work.

By 193 8 Fletcher was fronting the following orchestra : RusselSmith

,Richard Vance, Emmett Berry(trumpet) ; George Wash

i n gto n , J . C . Higginbotham, Edward Cuffee (trombone) ; JerryBlake

,Hilton Jefferson , Elmer William s , Chu Berry (saxo

phone) ; Fletcher Henderson(piano) ; Lawrence Lucie(guitar) ;Israel Crosby(bass) ; Walter Johnson(drums) .

But by this time Henderson’s orchestra had ceased to be anirnpo rtan t factor in the jazz world . Henderson’s arrangements

,

the best in the early days of swing and which, played by BennyGoodman’s orchestra, had done much ' to assure the success of theswing era

,became more and more mechanical and less and less

distinctive . Henderson was beaten o n his own ground by Basie,

Lunceford,and Goodman . He finally gave up his band entirely

and devoted his talents to arranging fo r Goodman . For a Shortperiod in 193 9 he became Benny

’s regular pianist.Fletcher recently fronted a new band at his Old stampingground

,the Roseland . The less said about it

,the better. Hender

so n has had many great bands in his day, but his day seems to beover.Looking over the career of Fletcher Henderson

,we can se e

that he moved steadily away from Spontane ous inspiration towardpremeditated orchestration . To do this successfully requires aboundless su pply of originality. For all his talent

,Henderson was

limited,nor did he have the strength to hold his musicians in

line and dominate hi s orchestra with hi s own personality througho u t i ts varied metamorphoses . The qualities so grievously lacki ngin Henderson , however, were abundantly present in the persono f another band leader, Duke E llington .

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, D.C .

,

in 1899 , the so n o f a government employee . He received a solid

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

174 JAZZ

would develop it, another musici an would add a phrase o r changeit,and by such a conscientious gestation a distinctly Ellin gto n ian

composition was/born .

Such a procedure has produced an unprecedented continuity ofinspiration and interpretation . This explains why Duke Ellington’s was

,and is

,the best orchestra in the United States .

The greatness o f the band is amply demonstrated by the hundreds o f records it has waxed under various names fo r differentlabels : Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra(Victor) ,The Jungle Band(Brunswick) , Harlem Footwarmers (Okeh) ,Sonny Greer and His Memphis Me n (Columbia) , Georgia Sync0pato rs (Oriole) , Earl Jackson and His Musical Champions(Melo to n e ) , The Lumberjacks(Cameo) , and others .But his activities were not limited to recordings . He aecom

pan ied Maurice Chevalier o n the stage , played Gershwin tunesfo r the Ziegfeld Follies, and toured all America and Europe .After m aking a few recordings with a band which includedJimmie Harrison and Don Redman , Ellington

’s Washingtonianstook definite form in 192 7 . The personnel consisted o f BubberMiley(trumpet) ; Tricky Sam Nanton (trombone) ; Rudy Jackso n ,Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney (reeds) ; Duke Ellington

(piano) ; Fred Guy (banjo) ; Wellman Braud (bass) ; SonnyGreer(drums) . Some o f these nine Still play with the band .

Ellington has known how to choose his musicians and howto infuse them with his own feeling fo r j azz

,so that the orchestra

remains an integral whole . But in welding their talents to hi s ownpurposes

,he has been carefu l not to destroy their individual tem

pe ram e n ts—indeed, he makes use of them to widen the range o fthe orchestra .Another o f Ellington’s contributions was his realization thatthe soul o f the Negro race needed different forms o f expression

,

that black jazz must not be the same as“

white jazz. With this inmind and men like Bubber Miley and Tricky Sam in his band

,

he created the famous “jungle style,” which relied o n growl

sounds obtained with the wa-wa mute . He composed and performed such original and gripping pieces as the Eas t St . Lo u i s

JAZZ 175

To odle -o o , Black an d Tan Fan tasy, Cre o le Lov e Call, and TheAdo o che .

The Duke also recorded some piano solos . Black Be au ty isplayed simply and with a good deal of feeling , though Ellington

’spianisms never leave the terrific effect o f an Earl Hines, a FatsWaller

,or an Art Tatum .

Meanwhile, the orchestra continued to develop as Louis Me t

balf, Freddy Jenkins , and Juan Tizolwere added to the brass se ction and Barney Bigard and Johnny Hodges to the reeds . Everytrip to the recordi ng stu dios produced several gems o f j azz. It i sdifficult to single o u t any of these records fo r Special mention,they’re all so good . I particularly like the collective excitementan d lovely solos on Ban dan n a Babi e s and the way in which thetwo sides o f Tige r Rag stand o u t Sharply from the pale imi tationso f the Original Dixieland version which other bands put out.In 193 0 came the first serious change in the band

’s personnelas BubberMiley left it shortly before his death . The compositionthen be came : Arthur Whetsel, Freddy Jenkins, Cootie Williams(trumpets) ;Tricky SamNanton , JuanTizol(trombones) ; BarneyBigard (clarinet) ; Johnny Hodges (alto sax) ; Harry Carney(baritone sax) ; Ellington , Guy, Braud, Greer(rhythm) .

Cootie Williams was the perfect choice to succeed M iley. Notonly did he c ontinue the growl tradi tion perfectly, but he playedbeaut ifu l Open horn a la Armstrong . Had Louis never existed

,

Cootie might well have been the greatest of them all . Bigard , aNew Orleans clarinet, is considered by many as the best on hisinstru ment, and he undeniably was the best for a big band likethe Duke’s . Johnny Hodges plays simple and direct alto andSOpran o wi th a world of feeling . He

,too

,is considered best o n hi s

instrument by most critics, and only Benny Carter, Willie Smith,and Pete Brown are in hi s class .The orchestra continued to put out terrific recordings . To getan idea listen to Ju n gle Jam bore e , Echo e s o f the Ju n gle , Lim e

ho u s e Blu e s , Co tto n Clu b Stom p, Lazy Du ke , Ri n g Dem Be lls ,

Ju n gle N ights i n Harlem , Big Ho u se Blu e s , Sa tu rday N ight

Fu n c tio n ,Moo d In digo , Ro cki n

’

i n Rhythm , Cre o le Rhapsody,and the famous It Do n ’

tM e an a Thi n g.

176 JAZZ

It was in this last number that Ivy Anderson sang

It don’

t m e an a thi n gIf i t a i n

’

t go t tha t swi n g,

and a new word had been born , a word which has Since be enerroneously used instead o f hot jazz .In 193 2 Otto Hardwick rejoined the band, and a new trombone

,Lawrence Brown , was added . The delicately nuanced style

and tone which Brown used proved a perfect foil fo r Joe Nanton’ssavage jungle trombone . The band recut some o f i ts classics

,

accompanied Bing Crosby in the St . Lo u i s Blu e s,and recorded

such melodic originals as Mo o n o ver Dixi e , Blu e Ram ble , Blu eHarlem ,

and Du ckyWu cky.

In 193 3 , some months after Armstrong’s visit

,Duke Ellington’s

orchestra toured Europe . The European jazz fans liked it trem e n do u sly but were rather bewildered by the difference betweenEllington and Armstrong . Trying to analyze the Duke’s orchestralstyle

,they realized that here was something more than pure im

pro v isatio n . Some believed that all its music must have be enarranged down to the minutest detail .I was interested in this point myself, and went to London tohear the band play at the Palladium.

It was one o f the greatest thrills o f my life. I was excited bycertain muted bras s ensembles, by Harry Cam ey

’s powerful baritone work

,by Freddy Jenkins’ simple and direct tru mpet

,by the

melodious charm o f Lawrence Brown’s trombo ne,and by Hodges

and Bigard, who proved themselves just as great as their recordings indicated . I realized that here was no static

,lifeless music

,

but a dynamic, flexible, ever-moving music . Even the ensembles,whose structure would seem to be rigid, differed according to themood of the musicians .A bit later

,when the band came to Paris , I had the Opportunity

of spending an evening with Hugues Pan ass ié and the Duke. Iasked him many questions about his technique, and he describe dhis method of composition just as I have recounted it to you .

Melody and execution are experimented with , until graduallymusical perfection is attained. All this takes a considerable

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

178 JAZZ

rhythm,which destroys the musicians’ individuality by forcing

them to play mechanically.

In the Duke’s Opinion the most important member of therhythm secti on is the plam st, whose function i s to round o u t therhythm with arpeggios and rapid chromatics . Playing solo, however

,the pianist should give free rein to hi s imagination

,in so far

as his technique permits , yet always remember to keep a steadyrhythm lest the o the r musicians be confused . As a pianist and aband leader

,he believes that the afterbe at i s just about the mo st

effective rhythm, provided the accent i s on the bass .Duke Ellington ’s orchestra plays only

’

special arrangements ,written by t he Duke himself or hi s brilliant assistant, Billy Strayhom . This , together with the comparative permanence o f i ts perso n n el, accounts fo r the distinctive and continuous individualitywhich the band has always had . Practically all the other bandssound alike

,at least in their ensemble playi ng, bu t there i s n o

mistaking a number played by the Duke.The first step in these arrangements , as Ellington h imselftold me

, i s to take care o f the rhythm section ; all the Instruments—piano

,guitar

,bass , and drums—Should play the same rhythm

Simultaneously. At the same time a good deal o f attention i s paidto the melodic instruments , particularly the brasses, in order toobtain a full

,deep , tonal quality.

Before concluding , we might mention that the Duke haswritten more popular hits than any other major

,

j azz figure . Hi smelodic vein is indicated, though by no means exhausted, by thefollowi ng titles : Mo o n In digo , Sophi stica ted Lady, So li tu de , In a

Se n tim e n talMo od, I Le t a So n g G o Ou t ofMy'Heart, I

’

v e G o t

It Bad, Don’

t G e t Arou n d Mu c h An y More . An impressive listo f popular songs , n o t one o f which is banal .Fo r Six months in 1943 Duke Ellington was the star o f theHurricane in New York with a rejuvenated band in which music ian s li ke Jimmy Hamilton , Nat Jones, Taft Jordan, and o therscame under the genial direction o f the great leader.There is no need to dwell fu rther on the importance o f DukeEllington’s contri bution to jazz o r o n hi s tremendous influenceo n other orchestras . Just as Armstrong has inspired all soloists ,

JAZZ 179

even o n instruments other than the trumpet, Ellington has fu rn i shed a wealth o f material fo r all other composers and arrangersto chew over. Hi s great achievement is that he has attained as

high a degree of perfection as only pure improvisation hadthitherto produced

,by the addition o f carefully and intelligently

prepared elements to those furnished by instinct alone .Thus

,Ellington stands o u t in sharp contrast to Arm strong .

With Louis the ban d doesn’t count—all that matters i s hi s owngenius expressing itself through the he ll of a trumpet . The Dukethinks orches trally; as a piano soloist he i s , although wonderfu l,le ss interesting , but he has succeeded in molding a great orches trawith the stamp o f hi s own geniu s .

XIII. THE NEG RO BANDS OF YESTERDAY

WE HAVE SEEN how j azz evolved from New Orleans to Chicago,from Buddy Bolden to King Oliver

,reaching i ts fu ll statu re in

the person o f Louis Arm s trong . A new line o f j azz had beenstarted by two great orchestras : Fletcher Henderson’s and DukeEllington’s . This chapter will deal with the present-day Negroorchestras

,first paying tribute to those which are now but

memories . Needless to say, we cannot examine them in completedetail within the limits o f this book .

Perhaps the first of the big colored bands , next to FletcherHenderson’s , was McKi n n ey

’

s Cotton Pickers, a band whichshould not be confused with the original Co tton Pickers, whichwas a white orchestra .The band consisted o f Langston Curl , John Nesbitt (trumpets) ; Claude Jones (trombone) ; Do n Redman , Milton Senior,Ge orge Thomas, Prin ce Robinson(saxes) ; Todd Rhodes(piano) ;Dave Wilbom (banjo) ; Bob Escudero (bass) ; Cuba Austin(drums) , at the time o f i ts first recordings . This band originatedin Ohio and played around Chicago . Don Redman was i ts mainstay and was responsible for most o f i ts arrangements .

Their first great hit was Fou r or Fiv e Tim e s , which they fo llowed up with such classics as N obody

’

s Swe e theart, Som e Swe e tDay, Skim m e -sha—wabble . Redman’s arrangements were quiteadvanced fo r the time, although they are somewhat dated today,and Prince Robinson was o n e o f the best tenors o f the periodbefore Hawkins attained hi s prime .Hawkins himself joined McKin n ey in 192 9 , along with Jo eSmith and Sidney de Paris (trumpets) , Benny Carter (alto) ,James P . Johnson(piano) , and Jimmy Taylor(bass) .

The saxophone trio—Don Redman,Benny Carter

, ColemanHawkins— formed an ideal section

,and was just about perfect

fo r the time .Later personnel changes brought Rex Stewart into the trumpetsection and Cuffy Davidson into the trombones . But, de Sp i te i tswealth o f talent, McKi n n ey

’

s Cotton Pickers passed o u t of exi ste n c e at the beginning o f the thirti esDon Redman formed another orchestra under hi s own name

about 193 1 . He wrote the arrangements with the help of HoraceHenderson . Its first record, Chan t o f the We ed and Shaki n ’

the

African ,made a tremendous impression .

I had already realized that, wi th Duke Ellington and Don Redman

,j azz had begun to fall under the sway of the intellect. Duke

Ellington had been the first to introduce this more complicatedform of jazz, but Chan t of the We ed indicated that Redman waslikewise capable o f producing Original and thoughtful compositions . It is o n e of those themes which depends on rhythmic andtonal effects, and whose melody can never be remembered.

I prefer Shaki n ’

the Afri can , which i s more in the old v em ,

mingling hot solos and Don’s wonderful vocal with a loose,free

arrangement.Don Redman formed various recording bands from time totime

,and he has some twenty or thirty records to hi s credit. Many

great ho t j azz musicians—Red Allen , Bill Coleman , Sidney deParis

,Benny Morton , Sidn ey Catlett—have played with him.

McKin n ey’

s Cotton Pickers continued in Slightly altered foas the Cho colate Dandies . Under this name Rex Stewart, J . C .

Higginbotham,Don Redman, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

JAZZ

i n g these years was the Blue Rhythm Band . This band was o r

gan ized about 193 1 without any exceptional musicians, thoughit did have s u ch fin e men as Castor McCo rd, the tenor, andEdgar Hayes, the pianist. The band had a rather personal flavorim parted to it by the somewhat mechanical arrangements o f NatLeslie and Harry White . For a while it was directed by BennyCarter, but finally, in 1934, it passed to the leadership o f LuckyM illin de r . A considerable amount o f excellent talent joined theband : Red Allen, J . C . Higginbo tham,

Buster Bailey,and Joe

Garland . In 1936 Charlie Shavers, trum pet, and Billy Kyle,piano

,joined the band . These two

,together with Buster Bailey

an d O’

N e il Spencer—also Lucky Millin de r, alumnus—were laterto form the major part o f John Kirby’s band .

Among the orchestras which have been almost completely fo rgotten is that o f SamWooding, which played in Europe for se veral It consisted o f : Bobby Martin , Ted Brock(tru mpets) ;Willie Lewis

,Gene Sedric , Ralph James (saxophones) ; Albert

Wynn and Herbert Flemming (trombone) ; Justo Baretto(piano) ; June Coles(bass) ; Ted Fields (drums) ; John Mi tchell(banjo) .

Upon Wo odin g’

s retu rn to America he organized the following group : Garvin Bushell, Jerry Blake, Bu ggey Watson , GeneSedri c(saxophones) ; George Swazi e , Frank Wilson , Frank Newto n (trumpe t) ; George Walker, Nathaniel Story (trombones) ;Bernard Addison(gu itar) ; George Howe(drums) ; Harold Walto n (piano) ; Louis Hill (bass) .

Wooding,who today directs a choir, made only a few record

ings,and these were not very good . His alto saxophonist

,Willie

Lewis,remained in Europe until 1940 , and scored a considerable

success,with a band composed of some other Wooding alumni

and such newcomers as Bill Coleman , Louis Bacon, Big BoyGoodie

,Benny Carter, and Herman Chi tti so n .Willie Lewis had

easily the best band in Paris, although we mustn’t forget Freddy

Taylor,whose Villa D’

Este orchestra, in 193 5, consisted o f :

Fletcher Allen(tenor) ; Chester Lanier(baritone) ; Freddy Taylor,Charlie Johnson (trumpets) ; John Ferrier (piano) ; Oscar Aleman (gu itar) ; D

’

He llem m e s (bass) ; William Diemer (drums) .

JAZZ 183

XIV. THE SMALL NEG RO BANDS

A B IG ORCHE STRA necessitates a continuity or organization andadministration which i s difli cu lt fo r all but a few talented leadersto achieve . A small band, o n the other hand, is a much easierform and permits any musician to have his day as a band leader.There are very few first-rate jazzmen who have never, at sometime o r another, satisfied their ambiti on to lead a band . Whena musician in a big band Shows some spectacular solo ability, therecord companies are after him to gather a date band together torecord fo r their labe ls .The term “small band refers to a group o f fiv e to eight musi

c ian s , includin g generally a rhythm section composed o f piano,

bas s, drums, and guitar, an d a melodic section consisting o f trumpet

,trombone

,and clarinet o r saxophone . Fo r the most part, it i s

s u ch sm all bands which continue in the tradition o f improvisedjazz

,while the big bands go in for arranged swing .

During the King Oli ver period , when Chicago was the greatmusical center, there were many small bands to be heard aroundthe Windy City. One o f these was led by the New Orleanspianist Jelly Roll Morton and consisted of Nat Dominique(tru mpet) , Roy Palmer (trombo ne) , Town es (clarinet) , Jelly RollMorton(piano) , and Jaspar Taylor(drums) .

In 192 6 Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Ho t Peppers made the first

o f a series o f fine recordings . The band which re corded BlackBo ttom Stom p, Do c to r Jazz, Gran dpa

’

s Spe lls , Can n o n BallBlu e s ,etc . , was composed o f the following fine musicians : Jelly RollMorton , George Mitchell(com et) ; Kid Ory(trombone) ; OmerSimeon (clarinet) ; John St. Cyr(banjo) ; John Lindsay (bass) ;Andrew Hilaire (drums) . Later Jelly Roll assembled such menas Ward Pinkard(trumpet) , Geechy Fields(trombone) , JohnnyDodds and Barney Bigard(clarinets) fo r various recording dates .Many of these recordings are most impressive

,but in my humble

Opinion(which is not that o f most jazz critics) they are n o t thee qu als o f the New Orleans Rhythm Kings o f the same time.Another New Orleans musician who has led small bands in

Chicago, from the King Oliver days right down to the present,is Jimmie Noone . Jimmie has had a great influence o n clarinets tyle, and even such white musicians as Benny G o odman andJimmy Dorsey Show traces o f N o o n e

’

s influence . N o o n e’

s . c om

himations have featured the playing of Earl Hines and Zi n keyCo hn o n piano and Joe Poston on alto, in a long series o f recordsdown through the years . Records like Fou r or Fiv e Tim e s, Apex

Blu e s , Swe e t Lo rra i n e , and Riv e r Stay’Way from My Do or have

los t little o f their charm.

Some years ago Noone came to New York to record wi th aband which boasted Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Pete Brown o n

alto,and Teddy Bunn o n gu itar. More recently he recorded for

Decca’s New Orleans Jazz Album,

” using old-timers with theNew Orleans—Chicago background .

Little non-commercial outfits like these perpetuate the culto f good jazz . Jimmie Noon e himself is a wonderful improvise rwith a style all hi s own . Hugues Pan ass ié considers him the greates t o f all jazz clarinetists .The outstanding small Negro band in New York, in the mid

dle and late twenties, was Clarence Williams’ Blue Five . AS it

recorded in 192 5, it consisted o f Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet,Charles Irv i s (trombone) , Clarence Williams (piano) , andBuddy Christian (banjo) . The fine music played by this earlygroup i s hard put to it to overcome the difficulties o f rather primitive recording technique and poo r vocalists . Nevertheless, Clarence Williams groups have produced many wonderful records .Some o f the small band leaders have given up big bands inorder to return to more intimate jazz ; such i s the case o f TeddyWilson . While he was featured with Benny Goodman’s Trioand Quartet

,Teddy Wilson led small recording groups which

accompanied Billie Holiday on a long series o f swell recordings .When he left Goodman , however, he organized a sixteen-pieceband—a very undistinguished one—which p layed at the FamousDoor.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

186 JAZZ

gers (piano) ; William Smith (bass) ; Arthur Herbert (drums) .When I heard the great tenor play at Kelly’S Stable, i n 1940,

he had already lost o n e o f hi s trumpets . The personnel kept o nchanging as the band moved from N ew York to Chicago .

About the same time I heard Roy Eldridge’

5 band . Eldridgeis a terrific trumpeter who won his reputation with Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra around 193 5. He plays wi th a good deal o fdash and originality, though he lacks Louis

’s co ntrol . The 01

che s tra was exc ellent, but i t was n o t long-lived . Roy Eldridgeleft to become a featu red soloist with Gene Kru pa

’

s band from1941 to 1943 , when he led a little combination in Swing Alley,New York .

There are many s u ch band leaders who,unable to find jobs

fo r their orchestras, are forced to join up with other bands . Besides Eldridge

,we can cite Pete Brown , Frankie Newton , Sidn ey

de Paris,and Sam Price, n o t to menti on a host of minor figures.

Others formed trios and quartets which, because of their reducedpe rsonnel, have a better chance o f findi ng work.

There are countless small bands that have played i n New Yorkand Chicago Spots : Chris Columbus, Savoy Sultans , Earl Bostic,Willie(the Lion) Smith, Kaiser Marshall . I Should like to makeSpecial mention o f BobbyMartin’s group, which played in GreenwichVillage .One extraordin ary small band 18 led by Eddie South, the mar

v elo u s Violinist who plays jazz and gypsy music with equalfacility. Eddie has led several different groups at vario u s times ;I particu larly liked the band he had in Europe. At the presenttime he 15 the best jazz vi olinist and has become o n e o f the regulars at Café Society. Unfortunately, he spends half of the timeplaying waltzes

,tangos

,or gypsy music .

Together with Eddie South at Café Society has been the o rche s tra o f John Kirby, perhaps the only small band which hasled a continuous existence with the same personnel for a fiv e

year period . John Ki rby played bass with Fletcher Henderson andmany other orchestras before forming his own han d. He realizedthe difli c u lty fo r a colored band to achieve commercial success,but that didn’t st0p him . His han d was unu sual

,refined

,and

JAZZ 187

composed of first-rate musicians : Charlie Shavers (trumpe t) ,Buster Bailey(clarinet) , Russell Pro c 0pe (alto) , Billy Kyle (pian o ) , John Kirby (bass) , O’

N e il Spencer (later Bill Beaso n,dru ms) .

I first heard them at the Onyx Club in 193 9 and was impressed with their powers o f improvisation . Since then the o rche strati o n s have been much more rigid

,and the soloists have

been held in much tighter rein .The music is about as far removedas possible from the New Orleans tradi tion . Its personality i scompletely due to the unusual caliber o f i ts arrangements , which,though rhythmic, are highly intellectualized .

I have alre ady stated how much I admire Charlie Shavers ,who seems to me to be the ideal trumpet for a small improvisingband . One might think he would be ou t o f place playing thearrangements o f John Ki rby, but, as a matter o f fact, he writesmany o f them himself. AS fo r the ever—smiling Buster Bailey, hehas kept the same flowing style o f rapid notes down through theyears, and has ranked as o n e o f the leading clarinetists fo r al

most two decades . Russell Pro c0pe i s a solid rhythmic alto whoplays on the order o f Charlie Holmes, but with his own individual touches . He i s a native o f New York and studied theviolin before taking up the saxophone. He played with FletcherHenderson’s orchestra during the Connie’s Inn period , when thebass player was John Kirby, who likew ise was a Violin ist and hadstudied music at the Baltimore Conservatory.

The orchestral ensemble is pe rfect, since the members haveplayed together for so long . The highly refined, Sophisticated,and melodic music which they have played has been responsiblefor their great success at Café Society and at the Monte Carlo .A completely different sort o f music was that o f the Spirits o f

Rhythm,a highly exciting outfit. I often heard them at the Onyx

Clu b in 193 9 , when they were a Six-man string combination .

The success of this very effective and unusual group was largelydue to Leo Watson

,who is o n e o f the hottest temperaments o f

the present day. He animates the orchestra, ele c trifies it, and putsit in to a trance . Sometimes he attains a sort o f rhythmic maniawhich represents the purest surrealistic tradition o f j azz . The s u b

JAZZ

consci ousness alone i s responsible fo r his tormented vocals , inwhich scat syllables , the tu ne, the rhythm,

and the imaginationare merged to form a potent m ixture . LeoWatson i s at his bestwhen he is neither to o low n o r to o high ; his wildness i s u per

imposed on the more precise and calmer music o f the orchestra .The group was reduced to four men in 1940 , when it playedat Nick’

S and m the Hickory House. Its leading instrumentalistwas Teddy Bunn , who plays the guitar with such a high degree o fSkill that he has been chosen fo r the rhythm sectionm m manyrecording dates . One o f these was the Me zzrow-Ladnier sessio norganized by Hugues Pan ass ié when he visited the United States .This date produced some of the finest recordings o f the last fewyears

,notably Ro se tta, on which Pete Brown takes an extrao rdi

nary alto solo . In addition to Leo Watson and Teddy Bunn, thereare the two Daniels brothers

, o n e an excellent bass player, theother a marvelous and poignant vocalist who also plays trumpet.Teddy Bunn played on a Blue Note recording date o n whichthe Higginbotham Quinte t(Higginbotham , Bunn , Meade

“Lux”

Lewis,John Williams , Sidney Catlett) recorded a good Bas i n

S tre e t Blu e s , an d the Port o f Harlem Seven(the same han d withthe addition o f Frankie N ewton and Sidney Bechet) made otherfine records .I Shouldn’t forget to mention the small band led by StuffSmith

,the fine jazz Violinist. He made his reputation back in

1936 , when Jonah Jones was hi s trumpet and Cozy Cole hi sdrummer. Both have Since jom ed Cab G alloway, but Stuff hascontinued to lead his group at Kelly’s Stable and various otherplaces from NewYork to Hollywoo d .

And now,fo r the last and one o f the best small orchestras- Fats

Waller’s . It seems to me that he is the man who has stood outabove hi s rivals during these last few years . Fats i s a native Harlem i te , the so n of a pastor and himself destined fo r the pulpituntil the Spirit o f jazz wo n him from the church , just as it hadtaken Irving Berlin away from the synagogue. His re ligious training did have one important effect o n Fats—i t gave hi m a solidtechnique on the organ .

Fats Waller gradually slid toward profane music. With hi s

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

190 JAZZ

o f m o n orchestras . Fats i s always wonderful , whetherplays the piano, o r plays the organ . I have only o n e

to make : he spends too much time in j iving around,idiotically

,and rolling his big eyes . Fats should leave

le squ ed gestu res to those who need it to cover up thtalent. He i s to o great a musician to Spoil the effectimbecilities .Fats has been without a band fo r more than a year

Sedri c recently had an excellent little group o f his own ,fe atu ri

HenryMason on trumpet.

XV. BIG COLORED ORCHESTRAS

THERE ARE COUNTLESS impo rtant Negro orchestras today,a de

tailed list o fwhich would be almost endless . All of them,from the

best to the worst, have the same fu ndamental approach to theirmusical subj ect. The metamorphosis o f j azz into swing has re

du c ed the majority o f these groups to the same general level,with

a few outstanding exceptions which I Should like to discuss .In every American city yo u can find a typ ical swing band o f,

say, seven brass and four reeds . Whether it is in Daytona Beacho r in New Orleans 01 Hollywood, the musical product i s generally the Same and o f little significance . However

,j azz cannot be

produced o n a mass scale like doughnuts . Stock arrangementshave been made from time to time o f most o f the best-knownworks by the great Duke Ellington , for the benefit of those whowish to reproduce the music he created . Nevertheless

,not o n e

o f these orchestras has managed to duplicate the artistic achievements of Ellington himself, because none of them has succeededin reproducing the exact musical personality o f the original .It stands to reason that the large number Of arrangementsturned o u t by writers o f commercial orchestrations cannot all beendowed with greatness o r inspiration . Even the so—called namebands offer no guarantee o f an exception to the ru le . Some time

JAZZ 19 1

ago in New Orleans I heard a band led by Sidney De sv ign e ,a veteran steeped in the pioneer jazz tradi tion . The band soundedjust like Erskine Hawkins’

,Le s Hite’s , o r any other average col

o red outfit . All of these combinations are satisfactory, but theylack the kind of perso nality which enabled o n e to distinguishbetween such pioneer bands as the New Orleans Rhythm Kingsand the Memphis Five .Among the best Negro band leaders o f the past decade , ChickWebb comes to mind as an outstanding figure . This brilliantlittle artist

,tortured by a severe physical affliction , was a Splendid

drumm er who produced a number of firs t-rate recordings .Chick Webb was a crippled youth from Baltimore who c o n

quered his handicap through a natural racial faith in hi s music.Partly cured through a difficult operation , he was given su fli c i e n tcourage to start working with small bands . He started in NewYork at the Balc o n ade s o n Columbus Avenue, where the c u stom e rs recalling the memorable music created there by the Dixieland Band were somewhat surprised to se e the little hunchbackedfigure at the drums . But this little man was possessed o f a soul,an d before many years he had earned himself a place amongthe immortals o f j azz .In his first band were such men as Johnny Hodges, later fa

mous as Duke Ellington’s alto man,and Bobby Stark o n trumpet.

By’

193 1 he had a fine band o f stars : Shad Co llins, Louis Hunt,a n d Louis Bacon , tru mpets ; Jimmie Harrison , trombone; BennyCarter, Hilton Jefferson , and Elmer Williams , saxophones ; Do nKirkpatrick, piano; John Trueheart, guitar; Elmer James, bass ;an d Chick himself at the drums .This was the band that recorded the remarkable He e bi e

Je ebi e s , which brought something fresh and rhythmic to themusical scene . I remember the first time Hugues Pan ass ié playedthis record to me in Paris

,when we were immediately conv i nced

that a great new band had been born .

Whoever wrote the arrangement o f He chio Je ebi e s somehowrecalled the atmosphere of the old Chocolate Dandies, withB enny Carter and Jimmie Harrison working together again . After

“

their departure, though, this was still a great band . In 1934 there

192 JAZZ

were Mario Bauza, Renald Jones, and Taft Jordan , trumpetsSandy William s , trombone; Peter Clark, Edgar Sampson, ElmerWilliams

,saxophones ; and John Kirby replaced Elmer James in

the rhythm section . This was the im portant period when ChickWebb rose suddenly to a mp place among the Negro name bands .Edgar Sampson, a good saxophonist, was an important acquisiti on , Since he had a hand in most o f the arrangemen ts , giv ing theband a tru ly indivi dual stamp. Interesting listening today aresuch sides as Su n n y S ide of the Stre e t, Darktown Stru tte rs

’

Ball,

and That Rhythm Man ; this last was recorded in 193 5 withBobby Stark and Wayman Carver. By that time Sampson andKirby had left the band . That the personality o f the band wasaffected by Sampson’s departu re might well be gauged from thefact that

,after Hilton Jeffe rson had taken over his chair for a

short while,Sampson was brought back; and shortly afterwards

about ten numbers were recorded in which the band achievedthe qualitie s for which it had been stri ving .

Around this time an important new figure entered the bandin the person of Ella Fitzgerald, a young orphan girl who hadsaved up to spend an evening at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem

,

where she took part in the regular Wednesday night amateurhour. Although she was accorded a ho stile reception by the u npredictable Apollo crowd, Webb, immediately stru ck by hercharm and vocal style, hired her for the band . Before long herdeep

,Vibrant voice and searing, emotional tone had won her the

admiration o f every jazz lover and made her the central figureo f the Webb organization . The band reached its zenith of publicacclaim during Ella’s first era of popularity, but in 193 9 , afterachieving hi s greatest successes and completing his mastery o fthe drums, Chick

’s career was cut short by death . Hi s techn iquewas marked by a rhythmic suppleness never marred by heavyeffects ; he was a brilliant exponent of wire-brush technique andhelped to popularize their u se . Iheard his band a few months before his death and was deeply moved by his fine qualities as aleader. One of the

“

numbers I heard, Un de c ided, had the samecharm that had made A Tiske t a Taske t such a tremendous hi tfo r Ella an d the band .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

194 JAZZ

style . Tu xedo Ju nc tion , which made Hawkins a big name, isalready a thin g of the past. The band plays fu riously, but it mightalmost be any other band until i ts style is established in a charac te ri s ti c trumpet solo, whose ideas constitute an example ofeverything that should not be done in real jazz . Actu ally WilburBascomb, who took the famous trumpet solo o n Tu xedo and manyother Hawkins records

,i s a far better artist than the leader him

self.Les Hite had a relatively obscure band until he happe ned tomeet Louis Armstrong , who at that time had no band of his own .

King Louis stayed in California fo r some time with Hite’s bandat Sebastian’s Cotton Club . The personnel at that time includedsuch men as Lawrence Brown , trombone ; Le s Hite, alto sax;

Jimmy Prince,piano ; and Lionel Hampton , drums . This was the

band with which Louis recorded the wonderful Din g Do n gDaddy, I

’

m i n the Marke t for You , Con fe ss in’

, and If l Co u ld Bew i thYo u .

After these records were made, Lawrence Brown left the bandand joined Duke Ellington . Later Louis made Mem orie s ofYou ,

Body an d Sou l, and the side which happens to be my own fav o ri te Armstrong di sk, Shin e . The beginning is sensational;Armstrong’s singing, merging abru ptly from real words into ascat phrase

,is vastly entertaining, and his trumpet solo reaches a

clim ax through skyscraper notes in a manner that has alwaysgiven this performance an irresistible appeal fo r me .Afte rL o u i s Armstrong, Les Hite continued his career on thewest coast. Eventu ally he came east in 1940 and appeared a coupleo f times at the Apollo, where I heard the band . It was a c ompetent organization playing adequate arrangements

,nothing

more . The personnel at that time comprised Paul Campbell,

Walter Williams,Forrest Powell , trumpets ; Britt Woodman,

Allen Durham,trombones ; Floyd Te ern ham , Ju dilli s Martyn ,

Rogers Hurd, Sol Moore, saxophones; Nat Walker, piano ; FrankPaseley, guitar; Al Morgan, bass; and Oscar Bradley, drums . Hitereturned to Californi a in 1942 and retired temporarily from bandleading early in 1943 .

I had already been familiar for many years with Claude Hop

JAZZ 195

kins when I caught hi s band at the Apollo in 193 9 . Nostalgically,

I recollected that it was he who had accompanied JosephineBaker o n her European tour in the 192 05 . By the standards o fthose days it was a very exciting combination

,playing fo r an o u t

standing singer. In addi tion, Sidney Bechet appeared as a starsoloist with his soprano sax, which was a treat in itself.It was a great disillusionment . in 193 9 to se e how Hopkins’

band had changed . Some o f his records which I had heard inEurope included some great clarinet work by Ed Hall

,one of the

most authentic exponents o f the New Orleans style . But Hall hadleft the band

,which n ow seems to lack any particular impact. By

way o f compensation Benny Carter was producing some wonderfu l music around the same time in 193 9 at the Savoy, with aband composed o f Joe Thomas, Russel Smith , Link Mills, trumpets ; Tyree Glenn, Vic Dickerson , James Archey, trombones ;Jimmy Powell

,Carl Frye, Ernie Powell , Cass McCo rd, saxo

phones; Eddie Heywood, Jr.,piano; Ulysses l m gsto n ,

guitar;Hayes Alvis

, bass; Ted Fields, drums . Benny led o n alto , trumpet,and clarinet.At the end o f o n e exciting evening which I spent with LouisArmstrong at the Savoy listening to Carter’s music, Louis expressed his boundless adm iration for Benny, describing him as

o n e o f the four “or five greatest personalities i n j azz .Carter’s name has appeared frequently in these pages

,but only

a small idea has been given o f his multiplicity of talents . In 193 3he had an excellent band in which were Bill Dillard, Chu Berry,Sidney Catlett

,and other stars . During that year Carter as

sembled the musicians who made a number o f recordings underthe

“

name o f the visiting Irish composer-critic, Spike Hughes .Later in the year Carter had a band with an even stronger perso n n el, includi ng a remarkably powerful trombone trio : J . C .

Higginbotham,Fred Robinson , and Keg Johnson . At the piano

was Teddy Wilson , playing his first New York engagement andcreating a sensation with his new and original styleA year later Benny Carter had a new band, with Russel Smith,Otis Johnso n , and

“

Mouse” Randolph , trumpets ; Benny Morton,Keg Johnson

,trombones ; Ben Smith, Russell Pro c 0pe , BenWeb

196 JAZZ

Elmer James, bass;Walter John s on, drums .In 193 5 Benn y Carter left for Europe, to work in Paris withWilly Lewis ’ band . On his first tri p he was unable toat Le Havre, owing to domesti c legal comp lication stu rning to New York and straightening o u t hi s problem s , hefinally landed and went to work, at Chez Florence, where theswing fans congregated nightly to hear his brilliant work o n bothalto and trumpet.The following year Carter went to London and be came staffarranger fo r the BBC radi o house han d. He recorded severalsessions with a d composed o f British musicians

,

among them Max i Tommy McQu ate r, trumpets; LewDavis

,trombone; Buddy Feathe rsto n hau gh, tenor sax

;Eddie

Macau ley, piano .

After several Continental appe arances Carter Spent a summerin Holland

,where he was join ed by another giant o f the saxo

phone,Co leman Hawkins, i n a record session which also fea

tu red Freddy Johnson o n piano an d Ge orge Chisholm ,the tal

e n ted Scotti sh trombonis t. Later he recorded another session inParis with Bertie King, clarinet Fletcher Allen , alto; Alix Combelle

,tenor; Yorke de Sousa, piano; Django Reinhardt, gu itar;

Len Harrison, bass; Robert;

Mo n m arche , drums—a truly in tem a

ti o n al band including British and French Negroes and whites .On all his recordings, of course, Benny Carter i s responsible

arrangements and displays his usual peerless talent o nbo th alto and trumpet. On several o f hi s English recordings

,

notably N ightfall, he also played beautifu l tenor sax.

In the course o f many meetings with Benny Carter,both du r

ing his European tour and later o n my own vi sit to New York,

I found him a musician of s u perior intelligence—incidentally,he

had acquired a thorough knowledge o f the French language—anda m an with very disti nc t ideas o n the fu tu re of j azz.On several occasions I heard Benny wi th a small band whichworked fo r him at ~

Kelly’s Stable and the Famou s Do or . Heshowed himself as much at ease in a small improv ising band ashe always has been in a big organized band . Having always been

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

196 JAZZ

ster,saxopho n e s ; TeddyWilson, piano ; Claren c e Ho liday, gu i tar;James, bass;Walter John s on, dru m s .

In 193 5 Benny Carter left for Europe, to work in Paris withWilly Lewis’ band . On his first trip he was unable toat Le Havre, owing to domestic legal comp licati on sturning to New York and straightening ou t his problem s

,he

finally landed and went to work, at Chez Florence, where theswing fans congregated nightly to hear his brilliant work on bothalto and trumpet.The following year Carter went to Lbn do n and became staffarranger for the BBC radi o house band. He re corded severalses sions with a pickup band composed o f British musicians

,

among them Max Go ldberg, Tommy McQu ate r, trumpets; LewDavis

,trombone; Buddy Feathersto n hau gh, tenor sax; Eddie

Macauley, piano .

After several Co ntinental appearances Carter spent a summerin Holland

,where he was join ed by another giant o f the saxo

phone,Coleman Hawkins, in a record session which also fea

tared Freddy Johnson o n piano and Ge orge Chisholm ,the tal

e n ted Scottish trombonist. Later he recorded another session inParis with Bertie King, clarinet Fletcher Allen , alto; Alix Combelle, tenor; Yorke de Sousa, piano; Django Reinhardt, guitar;Len Harrison, bass; RobertMo n m arche

, drums—a truly in tem a

ti o n al band including British and French Negroes and whi tes .On all his recordings, o f course, Benny Carter i s respo nsible

arrangements and displays his usual peerless talent o nbo th alto an d trumpet. On several of his English recordings

,

notably N ightfall, he also played beautiful tenor sax.

In the course o f many meetings with Benny Carter,both du r

ing hi s European tou r an d later o n my own visit to New York,

I found him a musician of s u perior intelligence—incidentally,he

had acquired a thorough kn owledge of the French language—anda m an wi th very distinc t ideas o n the fu ture o f j azz.On several occas ions I heard Benny with a small band whichworked fo r him at Kelly

’s Stable and the Famou s Do or . Heshowed himself as much at ease in a small improvising band ashe always has been in a big organized band . Having always been

JAZZ 197

a s tu bbom de fen der of the small improvising groups, I frequentlydiscussed m yp o in t o f Vi ew wi th Benny, who showe d a sympathetic un derstan ding o f this attitude .Moreover, he expressed a viewpoin t which seemed to me logically sound. Small improvising bands are preferable

,he de clared

,

only when it i s possible to build them ou t of the very greatestmusical talent . Otherwise it is impossible to let every man s trikeou t for himself

,and the need for leadership and preparation be

comes evident. This provides a good basis for some kind o f general agreement o n the much disputed question of the relativevalues o f improvised jazz and swing—a problem which has div ided the j azz critics’ camps irreconcilably. It is simply a matterof relative values : Are the in dividual artists more important thanthe talent o f o n e good arranger, o r i s the latter

’s influence morevi tal than the ban d’s power o f improvisation? This i s an eternallymoo t question among the c ri tic s, and there will always be di sagreement among them i n the assessment o f these values .In the case o f Benny Carter, the en tire mu sic field seems to

be in accord on the poten cy o f hi s versati le musical pe rso nality.

In rec en t years he has done commercial radio and movie studiowo rk o n jobs whi ch are usually denied to Negroes .The last time I heard Carter in person he was co—starred at theApollo with Billie Holiday. He has had several bands since hi sretu rn to this country, from the neat and perfectly balanced smallbands to the customary big band formula o f seven brass and fiv e

reeds , always bearing the stamp o f hi s own pe rsonal and charming

Although his band generally outclasses the majority o f hismore commerci ally successfu l c o n tem po ran e s , Benny has seldombeen able to hold his musicians together very long, owing to fi

n an c ial difficulties . Duke Ellington owed some o f his s u ccess tothe stability o f hi s personnel

,a factor that Benny has never been

able to coun t on . Given this advantage, Benny might be o n e o f

the few musi cians capable o f competing o n an equal footingwith the Duke, and of expressing himself musically without anytrace o f imitativeness o r banality. During 1943 , hi s first yearspent in California, he at last began to acquire the reputation he

198 JAZZ

deserves, an d kept hi s personnel much more consistently than

hi therto .

Cab Calloway i s o n e of the more fortunate folk in the jazzpicture

,since his band is o n e o f the three or four biggest money

makers among the Negro outfits . He was a big name as far backas 193 0 , and in February o f the following year he took over thebandstand from Duke Ellington at the Cotto n Club, where hebecame a key figu re in the entertainment at this celebrated nightspot

,first in Harlem and later on Broadway.

Cab Calloway was a young law student who had n o t yet tru lydecided on a career. However, his talent as a scat singer andmaster o f ceremonies eventually drew him into the jazz scene .With his band he quickly made a name for himself, and by 193 1he had established himself on the road to fame by way o f radioand records . Harry Cooper, by the way, had left the band a n dgone to live in Paris . The band at the Cotton Club included Dicke rso n ,

Lamar Wright, and Reuben Reeves , trumpets ; De PriestWheeler

,Harry White, trombones; William Blue, Andrew

Brown,Walker Thomas, reeds; and the same rhythm section .

This was the band which made a series of re cords(eight sideswere reissued in the summer o f 1943 on Brunswick) , some o fwhich were o f musical interest. After hearing one o f them

,Som e

o fThe se Days , when it was first released in Europe, I observednew possibilities in the astonishing ensembles of this arrangementat breakneck tempo, and something new and different, even afterArmstrong

, in the unique vocal style o f the leader.Cab’s international name value brought him to Europe in 1934

fo r a successful tour. During an afternoon he spent at my home inBrussels I found that he had some sound views o n j azz

, appre c i

ated the work o f the best musicians, and explained the diffic u lties o f resisting the temptations offered by commercial su c

cess . He had hit o n a formula and was exploiting it to the full .He made a few records, such as Margi e , which showed that theband was capable of producing some first—class jazz . Little bylittle he changed his band until it became one o f the best aggre

gatio n s o f talent in the business .My last evening with Callowaywas Spent in Amsterdam; with

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

zo o JAZZ

as o n e o f the four or fiv e great jazz pioneers . Hi s solos, su ch as

Cau tio n Blu e s and 57 Varie ti e s , became the model and inspiration o f every young pianist.Hines was a wonderful musician who seemed still fu rtherinspired by his partnership with Armstrong . Was his genius apparent i n other surrou n dings as it had b een with the Hot Five?On the basis of such evidence as Harry Dial

’s records with theBlu s i c ian s, o r the Jimmie Noone and Omer Simeon records , itwould seem that hi s inspiration in other environments was n o t

quite the same . The explanation is simple : power attracts power,

and inspiration feeds inspiration .

Sometime after his first great recordings, Hines became a namein Chicago as the band leader at the celebrated Grand TerraceBallroom . Hi s first band in 1930 was composed o f local musicians,including George Mitchell , Shirley Clay, trumpets ; WilliamFranklin

,

‘ trombone ; Toby Turner, Lester Boone, Cecil Irwin,reeds; Hines, piano ; Claude Robe rts , guitar; Hayes Alv isj bass ;Bud Washington

,drums . Later Earl enlarged to s ix brass and

four reeds in 193 2 . Around this time came Blu e Drag and'

hi s

theme,De ep Fore s t, which did n o t particularly impress me as

great jazz .To explain my attitu de a little more clearly I might recommenda comparison o f Hines’s record of An gry with the same tune asrecorded by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings . The differencebetween mere workmanship and inspiration becomes apparentafter the first hearing, despite the fact that this superlative pianisthimself is in fine form.

In the past two years I have heard Hines’s new band and foundit very enjoyable; however, it sounds exactly like all the coloredhan ds . He has several first-class musicians with him, such as

Scoops Carey o n alto, one o f the very best on his instrument.Hines’s own work sounds a little mechanical at times nowadays ;the dyn amic effects he ,used to improvise, the wonderful flow o f

ideas,see m somehow to have become mere formulas . Fortunately

,

though,I heard Hines at one of Harry Lim’s jam sessions

,where

he played in such company as Benny Carter and Charlie Shavers .I can recall few occasions when I was so profoundly impressed.

JAZZ 2 01

Charlie Shavers’ electrifying power had in tu rn excited thenormally calm disposition o f Benny Carter, an d Hines was inrhythmic fu ry at the keyboard . It was o n e o f the great momen tsin jam session history. To my 111 this again prove

swhat a

stimulating effect the atm osphere o f a small improvisi ng bandcan provide .The role played by New Orleans i n the evoluti on o f j azz wasparalleled later by the Kansas City grou p of

x

musician s , who prov ided two important factors in the shape o f the An dy Kirk andCount Basi e bands .Ki rk has an important combination which was o rigm ally

formed in 192 7 . He wo n hi s spurs in Kansas City, later going toChicago , where reputati ons were made and broken . In its earlydays Kirk himself played bass . Many o f the arran gements werewritten by Mary Lo u Williams . The first records reveal little i nthe way of rhythm i c originality; for example, Casey Jon es Spe c ialand Dallas Blu e s had nothing particular to offer, in comparisonwith the contemporary offerings o f Henderso n and Oliver.Kirk’s band stu ck together through many hard years ; around

1936, when the leader was playi ng baritone sax, he had his firstreal comm ercial success with som e Decca records, whi ch ulti1m ately brought him o n a series of Easte rn

'

to u rs , includin g somesuccessful visits to New York. In 193 9 , by which time Kirk conifin ed hi s activities to conducting , he had with him Harry Lawson,lEarl Thompson , and Clarence Trice, trumpets ; Ted Do nnellysan d Hen ry Wells, trombones ; John Harrington , Rudy Powell,lDickWilso n, Do n Byas, reeds ; Mary Lou Williams, piano; Floydm ith, gu itar ; Booker Collins, bass; Ben Thigpen, drums; an dJJu n e Ri chmon d, vocals .Heard later in the band briefly was the fine trumpeter Bill

(Coleman . Ed Inge replaced Don Byas in the reeds . The two

Ipillars of the band were always Ki rk and his tale nted girl pianistaarran ge r, whose solo work always displayed a great pe rsonality,aaided by a power and attack rare among women musicians. Inaddition to her records with the fu ll band, Mary Lou waxedsome s ide s with her Kansas City Seven on De cca and, under thepseu donym “

SixMe n and a Girl,

”o n Varsity.

2 02 JAZZ

Andy Ki rk has earned a place among the foremost coloredbands. The band’s work, though by no means sensationally original

,i s ge nerally inte resting and enjoyable.

Count Basie achieved hi s reputat ion after inheriting a bandwhich had already had i ts measure of local recognition : BennyMo te n

’

s Kansas City Orchestra. At first this band had three brassand three reeds; several o f i ts records, I remembe r, came toEurope , but it did n o t stir up any particular comment. The bandwas rough and crude; i ts arrangements were disorganized . Mo ten

Stom p i s worthy o f mention, and Su gar was pleasant despite thebarking o f the sousaphone. To get a good perspective it i s interesting to note that the Chicagoans

’ famous version o f Su gar wasrecorded about the same time.After 193 1 the Moten band began to dev elop some morepotent characteristics through the work o f such men asPage

,trumpet; Eddie Barefield, alto and clarinet; Ben

tenor; William (Count) Basie, piano; and Walter Page, has .

All these men were superior artists whose work was to achievemuch wider recognition before long .

Gradually the band underwent a change o f character,in which

the asperity of the Benny Moten manner gave way to the moreadvanced ideas o f the pianist, Count Basie . Typical o f this n ewstyle was Mo te n Sw i n g. Basie, his style a little closer to that ofFats Waller than to Earl Hines’s , was responsible fo r the o r

che s tral development of the group, with emphasis o n the repetition of riffs

,punctuated by a very simple rhythm in which a few

notes from the piano provided the high spo ts .In 1936 Basie formed a band o f hi s own , using a nucleus ofthe former Moten group . It was n o t long be fore his name beganto be di scussed in New York jazz circles . John Hammond, hearing this talk about the band, caught one o f i ts local broadcastsfrom Kansas C ity. Fascinated, he wrote a long article about thisnew discovery. Before long Basie had hit Chicago and the GrandTerrace

,where the enthusiastic dancers welcomed something

that immediately showed signs o f becoming a new fashion in jazz.

Basie had achieved a truly original style of musical expressionthrough hi s band, and Wi thin a matter of weeks he had hit the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 04 JAZZ

flu e n c ed by Coleman Hawkins . The rhythm sec tion was re inforced by Joe Jones’s supple drumming.

In 1940 the band reached a new peak in i ts climb to glory.

After many changes Basie had settled down with a personnelthat comprised Buck Clayton, Ed Lewis, Harry Edison , and AlKillian , trumpets ; Vic Dickerson , DickyWells , and Dan Minor,trombones; Earl Warren, Tab Smith, Jack Washington, LesterYoung, and Buddy Tate, reeds; Basie, piano ; Freddy Green,guitar; Joe Jones, dru ms; and Walter Page, bass .Fo r several years I have listened to Easie’s band every time i t

has visited New York. I heard him at his most vibrant andrhythmic groove, at the Apollo; soon after, with Paul Bascombin place of Lester Young, he was at the Café Soc iety, and laterat a big Broadway movie theater. The evening at the Café offeredunmitigated delight, but the theater engagement showed themway below form, with James Rushing

’s traditional blues singingas the chi ef redeeming feature.In 1943 Basie increased his brass section to eight . Tab Smith

i s no longer with him, andDo n Byas has the tenor chai r o n gm allyheld by Lester Young . The band has spent much o f i ts time o nthe wes t coast, making several su ccessfu lmovie appe arances .Last but not least comes the great Jimmy ”Lunceford band . Iremember that not long af ter the publication “ in Europe o f myfirst book o n jazz, I was told that a new band had come to theforefront in the States ; it was even whispered that Louis An nstrong’s reputation as a skyscraper trumpet artist had been shatte red, and on his own home ground, and that one of Lu n c e fo rd

’

s

m en , Sy Oliver , had exceeded Louis’s range by a whole octave .

Incredible as all this sounded at the time, we were inclined tobelieve it when the records of Jazzn o c racy and Star Du s t arrived.

At that time it seemed to me that Lunceford was greatly i n flue n c ed by Duke Ellington , whose compositions he played, thoughin a very different style which sometimes gave new life to them.

Lunceford was born near Denver, Colorado . Leaving themountain surroundi ngs while still very young , he Spent his childhood‘ in Mississippi, where he lived amidst a fast-developing jazzidi om that had already grown far from its New Orleans origins .

JAZZ 2 0 ;

bro ad—shouldered, round-faced, a fine figure o f a man , heerio u sly devoted to his studies , earned a college degree, and

acher in Memphis,another colorfu l citytradition . It was there,

the levee,that the blues were said to have been born . Many

before,W. C . Handy had heard a hobo singing a nostalgic

theme,which was later to be incorporated in to the St. Lou i s

se t o u t to impart hi s knowledge of science to thein the evenings he would spend many hoursthe fu tu re o f hi s race and i ts music . Jazz seemed

io n for the Negro . Lunceford se t o u tsaxophone, and be fore long he was blowing inalo ng with such men as Elmer Snowden and92 5, in the band o f Deacon Johns on . Finallyd himself at the crossroads o f hi s career and de

music, an d glory. Giv i ng up hi s

11 193 1 this determined and personable young m an formedhe Lunceford Chickas aw Syn copators, with Eddie Tompkin s,ly Oliver, and PaulWebster, tru m pets ; Eddie Durham, Elme rSru m bley, and Rus sell Bowles , trombones; Willie Smi th, Dan3 rissom, Earl Carru thers, and Joe Thomas, saxophones ; Ed Wil:ox,piano; Al Norris , guitar; Mose Allen , bas s; and James Craw

'

o rd, drums .

Thus,the men who tu rned ou t to be the pillars o f the Lu n c e

'

o rd edi fice were with him from the start. In the brass section the[dm irable Sy Oliver contri buted many modern and constru cti verrran gin g ideas which helped in the evoluti on o f the ban d . In the'

e ed section were Willie Smith, expert alto man and deputyeader, and Joe Thomas, who plays the ten or wi th a warmth calru lated to ‘excite the coldest of hearts . James Crawford’s mag1ific e n t drums provided an invaluable solid foundation fo r thehythm section .

Subsequ ent changes strengthened the band . Arrangementszve re written by Sy Oliver, Ed Wilcox, and others in the band”rs well as by outsiders such asWill Hudson . Gradually Lunceford

2 06 JAZZ

steered the band toward the achievem ent o f a truly individualstyle which has earned the description “

Lu n c e fo rdian .

” All themen in the ensemble were excellent musicians who combined agift o f improvisation with the ability to read and play well in these c tro n .

The orchestrations were based o n sweeping ensemble effects ,powerful successions of brilliantly sc o red ‘

se c ti o n al passages,and

the eventu al introduction of the soloists . A great part o f the band’sindividuality was contributed by the underlying work o f therhythm section . The soloists would tear o u t impressively from theensembles with their muted trumpets and occasional .use of forcefu l riffs .Lunceford owed a great debt to Sy Oliver, who is certainly

o n e o f the most interesting personalities in modern jazz, and whogave hi s whole musical soul to the han d. He has an intelligent

,

calculated talent, mixing polyphony with sheer rhythmic power,finding new tonal effects in hi s orchestration and occasionally inte rspers in g some delightful touches o f musical humor. It was hewho taught the tru mpet section some o f i ts flashy and somewhatnoisy tricks in the skyscraper register, which i s o n e achievementfo r which he deserves less credit. However, he is one of the fewarrangers who brought touches of genius to swing

,which can so

easily become a boring substitu te for real jazz when the arrangerlacks any true creative power. For the past four years Oliver hasbeen staff arrangerw ith Tommy Dorsey and has given up trumpet playing . To my mind he is the type o f musician who couldorganize a band o f his own and make it as much an individualexpression o f its leader’s ideas as are the bands o f Duke Ellingtonand Benny Carter. His work wi th Dorsey, however, has been lessconsistent in the past couple o f years .An important new personality joined the Lunceford band m

193 7 when Tru m m y Young came into the trombone section andwas also featured as vocalist. Ted Buckner, another fine alto man,came into the reed section about this time . Such numbers asMargi e illustrate the constru ctive power o f the ensemble . Ru nn i n gWi ld, arranged by Willie Smith, was an example of har

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 08 JAZZ

what Duke Ellington had be en to the history of swm g. The styleo f hi s arrangements was always immediately apparent, as inAn n i e Lau ri e , which was the epitome o f Lu n c e fo rdian a .

William Moore, Jr ., took Sy

’s place as staff arranger with theband . Since Moore’s departu re the Lunceford library has beencomposed o f arrangem ents by various other writers

,including

Eddie Durham,Roger Segure, Bud Estes , and Ted Dameron .

Moore was excellent, but it was hard to replace Sy. Such numbers as Pre tty Eye s and I G o t It revealed Moore

’s qualities,but

also showed the difle re n c es between hi s style and Sy’

s ; this, inturn , explains the evolution o f the Lunceford band. Duke Ellington has always be en composer, arranger, and exponent. Lu n c eford is none o f the se; he is merely the spectacular director o f theband. In the course o f long conversations with Ellington andArmstrong I have heard them often talk with enthusiasm o n

musical history and technique .When I tried to discuss these su bje c ts with Lunceford he seemed disinterested in them.

I have Spent many pleasant hours with the members o f theLunceford band . Me n like Joe Thomas and Ted Buckner enjoydiscussing at great length, and with great conv iction , the differentqualities of contemporary saxophonists . I remember o n e e v e n rn gat the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem, when the crowd wasyelling i ts enthusiasm and reacted violently to the most excitingensembles and solos . Joe Thomas or Willie Smith would startthe frenzy, Tru m m y Young would keep it up at fever pitch,and the trumpet section would emphasize the general statee cstasy . These evenings of musical delirium would generally befollowed by a long session o f general conversation .

In the past two years Lunceford has lost most o f the band’soriginal key men . Late in 1943 Tru m m yYoung was with CharlieBam e t ; the trumpet section had only Paul Webster left of theoriginals; Crawford, Buckner, and Crumbley had gone, as well asWillie Smith , and fo r a while Lunceford had to play saxophonehimself

,for the first time in many years . The band has lost some

of its old precision and fire but still has many admirable arrangements in i ts books.All the big colored bands discussed here have reached their

JAZZ 2 09

maturity and cannot be expected to add any further innovations .They have reached the full bloom o f their powers of expression;some o f them have retained their qualities

,while others are

slowly losing them and slipping into the past.Fo r fiv e o r s ix years swing music has lived on the initiative andenergy o f s u ch bands as these . Perhaps something new is needednow. The danger lies in the fact that what was originally a thingo f in spirati on can degenerate into a routine. These bands areget ing old, just like human beings. Whi ch is to be the youngband that will inscribe i ts name below those famous ones in thebook o f j azz fame?Will it be JayMc Shan n

,with hi s volatile new

bunch from Kansas City, o r King Kolax, who was a hit in Chicago but failed to make an impres sion in New York? Will it bethe young organization led by Co otie Williams , o r HarlanLeonard and Hi s Rockets

, who attempted to rejuvenate the oldKansas City style?It i s difficult to guess the answer, but perhaps the band whichwill tu rn o u t tomorrow’s sen sation is Lionel Hampton’s fo rLionel’s powerful personality and imagination have enabled himto make rapid strides . He has gone a long way from the musicmade by his Specially assembled re cording bands in 193 8

—3 9 ,

when such men as Cootie Wi lliams, Lawrence Brown , JohnnyHodges, Jess Stacy, John Ki rby and Cozy Cole contributed in anumber o f first-rate improvi sations . His present band was formedin 1940 after he left Benny Goo dman . Its first appearance at theApollo Theatre

,when it was not much more than a year old, was

a revelation . Since then the band has undergone many changesin personnel. It n ow includes an extraordinary pianist, MiltonBuckner

,brother of the former Lunceford sax man , and a great

tenor,Am e tte Cobbs .

Cootie Williams ’ band has proven its e lf worthy of i ts brilliantleader. Using excellent arrangements by Do n Kirkpatrick andothers

, Cootie has featu red such men as Eddie Vinson , theunique blues singer and alto sax,

and several other fine soloists .To su m up, it must be conceded that the modern swing style,which has taken the place o f pure improvisation , makes a difficult medium for the expression of musical beauty . Some great

2 10 JAZZ

arrangers have appeared o n the scene,giving life to the bands;

the rest are all abo ut the same,and o f no particular merit . It takes

a great deal o f talent to produce collective improvisation , but therei s no doubt that nothing short o f gen1us is necessary to giveswing music the qualities o f a major art.

XVI. FROM SPIRITUALS TO BOOG IE-WOOG IE

WE HAVE ALREADY DISCUSSED at some length the evolution o f thejazz orchestra . Having exam ined the trees , we should next geta clear perspective of the woods , in order to gain a more generalview o f our subject.It is hard to determine the exact periods marking the transformation from one style to another.When did the Spirituals andpopular ballads begin? Some authorities t would se t the datearound the middle o f the nineteenth century. It seems to methat at that time there were already some spirituals in existencewhich were passed along from generation to generation . Ce r

tai n ly the spiritual go es back to the time o f Negro slavery in theSouthern agricultural states, and these religious songs o f hOpesurvived despite a lack of acceptance by whites o f that period .

During the Civil War Colonel Wentworth Higginson , comingfrom the North , heard some colored groups o f religious singerswho impresse d him greatly with their style, which was rhythmicthough not syncopated . The spiritu als were a product o f hymnsheard by Negroes in the Southern churches , mixed with plan tation songs in which a more syncopated element can be found .

At the outset these Spirituals were called jubilees . After fallinginto obscurity they were revived through the important work o fa Fisk University group started in 187 1 under the direction o f

George White . This group took the traditional religious airs andadapted them to be s ung throughout the world . Similar vocalgroups were organized at Tuskegee, Atlanta, and Hampton . Thecomplete su’ ccess o f this musical renaissance movement was c o n

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 12 JAZZ

antedates jazz as a whole . Generally,it is based o n a three-line

theme in which the first and second lines are similar.Discussin g the mus1eal form o f the blues

,Dr. Alain Locke

wrote in The N egro an d Hi s Mu s ic :

The tun es are built aroun d a su c c e ss1o n of thre e commo n cho rds o nthe keyn o te , the subdomin ant and the cho rd o f the dominant seventh.

The repe titio n o f the seco n d line gives emphas is, a chan ce fo r im provi sed variation; le av i n g a wait in which o riginally to thin k up the lastline, an d later in which to improvise an d vary the rhythm befo rereturnin g to the regular pattern o f the origin al theme. This intervali s the o rigin al “bre ak”—the narrow cradle fo r improvi sed rhythm an d

eccentric to n e in te rvals fromwhi ch jazz was bo rn .

The blues,contrary to the popular development o f j azz songs

,

was always based on a theme only twelve bars long . I have explained how the musical folklore o f the Mississippi was exploitedby the musicians whose names I quoted . The most important ofthese was Louis Moreau Gottschalk,

’ a man o f mixed blood whoenjoyed considerable success in Europe , and who, incidentallywrote the original Ca ban a which formed the basis for the famousPe an u t Ve n do r.

For a long time these strange musical manifestations kn ownas the blues were in the h ands of such obscure characters asBlind Tom ,

who came from Georgia but took hi s m u src as farabroad as England . Later such minstrel troupes as Lew Johnson’sPlantation Company and the Georgia Minstrels carried thesethemes throughout the States , helping to spread the fame o f

Stephen Foster,who was the first white man to assimilate su c

c e ss

pfully the Negro musical spirit with his Swan e e Riv er, Old

Black Jo e , My Old Ke n tu cky Hom e, and many others . A fu rther

evolution developed early i n the twentieth centu ry with theformation o f larger groups like Black Pat ti’s Troubadours and theClef Club, mentioned previously in connection with LouisMitchell .By that time

,ragtime had started to establish its formula

,later

to be given world-wide fame by Will Marion Cook and JimEurope . The choral groups at Negro universities had played

JAZZ 2 13

a similar role,twenty-fiv e years earlier, in perpetuating the

Spirituals . In Europe I heard the Fisk University stu dent groupand the Utica Jubilee Singers

,but the passionate Spirit that has

made jazz a universal music could n o t be found in the samedegree in the music o f the Spirituals . The latter consists o f asimple theme developed with monotonous repetition ; there rs

hardly any element o f improvisation , even in the interpretationso f s u ch modern groups as the famous Go lden Gate QuartetThe precision

,the repetition

,the intonation and syncopation,

leave a great impression o n a first hearing o f a spiritual , but i tslimitations are soon discovered

,and the advantages of jazz, with

i ts freshness of improvisation,can be appreciated . The blues is

n o t static like the Spiritual,having played a basic part in the

origin o f j azz improvisation . Alain Locke explained : “Jazz im

pro v i sati o n came rocketing o u t of the blues . It grew o u t of theimprovised musical ‘filling in’ of the gap between the short measu res o f the blues and the longer eight-bar line

,the break interval

in the original folk form o f the three-line blues .” This interestingviewpoint was fu rther expounded in an article by Walter Sidneyin Jazz In form at i o n entitled

“Blues in Disguise

This harmonic freedom was the heart o f the colle ctive improvisatio n that produced so great a music. It aided the growth o f a natu ralcounterpoint, an en semble in which each player could develop hisown melodic line, with complete indepen dence. The freedom fromtraditional scales , o f course, made the early jazz soun d horrible toacademically trained ears. When Armstrong’s staccato M pe t cutacross Dodds ’ So bbing Blues , the successive dissonan ces, accordingto academi c standards, should have prostrated the listen er . The effect,however, was in comparably excit ing and beautiful to an yone actuallyfamiliar with the blues langu age.

These were the same sensations experienced with bewilderment by W . C . Handy, veteran composer known as

“the fathero f the blues .” Handy, bo rn in Florence, Alabama, in 1873 , was

the so n o f a Methodist preacher who gave him a classicalmusicalbackground . Very early young Han dy had to go to work

, an dhi s life changed rapidly. At nineteen he was an employee of 5

2 14 JAZZ

pipe manufacturer in Bessemer. Little by little he became awareo f the popular musical forms , of syn copation and spirituals andtraditional so ngs . In “

1909 he was heading a little band in Mem

phis . After some adventu res around Beale Street and experienceswith a minstrel troupe, he was hired to provide musical prOpaganda for the election o f a new mayor

,Mr . Crump . Handy and

hi s group went through the city playing o n street corners , withthe spirit of Negro folklore uppermost in his memory. A lN egro

walking by the levee had hummed a theme which he recalled; astreet worker toying with the old twelve-bar strain had given himfu rther inspiration . He wove these themes into hi s first songcflo rt, which brought scorn from a music publisher, because itwas based on a twelve-bar theme instead of the then conventionalsixteen . ButMr . Cru m p, written fo r the election , was eventu allypublished and became famous under i ts later title, Mem phis

Blu e s .

La ter Handy was to publish hi s immortal St. Lou i s Blu e s , awork of po etic purity and naivete, which must have inspiredGershwin many years later when he wrote Su m m ertim e fo r

Porgy an d Be ss .

The blues was born officially when Handy documented thi sform

,and it was to achieve new recogniti on through the blues

singing Smiths . Three famou s singers, all with the same namebut related only by their love o f the blues, were Bessie Smith,Mamie Smith, and Trixie Smith, whose relative merits haveoften been the subject o f critical discussion . All three had theirown eras o f glory, and their fame was preceded by that o f theunforgotten Ma Rainey, born in Georgia in 1886 . Ma Raineyfollowed a minstrel troupe around in her childhood days andspent most o f her life on the road, eventually becoming propri e tre ss o f a theatrical group herself.Ma made her first records after World War I , and achieved alegendary importance in the days when jazz was beginning tocrystallize as a new form . Her moving, deep, earthy voice had anemotional and rhythmic expressiveness seldom found in presentday singers .Bessie Smith, generally considered the best of all blues singers,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 16 JAZZ

Em pty Bed Blu e s . These are,

n o t artistic blues prepared bymodern musicians : the music is pure and clean, even though thelyrics were 1m pu re and di rty; the emotional strains came straightfrom a soul that had known sufferin g.

As if to justify the dramatic portent o f the blues,Bessie Smith

,

once rich as Croesus, retu rned eventually to poverty. Desperate,

embittered, soddened by gin , she heard the graveyard blues echoa last chorus fo r her in 193 7 when she was injured in an automobile accident in Tennessee and carried bleeding to the ho spital . For all the whites at the hospital knew

, she was just anotherneglected Negro woman about to die; fo r the jazz lovers she wasthe Empress o f the Blues, taking leave of the vale o f tears whichshe had enriched with her talent.Ida Cox, a Tennessee girl , also had an adventurous childhood,like all the artists who were brought up against a background o fwandering minstrelsy. She roamed through the South telling herlyrical tales o f sorrow and afllic ti o n . Ida traveled fo r some timewith the Clark Minstrels, but she earned her fame during thedays she spent at the recording studios . She was accompanied byLouis Armstrong , Buster Bailey, Fletcher Henderson , and laterby Lovie Austin and Her Blues Serenaders . With this last groupshe made G rav eyard Dre am Blu e s and Blu e s fo r Ram part S tre e t,about the same time Ma Ramey made her Barre lho u se Blu e s .

The Serenaders specialized in backgrounds fo r blues singers .With Tommy Ladnier on trumpet and Jimmy O’

Bri e n onclarinet, !

they gave wonderful encouragement to Ida Cox, Ma

Rainey, Julia Davis, Ethel Waters , Edm o n ia Henderson, Viola

Bartlette,and Ozie McPhe rso n .

Many years later Ida Cox appeared at Café Society in NewYork, backed by RedAllen

’s band . Alas , she seemed ill at ease before a Sophisticated audience; her gowns, designed to please thecolored audiences of the Deep South , struck a false note with thiswhite crowd . Her musical sensitivity and emotional qualitiesaffected by this lack o f sympathy, She left soon afterward andreturned to the world o f traveling minstrels .There is no need to repeat here my tribute to the great RosaHenderson . Many pages could be written , to o , o n the famous

JAZZ 2 17

Waters,whose Da—Da Stra i n with Fletcher Henderson im

d me so much, and whom I was to se e a generation later,in Cabi n in the Sky.

whose blues sin ging Ireligiously in Europe . She was beyond all praise ; glamolo rfu l, spontaneously inspired . It took several years into spoil her talents . Another o f my happiest recollections ,best o f all, i s o f Florence Mills ’

s performance at thein Ostend

,Belgium, with the Plantation Band, where I

to her for many evenings in rapt adm iratioa fte r theI would stay behind fo r m any hours rem iniscing with herfamiliar tunes . Joe Haym an , now playi ng saxophone withArmstrong , and the late Ed Swayze were with u s . Florencedied not long after her return to America . Today she i s

t forgotten . The jazz books hardly mention her, and criticser

,though the people o f Harlem still remember

flowers o n the grave o f this girl who was peer

also be made here o f Eugenia Daniels , whomfound o n e night m a little Harlem dive, Singing Hon eysu ckle

lo se . Two days later she was embarking fo r Europe, to sing with1 band in Belgium,

but she arrived to find war had just brokentu t and was obliged to make an immediate about-face . She is ain e artist who has still had virtually no recognition .

Dozens of other great girl singers de serve a word : Chippiedill

,Ivy Anderson , Maggie Jones, and more recently Pearl

lailey and Betty Ro ché . The story of Ella Fitzgerald is told elsevhe re in these pages ; others to be cited are Maxine Sullivan , ainger o f real talent

,and Helen Humes

,former star o f Count

las i e’

s band .

It wou ld, indeed, be impossible to give full credit to all theingers who have given their talent to the cause of jazz . SuccessS n o t always directly proportionate to ability; audiences are misled>y irrelevant considerations instead o f the sheer artistic valueshat guide the critics . Thus , fo r example, Hazel Scott and Lenadom e have achieved limitless success largely o n the basis o f a

2 18 JAZZ

good appearance which does not happen to be an a ttribute o f

better singers,such as the abo ve-mentioned Eugenia Daniels .

Laurel Watson, born in Poughkeepsie , Started her careermodestly in a small band led by a brother o f Do n Redman . Shehas all the necessary qualifications o f a great star—expression,style

,and personality—but in some o f her jobs

,such as her work

with the big band o f Lucky Millin de r, she was hampered by herenvironment . With a small band well suited to her musical tempe ram e n t , she could be a real succes s . Laurel made a few recordswith Don Redman and Roy Eldridge.One important name remains : that o f the singer who was c o n

s ide red by many as a candidate fo r the place left empty by thedeath o f the Empress o f the Blues, Bessie Smith . Billie Holidayis something more than an ordinary jazz singer; she has provideda style that is imitated by every singer who cannot find a style o fher own . She has had as much influence on the jazz voice asLouis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins have had on the trumpetand the tenor saxophone . Many o f her contemporaries and chiefcompetitors have been inspired by Billie .A poor child from the Negro secti on o f Baltimore

, she arrivedin Harlem while still a baby and started her career in a noisy

,

sm oky dive on Seventh Avenue, from which She soon graduated,Starting toward fame in 193 5 through a few recordings madewith Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson . In the years sincethen She has made hundreds o f records with various combinations . In 1936 She had an admirable band on o n e session including Bunny Be rigan , trumpet; Artie Shaw, clarinet; Joe Bu shkin ,

piano; Dick McDo n ou gh, guitar; Pete Peterson, bass; and CozyCole, drums . She worked for some time with the bands o f CountBasie and Artie Shaw, as well as making numerous night cluband theater appearances on her own . In 1940 she recorded withLester Young on tenor, Joe Sullivan on piano, Jo e Jones o ndrums

,and Walter Page o n bass . All her recording bands were

first-class .Billie’s personality has improved steadily. N o t dyn amic o r

Spontaneous like the traditional jazz singers , she i s a wellprepared

,conscious

,and precise artist, whose effects are bril

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

JAZZ

some jazz writers have had in altering the course o f jazz history.Boogie—woogie i s a very o ld piano style which retained i ts

Strange vitality in the dives and dens o f the South and the MiddleWest. Through Hammond’s influence it rose to the surface o fsociety and became generally accepted .

Jelly Roll Morton Spoke of several early pianists who , heclaims

,played in boogie-woogie style . In reality

,boogie—woogie i s

the style o f the pianists who had n o real style and had not learnedto play. Ignorant o f the ru les o f accompaniment and o f theassistance that the left hand must give to the right, they changedthe traditional fu nctions of the bass, and in so doing they re v olutio n ized the whole style . The later boogie—woogie pianists gave theleft hand an essential and complicated role—a role carefu lly intertwined with the improvisations in the right hand . This new conc eptio n may be related to the fact that there were no pianos inthe early New Orleans jazz bands

,and that the pi anists or “

pro

fessors” i n the bawdyhouses had to supply a continual and exc i ting rhythm in their solo work . The essential difference betweenboogie—woogie and ordinary jazz, o f course, is that the bass i sfounded o n eight beats to the bar, in straight eighth notes or

and Sixteenths,instead o f the conventional four

beats to the bar.

One o f the first to spread the gospel o f boogie-woogie wasJimmy Yancey, a former vaudeville artist who toured Europemany years ago , but fell on lean times in recent years and wasdiscovered by some jazz research men , working in a ball park inChicago . His name was forgotten , but it was revived throughMeade Lu x Lewis, who, after achieving a boogie-woogie reputation o f his own ,

paid tribute to Yancey by recording a numberwhich he called Yan c ey Spe c ial.Other early pioneers o f boogie-woogie included Pine TopSmith and Cow Cow Davenport . More recently popular, besidesMeade Lux Lewis, have been Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson,featured as a two-piano team since 193 9 at Café Society in NewYork . Albert Ammons recorded with a small band known as

Ammons’ Rhythm Kings , but he became best known as a boogiewoogie soloist. He played a long time at the De Lisa in Chicago,

JAZZ 2 2 1

where he was discovered . At that time John Hammond was looking for Meade Lux Lewis, who had disappeared for years fromthe musical scene . Lewis was found washing cars in a Chicagogarage . Surprised by Hammond

’

S visi t,he underwent a rapid

change of fortune. He made some new records and appeared at ac oncert held m 1936 at the Imperial Theatre m New York . Afterward came a big concert at Carnegie Hall dedicated largely toboogie-woogie

,with Meade Lu x Lewis representing the St. Lo u s ,

brand , while Ammons and Johnson represented Chicago andKansas City. Since then Café Society has been a virtual academyo f boogie—woogie

,with thousands of i ts own devoted fans. Some

o f the cri ti cs have unearthed fu rther pioneers o f eight-to-the-bar,Cripple Clarence and Romeo Nelson and Speckled Red, whosevalue is more legendary than real . Also prominent in recentyears

,and an excellent exponent o f blues and boogie-woogie

,is

Sammy Price,a prolific recording artist.

What will be the ultimate role and influence o f boogie-woogiein jazz? The fashion for this brand o f music has been encouragedbeyond i ts real value by a number of confu sed amateurs who havebeen carried away by its superficial rhythmic excitement . WillBradley’s Orchestra even started a fashion fo r adapting boogiewoogie to orchestral forms . The possibilities o f boogie-woogie aretoo limited to allow for any really important developments . Mos tboogie-woogie is, o f course, based o n the twelve-bar blues form,

an d the whole thing should merely be treated as a branch o f theblues idiom .

The blues has an important and permanent place in the dev elOpm e n t o f j azz . Boogie-woogie is a technical trick which willhave no bearing o n the future o f rhythmic music .

XVII. BEST MUSICIANS AND RECORDS

I G IVE HERE two articles that Esqu ire asked me to wri te o n the

best “All-American Band” and my favorite recordings . I add a

few observations and commentaries explaining some “errors andnew impressions which have forced me to alter my previous dec i s io n s fo r the “All-Am e n can Jam Session Band,

”

to appear in1944.

To begin Wlth,i t

’

s very simple . Opposite the place where itsays “Trumpet, you merely set down the name o f Louis Armstrong . After that, you go gently mad .

Pitting the merits o f o n e musician against another,even though

only o n paper, is abo ut as complicated a business as o n e couldwell devise . There is n o accepted starting point

,which makes it a

bit difficult, to say the least, to arrive at the finish line . Thewelter o f conflicting claims and counterclaims , advanced by theinnumerable self-appointed champions o f the leading performers

,

merely confuses the issue .Concerning the selection o f Louis Armstrong as tru mpeter o nthe “first team” of the All-American Band, there can be, as I say,no dispute . He m ade jazz and i s the tru e King o f Jazz . Anyonewho knows anything about the subject will concede this . Co ncerning the other nominations , there may be some dispute .Nevertheless

,here they are and here are the reasons for their

selection .

But first let me briefly define my terms . In my Opinion,the

thing that makes jazz what it is today is the phenomenon ofimprovisation .We must make a vital distinction between hot jazzand swing . Hot jazz i s basic American syn copated music

,im

pro v i sed by a band usually composed o f five to seven persons ina Dixieland group, although the unit sometimes numbers teno r more pieces in certain jam se ssm n s . Swing is more o r less the

\ n e chan izatio n o f hot jazz; it is achieved by big commercial bands ,with effects produced by musical sections . Improvisation is notleft to the personal inspiration o f the musician ; the arranger fixesthe whole tune

,leaving only a few free bars to the soloists .

I do not fo r one moment mean to disparage the im portanceand value o f swing music . It has been a tremendous contributionand Stimulus . But after all , my task is to select pe rfo rm e rs , n o t

composers o r arrangers , and the merit of swing is chiefly de~pendent o n the talent o f the arranger. He can be a genius, like

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 24 JAZZ

analyze the selection o f the individual performers i n Esqu ire’

s

All-American Band and in the All-Time Band . The latter group,

obviously,makes n o distinction between the past and present,

whereas the selection o f the three “teams in the first group isbased o n contemporary performances .

TRUM PET : A word more about Louis Armstrong is necessaryhere . He possesses powers of technique and o f 1m pro v i sati o n beyond comparison . His style is altogether personal, sensitive, andversatile . Incidentally, o f the many times I have heard him ,

heproved to be most nearly perfect in a Dixieland combination jamsession at the Walt Whitman School .N ext to him,

seven or eight trumpeters can aspire to secondplace . My choice would include Harry James, Red Allen, CootieWilliams

,Charlie Shavers, Emmett Berry, Roy Eldridge, Muggsy

Spanier,and Arthur Briggs . The last, a colored trumpeter Who

has lived in Belgium and France for twenty years, is now detain ed m a concentration camp .

After weighing their qualities carefu lly, although I am ar

tracted to Charlie Shavers, Muggsy Spanier, and Red Allen , Ifeel Harry James should get the call because o f hi s tremendouspower and his extraordinary technique, joined to a considerablecapacity fo r improvisation . Cootie Williams, to my ear, is perhaps too uniform, with his ever—growling style . Roy Eldridge hasn o t enough control over his horn . For these reasons I haveselected Charlie Shavers fo r the third team . I don’t always enjoyhis style in John Kirby’s band, but in any jam session he i s a hit :wild

,frenetic, imaginative , powerfu l, sensitive !

With respect to the All-Time Band,Bix Beiderbecke

,whose

improvisation was poetic and fresh, is the only name that need bementioned . He died too early to Show the complete measure o fhis ability . Louis Armstrong still stands without competitors.TROM B ONE : Here I am glad to be able to single o u t a man

,

relatively unknown , who is famous only among the Dixielandadmirers whom you meet every day at Nick’s . Lou McG ari ty,Jack Teagarden

,Tommy Dorsey

, J . C . Higginbotham,and Brad

JAZZ 2 2 5

Gowans are all great instrumentalists, but 1n my Opinion the manwhose virtu osity has been overlooked by the critics i s GeorgeBru nies .I would say that as far back as 192 3 , with the New Orleans

Rhythm Kings, Brunies was the best— and still is . And if sometimes a trombonist may challenge him

,no o n e can excel him .

On e i s attracted by both the contin u i ty and the explosive qualityo f his improvisations . It will constitu te a tribute to the goodjudgment o f the public if George Brunies is at last accorded therecognition he has so long deserved .

Ten years ago I was very much intrigued by the playing ofTommy Dorsey

,whose full potentialities have unfortu nately not

been re alized even today. Brad Gowans i s to o limited with hi svalve trombone; and the style of Higginbotham underwent asweetening process some time back. My second and third candidates would be Jack Teagarden and Lo u McG ari ty. Both areeffective. Jack deserves the second-place niche because he influ e n c ed j azz affirmatively, sings wonde rfu lly, and has made someo f the best records .The selection fo r the All-Time Band is limited to GeorgeBrunies , Jimmie Harrison , an dLe o Vau cham pt . Jimm ie Harrison

,

i n my Opinion,was wonderfu l. Vau cham pt , a French trombonist

whom I heard in Paris and in Lon don during the twenties, wasalso tops . Today he is a mus icaldirector in Hollywood. I vote forBrunies because

,alone in hi s field, he delivers the sort of punch

that i s most admirable.CLARINET : This instrument i s pe rhaps the most controversial

o f all . There are at least eight men whose power is very nearlyequal

,in Spite of the differences in their style : Artie Shaw, Benny

Goodman,Pee Wee Russell, Ed Hall, Barney Bigard, Buster

Bailey,Jimmie No o n e

,Irving Fazola .

In assembling these mythical aggregations, it would be interesting to contrast two different concepti ons o f style and select twoclarinets for each group . My firs t-team choice would be BennyGoodman and Edmond Hall . This would bring together theswing king with an old timer whose repu tation has su ddenly

2 2 6 JAZZ

grown during the last two years , causing him to be rated as o n eof the purest clarinetists of the day.

Fo r the second team I designate Barney Bigard and Pee WeeRussell; fo r the third, Artie Shaw and Jimmie Noone . It wouldbe something o f an experience to confront technicians like Goodman and Shaw with improvi sers such as Pee Wee Russell andJimmie Noo ne, who devoted their entire lives to small bands,preferring their complete independence, despite the comparatively low compensation, to the restrictions o f the big-time

,big

money bands.In making a single selection fo r the All-Time Band, o n e findsthree truly great players in the annals o f jazz . Larry Shi elds, theclarinetist o f the Original Dixieland Band, who was so powerfu land so inspired in 19 17, was o n e . In a way, no one else hasbrought to jazz what he did, and all clarineti sts have since reliedo n his imagination . Even Rappolo , the crack clarinetist o f theNew Orlean s Rhythm Kings, was influenced by Larry butwhat an in Sp iratio n !Nevertheless, Frank Teschemacher cannot be passed by. Heproduced only some ten records, but some bars in them are themost thrilling sound in jazz. The critics recognize Te schem ache r

’

s

genius as supreme. He must be the selection fo r the All-TimeBand.TENOR SAX : There are many good tenors . Coleman Hawkins i s

o n e of the best; he was so effective that he universalized the u seo f the tenor sax. It i s difficult to say to what extent he hasretrogressed and to what degree some o f his followers have gainedi n brilliance, but Coleman Hawkins n o longer stands alone in hi sclass . Each of the following men is able to achieve a wonderfulhit chorus : Eddie Miller, Lester Young, Ben Webster, GeneSedri c , Vido Musso, Bud Freeman, Tex Benecke, Jo e Thomas,and Al Sear, n o t omitting the late Chu Berry.At the risk of provoking considerable disagreement, I select as

my first choice Eddie Miller, o f Bob Crosby’s band. I considerhis inspiration the purest and most sensitive; he i s never forcedan error into which too many have fallen nowadays . ColemanHawkins is certainly still good enough to be the second selection,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 26 JAZZ

grown during the last two ye ars, causing him to be rated as o n eof the purest clarinetists o f the day.

Fo r the second team I designate Barney Bigard and Pee WeeRussell; fo r the third, Artie Shaw and Jimmie N oone . It wouldbe something o f an experience to confront technicians like Go o dman and Shaw with improvi sers such as Pee Wee Russell andJimmie Noo n e , who devoted their entire lives to small bands,preferring their complete independence, despite the comparatively low compensation, to the restri ctions o f the big-time

,big

money bands.In making a sin gle selection for the All-Time Band, o n e findsthree truly great players in the annals o f jazz. Larry Shi elds

,the

clarinetist of the Original Dixieland Band, who was so powerfuland so inspired in 19 17, was o n e . In a way, no o n e else hasbrought to jazz what he did, and all clarinetists have since reliedon his imagination . Even Rappolo , the crack clarinetist o f theNew Orlean s Rhythm Ki n gs, was influenced by Larry butwhat an in Sp iratio n !Nev e rthele ss , Frank Teschemacher cannot be passed by. Heproduced only some ten records, but some bars in them are themost thrilling sound in jazz. The critics recognize Te schem ache r

’

s

genius as supreme. He must be the se lection fo r the All-TimeBand.TENOR SAX : There are many good tenors . Coleman Hawkins is

o n e o f the best; he was so effecti ve that he universalized the u seo f the tenor sax. It is difficult to say to what extent he hasretrogressed and to what degree some of his followers have gainedin brilliance, but Coleman Hawkins n o longer stands alone in hi sclass . Each of the following men i s able to achieve a wonderfulhit chorus : Eddie Miller, Lester Young, Ben Webster, GeneSedri c , Vido Musso, Bud Freeman, Tex Benecke, Jo e Thomas ,and Al Sear, n o t omitting the late Chu Berry.

At the risk o f provokin g considerable disagreement,I select as

my first choice Eddie Miller, o f Bob Crosby’s band . I considerhis inspiration the purest and most sensitive; he i s never forcedan error into which too many have fallen nowadays . ColemanHawkins is certainly still good enough to be the second selection,

JAZZ 2 2 7

although today o n e sometimes encounters to o much of the routinein his style . My third man is Ben Webster, the tenor o f DukeEllington’s band . His recent performances demonstrate that he i sindeed n o t far behind the firs t and second—team choicesAs fo r the All-Time Band, I choose the Coleman Hawkins o f

192 8 to 193 0 . This was his best period,when he recorded He llo

Lo la . No o n e has since attained that peakALTO SAX : There are perhaps more good alto saxophones thantenors in the profession . One can count only o n e outstandingSOpran o , Sidney Bechet, . and one baritone, Harry Carney; butthere are many altos o f very high ability

,among whom I would

list Johnny Hodges,Benny Carter

,Willie Smith

,Pete Brown ,

and Charlie Holmes . Incidentally,Johnny Hodges

,who achieves

the purest solos, i s so commercial o n the stage oc casio nally that I

cannot stand him . The hottest man,very personal in a style all

his own , and very sincere, i s Pete Brown .

I do n o t forget that Benny Carter is perhaps our most versatilemusician

,playing the alto and trumpet equally well, in addition

to having proved himself to be an exceptional arranger. WillieSmith is the most expressive and effective with a big band . Myselection fo r the three teams would be : Johnny Hodges, BennyCarter, and Pete Brown ,

in the order named .

I want to mention,in passing

,that some months ago at the

Village Vanguard I heard a jam session with Earl Hines(piano) ,Benny Carter(alto) , and Charlie Shavers(trumpet) . It was thebest thing I ever listened to this side o f heaven ! In this field, fo rthe All-Time Band

,I be lieve the honors go to the contempo rary

performers . I consider the Frankie Trumbauer of fifteen yearsago outranked by the Johnny Hodges of today .

PIAN O : Earl Hines was easily tops some time ago . Before 1930he made some marvelous records with Louis Armstrong . In myOpinion there can be no question as to the best pianist of themoment : he is Art Tatu m . I do not always like him as a soloist,but in a band he is thrrific !Other candidates are Fats Waller, Jess Stacy, James P . John

so n , Count Basie, Teddy Wilson , Herman Chi tti so n , and JoeSullivan . For the second and third selections I nominate Coun t

2 2 8 JAZZ

Basie and Teddy Wilson . Bo th men are more constructive, andat the Same time more frenetic, than the others .As s u ggested before , Earl Hines once attained a peak thatneither he nor any other pianist has since equaled . He i s therefore the logical selection fo r the All-Time Band. Hi s supremeperformances were accomplished during the Short period hetouched the ivories in company with Louis Armstrong, when herecorded the immortalWe s t En d Blu e s .

DRUM S : Plenty of drummers truly can be classed as sensati o n al. I believe that the old-timers are excelled by the youngmen . Among the best performers are Zu tty Singleton, Ge orgeWe ttli n g, Sidn ey Catlett, Cozy Cole, Joe Jones, Gene Kru pa,James Crawford, and Dave Tough . Each of them i s excellent,but my attention would turn first to Sidney Catlett, who provedideal with Benny Goodman’s and Louis Armstrong’s bands .

Second choice is Gene Kru pa, provided he overcomes hi s habitof introducing too many monotonous solos . For the third team Ichoo se Co zy Cole, admirable drummer fo r Cab Calloway.

For the All-Time Band it is difli c u lt to make a selection in thiscategory. However, I pick Sidn ey Catlett, though I am not surethat Zu tty Singleton was n o t the best o f them all twelve yearsa o .gBASS : At the head of this class are Artie Bernstein

,Al Morgan

,

John Kirby, Hayes Alvis and Billy Taylor. After long deliberation I select Al Morgan, John Ki rby, and Billy Taylor, in theorder named . I understand well how Others might prefer ArtieBernstein . For the All-Time Band, Al Morgan i s again mychoice.GUITAR : Three supreme guitarists have died : Django Reinhardt

, Charlie Christian, and Eddie Lang . The genius wasDjango ! Today

,I can po int to Teddy Bunn

, Oscar Moore, andEddie Condon, in the order named, with honorable mention toClarence Holiday and Bobby Hackett, who plays guitar andtrumpet with Glenn Miller.The choice lies between two men when it comes to the AllTime Band : Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang . Both were wOn

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 30 JAZZ

THE ALL-TIM E ALL-AM ERICAN BAN DLouisArmstro n g

3

Dru m s : SidneyCatle ttGe o rge Brun ie s R555 Bass AlMo rganFran kTe schemache r G u i tar Djan go ReinhardtCo lemanHawkin s Male Singe r: LouisArmstrongJohnn yHodge s Fem ale Si n ge r : Be ssie Smith

Pian o : Earl Hin es

After o n e year the success o f the choice o f this best band wasfound so interesting that Esqu ire decided to dedicate more importance to jazz and to organize the most wonderful jam sessionever heard in the world . This manifestation has even a sym bolicmeaning

,fo r it is going to be rendered in the temple of seri ous

music : the Metropolitan Opera .I must note that the previous observations on Johnny Hodgesand Cootie Williams , well translated as they were , appear to ocritical applie d to these wonderful m u srcm n s

,whom I admire

really deeply.

We asked many jazz experts and fans to choose the best actualjam session band . The answers are good and correspond with theperfect sense of justice . The reader has to consider that some o fthe best men, like Gene Krupa and James Crawford, were n o teligible for various reasons . Critics have said that Armstrong wasthe old-time s u perman , but they voted fo r someone else .

The answers are self-explanatory and Show that the expertsknow who good musicians are even if they disagree sometimeso n some particular exponents .

The results are based on votes cast by the following sixteenexperts : S/Sgt. George Av akian , E . Simm s Campbell

,Leonard

Feather, Robert Coffin , Abel Green, Elliott G re n n ard, John Hammond, Roger Kay, Harry Lim, Paul Eduard M iller, Bu cklinMoon , Baron Timme Rosenkrantz, Charles Edward Smith, FrankStacy, Bob Thiele, Barry Ulanov.

JAZZ 2 3 1

ESQUIRE’S

TRUM PETSLouis Armstro n gCo o tieWilliamsRoy EldridgeBill Co lemanBobby HackettHarry JamesCharlie Shave rsMuggsy Span ierBuck ClaytonRed N ichols

CLARIN ETSBenny Go odmanBarney BigardEdmond Hall“

Irv ing Fazo la“:

PeeWe e Russe llBuster BaileyHank D’

Am i c o

Sidn ey BechetJimmie N o oneBu d Jacobson

PIAN OSArt TatumEarl Hin e sTeddyWilson “

Jess StacyJo e SullivanMary Lo u WilliamsKing Co leArt Hodes

ALL—AMERICAN BAND

TROM BON ESJack Te agarde nLawre n ce BrownGeo rge BruniesJ . C . Higginbo thamTommy Do rseyLo u McG ari tyVic Dicke rso nDickyWe llsFloyd O’

Bri e n

Miff Mo leBe n n y Mo rtonTyree Glenn

SAXOPHON ESCo leman HawkinsJohn ny HodgesBenny Carte rBenWebsterPete BrownLester YoungBud Hun te rDo n RedmanBabe RusinJo e

“Flip” PhillipsEugene Sedri c

GUITARSAl CaseyOscar Mo o reTeddy Bun nEddie Co n do nFreddy GreenLes PaulLonnie JohnsonRo c Hillman

2 3 2

PIAN OS—Co n .

John n y Guarn iFats Walle rCount Bas ie

BASSESOsc ar Pe ttifo rd ?Milto n Hin tonAlMo rganJohn KirbyRed Callen derSlam StewartWalter PageWe llman BraudSe rio u s Meye rsIsrael Cro sbyEd Safran ski

SidWe issBob HaggartBilly Taylo rDo c Go ldbe rg

ODD IN STRUM EN TSRed N o rv o

Lio n e l HamptonSidn ey Be che tEddie SouthB ay N anceJo e Ve n utiHarry Carn eyPeter “

Rabbit” Graham

Lawre n c e LucieMary Osbo rneJack Purc e llCarlKre ss

DRUM SSidn ey CatlettCo zy Co leJo e JOn e sZu tty Sin gle to nGe o rgeWe ttlin gSpe cks Powe llArthur He rbe rtJ . C. He ardJame s Crawfo rd

MALE VOOALISTSLours ArmstrongLe o Watso nJo e Turn e rJack Te agardenCab CallowayJoshWhiteT-Bo n e Walke rEddi e Vin so nJame s Rushi n gBob Ebe rleLouis Jo rdanBin g Cro sbyHarry BabbittWillie DukeWalte r Brown

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 34 JAZZ

The Bible tells u s that when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed God saved the innocent and allowed them to flee thecities . Three years ago something of the kind happened inBelgium—though when Hitler took over not all the innocentwere able to flee . Luckily, I escaped . The penalty I paid was tolose my collection o f three thousand phonograph records .I have never bought a phonograph record since that day. But

I’

v e often wondered, i f I were able to go back fo r, say, twelverecords

,without tu rning into a lump o f salt, which ones I would

choose . Could I choose twelve jazz records which I would listento fifty years hence without shuddering? And how would I choo sethem—fo r the tune itself, for the arrangement, fo r the solo artist?Taste in jazz music is as personal as the contents of a man ’strousers pockets . This list o f mine may be “expert,

” but it could .

cause another expert acute pain.

Original Dixielan d Jazz Band—Tiger Rag, Os tri chWalk.

N ew Orleans Rhythm Kings—Shim m e -Sha Wabble , That Da-Da

Original Wo lverines—Shim m e -Sha Wabble , The N ew Tw is te r.

Louis Armstrong—We s t En d Blu e s , Firewo rks . Co lumbia .

Louis An n s tro n g—Shi n e , Ju s t a G igo lo .

Louis Armstrong—Co n fe ss i n g. Dec ca .

Duke Ellington—Tige r Rag(Parts I 81 II) .

Duke Ellin gto n —It Do n ’

t Me an a Thi n g, Ro se Ro om .

Cho co late Dandie s—G o t An o the r Swe e ti e N ow . Co lumbia .

Chicago Rhythm Kings—I Fou n d a N ew Baby, The re’

ll Be Som e

Chan ge s Made .

Moun d City Blue Blowers—On e Ho u r, He llo Lo la . Victor.Eddie Lan g-Jo e Venuti All Star Orch.

—Beale Stre e t Blu e s .

I asked s ix jazz specialists—both men who make music andmen who i te ar it apart—what twelve records they would take werethey fleeing from this o r that wicked city. The first to be questio n ed was the urbane Duke Ellington .

“Well,” said the Duke thoughtfully,

“I ’d take Ravel’s Daphn isan d Chlo e , Delius

’

In a Su m m e r Garde n ; Debussy’s La M e r andAftern o on o f a Fau n ,

and the Plan e ts Su i te s .

JAZZ 2 3 5

On closer questioning he admitted he would take a few j azzcords . “One o f Art Tatum’s records—an y o n e —and the restould be

olem an Hawkins’ Body an d So u l. Bluebird.

arigan’

s ICan’

t G e t Started. Victor.rti e Shaw’s N ightm are . Brunswick.

rts Walle r’s I’

m Go n n a S i t Right Down an dWri te Myse lf a Le tte r.

Victor.dney Be chet’s The Mo o che . Victor.7illie

“

The Lion” Smi th’sWha t Can IDo wi th a Fo o li sh Li ttle GirlLike Yo u . Decca .

uke Ellington’s Som e thin g to Liv e For . Brunswick.

“About that record o f my own ,Duke explained. I like i t for

e singing by Je an EldridgeArt Hodes

,the noted pianist

,took just fiv e minutes to make up

'

5 list . Though he ’

s a Chicago pianist, not a Single Chicagoyle record i s included . Hodes likes the blues

,and the old style

the men around King Oliver :

in g Oliver—Can al Stre e t Blu e s , Dipperm ou th Blu e s . Brunswick.[a Rainey—Blac k Bo ttom ,

Ge o rgia Cake Walk(Co lle ctor’s Item)essie Smith—Ye llow Dog Blu e s , So ft PedalBlu e s . Okeh.

Juis Armstrong—Stru tti n g w i th Som e Barbe cu e . Decca.3111

'

s Armstrong—Lo n e s om e , AllAlo n e an d Blu e . Okeh.

ppi e Wallace—Hav e Yo u Ev e r Be e n Down ,De ad Dru n k. (Col

lector’s Item)in e Top Smith—Bo ogi e Wo ogi e , Pi n e Top

’

s Blu e s . UHCA .

mes P . Johnson—Sn owy Mo rn i n g Blu e s . (Co llecto r’s Item)lbertWyn n—Down by the Le v e e , Parkway Stom p . Vocalion.

vhn n y Dodds—We ary Blu e s . Vocalion.

ally Roll Mo rton—Black Bo ttom Stom p, The Chan t. Bluebird.

:lly Roll Morton—Kan sas Ci ty S tom p, Gran dpa’

s Spe ll. Gennett.

Both Hodes and Leonard Feather,radio emcee o f VVMCA’

S

”latte rbrain s” j azz qu izz, swing critic for Lo ok, Me tron om e

,

1d other publications, chose their records—for-exile wi th an:o n om fc al eye . They selected not so much the best records ever;Jade , but the best couplings . Most o f those o n Feather’s list

2 36 JAZZ

below are m ore o r less obtainable, and all are stand—On ts o n bothsides :

Louis Armstro n g—We st En d Blu e s, Mu ggle s . Co lumbia.Barn ey Bigard—M i n u e t i n Blu e s , Barn ey G o i n

’

Easy. Voc alion 81Okeh.

Kin g Co le Trio—Sw e e t Lo rrai n e , Thi s S ide Up . Decca .

Duke Ellin gto n —The Flam i n g Swo rd, Warm Valley. Victor.Duke Ellin gton—Po rtra i t of Bert Wi lliam s , Bojan gle s . Victor.Duke Ellingto n —Cre sce n do an d Dim i n u e n do i n Blu e . Co lumbia.Duke Ellington —Battle of Swi n g, Jazz Po tpou rri . Brun swick.

Be n ny Go odman Quintet(with Lion e l Hampto n , TeddyWilson)ICri ed for You ; Go odman Trio—Where o rWhe n . Blu ebird.

Billie Ho liday (with Artie Shaw, Bunny Be rigan )—Bi lli e’

s Blu es,Su m m e rtim e . Vo calio n .

Jimm y Lun ceford- Uptown Blu e s , Pu t It Away. Okeh.

Metronome All Star Ban d(with Harry James, Coo tieWilliam s? J C .

Higgin bo tham,Ben ny Go odman ,

Benny Carte r, Co leman Haw

kins, Coun t Basie, e tc .)- On e O’

clo ck Ju m p, Bu gle Call Rag.

Muggsy Spanier—Re laxi n ’

at the To u ro . Bluebird.

Teddy Wilson Quartet (with Harry James, Red N o rv o ) -Ju s t a

Mo od(Parts I 81 II) . Bru nswick.

Art Tatum 81 Band (with Jo e Turner)—We e Baby Blu e s , BatteryBou n c e . Decca .

Feather apparently planned to greet Manhattan with a coupleo f extra records under—his tu nic . And if they’d relax the rules

,he

would include Pete Brown’s Un lu cky Wo m an ,with Helen

Humes(Decca) .

Tenor saxophonist Eugene Sedri c never heard of Sodom,but

he did know twelve good records . Sedric formerly played withFats Walle r and is rated by Pan ass ié as second only to ColemanHawkins . Hi s list is no amateur’s catalogue; Sedri c is a technician,and

,though a wonderful im pro v rse r, he prefers organized jazz

to the pure jazz o f improvisation

Louis Armstro n g—My Swe e t.Casa Loma—For You .

Tommy Do rsey—Lo n e som e Ro ad.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 38 JAZZDuke Ellin gto n —Sepia Pan oram a .

Louis Armstro n g—Kn o cki n ’

a Ju g.

Charlie Bam e t—Yo u ’re My Thri ll.Charlie Barn e t—Afte rn o o n of a Fau n .

Charlie Barn e t—Daphn i s an d Chlo e .

To a real jazz collector, twelve records are only a crumb be forethe banquet

,but if they are good ones they make excellent anti

pasto. Fo r those who sn 00p in secondhand stores an d FirstAvenue music shops

,I have compiled a list o f records which

cover modern American jazz from the time it was just an itch In

a drummer’s hand to the present.The older recordings which Start this list o ff are my own selections . The more recent examples were chosen for me by LeonardFeather.

Origin al Dixie lan d Jazz Ban d—Tige r Rag. Victo r,Co lumbia.

N ew Orle an s Rhythm Kin gs—Tha t Da-Da Stra i n . Ge n nett.Origin al Wo lve ri n e s—Shi m -Me -Sha Wabble . Brun swick, Vocalion .

Be ssie Sm i th—Em pty Bed Blue s . Co lumbia .

Bessie Smith—Ye llow Dog Blu e s . Co lumbia .

Louis Armstro n g—We s t En d Blu e s . Co lumbia .

Louis Armstro n g—Shi n e . Okeh.

Louis Armstro n g—Hey Lawdy Mam a . De cca.

Duke Ellin gto n —The Mo o che . Victo r,Bru n swick.

Duke Ellin gto n —Black an d Tan Fan tasy. Victo r,Brun swick.

Duke Ellin gto n —Eas t St. Lo u i s To o dle -o o . Victo r,Brun swick.

Jimmy Lun ce fo rd—An n i e Lau ri e . De cca.Bix Be iderbe cke—At the Jazz Ban d Ball, Jazz M e Blu e s . Columbia.

Bix Be ide rbecke—Som ebody S to le My G al. Okeh.

Glen n Gray’s Casa Loma Orch.—In dian a

, IN e v e r Kn ew . Brunswick.Be n n y Go odman —Blu e Ski e s . Vic to r.Chicago an s—N o body

’

s Swe e the art, Liza . Okeh.

Chicago an s—IFo u n d a N ew Baby. Brun swick.

Moun d City Blue Blowe rs—On e Ho u r, He llo Lo la . Victo r.Red N icho ls—Ida, Fe e lin g N 0 Pa in . Brun swick.

Miff Mo le—Alexan de r’

s Ragtim e Ban d. Co lumbia.Ven uti-Lan g—Farewe ll Blu e s . Vo calion.

Je ll Ro llMo rto n —Mam i e’

s Blu e s . Ge n e ral.La n ie r-Beche t—IFo u n d a N ew Baby. Vic to r.

JAZZ 2 3 9

Ted Lewis—Dalla s Blu e s , RoyalGarde n Blu e s . Co lumbia.

Jimmie N o o n e—Ri v e r Stay’Way from My Do o r. Brunswick.

Memphis Five—Ram part S tre e t Blu e s .

Quintet o f Ho t Club o f France- Som e of The se Days .

Benny Go odman—Clari n e t a la Ki n g. Okeh.

Benny Go odman Sextet—Go n e w i th What Wi n d? Columbia.Arti e Shaw—Co n c e rto for Clari n e t. Victo r.Arti e Shaw’s Gramercy 5—Su m m i t Ridge Driv e . Victor.Tommy Do rsey—Fo r Yo u . Victor.Jim m y

‘Do rsey—Sorghu m Sw i tc h. Decca.

Du ke Elli n gto n Pan o ram a—Victor Album.

Jimmy Luncefo rd—What’

s Yo u r Story, Mo rn in g Glo ry? Co lumbia.Jimmy Luncefo rd—Blu e s i n the N ight. Decca.Lionel Hampton—Flyi n gHom e . De ccaLionel Hampton—Blu e . Victor.Count Basie—You Can ’

t Ru n Arou n d. Okeh.

Count Basie—Fi e s ta i n Blu e . Okeh.

TeddyWilson 81 Billie Holiday. Columbia Album.

An tho logy ofWhi te Jazz. Decca Album.

An tho lo gy of Co lored Jazz. Decca Album.

XVIII. THE FUTURE OF J AZZ

IT REM AINS NOW to dispel some o f the enthusiastic aggressiveness which has entered into jazz criticism and created so manystubborn

,partisan

,and intoleran t Opinions . I realize how many

di fferent matters could have been brought into the scope o f thisbook. Sooner o r later some enterprising editor will probablyu ndertake the publication o f a jazz encyclopedi a of severalv olumes , to embrace the entire subj ect. In this encyclope

'

dia asynthes is o f critical Opinion could be compiled by allowing eachwriter to expound at length o n the particular branch of jazz inwhich he is most interes ted, and leaving it to the public to drawi ts own conclusion .

The idea of this would be to put the problem on a higher

2 40 JAZZ

rather than a lower plane . There are to o many tyros fo r whomjazz has been an escape from other form s o f c u ltu repo rtance o f j azz canOnly be meas u red by i ts development alongside the other arts and by i ts relationship to and creative forceas compared wi th theirs . We have been fortunate enough to witness the birth of a new art form

,a complete understanding of

which has been long overdue. It i s regrettable that the Americanintelligentsia has allowed the constructive period o f j azz to passby without serious study in the beginning, without a

’

realbibliography or discography. It is n o t my place to criticize thislack

,but one may well imagine how it will be observed by

American intellectu als a couple generations from now.

Jazz,basically a music o f African origin

,created by white and

colored men amidst a rich and tragic folklore, has become the realmusic o f America . The United States has had many great poe ts

,

writers , and painters, but few musicians o f comparable importance. Am erican art lacked self-c o n fide n c e , and it was one of themost despised and least privileged of i ts people that unconsciouslygave the means o f attaining a great and influential power.But Am erica has always been Suspicious of jazz

,and i ts c o n

se rv ativ e elite element, ever reluctant to admit something new inart

,has still not been able to reconcile itself.Nevertheless, jazz is desti ned to become something more thana local phenomenon or even a natio nal music . Jazz is on i ts wayto conquering the world and becoming the music o f the world .

It i s significant that the victory of 19 18 brought jazz as wellas peace to Europe, where i ts qualities were recognized an d establi shed among progressive and cultu red people .Jazz has already played an important part in the fight fo rhuman freedom . It is the music o f freedom

,freedom of i n

div idu als and of races . It is the great art o f democ racy, irre c o n

c ilable with the philosophy of the dictators.It i s high time for America to be aware o f this

,and to prepare

to establish this power all through the world. Jazz can be a universal instru ment in the accomplishment of a bloodless victory.

The time is not far distant when jazz will develop in everycontinent along the lines o f localt in flu e n c e s

,with the same power

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 42 JAZZ

should be possible to arrange fo r the reissue o f som e

'

partic u larlyrare examples . Similarly, there IS a need fo r a library and fo r a jazzacademy which would be as important t

o the American people asthe academies o f literature and sci ence in France, England, andBelgium . All the Negro and white heroes of jazz should be represented In this Academy o f Jazz .These are the first steps to be undertaken . They are importantin that they would allow another American art, the motion p1cture, to maintain a permanent laboratory which would help Hollywood in the documentation in which the film industry mustcontinue to parti cipate .For some time I have had these ideas of an essential cultu raland social plan in mind; and at this e tin g the project seem s tobe o n the verge of realization. In Mr. Arnold Gingrich, editor o fEsqu ire , I have found an ardent Spirit ready to make vital contribu ti o n s for which the next generation will remember himgratefu lly. It is to be expected that the seeds sown here will bearfru it and that the powerful influence of the motion pictures willbe brought into this organization fo r the development o f American music . Perhaps i t would not be to o much to hOpe for someofficial form of patronage. Certainly it would be the best meanso f wiping out race prejudice .On the day when Hollywo od shows Negroes and whites working together in the dramatization o f the roles they have playedin jazz, the principles of American democracy will have reacheda new practical basis .The consideration of these generalities regarding social e v olution as it i s affected by jazz must not distract me at this pointfrom drsc u ssm g the question of jazz criticism . When all thesedreams have been realized and jazz has been universalized bythe movies

,the most advanced o f the American critics will be

able to tackle the subject and Stu dy it at length .

In the meantime there have been nothing more than wellmeaning amateurs . An uncertain and changeable art has met achoru s o f c o n fu sed

’

c ri tic i sm . Most o f the time those who havedevoted themselves to the cause o f jazz have lacked the n e c e ssary culture which might give their efforts more consistency. I

JAZZ 2 43

am even willing to bet that the violent disputes of certain amongthem cannot even be understoo d by the majority of people interested in jazz .Jazz

,like all the arts , is an Objective creation designed fo r su b

je c tiv e appreciation . One literary critic may like Robert Frost;another may prefer Archibald MacLe i sh; others may wax e u

thu s ias tic over William Carlos Williams or Stephen VincentBe n ét . In other words, the readers , like the jazz fans , are dividedinto groups preferring one o r the other emotion or o n e o r theother music.But strange to relate , when the literary critics are not unanimous in their appreciation , they do n o t insult each other in defe n se of their convictions , and above all their readers do not starttaking up the issue fo r the critic.In jazz it is different, for these young people have been seizedby such a delirious enthusiasm that they may actively detest acerta in musician or even a certain writer who has said

,fo r

example,that Benny Goodman is better than Pee Wee Russell,

o r Vlc e versa .It seems to me that jazz

,which is a democratic creati on , should

endow i ts followers with tolerance and broadmindedness . WhenI listen to these petty quarrels I try to imagine the devo tees o fLa Bohém e insulting those o f Wagner’s Operas because the onlyreal Opera music belongs to o n e group or the other . It i s agrotesque yet somehow pleasant thought.It all proves the great vitality o f j azz . But it also proves thata Spirit o f artistic objectivi ty has yet to be strived for by thecritics .Jazz has passed from the stage o f pure improvis ation into that

o f swing,which might be called an intellectual con struction as

sisted by so los . Some prefer one format, some the other; thosewho are su fli c i e n tly objective can like both kinds , taking into fullconsideration the respective differences of evolution and atmos

phe re .

Until two or three years ago most o f the critics leaned towardthe vibrant reality o f pure improvisation and were horrified bythe idea o f big band jazz. Let us discuss first this group , which

244 JAZZ

we might describe as the classical jazz critics . They are In agreement on the general formula, but not on i ts application , nor o nthe detailing o f their Own particular taste . This is perfectlynormal

,and one would not want it to be an other way. In art,

nobody can ever be positively and completely right where su bje c ti v e appreciation is involved .

Hugues Pan ass ié, to my mind, defined very accurately thenec essity fo r improvisation and the contrast between the early ho tj azz and the saccharine products o f the “Straight” melodic o r

che stras o f that period . H i s stubborn temperament, however,brought him to introduce a vain system o f describing o n e music ian as better” than another, which seems all wrong to me, andOpposed to the real Spirit of jazz . After all

,this is an ensemble

music; when Jimmie Noone, Milton Me zzrow,Teschemacher

,

Edmond Hall,or Fazola plays or played clarinet with one or an

other group,his style may have differed . The group is more im

portant than the individual !Pan ass ié u nderwent an extraordinary flip-Hop in hi s views,which astonished hi s American readers . After going overboardfo r the white Chicagoan school, he suddenly decided in hi s lastbo ok that he believed only in the strictly Negro jazz . What iscolored is good ; what i s white is only good in asfar as it tries to becolored ! This forced him into certain gymnastics o f logic to tryto make himself appear consistent . But what matter? Pan ass iéloves jazz; he has devoted his life to it, though he suffers from theterrible limitation o f judging it all through phonograph records .I believe that all hi s last book was Spoiled by a lack o f understanding even o f swing, which he defined erroneously, and whichdistorted his attitude toward jazz . Moreover, Pan assié prefersMezz Mezzrow to Teschemacher, and Jimmie Noone to BennyGoodman . This is his right, and these are his Sincere beliefs .However

,in these expressions of loyalty o n e must be aware o f

the circumstances . Some say that Pan ass ié praises Me zzrowbecause they are personal friends . Surely the contrary could beasserted— that they are friends because Pan ass ié likes Me zzrow

’

s

m u src .

When I published Au x Fro n ti ere s du Jazz, in France, and

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 46 JAZZ

perdition o f jazz; it i s a musical flood, drowning out improvisation

,against which it i s too late to build a dam .

Thus every field Of jazz before the rise o f swrn g has beenminutely explored, with the exception o f the whole white schoo lof improvised jazz, from the Original Dixieland to the Chicagoans—a great injustice, it seems to me.I have tried to Show that until the arrival of Armstrong therewas as much important jazz exploited and created by whites as byNegroes . This theory is contrary to Pan ass ié’

s and partly differentfrom Charles Edward Smith’s . It is nearer to the attitude o f

Ge orge Frazier, with the difference that I try to go objectivelybeyond my own personal tastes and judge the evolution o f j azz

,

in i ts swin g era, in i ts boogie-woogie manifestations, and even ini ts present form; for whether o r not we like what has ev olved, wemust accept i ts presence. This viewpoint i s shared by Bob Thie leand hi s magazine, Jazz.

Down Bea t has done inestimable good fo r jazz in a Spirit o fenlightened commercialism . The di stinction made in i ts recordrevi ews between jazz and swing i s o f great importance and shouldhelp the study o f jazz.In addition to these critics , who are agreed on the necessity

fo r

pure improvisation , and who have held out against the Spirit o fthe big bands

,there are a number of critics who have inclined

more toward the swing school . The two best-qu alified representativ e s o f this school are Leonard Feather, who has written fo rM e tro n om e

,Loo k, and other publications, and Barry Ulanov,

editor of Me tro n om e .

These writers are enthused by the be st of modern improvisation and believe that improvisation should be allowed m big bandarrangements to o . They point out that enormous Strides havebeen made m this music in the past generation, that very little o fwhat was played twenty years ago would sound good today, andthat some o f the older musicians have been built up i nto falsegods

,more on legendary or sentimental value than through the

permanence of their music . They do n o t believe that the latestballad played by Jimmy Dorsey o r by Harry James is jazz

,but

they do declare that these bands play real jazz arrangements inter

JAZZ 2 47

m i tte n tly. According to Feather, there is no such thing as a sharpdistinction between jazz and swing , the latter merely being anewer word which in many cases is interchangeable with jazz.Personally

,I am only partly in agreement with these views,

though o n the subject o f Duke Ellington I concur with them andbelieve John Hammond was right when he said : “Duke is stillthe greatest creative force in jazz, and his band is a wonderful i nstrument

,tonally if not rhythmica lly .

” But o n the subject o fEllington and his musical evolution

,I might add that I did n o t

have to wait for jazz to interest me in the ki nd of modern musicat which he i s aiming . It exi sted twenty years ago ; and since atthat time I pre farsed jazz to certain modern formulas o f Strav in

sky and Milhaud, I‘do n o t wish to be brought back to them by a

detour.I can well understand that a listener may not react to the im

pro v i satio n of a Kid Rena o r a Mezz Mezzrow,and may prefer

Count Basie o r Charlie Bam e t o r above all the great Duke Ellington

,but I wonder why those who swear on ly by Ellington have

,

as far as I kn ow,ignored the modem s for twenty years .

All this should provide the material for discussion and argument that will never end in o u r generation . Where does jazz endand where does it begin? Is jazz swing? Do the big bands havethe spirit of jazz? Can a soloist develop as well in a swing bandas in a jam band? Th ese are the general ideas that will alwayscontinue to provide food fo r disputes among critics and thousands o f other Americans .In this book I have put forward my ideas sincerely. I do n o twish to convince anyone ; I merely hope to enlighten . I do n o tclaim to be infallibly right. Time will bring us all into agreemen t .But I can’t help thinking that those who reserve their praise solelyand exclusively for the big bands today are the modem counterparts o f those who claimed fifteen years ago that the inconsistentsmall groups did not represent jazz

,which must be looked for in

Paul Whi teman and Jack Hylton . They justified their argumentsby pointing to the popularity o f the bands they defended . Neverthele s s , after fifteen years the VVhi tem an s and the Hyltons arenot important. I believe that most of the work o f today’s big bands

2 48 JAZZ

will be Similarly forgotten fifteen years from n ow , and that tofind the truth about the jazz of o u r t1me it will be necessary tolook back on the little han ds and indivi duals who helped to makejazz a living thing o f beauty, rather than on those who weremerely interested in achieving the power o f money through it.Poverty has often been the price o f art.Jazz has not escaped this handicap in its first struggles . Morepower to those who appreciate this ; but let the thousands o fenthusias ts who think they have seen the light beware the tem ptation to indulge in insults and bickering . Jazz is a great art whichi s practically newborn , and it must be nurtu red in a spt ofhones ty, understanding, and tolerance .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 50 JAZZ

LAM AN , KARL EDWARD : The Music al Acce n t o r Into n ation in the

Congo Lan guage (Sto ckho lm,

MARAIS , JOSEPH : Music o f the African Bushve ld'

(Etude MusicMagazine , Philade lphia ,

MCKIM , MISS : Scribn er’s Mo n thly Magazine (N ovemberMURPHY, JEAN NETTE : The Survival o f African Music in America(Popular Science Mo n thly

,

ROSE, ALGERN ON : Primitive African Instruments (Mu src Ass ociation,

SPEED,ARTHUR : N ative African Music G Oe s Fo reign (Musician ,

VARLEY, DOUGLAS HAROLD : African N ative Music(London,

Ne gro So n gs

ALLAN, ME . : Slave Songs o f the United States.BURGHARDT, DUBOIS : The Souls o f Black Fo lk.

CABLE, GEORGE W. : Century Magazine(Feb . an d AprilDAY

, CHARLESW. : Five Years Residence in the We st Indies.FERRERO

, F. : La Musica de i N egri American i (Revista MusicaleItaliana, Turin ,

FORTIER, A c E : Bits o f Louisian a Fo lklo re (Baltimo re,

FRIEDEN THAL, ALBERT : Musik, Tanz und Dichtung bei de n KreolenAme rikas .

GRAN T, JAM ES AUGUSTUS : A Walk across Africa .HEARN ,

LAFCADIO : Two Years i n the Fre n chWe st Indies.HIGGIN SON ,

COL . THOM AS W. : Negro Spirit u als(Atlan tic Monthly,Jun e

KREHBIEL, H . E . : Afro-American Fo lk So n gs . N egro So n gs (N ew

Yo rkTribun e, June 2 , N egro So n gs(N ew Yo rk Tribun e,De c . 2 7, Plantation Songs (New Yo rk Tribune, Jan 9,

N egro Melodies(N ew Yo rk Tribun e , April 24,LAFITEAU, P . : Moeurs de s Sauvage s Am ériqu ain s (Paris,LYON ,

GEORGE FRANCIS : N arrative o f Travels i n N o rth Africa.MATTHEW, G R. LEWIS Journal o f a Re sidence amo n g the N egroe s

o f the We st In die sMAUCH

, CARL : Re ise n in Su d-Afrika .

SQUrRE ,ERVIN G : En cyc lopaedia o f Music.

TAYLOR, N ICHOLAS Jazz Music an d Its Re latio n s to African Mus ic(Mus ical Courier,

JAZZ 2 51

T1ERSOT, JUL 1EN : La Musique chez les Peuples Indigenes de l’Am érique du N o rd (N ation, May 30 ,

WALLASCHEK ,DR. RICHARD : Primitive Music(Journal o f American

Folklo re,

Mi n s tre ls

Blin d Tom , the N egro Boy Pian ist.BRAWLEY, BEN JAM IN -GRIFFITH : Th e Negro GeniusBRUCE, JOHN E . : A History o f Negro Musicians (The SouthernWo rkman, Hampto n ,

CURTIS-BURLIN , NATILE : Black Singers and Players(Mus ical Quarte rly, N . Y.,

GOLDSTEIN , WALTER : N atu ral Harmonic and Rhythmic Sense o f

the N egro(Music Teachers N at. As sn.,

GORDON ,TAYLOR : Born to Be

HANDY, WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER : Negro Autho rs and Compose rso f US .

RAY, EARL CHAPIN : Thou Good Old Minstrel Days (Elks Magazine

,

RICE ,EDW . LE ROY : Monarchs o f Minstrelsy. When MinstrelsyWas in Flower(International Musician, N ewark,

WI'

I‘

TKE , CARL : Tambo an d Bones

Sp iritu a ls

BRUCE, JOHN E . : Southern Workman (Hampton ) .

JULIA : Concerning Negro Spirituals and Songs(Musical Standard,

CHAUVET, STEPHEN : Musique N egre(Paris,CHIRGWDI, A. M . : The Vogue o f N egro Spiri tual.DAM ON ,

S . F. : Negro in Early American Songsters (Bibli ogr. So c .

o f Am ., pape rs,GAUL, HARVEY : N egro Spirituals (N ew Music Review,

HIGGIN SON , T.W. : N egro Spirituals(Atlanti cMonthly, JuneISH -KISHOR, S . : The Source o f Negro Spirituals (Jewish Tribune,

JACK SON ,GEORGE PULLEN : The Genesis o f N egro Spiritual(Ameri

can Mercury,MARSH, J . B . T. : The Sto ry o f the Jubilee Singers

2 5-2 JAZZ

MURPHY, JEANN ETTE : The Survival o f African Music in Ame rica(Popular Science Monthly

, 1

PEARCE, J . WILPRED : N egro e s an d N egro Music (N . Y., 1894)

PIKE, GUSTAVUS : The Jubilee Sin ge rsSCHAE FPN ER, ANDRE : N o te s sur la Musique Afro-Américaine(Ménestrel, Paris,

SPAULDIN G, H. G . : Under; the Palmetto. N egro Shouts and ShoutSongs (ContinentalMonthly,

THURMAN, HOWARD : Religi ous Ideas in Negro Spirituals(Christendom , Chicago ,

TROTTER, JAM ES M. : Music an d Some Highly Musical Pe ople

Ra gtim e

ASBURY, HERB ERT : French Quarter.BUCHANAN , CHARLES L. : Ragtime an d Am erican Music

Magazine,BUTLER, FRAN K : The Master Schoo l o f Pro fessional Piano Playin g.FORTIER, ALICE : Louisian a Stu dies.GARDN ER, CARL : Rag, Jazz, Blues . Baggi n g and Jazzing (Metronome,

GATES , W. F. : Ethiopian Syncopation. The Decline o f

(Mu sician ,

GOLDBERG,ISAAC : Ti n Pan Alley

MODERWELL ,HIRAM : TWO Views o f Ragtime (Seven Arts ,

Ragtime an d Its Possibiliti es(Opera Magazine, 19 1

SM 1TH ,FREDERICK : Irving Berlin an d Modern Ragtime.

WrrM ARK ,ISIDORE : The Sto ry o f the House o fWi tm ark.

Ho t J a zz a n d Sw in g

ANTRIM ,DORON : Paul Whi teman, Jimmy Do rsey Give Their

Se cretsARM STRON G, LOUIS : Swing That Mus ic (Lo n grn an s , Green,ARNTZEN IU S , L. M . G . : Am e rikaan sche Ku n sti n dru kke n (Amster

dam ,

AUSTIN ,CECIL Jazz(Music an d Letters, London,

BIDDLE, MARK Jazz in the Scho o l Music Program (Scho o l Mu sr

c ian , N ew Yo rk,

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 54 JAZZLLOYD

,LLEWELYN Jazz and the Modern Spirit (Monthly Musical

Reco rd,LOCKE, ALAIN LEROY : Th e N egro an d His MusicMENDL , ROBERT W. : Th e Appe al o f Jazz(Lo n don,M ILA, MASSIM O : Jazz Ho t (Pan . Milano,MILHAUD, DARIUS : EtudesMOUG IN ,

STEPHAN E : La Musique de Jazz (N o u v elle Revue, Paris,

N ELSON ,STAN LEY R. : All about Jazz

OSGOOD, HENRY : The An atomy o f Jazz (Ame rican Mercury, April

PAN ASSIE, HUGUES :’

Ho t Jazz The Re al JazzRAM SEY, FREDERIC, 8: SM ITH, CHARLES E . : Jazzmen.

SARGEANT, WIN THROP Jazz, Hot an d HybridSARGENT , N ORM AN : N egro American Music (Mus ical

SCHWERKE , IRV IN G : Kin g Jazz an d David.

SELDES,GILBERT : The Seven Live ly Arts

SM ITH,CHARLES E . : Jazz Re co rd Bo ok

SPECHT,PAUL : How They Become N ame Bands Where

the Wo rd Jazz Started (Musical Trade Re v .,

WHITEM AN , PAUL : An Expe rime n t i n Mode rn Music Jazz