{"id":381,"date":"2017-10-31T04:10:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T04:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/?p=381"},"modified":"2017-10-31T04:10:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T04:10:38","slug":"politicscommunity-of-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/uncategorized\/politicscommunity-of-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics\/Community of Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jazz music has historically been a part of a much broader culture, specifically with African Americans. The music has unified communities, protested injustice, and most importantly been a vehicle for self expression. <\/span><\/p>\n

Integration in Jazz Bands<\/span><\/p>\n

While jazz has influences of spirituals and work songs, it also has a heavy influence of western European harmonies. However, it started as mainly an African American art form. As technology prevailed in the early 20th century, the recording studio and invention of the radio became a significant way for black musicians to be heard. \u201c<\/span>Opportunities were given to black musicians by the radio and recording industry and popular black bands were promoted as long as there was a demand for jazz music by white Americans.”<\/a><\/span>\u00a0This was an important leap forward socially for black Americans, as the demand for jazz music was high. Another thing that occurred in the realm of jazz was the integration of orchestras and bands. Back then, it was common to have all white or all black jazz bands. However, these bands started to become integrated around the 1920\u2019s. Black musicians would play in white bands and vise versa. One of the earliest examples of this integration was when Jelly Roll Morton, a famous creole.<\/a><\/span>\u00a0pianist, recorded with the Rhythm Kings, a white jazz band.<\/span>\u00a0This was an extremely unusual since people of any color in America were harshly discriminated against. Jazz culture was a beautiful thing because in a world where there was crude social injustice against the underrepresented minority Americans, jazz culture began to promote unity in some ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1960\u2019s Jazz had collided with the civil rights movement. Jazz had gone through many transformations by this point since the beginning of the 20th century. The evolution started mainly with New Orleans \u00a0jazz, then evolved into swing\/dance bands, and then bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop. In the 1950\/60\u2019s, an emergence of free and avant garde jazz occurred. (This is a generalization). One of the main leaders of this new music was Ornette Coleman. Free jazz was all about the individual, and the freedom of expression as it delineated from traditional forms of jazz and music in general. In the 1960\u2019s the civil rights movement came into place. There was a huge reaction to this movement in the jazz community, as many black musicians made their voices heard through their music. <\/span><\/p>\n

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An example of a musician reacting to this was John Coltrane\u2019s \u201cAlabama,\u201d which he wrote about the Birmingham church bombing in 1963<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n