I recently made the claim that this semester’s columns would be more philosophical and more local. Little did I know that these two aims could be achieved at the same time.
Last week, a good friend handed me a copy of Craig Werner’s essential manual of black music, “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Pointing me to Werner’s discussion of jazz, he said, “You might be interested in this.”
Werner — an Afro-American studies professor at UW — believes all black music is motivated by three impulses. Of these, two deal with the ups and downs of daily life — songs about living. The blues impulse (to which Werner accredits, among others, some music by Stevie Wonder, Wu-Tang Clan and Prince) inspires music written about bad times. The gospel impulse (certain songs by Bob Marley, John Coltrane and Bruce Springsteen) is responsible for songs of hope.
Meanwhile, the jazz impulse is a bit more abstract. According to Louis Armstrong, “Jazz is music that’s never played the same way once.” It is the music of progress, of change and of defying convention.
“The world changes, the music changes. Jazz imagines the transitions, distills the deepest meanings of the moment we’re in, how it developed from the ones that came before, how it opens up into the multiple possibilities of the ones to come,” Werner writes.
And while this description is perfectly suitable when you think of music in terms of notes and chords, structure and theory, it really comes alive when you think of the interplay between society and music. Jazz is not just music that breaks musical rules; it’s music that breaks cultural rules. Rebel music has a long history in America, and each new rebellion — jazz, rock, hip-hop — has caused social uproar.
Today’s college students grew up while hip-hop was making its way from the streets to the screens. If you’re anything like me, you had parents who disapproved of hip-hop and rap in all its forms. They probably sounded a bit like their parents, who confronted Rock ‘n’ Roll (that evil, evil music) with a rare ferocity.
It’s not common to think of jazz, rock and hip-hop as having much in common. Turns out (at least according to Werner, with whom I strongly agree) that they have everything in common. And why? Because they defy convention.
“Part of the reason jazz comes out of the African American tradition — though it reserves the right to go anywhere — has to do with what conventions have meant to black folk,” Werner writes. “Stay over in your place, over on the other side of the tracks. Enjoy the back of the bus.”
And so it was — a revolutionary style of music rebels against American society, creating not only a genre, but also a whole system of motivation, an impulse, for artistic expression.
For those styles of music drawn from the jazz impulse, it’s a fragile situation. Their beauty comes from the fact that they are musically and culturally defiant, but their creators often want to achieve widespread recognition for their success. In jazz, rock, hip-hop and all the stages and styles in between, mainstream success only came after new conventions for that music were arrived at. Conventions lead to familiarity, familiarity leads to enjoyment, and enjoyment leads to popular acclaim.
Popular music resonates with people who are not careful listeners. Hits — like their big-screen counterparts, blockbusters — thrive on repetition of a few basic themes. Yet this music’s original beauty was in its habits of change and progress. And these characteristics continue to reward listeners, as they always have.
“The jazz impulse offers a deeper, sweeter, harsher, and truer sense of the world, if you can get to it,” Werner writes. “The jazz impulse demands more from its listeners. You have to pay attention, remember the theme well enough to follow the variations, catch the jokes.”
And so it remains. To most people, Sublime’s “Summertime” is just a great song. But some will derive an extra bit of pleasure knowing that the tune’s roots go back to the 1930s. More recently, “Philadelphia Freedom” captured my ears at the end of Philadelphia Experiment — turns out it’s an Elton John song.
If attention and careful listening are required to truly appreciate music from the jazz impulse, is jazz an elite music? Well, that generalization is certainly the last thing the genre needs … but if being a true lover of music, a well-versed and interested listener, a student and studier of American culture makes one an elite, then yes ? jazz is an elite music.
But don’t let it scare you off. Try listening to hip-hop, modern jazz or ‘jam’ music with a different ear next time. Listen for reconstructions, references and reformations. It is these subtle yet essential aspects that unite many types of music under one roof of inspiration — under the jazz impulse.
