In an age of 24-hour news coverage, preemptive and unilateral military strikes and condescension toward the very idea of “American” — both from some of our own citizens and from abroad — what can Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk or Andy Kirk tell us about ourselves?
Jazz, perhaps more than any other genre, is a distinctly American form of music. Early jazz finds roots in both European and African music, but as it matured the structure and nature of jazz became decidedly more American, emphasizing solo work and improvisation within a loose framework. In the middle part of the century, that loose framework and emphasis on individual accomplishment within a group came to symbolize the United States to many musicians abroad.
That individuality became the hallmark of jazz is no surprise. Artistic achievement in America has always been driven by the agon between the individual artist and the influences of precursors and contemporaries. Jazz has been no different. Each successive generation of musicians has had to struggle with what has already been achieved and what was left to create. It required constant innovation, constant dedication to creation. Each of the great musicians looked to mark jazz, to leave their own indelible signature on the genre.
Just as American scientists and scholars raced toward innovation in their fields throughout the 20th century, jazz artists raced to form and reform jazz. Decade after decade produced new forms: ragtime, swing, bebop, cool jazz, acid jazz, free jazz. Each new form challenged preexisting notions of jazz. Even today, scholars, critics and fans disagree on the definition of “jazz,” with some including all forms of jazz while some arguing that each new form differs too much to be considered jazz at all.
The same force that drove jazz forward ultimately led to its demise as a popular form of music. Jazz shifted from the dance halls into jazz clubs, from the feet to the ear. Over time it became more sophisticated, required a more discerning ear and jazz criticism flourished. Musicians started playing for other musicians, battling it out to prove their contribution. By the time acid jazz and free jazz emerged, most people had stopped listening. Free jazz, in particular, became much more a personal expressive action or academic exercise than a coherent musical expression.
In an age when the vast majority of the world sees Americans as a violent, brutish warrior people, what does jazz have to teach us? It is, in fact, a violent media. Like hip-hop today, jazz has had its share of problems with drugs and violence. But even more than that, jazz argues for violence against the soul, violence against ideas. Swing was considered a violent attack against social mores concerning sexuality. Dizzy Gillespie and the bop artists attacked the swing conventions with their new style of playing. The theme of many pieces by artists like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck seem to be internal conflict. More than one critic has taken Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and Monk’s “Epistrophy” as the fight between the lighter and darker aspects of the self.
The difference between jazz and the more modern sounds that attempt to pick-up those same themes is the depth of thought behind them. Due to the competitive nature of jazz, it developed a deep intellectual ethos behind the notes. The ideas of violence against the system, against others, against that which is foreign and against that which has hurt you that surfaces throughout most modern pop, alternative, country and hip-hop seems simplistic and reactionary next to jazz. The nuance of situation comes through more fully in jazz than perhaps in any other American form of music.
Nuance. We live in a country that has always seemed to have trouble holding onto nuance. Black and white, left and right, red and blue, good and evil — we constantly run into these distinctions, but are left helpless when we realize that life is very rarely so clearly cut. What jazz has to teach us is nuance. It’s a reminder that things aren’t as clear as they seem, that even our most basic of emotions is far more complicated than our political leaders and religious figures are able to communicate.
Lucky for Madison, a thriving jazz scene exists. Just check out the Isthmus’s online Club Calendar (http://www.thedailypage.com/going-out/ ) to find one of dozens of jazz venues each week.
