Introduction New York City in 1950s America was a diverse area, with a plethora of nationalities mixed into the ‘melting pot’ of America. Frank O’Hara and Allen Ginsberg were part of this, though they were white, hailing from the renowned Beat generation. Alongside black poets such as Amiri Baraka, they led a revolution with poems such as “The Day Lady Died”, “A Step Away From Them” and “Howl”. “The Day Lady Died”, by Frank O’Hara talks about Billie Holiday, a black jazz artist. Though jazz music was popular in the 1950s, it was known as ‘black’ music, meaning that white people weren’t associated with the music; it was a cultural division between black and white people in America.
Jazz was a way for African Americans to express their dismay and hardship through music. James Baldwin clearly chose to include Jazz music within the passage in order to clearly make it evident of the time period and the urban area in which Sonny and the narrator lived. The audience reading this passage might not fully grasp then importance of Jazz within the urban communities unless having prior knowlege of Jazz history. Baldwin emphasis on Jazz shows how much the community relayed on it as a way to cope with troubling times within the African American community, any other genre would not have gone well with the in depth meaning of the the story. Sonny’s Blues is set in New York after World War II has taken place.
In the 20’s this music was Jazz. In the 80’s America saw the same urban African American culture embrace the hip hop movement. Similar in many respects with their secular themes, improvisation, polyrhythm, and use of call-and-response, hip hop became the new way to express the struggles while carrying on the tradition style of African American music. One of the most visible examples of hip hop’s roots in jazz is the basis of the art form, the beat. Hip hop originated when New York DJ’s began isolating the percussion breaks on funk and rock records.
Southern blacks, delivered from slavery a few decades before, started playing European music Afro modifications. The first place of jazz has many origins: New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis and Kansas City are just a few. But New Orleans was and still remains an important jazz center.
The Zoot Suit Heroes In the 1940’s Los Angeles had transformed from its Pueblo oriented origin into a thriving city full of lights and glamour. In the midst of all this arose a group of Mexican American kids who embraced the “Cool” Jazz culture around them, while still defying the rules of segregation that they faced. Years of oppression prior to the 1940’s had forced Los Angeles’s large Mexican American population to live in tightened neighborhoods in the outskirts of town called barrios. This form of segregation along with the racial discrimination they faced constantly in their day to day lives caused many young Mexican Americans to resent the white citizens that ruled Los Angeles. Out of this resentment was born the Pachuco a “Zoot Suit” wearing young Mexican American who rebelled against the norms of segregation by entering the clubs they weren’t supposed to be allowed in and ruling the dance floor.
Even when it came to more accomplished African diplomats, they too were mistreated simply due to the color of their skin. Maltreatment occurred across the United States, as people of African descent were rejected from restaurants, social clubs and decent housing was denied (Romano, 2000, P.551-552). This mix of injustice begin to create a melting pot of frustrations and civil unrest. At the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement were two
From its start in the early 20th century jazz has become distinct to many different regions. “Jazz it restless. It won’t stay put forever, it is forever seeking and reaching out and exploring (J J Johnson).” Around the 19th century while the world was engaged in its first global war, and European music was being thoroughly revitalized by the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg and experiments of musical groups going by the “futurists” and “Dadaists”, America was off developing a distinct music language known today as jazz. It is tempting to categorize some aspects of jazz as coming from either the African or European traditions. Jazz writing suggests from the over simplified rhythm that it is from Africa, while the harmonies are considered European.
I agree that African Americans were treated as second class citizens in the USA in 1950 due mainly to the way they were treated and public attitude towards them. However, by this time attitudes were in fact changing due to President Truman’s stance on black rights and the 1948 election as well as post second world war. After the Second World War, the American public were informed of how Jewish and other victims of Hitler and the Nazis were treated. This made Americans questions whether the segregation of the African American community was morally right and many were scared that it could lead to treating them similarly to the victims of the Second World War. Attitudes were beginning to shift.
Rhythm and blues was popular among the African American population, but until the early fifties, the white audience had little interest in this type of music. African American singers were the first to play Rock’ n’ Roll. Production studios became interested in this style of music and introduced it to America. For teenagers, listening to Rock ‘n’ Roll became a way of being a part of something exciting, as well as a way to rebel against the standards of society. Rock ‘n’ Roll became more popular among the younger audience.
These bands used to be called as ‘New Orleans Jazz’. During 1920s, white jazz bands’ pieces were called ‘Dixieland jazz’. However from 1940s, people combined those two types of bands and call them ‘Dixieland jazz’. Dixieland jazz style was created in the early 1920s. Dixieland jazz style is strongly influenced by the ‘traditions of blues, ragtime and brass band because Dixieland jazz was created when the traditions of blues, ragtime, and brass band were integrated into one musical piece’ (http://www.historyjazz.com).