Bow to the Duke

            Both Chicago and New York were essential to the development of Jazz in the 1920’s. Chicago was an urban city that promised a wealth of new opportunities for African Americans attempting to move out of the racist South and capture their part of the American Dream. Chicago was also an incredibly important stepping stone in the overall American migration west. New York was the cultural and artistic capital of the United States, and it was here that the Swing Era can find its roots. Additionally, most of the recording industry, both written and audio, was centered in New York, and so the development and proliferation of jazz was tied to the city. I think New York holds a slight edge over Chicago in its importance to the advancement of the jazz musical style mainly because of the great amount of influence on Swing and the city’s cultivation of some of the finest jazz musicians. Not to mention the Harlem Renaissance which was a full cultural upheaval that went beyond just jazz.

            The social, economic, and racial conditions played an integral role in shaping jazz in New York. The conditions of the time saw African Americans still very much segregated, even within the black community. Similar in attitude to the Creole presence in New Orleans, there was also a significant amount of middle-class African Americans who attempted to separate themselves from what they considered the lower-class jazz partiers. This class distinction within black society, combined with the already segregated black and white society of the 1920’s, led to the creation of this Harlem style of jazz that was a fusion of different styles and tastes. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great artistic flourishing in a wide variety of black intellectual and cultural subjects. However, even though Harlem was undergoing this great renaissance, it was at the same time becoming a poverty-stricken slum. This conflicting environment became a perfect mixture for fostering the development of jazz. The jazz style began to benefit both from the increase in classically trained musicians and the Harlem rent party and nightclub environment that created such stiff competition along with raw, passionate music. The Cotton Club was the epitome of these two societies coming together. This Harlem club owned by organized crime became one of the hottest white only venues in town for white people to venture out and listen to black musicians in Harlem, but behind the safety of segregation.

            The influence of the European musical tradition, particularly with the piano, was also very important in creating the jazz climate in New York. Here we see the evolution of jazz from the smaller, solo-happy bands in Chicago to the birth of the big band, orchestra sound that heavily included the stride piano. Same as in New Orleans, New York successfully combined different musical forms in order to further evolve jazz. This evolution that took place in jazz was essential “to expand audience for African American music in the face of discrimination from the cultural elite, both within and without the black community, and despite a severe economic downturn” (Gioia 96). The combination of the previous ragtime and blues jazz with the more classical, and specifically piano, styles further changed the sound of jazz. The new celebrated skill was in band-leading and orchestration rather than soloing. Band-leading included finding and keeping great talent. This unique Harlem style was an important precursor to the Swing Era. The main band-leaders who epitomized the New York style were Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Duke Ellington. The leaders in the stride piano movement comprised of jazz legends: Willie “the Lion” Smith, James P. Johnson, and Thomas “Fats” Waller. These musicians were some of the very best in the history of jazz.

            To me, Duke Ellington fully encapsulated the New York style, both in his musical career as well as his personal life. He was fairly well-educated and of a higher class then most of the jazz players who came out of New Orleans. Being a very intelligent and suave man, Duke Ellington was the perfect New York City guy and had all the tools necessary to attract some of the biggest names in jazz to come play in his band, Louis Armstrong most famously. In addition to this, he was a brilliant musician and as his band became the headliners at the famous Cotton Club, he became the face of jazz in New York. Not only this, but because he was playing for a white club he kind of became the face of black society in general. There are very few names in jazz that command the amount of respect of Duke Ellington and this alone is why he edges out Fletcher Henderson in importance.