The Importance of Jazz

Before taking this class, I had little to no knowledge about jazz, both as a musical style but also as a historically important cultural movement. Jazz goes far beyond the types of notes played and in what specific keys. It is a living, breathing thing that evolves with the people and the times. Very unique to jazz is the way that it easily adds varying musical styles to its repertoire while all the while maintaining its own identity. Jazz changed drastically through the times and places we studied, but it did not cease to be called jazz. Beyond its obvious importance to and inspiration of countless other musical genres, jazz holds very specific cultural significance, particularly for, but not limited to, the African American race and has always been tied closely to racism and slavery as well as civil rights. Additionally, jazz holds a reputation as a “party music” and really seems to be the root of all “kids and their music these days” sentiments, where a distinction is made between “young” and “old” music. The words “cool” and “hip” would have no meaning without jazz, which became the first real rebellion music that such culturally significant movements such as Rock in the 60’s can easily find their roots.
All of this contrasts greatly with my presumptions about jazz before this class. I have always associated jazz with my grandparents, with WWII and other ancient times. However, after reading about the lives of these musicians along with gaining a true understanding of their time, I have come to appreciate jazz for its enormous contributions to the musical as well as historical community. Though for me jazz seemed so old and foreign, by reading the autobiographies and learning the context as well as listening to the previously unheard of musicians, I began to understand the significance of the style and came to recognize the sources of much of my own culture. Though I had heard the names Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong, I had no idea what their music actually sounded like, or what their environments were like. Jazz was born out of these various communities with conflicts between race and class recurring throughout.
What was of particular interest to me was the mob influence in cities like Chicago and New York and the overall “low life” prejudices that jazz, like many musical styles later, had to fight its way out of. I was not very surprised to learn of this connection between jazz and the nightlife, including the drugs, alcohol, and parties that were associated with it. New music has always attracted the “sinners” of society which is pretty much everyone, and because of this, jazz became the perfect precursor to today’s music industry laden with rock stars. Jazz was always associated with black society and as such has had to overcome many obstacles in order to survive to this day. Though in today’s society jazz is finally respected and, for me at least, held as a classic style of music as opposed to contemporary, but the style and the musicians had to fight for every bit of respect it has earned and I can fully appreciate this when I look at younger musical styles that are continuously denigrated because they have yet to become an accepted style. The story of jazz is really the story of rebellion and counterculture and appeals most to the younger generation. These ideas and concepts of jazz were previously unheard of for me, but now I can see the importance of the history of jazz in the history of America.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this class and learned a lot about jazz. Having almost no knowledge before hand, it was easy to take a lot from the course. I was either entirely or almost entirely unfamiliar with every musician and now I can confidently talk about the various jazz styles and their proponents as well as make connections to my own music tastes.