Criticism and bebop notes (PAPER 3)
1. If there is any enemy considered "anti-jazz" - by jazz musicians, it might be over-interpretation. Based on interviews with Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, the most important characteristic of Jazz, that makes it authentic, is a sound that is "natural". [cite]
In Walser, the charge leveled "anti-jazz" is Amiri Baraka at jazz critics, white critics in particular. To Baraka and others, this and other signs of the interpretation of jazz were a menace to the art. Baraka charges that "critics strive to interpret rather than to understand' the music [cite]. There are two possible ways to think of how jazz criticism has effected jazz. At the least, jazz criticism has been irrelevant to an art form that as Gioia states "constantly consumes new influences" [cite] indepedently and unrestrained. Jazz as an art form has always thrived and evolved in spite of and even because of forces working against it. At best, jazz criticism is way, if imperfect, of documenting and recording trends in a form of music that is constantly changing, furtive, and at its essence hard to "pin down".
Additionally, criticism of any art form makes an assumption that that form is something that deserves an audience and should be held to some set of standards in presentation to that audience. In a sense, this does not work well with jazz, because although some forms of jazz are very audience- and entertainment focused, many others are less so. It is difficult for criticism to hold up against an art form that in many ways denies its basis - that there should be a particular audience with particular expectations.
Whether producers of jazz agree with criticism, as with other forms of art, having a cadre (usage?) of critics generally means that a trend or body of work has been elevated to a high art form. John Hammond, a noted jazz critic, fought to bring jazz to prominence. In contrast to what Baraka says about critics (and even Baraka admits there there are some decent critics)
2. Bebop - history
New jazz, into the modern era versus "old New Orleans" style. Louis Armstrong even derided bebop as being "chinese" or "jujitsu" music (Gioia, 62). Ironically, though, Armstrong's "solid, yet springing, 4/4 propulsion" was definitive of early swing which eventually evolved into bop. The late 1930's and early 40's was a time in jazz when "new ideas were coming together from various sources and directions", and "younger black musicians, tired of the repetition of...the big bands, began to form a new music...not...soeasily appropriated by the white leaders." This new music had its roots in big band, but came together in the "after-hours jam sessions" of younger jass artists. In New York, this nascent music came promenently from Minton's amd Monroe's Uptown House, two famous Harlem swing clubs where Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1943-44 started evolving musical ideas that became bop (Gitler 3-4).
As heard from lectures, the Kansas City sound in the 30's even had an influence on bebop that would come later - the long, blues-based riffs over which jams could last for hours with new, different instrumentations, introduction of the electric guitar [cite?] and even Charlie Parker himself gave rise to
In Walser, the charge leveled "anti-jazz" is Amiri Baraka at jazz critics, white critics in particular. To Baraka and others, this and other signs of the interpretation of jazz were a menace to the art. Baraka charges that "critics strive to interpret rather than to understand' the music [cite]. There are two possible ways to think of how jazz criticism has effected jazz. At the least, jazz criticism has been irrelevant to an art form that as Gioia states "constantly consumes new influences" [cite] indepedently and unrestrained. Jazz as an art form has always thrived and evolved in spite of and even because of forces working against it. At best, jazz criticism is way, if imperfect, of documenting and recording trends in a form of music that is constantly changing, furtive, and at its essence hard to "pin down".
Additionally, criticism of any art form makes an assumption that that form is something that deserves an audience and should be held to some set of standards in presentation to that audience. In a sense, this does not work well with jazz, because although some forms of jazz are very audience- and entertainment focused, many others are less so. It is difficult for criticism to hold up against an art form that in many ways denies its basis - that there should be a particular audience with particular expectations.
Whether producers of jazz agree with criticism, as with other forms of art, having a cadre (usage?) of critics generally means that a trend or body of work has been elevated to a high art form. John Hammond, a noted jazz critic, fought to bring jazz to prominence. In contrast to what Baraka says about critics (and even Baraka admits there there are some decent critics)
2. Bebop - history
New jazz, into the modern era versus "old New Orleans" style. Louis Armstrong even derided bebop as being "chinese" or "jujitsu" music (Gioia, 62). Ironically, though, Armstrong's "solid, yet springing, 4/4 propulsion" was definitive of early swing which eventually evolved into bop. The late 1930's and early 40's was a time in jazz when "new ideas were coming together from various sources and directions", and "younger black musicians, tired of the repetition of...the big bands, began to form a new music...not...soeasily appropriated by the white leaders." This new music had its roots in big band, but came together in the "after-hours jam sessions" of younger jass artists. In New York, this nascent music came promenently from Minton's amd Monroe's Uptown House, two famous Harlem swing clubs where Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1943-44 started evolving musical ideas that became bop (Gitler 3-4).
As heard from lectures, the Kansas City sound in the 30's even had an influence on bebop that would come later - the long, blues-based riffs over which jams could last for hours with new, different instrumentations, introduction of the electric guitar [cite?] and even Charlie Parker himself gave rise to
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