Before the start of this class, I had a pretty good idea of general jazz history, being raised listening to the music my whole life. However, I did not expect to learn about the sociological and cultural impacts that jazz music had on America. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the music, because it introduced to me how an art form can shape a country in a very powerful way. I love that I can listen to the music that I grew up with and now have the ability to apply how it makes me feel and thus to relate to historical populations, possessing a better understanding of how it changed the United States. However, growing up I listened to a lot of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, so I from my experience I assumed that women played a much larger role in the making and playing of jazz. This class opened my eyes to the patricentric world that jazz truly is, which was kind of disappointing in my opinion because I always enjoyed the more feminine side of the music. Throughout the class I learned that men’s perpetuation of jazz gave it the reputation of a violent, rambunctious lifestyle involving lots of sex, drugs, and booze. Because of this, combined with the male-centered society at the time, made it difficult for women, especially of African descent, to succeed in the music industry.
One facet of jazz history that I expected was the involvement of the black community in its creation and popularization. Especially since this is a Black Studies class, I knew we would focus mainly on important black artists throughout jazz’s long and colorful history. However, I had never even thought about white jazz artists in the early 1900’s, thinking of jazz as a stereotypically African American music. I was also surprised to learn about the black Creoles in New Orleans and their essential involvement in the initial creation of the music we know today as jazz. I enjoyed learning about how the interactions between races allowed for the creation, development, and propagation of jazz over time. I was especially interested in prominent white bands like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the Austin High Gang. I had assumed that jazz music was something bred in the slums of Harlem and the like and confined to that space, as opposed to proliferated throughout the cities and across racial boundaries. I had also been previously mistaken in thinking that black jazz musicians had simply played in nightclubs and released their music without hardship, failing to consider the tribulations they must have gone through trying to publicize their music. This class introduced me to the idea of bandleaders, managers, booking agents, and an entire world of white politics and economy behind the black jazz music I grew up listening to. Overall, this class opened my eyes to a political, cultural, and social world that I never expected to lie beneath the music that I danced to as a small child.
