What do you think?
Rate this book
The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz
Born of African rhythms, the spiritual "call and response," and other American musical traditions, jazz was by the 1920s the dominant influence on this country's popular music. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston) and the "Lost Generation" (Malcolm Cowley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein), along with many other Americans celebrated it--both as an expression of black culture and as a symbol of rebellion against American society. But an equal number railed against it. Whites were shocked by its raw emotion and sexuality, and blacks considered it "devil's music" and criticized it for casting a negative light on the black community.
In this illuminating work, Kathy Ogren places this controversy in the social and cultural context of 1920s America and sheds new light on jazz's impact on the nation as she traces its dissemination from the honky-tonks of New Orleans, New York, and Chicago, to the clubs and cabarets of such places as Kansas City and Los Angeles, and further to the airwaves. Ogren argues that certain characteristics of jazz, notably the participatory nature of the music, its unusual rhythms and emphasis, gave it a special resonance for a society undergoing rapid change. Those who resisted the changes criticized the new music; those who accepted them embraced jazz. In the words of conductor Leopold Stowkowski, "Jazz [had] come to stay because it [was] an expression of the times, of the breathless, energetic, superactive times in which we [were] living, it [was] useless to fight against it."
Numerous other factors contributed to the growth of jazz as a popular music during the 1920s. The closing of the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1917 was a signal to many jazz greats to move north and west in search of new homes for their music. Ogren follows them to such places as Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, and, using the musicians' own words as often as possible, tells of their experiences in the clubs and cabarets. Prohibition, ushered in by the Volstead Act of 1919, sent people out in droves to gang-controlled speak-easies, many of which provided jazz entertainment. And the 1920s economic boom, which made music readily available through radio and the phonograph record, created an even larger audience for the new music. But Ogren maintains that jazz itself, through its syncopated beat, improvisation, and blue tonalities, spoke to millions.
Based on print media, secondary sources, biographies and autobiographies, and making extensive use of oral histories, The Jazz Revolution offers provocative insights into both early jazz and American culture.
In this illuminating work, Kathy Ogren places this controversy in the social and cultural context of 1920s America and sheds new light on jazz's impact on the nation as she traces its dissemination from the honky-tonks of New Orleans, New York, and Chicago, to the clubs and cabarets of such places as Kansas City and Los Angeles, and further to the airwaves. Ogren argues that certain characteristics of jazz, notably the participatory nature of the music, its unusual rhythms and emphasis, gave it a special resonance for a society undergoing rapid change. Those who resisted the changes criticized the new music; those who accepted them embraced jazz. In the words of conductor Leopold Stowkowski, "Jazz [had] come to stay because it [was] an expression of the times, of the breathless, energetic, superactive times in which we [were] living, it [was] useless to fight against it."
Numerous other factors contributed to the growth of jazz as a popular music during the 1920s. The closing of the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1917 was a signal to many jazz greats to move north and west in search of new homes for their music. Ogren follows them to such places as Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, and, using the musicians' own words as often as possible, tells of their experiences in the clubs and cabarets. Prohibition, ushered in by the Volstead Act of 1919, sent people out in droves to gang-controlled speak-easies, many of which provided jazz entertainment. And the 1920s economic boom, which made music readily available through radio and the phonograph record, created an even larger audience for the new music. But Ogren maintains that jazz itself, through its syncopated beat, improvisation, and blue tonalities, spoke to millions.
Based on print media, secondary sources, biographies and autobiographies, and making extensive use of oral histories, The Jazz Revolution offers provocative insights into both early jazz and American culture.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 1989
3 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 15, 2014
I really enjoyed this book, it is everything which I expect from a social history.
It starts off tracing - or trying to trace, because nobody knows it for sure - the history of jazz, how and from what it was born, going back to African and slave music. How this changed to performance, how it became ragtime first, then jazz. What where the places where this kind of music was most frequently performed and since such places where often not too respectable (if not respectable at all), so it was that jazz. From the start, it gathered a very uncomplimentary reputation, one that over time turned into accusation of driving people crazy, breaking down all inhibitions.
The book traces the very beginning of the music in the marching bands in New Orleans, depicting a very vivid image of what it was like. Then moves to Chicago and New York (mostly) to show us the evolution of this music inside the Prohibition Era's clubs.
There are a lot of quotations from musicians who lived that era, and it's very enjoyable to read their memories. Sometimes it's like being there.
Then the author explores how jazz was perceived and lived by the black community as opposed to how it was perceived and lived by the white community. I particularly like the section devoted to jazz in Jazz Age films, because it not only explored the life of jazz in the movies, but also the changing perception of African American people and performers by viewers at large.
Really, every page is a discovery. I strongly recommend this to any lover of jazz, or, like me, fans of the Jazz Age
It starts off tracing - or trying to trace, because nobody knows it for sure - the history of jazz, how and from what it was born, going back to African and slave music. How this changed to performance, how it became ragtime first, then jazz. What where the places where this kind of music was most frequently performed and since such places where often not too respectable (if not respectable at all), so it was that jazz. From the start, it gathered a very uncomplimentary reputation, one that over time turned into accusation of driving people crazy, breaking down all inhibitions.
The book traces the very beginning of the music in the marching bands in New Orleans, depicting a very vivid image of what it was like. Then moves to Chicago and New York (mostly) to show us the evolution of this music inside the Prohibition Era's clubs.
There are a lot of quotations from musicians who lived that era, and it's very enjoyable to read their memories. Sometimes it's like being there.
Then the author explores how jazz was perceived and lived by the black community as opposed to how it was perceived and lived by the white community. I particularly like the section devoted to jazz in Jazz Age films, because it not only explored the life of jazz in the movies, but also the changing perception of African American people and performers by viewers at large.
Really, every page is a discovery. I strongly recommend this to any lover of jazz, or, like me, fans of the Jazz Age
March 2, 2011
I found the first two chapters pretty hard going, but after that I started to enjoy reading it. I think a lot of the musical theorish stuff threw me off (I once got 36% on a musical theory test back at secondary school, enough said). I'm also going to check out more stuff by Langston Hughes (one of his poems was in here and it was pretty awesome).
January 2, 2012
I couldn't get into the writer's style of prose in telling the history of jazz. While I find the topic an interesting one, with 3 other books in process I couldn't keep this one in the queue.
June 19, 2020
Read it in one sitting. An absolutely indispensable work about the intersection of music and American history.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews