Why Jazz Happened

by Marc Myers

Why Jazz Happened is the first comprehensive social history of jazz. It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz’s post-war styles. Rich with the voices of musicians, producers, promoters, and others on the scene during the decades following World War II, this book views jazz’s evolution through the prism of technological advances, social transformations, changes in the law, economic trends, and much more. In an absorbing narrative enlivened by the commentary of key personalities, Marc Myers describes the myriad of events and trends that affected the music's evolution, among them, the American Federation of Musicians strike in the early 1940s, changes in radio and concert-promotion, the introduction of the long-playing record, the suburbanization of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights movement, the "British invasion" and the rise of electronic instruments. This groundbreaking book deepens our appreciation of this music by identifying many of the developments outside of jazz itself that contributed most to its texture, complexity, and growth.

Genres: Music, Jazz, History, Nonfiction, Sociology, Art

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Marc Myers is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, where he writes about rock, soul and jazz, as well as the arts.

Reviews

[Genni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this work is a little mis-leading, as the scope of the work is narrow in focus and does not refer to the beginnings of jazz in New Orleans. Instead, it highlights the non-musical forces that shaped jazz from the 40s-70s, good supplemental reading for anyone studying its history.

[Kurt Gottschalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of Marc Myers’ excellent new jazz history isn’t Why Jazz Happened? Thankfully, there’s no question mark in the title. Rather, Myers has written a refreshingly concrete volume on a genre that stubbornly, sometimes proudly, refuses to be defined.

The blogger and Wall Street Journal critic pulls this off quite handily by considering the development of jazz over three decades from the outside. He takes the lineage of ragtime, blues and improvisation as a given and concerns himself with the external factors - the recording industry; the rise of radio; military service during World War II; Hollywood; magnetic tape and the long-playing record; the popularity of rhythm’n’blues and rock’n’roll; the Civil Rights movement and technological improvements in amplification and electric instruments - that shaped the music’s evolution from 1942-72 (with a brief epilogue bringing us rather hastily to the current day). Each of those variables, in Myers’ argument, spawned a new style of jazz, from bebop through hardbop, West Coast cool, the avant garde and fusion, with anecdotes about such figures as Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Creed Taylor and Burt Bacharach helping to move the storytelling along.

For the most part, the book focuses on New York and LA. Especially satisfying is the chapter on Los Angeles in the ‘50s, where television and movie work and the isolation of a culture built around cars and suburbs (as opposed to New York’s compact neighborhoods and nightclubs) changed the way the music was made. Myers is boldly unafraid of discussing race and class in his formulation. New Orleans only gets mentions, however, and there’s little about Chicago before the ’60s, when it becomes Myers’ staging ground for discussion of social consciousness and race relations as extenuating factors.

As such it’s limited as a jazz history, which isn’t what it wants to be anyway. The entertainment industry is located on the coasts and that’s where decisions were made. Myers simply follows the money.

From the August, 2013, issue of the NYC Jazz Record.

[Ilse Wouters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why Jazz happened...the perfect title to understand the coming of jazz as a musical style and maybe even a reference, and how style evolutions and "fashions" can be linked to a society, the technological means available to that society and the social interactions it prefers. As a fan of music in general and jazz in particular, this book taught me quite some things I hadn´t thought about before. Very interesting indeed.

[Tjitze Vogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good way to write about the why of music, how it ties in with the other forces shaping our world. Too small-scale to pretend to be a complete insight into all the ties (jazz keeps happening in a lot of places). Hopefully giving a new impetus to writing more than just anecdotes about music without the reader having to be a specialist, begun in the work of James Lincoln Collier on Jazz, Armstrong, Ellington.

[Stephen Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a comprehensive social history of jazz covering issues within the music itself but more significantly outside that influenced the development of jazz. We start with the first of two musicians’ union bans on the recording of new music until the recording companies agreed to contribute to a fund to support musicians who due to jukeboxes, sound in films and especially broadcast radio were out of work. The book discusses changes to recording technologies, how LPs enabled longer tracks and longer solos which in turn led to jazz featuring more solos, how GIs returning from WWII and studied music at university thanks to free tuition for veterans were trained in classical music and which was reflected in their jazz, the development of be-bop and hard bop, how jazz on the west coast was both more relaxed and highly racially segregated compared to east coast jazz and the contribution of jazz to the civil rights and return to Africa movements. The book concludes with a discussion of just how the explosion of pop/rock music in the early 1960s and just how much of a challenge it was to jazz just to survive.

The book was thoroughly researched, well written and very readable. However, what it lacked, despite the title, was any discussion of how jazz came into being and indeed any of its development from its inception in the 1870s until the early 1940s, as well as any discussion, despite being published in 2013, of jazz after about 1972.

[Will McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why Jazz Happened explores the historical context of ten different movements in jazz music between 1942 and 1972. In terms of the historical context provided, that varies from section to section. In some cases, the movement in jazz occurred as a result of a new technology - recording techniques that allowed longer pieces to be put to record at once, for example. In other cases, that history tied in with the political and social history of the United States. World War 2, the Civil Rights movement, and the British Invasion of the 1960s (as well as the counterculture that came with it) all had their own effects on jazz, and Marc Myers' analysis of each movement is masterfully done whether he's talking about the history of the music industry or of race relations in the United States. I think this book would be interesting to fans of popular music in general, as early jazz WAS the pop music of its time, and the history of jazz has often coincided with the history of pop music even after jazz was no longer ~the thing~, but I do know jazz fans would probably get the most out of this book. For someone who didn't know anything about jazz, it would still probably be fairly interesting, but having a baseline knowledge about the genre definitely helps here.

[Geoffrey Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains fascinating information about the evolution of jazz in light of various external factors. Some of these factors are related to technology, as the arrival of 33 and 45 rpm records allowed for longer recordings and encouraged jazz and its longer solos that were impossible to capture on a three minute,78 rpm shellac disk. Some of the changes dealt with how music was shared with audiences, as the arrival of radio and juke boxes meant music reached many more people. And some of the changes fell in the unintended consequences category, as musicians returning from the Second World War benefited from the GI Bill and received professional training and established networks of friends and collaborators through time spent in the musical programs developed at universities and schools of music in the postwar period. Jazz then is challenged with the rise of pop music, and was slow to respond to the tsunami known as “ Beatlemania”. Marc Myers also explores the impact of the social unrest of the 1960s, as the civil rights movement and anti war sentiments around the Vietnam War were felt in American society. An interesting social history of jazz, rather than a more traditional history of jazz musicians.

[John Kissell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Why Jazz Happened" is an excellent analysis of the business/economic, technological, and cultural changes that charted the course of jazz from 1942 to 1972. It is densely written -- each graf is packed with information and ideas to consider -- yet it is worth the effort.

Much of this history is familiar, such as the introduction of LPs in the 1950s or the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, but Marc Myers adds context and research that illuminates the development of jazz. I would quibble with the title to say that it's more how jazz happened as opposed to why (facts as opposed to rationales), but that's a small matter. "Why Jazz Happened" would be a valuable read for tech lovers, economists, cultural historians, and, yes, jazz lovers.

[Mike Balsom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great look at the development of the true American musical art form from its earliest days in the early 1900s. Myers talks of the importance of the G.I Bill, the American Federation of Musicians strike(s), the development of radio, the creation of the LP, and the populating of the west coast suburbs as formative and influential events in jazz. From swing, to bop, to hard bop, to African influences, to jazz rock fusion, right through to the resurgence of jazz in the CD age, Myers covers it all in a well-researched and well-written overview.

[John J Moroney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far more historical and academic than I expected, this book is very detailed. Can't vouch for accuracy but hard to argue against the wealth of research. Makes a convincing argument for the rise and decline of mainstream jazz during the 50's and 60's. An incredibly detailed (I thought fascinating) description of the arc of recording technology and the commercialization by the recording companies, radio stations and the key personalities.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history

Myers doesn't stick strictly to the history of the music, but instead uses jazz as a vehicle through which to explore a number of different aspects of 20th century American history.

[Rob Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really an outstanding history of culture, business, technology, and the artists. I used various music apps to listen to a lot of the recordings mentioned which added greatly. Great research. Very enjoyable.

[Dale]

So not at all what i expected. It’s more a review of the technological development of the record industry as it relates to jazz than anything else. Well done. Well enough. But not what I thought it was going to be. Still 3 stars.

[Steven Whitted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. I had no idea that so many non-music events helped shape jazz as we know it today.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at jazz history. Read this after The history of Jazz by Ted Gioia.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will not tell you why jazz happened. But it’s a good book for jazz aficionados.

[Dave Ciskowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting as a capsule history of jazz and an investigation of the impact of several external factors on its development. Myers tracks the changes in jazz from around 1940 through 1970, and draws connections between specific events and specific jazz movements. This is a little bit too just-so; it would be arbitrary and a bit too reductive to expect that the events he discusses were directly tied to specific stylistic movements in jazz. But the connections are interesting, and the book also serves as a good short history of jazz, tying it to larger developments in American society. The style is accessible and enjoyable, and the book does a good job of being entertaining and scholarly at the same time. A good read for anyone who’s interested in the history of jazz.

[Mike Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read about this book on a jazz blog I follow when it came out, but I didn't realize this jazz history was limited to post WWII thru the early 70's. Although that is the time period jazz seems to have changed itself the most.

The sub-genres of jazz the author lays out in the intro don't always line up perfectly with the outside forces he discusses, but that's really a minor complaint. I enjoy stories of disruptive technology, so I liked reading about things like recording technology and electric instruments impacting the music. Some chapters are slower than others, but a good look at what shaped jazz.

[Chris Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots on recording technology and how to build speaker-stacks at Woodstock, not much to say about the musicians or what they thought they were doing. No mention of Albert Ayler or Archie Shepp, one reference to Eric Dolphy. Can you talk about the Black Consciousness jazzers of the early '60's without acknowledging them? And when we get to rock-influenced jazz-fusion, it's mostly the Mahavishnu Orchestra, not Davis and "Bitches Brew". He gets to tell his story not mine, of course he does, but there are some very big omissions. Not sure I'll be keeping this for a go-to reference book.

[Tracy Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only is this a good source for the history of Jazz but it also discusses the record industry. How and why the 78 record evolved into the 45 and 33 long playing albums. Why ASCAP was started and how World War II helped musicians learn more and find jobs. The economy and geography of America had a lot to do with Jazz and still does.

[Ken Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I judge books like this on whether I learned much. With this one, I did. Very good on the post war changes in jazz. He hints about why popularity of jazz has declined ( or if you prefer why jazz is dead) but not not look at that deeply.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly good history of jazz written from a sociological viewpoint. Well-written, but I feel like with a few details changed, it could have been about any form of popular music. Kind of glosses ofer the last 40+ years as well. Valuable to the jazz history completist.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

liked it very much. it is not just a collection of anecdotes. it is informative; it really explains the commercial, social, and political influences that produced environments for jazz to develop.

[Barry Flanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good historic detail about jazz and jazz musicians. Would be boring in spots for some who are
not jazz fanatics. Really didn't get into modern developments much either.