The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America

by Burton W. Peretti

The story of jazz is more than a history of the music. The racial and cultural dynamics of American cities created the music, life, and business that was jazz.  Burton W. Peretti's classic study charts the life of jazz culture from its origins in the jook joints of sharecroppers and the streets and dance halls of 1890s New Orleans to the eve of bebop and World War II. As Perett shows, jazz was the epic story of players who transitioned from childhood spasm bands to Carnegie Hall and worldwide touring and fame. It became the music of the Twenties, a decade of Prohibition, of adolescent discontent, of Harlem pride, and of Americans hoping to preserve cultural traditions in an urban, commercial age. Finally, jazz was where black and white musicians performed together, as uneasy partners, in the big bands of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman.  Drawing on archives and the firsthand testimony of more than seventy musicians and singers (among them Benny Carter, Bud Freeman, Kid Ory, and Mary Lou Williams),  The Creation of Jazz  offers a comprehensive analysis of the role of early jazz in American social history.

Genres: Music, Jazz, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

Reviews

[Shelby Anne Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to get a detailed view of the context jazz emerged from as a cultural concept, but I imagine this would have been less compelling to a reader without a music theory background/a lack of familiarity with what sets jazz apart on a musical level and how that relates to the info in this book.

[Fel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Creation of Jazz by Burton W. Peretti presents a study of the creation of Jazz within its cultural context. Many historians and jazz musicians seem to question whether historians will ever be able to write a comprehensive and accurate history of jazz since early sources are scarce and interpretations are highly varied. Peretti argues that it is possible to gain an understanding of it by examining the social and musical changes surrounding its development. As a social phenomenon, it can greatly improve our understanding of life and culture in the early twentieth century. It is not just the history of a musical style, because it illuminates the history of African-Americans after the civil war and their struggle to overcome adversity.

Peretti argues that Jazz has roots in the Deep South where slaves greatly outnumbered whites. These conditions provided slaves with the opportunity to find their own worship space outside of white control and allowed certain aspects of their native religion to endure. After the Civil War, African-American culture drastically changed because they could establish stable family units for the first time, and family bands became very important. Their desire for change and entrepreneurship eventually created a drive to develop a new type of music.

New Orleans provided the perfect environment for this new type of music to develop. Although racial tensions were extreme, blacks here could make a smoother transition because they were able to obtain work and education. The violence of society combined with the black culture and their love of music, especially church music, eventually led to the formation of Jazz. By 1915, many blacks began leaving the cities and farms of the south via railroad and heading to cities like Chicago, Harlem, and San Francisco. These cities offered fewer venues for Jazz musicians, but in spite of their many disadvantages, blacks managed to become more confident.

By the 1920s, most white musicians refused to acknowledge black contributions to music, but in Chicago groups of young musicians began to embrace not only black jazz, but black culture as well. They were rebelling against society and dominant middle-class beliefs, and in their struggles, they managed to develop early relationships with African-Americans. As jazz continued to spread, and meld the musical ideas of whites and blacks, it became a truly biracial music. Unfortunately, the country as a whole was violently anti-biracial and demanded laws to segregate society. Whites often harassed black musicians, sometimes out of envy of the band���s success. White jazz musicians were subject to similar treatment for advocating black music and associating with black musicians. Both groups had to be very careful when touring, and by 1930, they catered mainly to northern audiences where racial antagonism was not as intense. As whites and blacks continued to work together, some racial barriers began to break down and they managed to form strong personal and professional bonds.

While many American historians have focused on the white perspective, even in relation to the development of jazz, Peretti effectively shifts the focus onto the African-Americans. Through jazz music, many blacks were able to rise above the strict social barriers. It became their way of fighting the system and trying to become part of society. Peretti, however, does not ignore the white experience with jazz or their contributions to the music. Like the blacks, the white jazz performers were looking to change their place in society. They used jazz as a means to rebel against their current white middle-class expectations.

Peretti���s book contributes greatly to the understanding of jazz but it raises as many questions as it answers, and he explores the possibilities of future research in the epilogue. Peretti calls for certain aspects of American Studies to be reevaluated to explain the ability of these black performers to make such profound accomplishments only a few generations after the end of slavery. There are also many subtopics to this area of history that deserve more attention such as its influence on other musical styles and the impact of the second great migration of blacks after World War Two. As it stands, The Creation of Jazz is an important piece of literature about the complicated development of jazz, but it is obvious that at the time it was published there was much more work to be done on the subject.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only because it utterly debunks the hopelessly simplistic narrative forwarded by Burns/Marsalis/Crouch, this work should be vastly better known. Written with utter lucidity and persuasiveness, this is a smart work of cultural studies. Judiciously weighing a variety of kinds of evidence, Peretti advances some clear but tentative theses about jazz in the first four decades of the twentieth century. He never advances beyond what the evidence will bear, yet in taking a fresh look at some old documentary sources, Peretti manages to offer persuasive accounts of race and class in early jazz, even as he debunks a score of shopworn myths about the music. The book is altogether genial and clear. The epilogue usefully charts the limitations of this particular study. It also situates the work in the larger context of American historiography and anthropology, suggesting potential fruitful lines for future scholarship. While there seems little absent from such a thorough work, Peretti doesn't engage with the increasing use of film in a variety of ways to shape the cultural project that was jazz. There are a host of short films that use jazz in creative and surprising ways, many of which chime with the kinds of arguments Peretti wants to make here. That's a small cavil for what ought to be a far better known introduction to jazz in American culture. Highly recommended.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such boring writing. The only way it could put you to sleep faster is if Henry Kissinger was reading it out loud.