Blog #5

This quarter in History of Jazz, I learned many new things and also had a few assumptions change that I thought I already knew.  Some of these assumptions included me thinking that jazz came out of one place and from only one person and also that it was just one sound and style.  Throughout the quarter I learned that my assumptions were wrong but on the right track.  There also was one specific concept that stuck out to me which was improvisation.  Before taking this class, I believed that I knew exactly what the definition was but I later learned that there was a much deeper meaning to the word.

I assumed that jazz originated from one place, not sure which place, but just one.  Little did I know that jazz did not come out of only one city or state but it came from many including,  New Orleans, Chicago, and New York.  Also, I assumed that there was only one person who basically created this style of music.  I later learned that there were many founding people associated with this style, including Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, and King Oliver.  In addition to my other assumptions, I never knew that there are many types of jazz and that it is not just one sound.  From this class and the readings I learned that there were subsets such as blues, swing, improvisation, and bebop. 

Upon taking this class, the definition I thought of in my mind of improvisation was as follows; any style, whether it is singing, instrument playing, or dancing, that was made up on the spot and as the music went along.  Improvisation, I eventually learned, is not only just a style of jazz music, but also something that can be expressed by the musician.  This style cannot be easily imitated or copied because of the fact it is made up on the spot making it original work.  Each of the musicians that used this style were able to claim their own songs and individuality which gave them their own identity.  Audiences knew who each of the individual musicians were because of their distinct sounds.  I really came to understand this concept in during one of the weeks of the course when Professor Stewart played audio recordings from multiple musicians who used this style.  It made me realize that this style was used to show the creative sides of each of the musicians who played this way.

Looking back on these past ten weeks, I have learned to appreciate jazz music a lot more.  This is because I now have evidence, reasons, and answers to my questions on this subject.  In addition to my greater appreciation of jazz, I also have a better understanding of the music itself and the culture in which jazz was created.

Blog #4

            Thelonius Monk grew up in a place called San Juan Hills, which was made up of many diverse people which came along with very diverse cultures.  The different blocks in San Juan Hills, made up the different cultures of the people that were living within this community.  According to Kelly, “every block is a different town” (Kelly 19).    Unfortunately though, this happened to be a very violent community.  Monk was fortunate to stay out of the violence for the most part, and focus all his frustration and emotions into his new style of music he was creating and the community that he was shaping.

Living in this violent, diverse community, Monk found many impacts that influenced his style of music.  Monk took piano lessons from a man named Simon Wolf who taught him “works by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Mozart” (Kelly 26).  Simon was not a jazz musician and was not the one who taught Monk jazz.  Monk learned how to play jazz music from his surroundings and local musicians from the community, which he later learned to integrate the two different styles that he knew.  Another major impact on Monk’s style was the church he attended in the community.  His mom would always take him and he grew to love the sounds of the church hymns being played.  One last major influence on Monk was the Columbus Hill Neighborhood Center, which was an “elaborate after-school and summer program for children and adults” (Kelly 28).  This became Monk’s second home where it taught him not only social and musical skills, but also discipline and how to act in this violent community.

Being a black musician in a community that was full of blacks and whites, Monk had to face racial issues that no one ever wants to face.  Because of his color, he was a target for racial inequality and experienced it many times.  For example, “the word “nigger” flowed easily from the lips of many teachers, who were also quick to side with white children whenever fights broke out” (Kelly 20).  Instead of fighting back, Monk used all his frustration to create his style of Bebop and used his music to escape from all the racial inequality chaos.

Although Monk was gathering all his frustration from racial inequality and putting it towards his music most of the time, there were a couple of times, including an incident in Delaware with Nica in 1958, when he let the tension get to him.  Monk went into a motel looking for a glass of water where he was rejected by the owner’s wife and told to immediately get out.  When the police came and asked Monk to get out of the car, Monk responded “Why the hell should I?”.  Being punished for something he did not do left a mark with Monk and shows that the racial tension happening in the community even affected Monk.

The community that Monk wanted to and did create was a very modern one.  Monk had a very eccentric behavior about him, and nobody ever knew what he was going to do next, which made his style exciting.  One of his band members said, “the one thing above all that Monk has taught me is not to be afraid to try anything so long as I feel it” (Kelly 231).  When Monk would dance to his music, it would allow his band members to know that the music being played was actually swinging.  The music Monk would create always had everyone on their toes waiting for what was going to happen next.