HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE           HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE

RACE Segregation Jazz evolved in a context of segregation and racist attitudes throughout wider society and the music industry.  However, white and black musicians and audiences were always a part of jazz.   Racial politics has been linked to the rise in popularity of Swing.   Bebop, however, confronted the Jim Crow regime by the participation of people from different races within bands, audiences and the subculture. INTERPRETATIONS QUESTIONS OTHER SOURCES INTERPRETATIONS DeVeaux: The attitudes of pioneers such as Gillespie showed Bebop to be a meritocracy rather than one of racial privilege .  White musicians were welcomed to be involved dependent on their musical abilities. Peretti:  The biracial nature of jazz pushed the barriers for the segregated society.  Jazz musicians through its development had realised that jazz could be used to combat Jim Crow.  Jazz embodied  an ‘ethic of biracialilty’. Bakara:  Beboppers were anti-Assimilationist.  They were trying to take jazz back outside of the mainstream.  It was a project directed against white America but also against middle-class African Americans. Linking Issues Jazz History: Evolution Culture:Avant-garde / Arts Culture: Subculture  Jazz History: Industry Control Race QUESTIONS   Dizzy seem to have an attitude of exclusivity?   How did segregation seem to affect performance and opportunities and attitudes of the Bebop musicians? How did segregation affect their attitudes  to politics and other areas?     See "The Cult of Bebop"  Lie Four Lie Four Lie Five Lie Six  Lie Six Lie Six    Lie Seven Lie Seven   Lie Nine Lie Ten     OTHER SOURCES Newspaper articles such as interviews with Louis Armstrong can give a contemporary opinion on the intersection of music and politics and the impact of segregation on jazz. * New York Post, September 19, 1957. * "Jazz Grew Up ‘On the Wagon," San Francisco News, September 19, 1957. * Redlands [California] Facts, September 23, 1957. * "Satchmo is Real Cool about S. Africa Ban," New York Post, October 12, 1960. * Toronto Telegram, March 11, 1965. See Keeping Time. Sources about  Remembering Jim Crow.   EXTERNAL DISCUSSION Discussion about the effect of Segregation and Jim Crow on development of Jazz from Ken Burn’s Jazz. Documents and discussion questions about desegregation and the performance attitudes of Louis Armstrong.