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RACE    African Americans and Jazz  Jazz is a genre of music which is generally agreed to be African-American.   The issue of ethnicity remains controversial and depends upon how power relations are interpreted.   INTERPRETATIONS QUESTIONS Dichotomy: The roots and evolution of jazz  can be seen within the black experience.   That is, the socio-economic and political situation of African Americans was inherent in the musical origins from the spirituals and work songs, early jazz in New Orleans and so  on. OR The political context of African American jazz musicians is separate from the ‘blackness’ of the musical qualities.     INTERPRETATIONS   Peretti: In the development of jazz, traditional elements of African American music were given up.  Jazz history can be viewed as a Europeanisation of the African American music and worldview. Bakara: The assimilating nature of jazz in the 1940s, particularly with Swing, signalled a loss to African Americans, without gain in economic or political spheres.  Development of Bebop reasserted the importance of Blues as an African American music.  This maintained non-Western musical concepts such as polyrhythm and its ascendancy over melody.  However, ‘lateral exchange’ or ‘double’ assimilation occurred between African Americans and whites within bebop culture, only possible due to the fluency of African American musicians with European music. Belgrad: Bebop defied European musical standards through its tonality and improvised performance.  Since it was more democratic and participatory, it embodied a radical cultural stance.  This is even in comparison to European modernist music.  Elements of African American music, of antiphony, polyrhthm, prosodic tone, were crucial to the Bebop music.  These were also critical to the values and attitude inherent in Bebop, which coincided with other contemporary Arts subcultures.  These musical elements engendered a new approach towards communal production in Bebop.  Also related to the traditional African concept of time where it’s more important to be ‘in time’ than ‘on time’.  This recovery of orality and intersubjectivity, was in opposition to the objective, rational perspective of the mainstreasm culture. Linking Issues Jazz History: Evolution of Bebop Culture: Role of Subculture Culture: Avant-garde / Arts Race QUESTIONS Why was the African heritage of their music important to Dizzy and his associates? Which qualities of the jazz forefathers were significant? What was Dizzy's attitude towards white involvement in jazz?  How did this differ between external music industry, jazz musicians and audience?  How did Bebop muisicians seem to be influenced by Western music? See "The Cult of Bebop"    Lie Four   Lie Six Lie Six   Lie Seven    Lie Eight  Lie Eight   Lie Eight Lie Eight  Lie Nine  Lie Ten