There's no mention of race or racism here in this account, so I feel compelled to point out that how much the critiques and predictions about jazz would be repeated with rock and later hip hop decades later, and in all cases part of the backlash was inspired by racism and fears of miscegenation, not unrelated to fears of the overt sexuality that accompanies so much of popular dance cultures.
I agree with you, but disco became very formulaic and commercialized and overplayed on the radio in the late 70's. There were good reasons for a backlash, not just racism.
Interesting that while Strauss was bemoaning jazz’s popularity, his French colleagues were embracing it with open arms. 1923 brought us Milhaud’s Creation of the World, inspired by the music he heard in Harlem clubs the year before. And Ravel couldn’t get enough of the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club when he visited New York in 1928. The influence of jazz in his later works is profound.
I've always said you can hear jazz in Chopin if you're listening, the syncopation, the left hand ostinatos while the right hand was playing crazy arpeggios 11 or 17 notes against 3 or 4, you can try and count it out as precisely as possible but ultimately you just gotta let loose and make it fit. And Chopin got it from somewhere although at the moment I'm blanking about other classical composers that preceded him. Frederic died in 1849 btw (so you don't have to look it up haha).
I find it amusing that the illustrations accompanying these stories make dancing to jazz look like rather a lot of fun! I wonder if that was intentional on the illustrator's part.
Yeah. You have to wonder that with the writer being a pseudonym if these articles weren’t meant tongue in cheek to drive people to actually listen to Jazz.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Eerie how current this feels. I can only imagine what 'Mrs. Lee's' response to Rock & Roll would have been.
Couldn’t gain access to the entire article, but here’s a bit of investigation into extent of collaborative associations between the Anti-Saloon League and the KKK
Love how the attack is accompanied with pictures a gals in short skirts dancing, showing their legs and the use of the word ‘aroused’ re parental disapprobation, which seems to have Freudian implications, and has elements of disapproval whilst hinting at desire to be a part of what was being condemned. Psychologically interesting....and who was she/he doing this envious backward glance at the indefensible?
This is hilarious! I was raised in Baltimore by grandparents who introduced me to jazz via their Duke Ellington records, and reminisced about the greats who would play at the city's theaters, like The Royal on Pennsylvania Avenue. Who knew they were contributing to the delinquency of a minor (me!)?
Great stuff! I am proud of my misspent childhood growing up in London in the 70's and experiencing so much degenerate (and fantastic) music. Sadly though, in all that time I never attended a "hooch & harem" party! :)
Great stuff. Hermann Hesse’s Harry Haller (in Steppenwolf from 1927) also expresses a very jaundiced view of jazz (and many other such advances as radios and phonographs) as he works through his middle aged reawakening (individuation). I am often reminded of Harry and Pablo, the horn player from the book, when I read about jazz.
Thanks for telling this story of a campaign to suppress creativity that failed. Jazz now has a history full of classics. And fresh creativity is as often inspired by re-discovery as by wholesale invention. Maybe more often.
I will never forget my conversation with the late Emil Mangelsdorff (Albert's older brother) about the nazis' treatment of jazz and especially of its practitioners - as a teenager, Emil was sent to the Russian front, after three weeks of being beaten and starved in his local jail. More than 60 years after the fact, Emil still expressed incredulity that a government would actually persecute people for the kind of music they played. Nazi condemnation of jazz, which they considered the degenerate music of rootless cosmopolitans and inferior races, sounds much like, minus the ethnic slurs, Martha Lee's Baltimoronic rantings. While Lee may have existed only in the mind of the Sun's editors and/or publishers, her bloviations were, dangerously, presented alongside real news, in a context most people took seriously in those days. Fortunately, 'her' efforts were totally futile.
There's no mention of race or racism here in this account, so I feel compelled to point out that how much the critiques and predictions about jazz would be repeated with rock and later hip hop decades later, and in all cases part of the backlash was inspired by racism and fears of miscegenation, not unrelated to fears of the overt sexuality that accompanies so much of popular dance cultures.
I agree that Jazz along with rock and roll brought Black and white musicians together and that was a huge no for a lot of people.
Also marijuana. This all seems so silly now. What could be better than everyone collaborating regardless of race?
Very true, but of course it wasn't just about musicians, but (and probably more importantly) audiences as well.
Some of this was covered in Ken Burns Jazz series.
I agree with you, but disco became very formulaic and commercialized and overplayed on the radio in the late 70's. There were good reasons for a backlash, not just racism.
Gotta stamp out those "Jungle Rhythms" as they could stir up urges to dance & sway the Hips ... & we all know where THAT could lead !
Are we sure this Hate movement didn't originate in Florida ?
Q: Why don't Baptists have sex standing up?
A: They don't want anyone to think they're dancing.
Fascinating story.
Interesting that while Strauss was bemoaning jazz’s popularity, his French colleagues were embracing it with open arms. 1923 brought us Milhaud’s Creation of the World, inspired by the music he heard in Harlem clubs the year before. And Ravel couldn’t get enough of the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club when he visited New York in 1928. The influence of jazz in his later works is profound.
I've always said you can hear jazz in Chopin if you're listening, the syncopation, the left hand ostinatos while the right hand was playing crazy arpeggios 11 or 17 notes against 3 or 4, you can try and count it out as precisely as possible but ultimately you just gotta let loose and make it fit. And Chopin got it from somewhere although at the moment I'm blanking about other classical composers that preceded him. Frederic died in 1849 btw (so you don't have to look it up haha).
I find it amusing that the illustrations accompanying these stories make dancing to jazz look like rather a lot of fun! I wonder if that was intentional on the illustrator's part.
Yeah. You have to wonder that with the writer being a pseudonym if these articles weren’t meant tongue in cheek to drive people to actually listen to Jazz.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Eerie how current this feels. I can only imagine what 'Mrs. Lee's' response to Rock & Roll would have been.
Couldn’t gain access to the entire article, but here’s a bit of investigation into extent of collaborative associations between the Anti-Saloon League and the KKK
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25144510
Interesting piece as usual… tx!
Love how the attack is accompanied with pictures a gals in short skirts dancing, showing their legs and the use of the word ‘aroused’ re parental disapprobation, which seems to have Freudian implications, and has elements of disapproval whilst hinting at desire to be a part of what was being condemned. Psychologically interesting....and who was she/he doing this envious backward glance at the indefensible?
Indeed, one can hardly imagine a better way to attract young people to the clubs! Could that actually have been the writer's intent?
Hence the phrase "band in Baltimore".
Oof.
As they say there's no such thing as bad publicity. A surefire way to get people interested in Jazz.
Well it worked.
This is hilarious! I was raised in Baltimore by grandparents who introduced me to jazz via their Duke Ellington records, and reminisced about the greats who would play at the city's theaters, like The Royal on Pennsylvania Avenue. Who knew they were contributing to the delinquency of a minor (me!)?
Apparently, being against jazz makes you draw in a style reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley.
Great stuff! I am proud of my misspent childhood growing up in London in the 70's and experiencing so much degenerate (and fantastic) music. Sadly though, in all that time I never attended a "hooch & harem" party! :)
And really. What does one wear to a harem party?
Why, harem pants of course ;-)
A veil? Maybe 7 of 'em?
Great stuff. Hermann Hesse’s Harry Haller (in Steppenwolf from 1927) also expresses a very jaundiced view of jazz (and many other such advances as radios and phonographs) as he works through his middle aged reawakening (individuation). I am often reminded of Harry and Pablo, the horn player from the book, when I read about jazz.
Harry Haller underwent a transformation. i.e. individuation.
Thanks for telling this story of a campaign to suppress creativity that failed. Jazz now has a history full of classics. And fresh creativity is as often inspired by re-discovery as by wholesale invention. Maybe more often.
I will never forget my conversation with the late Emil Mangelsdorff (Albert's older brother) about the nazis' treatment of jazz and especially of its practitioners - as a teenager, Emil was sent to the Russian front, after three weeks of being beaten and starved in his local jail. More than 60 years after the fact, Emil still expressed incredulity that a government would actually persecute people for the kind of music they played. Nazi condemnation of jazz, which they considered the degenerate music of rootless cosmopolitans and inferior races, sounds much like, minus the ethnic slurs, Martha Lee's Baltimoronic rantings. While Lee may have existed only in the mind of the Sun's editors and/or publishers, her bloviations were, dangerously, presented alongside real news, in a context most people took seriously in those days. Fortunately, 'her' efforts were totally futile.
This is wild! Those newspaper clippings are unreal haha