New York, Big Band, and Swing

     In many ways, jazz is like a language. Sure, it is a form of music and a way to entertain city folk, but I believe it to be much more of a dialogue with the listeners rather than simply entertainment. The musicians tell a story, the listeners provide feedback, and the musicians respond by adjusting and inventing new ways to communicate certain emotions to the listener, much like language. If we look at the development of jazz during the 1920s in both Chicago and New York, I believe that New York was a larger contributor to the overall development of jazz than Chicago, even though Chicago had many things to offer.

     Thinking of Chicago, bands such as King Oliver with Louis Armstrong and the Austin High Gang come to mind. These bands focused primarily on the soloist and, as a result, were composed of a limited number of people and were generally localized to certain clubs (King Oliver at the Lincoln Gardens, for example). This approach, however, can only take you so far in jazz. In New York, names such as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Paul Whiteman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and many more were becoming widespread. As a result, there was much competition to be had, and in jazz, competition means you have to develop new techniques and styles to stay on top.

     One such form of competition that arose was stride piano cutting contests. In the early 20^th century, Harlem was primarily white. Over time, Harlem split into two. There was the original Harlem in mid-Manhattan with middle- to upper-class, and then the new Harlem that was “becoming a slum” (Giola, p.94). With the great migration in the 1910s came an overwhelming black population to the lower class Harlem. As such, a vast majority of tenants could not afford rent and held “rent parties,” which featured a night of jazz and partying for those who paid the door price. Jazz began to flourish in the ghetto Harlem and stride piano became the forefront of the style. Johnson, Waller, and Smith were among the top competitors of “cutting contests,” in which the piano players would trade choruses and “battle” via solos. These were friendly competitions and allowed both players and listeners to hear new techniques and observe new styles emerge. This friendly competition was not as widely available in Chicago as in New York, and is one of the reasons I believe jazz gained much publicity in the 1920s.

     Another factor in New York’s dominance over Chicago in its importance to jazz is the emergence of the big band and swing in New York. Fletcher Henderson was one advocate of the new big band style, and “drew primary inspiration not from New Orleans and Chicago jazz, but from these currents of popular music and dance that were sweeping New York in those years” (Giola, p.107). Even though Chicago did have an influence on New York musicians, New York had developed its own jazz culture, separate from Chicago. One aspect of this culture was the divergence from focusing on the “soloist” and a move towards the “section.” Henderson, in part with arranger Don Redman, added more players to the band and developed four distinct sections – the saxophone, trombone, trumpet, and rhythm sections. This new, more “full” sound was the perfect environment for the development of swing when Henderson recruited Louis Armstrong in 1924. Armstrong brought the idea of swing to the band and helped push a new style of jazz into the mainstream. Other large contributors to these new styles included Duke Ellington and his constant need to obtain a “hotter” sound and Paul Whiteman’s efforts to make jazz much more accessible to the public. In fact, Whiteman wrote a piece, “Rhapsody in Blue,” that adapted jazz to an orchestra that had no soloists. This is a prime example of the ways jazz was being applied to various ensembles and shows how New York’s musicians were concentrated on developing the jazz style in their own way and to make jazz readily available to the public in many different forms.

     While Chicago’s contributions to jazz were large, I believe New York played the primary role in shaping the jazz style into its own, new language. With the conversion from jazz combos focusing on soloists to big bands playing swing came widespread publicity for jazz.  The social, economic, and racial conditions in Harlem presented the perfect atmosphere for the cultivation of jazz that cannot be matched anywhere else in the US. However, as with any language, jazz was still developing and will continue to do so through present day.