Kevin's Culture Corner:
Music, Politics and American Culture
The Following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book on the Music of World War Two
From Ragtime to Jolson: Popular Music in the 1920s
by Kevin Comtois
“If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.”
Louis Armstrong
American music of the 1920s was the result of almost three hundred years of Anglo-African cultural diffusion. Ever since the first Africans were brought to the mainland of America in the 1600s, the Anglican and the African have been intentionally and reluctantly combining their cultural traditions and music. The birth of the slave spiritual was a combination of European religious traditions and African melodies and rhythms. The music that developed in Congo Square in Louisiana was a combination of French, Spanish, English, creole, American Indian, and African traditions. The music from the Appalachian region was a combination of Irish, Scottish, and English music traditions. In fact, almost all forms of American music (except maybe for the American Indian, but that is for another examination) are a synthesis of other forms of music. The popular musical styles of the 1920s were a culmination of one hundred and fifty years of cultural diffusion and evolving communications technology. The styles of music examined in this chapter are Ragtime, Urban Blues, Rural Blues, Orchestra Jazz, Improvisational Jazz, Big Band Jazz, Classical Jazz, Country Blues, Classical Country, Boogie Woogie, and Tin Pan Alley.
The decade began with the unusual sounds of Ragtime that came out of New Orleans in the early years of the century. Some say that Ragtime originated in St Louis, Missouri and it traveled down the Mississippi just like people, products, and ideas. While the actual origin of any style of music is debatable, Ragtime probably originated in the caldron of cultural diffusion we call New Orleans.
The musical artist that most exemplified Ragtime was Scott Joplin. He was probably born in Texas in 1868, his father being an antebellum slave who became a common laborer following the Civil War, his mother born a free black American. Joplin taught himself the complexities of the piano at an early age, realizing that music was the way out of poverty. He was taken under the wing of a Texarkana music teacher, Julius Weiss, and took some courses at a Methodist school called the George R. Smith College in Sedalia. He began publishing marches and waltzes as early as 1896. By the end of his career, dying at the age of 49, probably suffering from dementia brought upon by syphilis, Joplin published 44 Ragtime pieces, one Ragtime Ballet and two operas. According to his on-line biography,
In August 1899 they contracted with Sedalia music store owner and publisher John Stark to publish the ‘Maple Leaf Rag’…. The contract specified that Joplin would receive a one-cent royalty on each sale, a condition that rendered Joplin a small, but steady income for the rest of his life…. By 1909, approximately a half-million copies had been sold, and that rate was to continue for the next two decades.
Do the math; selling a half a million copies at one cent royalty means five thousand dollars in his pocket. That’s a lot of money, especially for a mixed-race American in the middle of the Jim Crow era!
“Maple Leaf Rag” was a fast-moving piece of music that almost seems ragged in its approach to the melody. With both hands on the piano, a Ragtime musician would be playing a different melody with each hand, while each hand would still be in sync with the other, then coming back to the same melody. The process would continue throughout the piece. The result was seemingly magical to the ear as the listener finds himself listening to both melodies simultaneously separated to only come back in sync once again. Joplin followed Maple Leaf Rag with many other pieces that can be still heard today such as "The Entertainer," "Peacherine Rag," "Cleopha," "The Chrysanthemum," "The Ragtime Dance," "Heliotrope Bouquet," "Solace" and "Euphonic Sounds." This music, while interesting to listen to, and fun to dance to, obviously ideal for bordello background music, also turned out to be perfect for the silent films of the 1910s and 20s. This ragged music or “Ragtime” became one of the most copied piano styles in the first half of the twentieth century.
A major artist/musician important to the development and especially the spread of Ragtime music was Jelly Roll Morton. Jelly Roll was another mixed race American like Scott Joplin, probably born on October 20, 1890, in New Orleans, as Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, but took his stepfathers last name Morton. The name Jelly Roll was a nickname given to him by the prostitutes in the bordellos of New Orleans and Jelly Roll Morton was born. Learning how to play piano at the tender age of 10, he absorbed the styles of Ragtime and Dixieland he heard protruding from the brothels and bordellos in the streets of New Orleans and eventually became a ‘Johnny Appleseed’ of New Orleans Jazz. Jelly Roll took the sound of ragtime piano, and using the structure of a Dixieland band, was able to create something new and unique. Instead of each hand playing a different take on the melody as in piano Ragtime, each musician in the Dixieland band would be playing their instrument independent of each other, coming back together again for a solo or the chorus of the number. His Ragtime arrangements captured the sound of New Orleans and spread throughout the country. I call his style Dixie-Rag!
There are a lot of good stories about Jelly Roll. It is rumored that he would set his piano in a way, out in the hallway of the brothel, so that he could see inside the rooms where all the business was being transacted. He learned to play in the same rhythm of the ‘activity’ taking place in the room. He learned that if he played faster and faster, he would help the prostitute complete the trick, allowing for more paying customers. The prostitutes would love the way “the Professor” (as some people called him), played his piano and gave him a portion of their tips. Not only did Jelly Roll earn himself a nickname among the working girls, he also made more money in tips and gained the reputation of a great back player to the oldest profession in history. Whether or not this story is true, it certainly is a good one to tell. In fact, Jelly Roll told some pretty good whoppers in his time as well. For example, he seemed to take credit for creating jazz in New Orleans. He said: “It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.” Regardless of the veracity of this statement, the fact remains that many musical historians give credit to Jelly Roll for being one of the first musicians to write this new music down.
Jelly Roll’s music could be described as a combination of New Orleans styles showcased by the likes of Scott Joplin, Buddy Bolden, Freddie Keppard and the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Buddy Bolden, also known as King Bolden, was a cornet player, who played with at least a half a dozen bands and was credited with founding the “Big Noise” of the cornet. I can imagine a young Louis Armstrong listening in to the sounds coming out of the bordellos of Bourbon and Bason Streets (the area known as Storyville) and dreaming of himself making his own big noise! Bolden drank heavily, hung around all kinds of women, and was arrested at least once. He was eventually institutionalized at the State Insane Asylum in Jackson Louisiana by his mother in 1907, with the diagnosis of Acute Alcoholic Psychosis and Dementia Praecox, eventually dying at the young age of 30. Freddie Keppard, a New Orleans Native, came from a musical family and learned to play the mandolin, violin, accordion, and cornet. By the age of 16 Keppard had organized the Olympia Orchestra, eventually migrating to the west coast, and then traveled to most major cities, carrying his own personal style of creole jazz with him. Turning down a recording contract because he was worried people would “steal his stuff,” a few Keppard recordings may still exist, those he recorded in 1926 with Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra and the Jazz Cardinals. The Original Dixieland Jass Band was a group of white musicians, formed by bandleader and trumpeter Nick LaRocca, who incidentally publicly stated that he was the creator of jazz and black people had no part in its creation, are known as the first to record “jazz” music. Their style was strictly Dixieland, very danceable, with melodies seemingly independent of each other but wonderfully streamed together to meet at a point for a short solo and then back to the mixed melody. The first two recordings of The Original Dixieland Jass Band were “Livery Stable Blues” and “Dixieland Jass Band One-Step.”
Jelly Roll Morton brought his DixieRag music to Los Angeles and then Chicago where he produced his first recordings, such as the “Original Jelly Roll Blues.” He formed the Red Hot Peppers in 1926, which revolved between a seven and eight-piece band, following his lead in the DixieRag style. Some of the recordings of the Red Hot Peppers were "Black Bottom Stomp" and "Smoke-House Blues," later moving to New York in 1928, recording "Kansas City Stomp" and "Tank Town Bump." His performances and recordings around the country helped spread this new music and set the stage for the evolution of Jazz into the Big Band sound!
Although groundbreaking and influential in the evolution of Jazz, Jelly Roll’s style eventually faded and seemed old fashioned. As a result, Morton fell out of the limelight and struggled to earn a living during the bleak times of the Great Depression. According to an A&E on-line biography, Jelly Roll was influential and original, but fell out of popularity as American musical tastes changed and sound technology developed. “Despite making use of homophonically harmonized ensembles and allowing more room for solo improvisation in his music, he remained true to his New Orleans roots, producing music that gradually came to be viewed as old-fashioned within the industry…. Although Morton may not have been the inventor of jazz, he is regarded by fans and experts as one of the art form's great innovators.”
The 1920s saw the recording of two kinds of distinctly different but also very similar styles of music: Rural Blues and Urban Blues. Since Urban Blues is a combination of Rural Blues and Jazz, let us examine Rural Blues first.
Rural Blues is a style of individualistic solo music that derives its power from the emotional state of the performer, the structure of the music and the intensity of the lyrics. Rural blues originates from an attitude and a feeling. As they say: those that sing the blues have the blues, they sing the blues to get rid of the blues. Usually, Rural Blues is made by a solo singer playing a six or twelve string guitar, with the structure of the song being: line of verse, repeat line of verse, answer line of verse. Here is an example of the AAB structure from St Louis Blues as sung by Bessie Smith:
I hate to see the evening sun go down
I hate to see the evening sun go down
It makes me think I'm on my last go 'round
The subject of Rural Blues is all based on the experience of African Americans from the reconstruction era when the style evolved from slave spirituals to the Jim Crow Era where racial segregation was the law of the land.
There are four basic styles of Rural Blues: Mississippi Delta Blues, Piedmont Blues, Memphis’s Blues and Texas Blues. Each style is regional and unique but similar in purpose and impact.
Mississippi Delta Blues is known for is growling vocals and falsetto slurs, with guitar licks linked directly to the lyrics, emphasizing each line. As Muddy Waters described, “Me and my guitar, we have a conversation and talk together – that’s from the Delta style.” Charlie Patton is a good early example of this style of music. According to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame website:
Patton crafted such full textures in his music that his recordings can sound as though three guitarists are performing together – but it was all Patton. The virtuosity of his inimitable guitar technique offered a way to convey on record the energy of his live performances. Patton played his guitar between his legs, shouted to reach the back of crowded juke joints, and harshly beat rhythms on his guitar with songs that sometimes stretched to half an hour.
“Pony Blues,” Patton’s first recording in 1929, is described by the Library of Congress as a song with a:
(P)eppy, upbeat melody…It was very much for African American dancers, who were likely to move according to the steps of dances with names like the shimmy-she-wobble and the one-step. Patton also seems to be singing and playing as much for listeners as for dancers. Analysts have counted up to six melodic strains in the 18-lyric phrases on the three-minute recording. Rather than just singing loudly, Patton shifts among various grades of vocal dynamics. Deftly he fills the weak spots of the melody with strong beats from his guitar.
Baby, catch my pony, saddle up my black mare (x2)
I'm gonna find a rider, baby, in the world somewhere
Hello central, the matter with your line? (x2)
Come a storm last night an' tore the wire down
Got a brand new Shetland, man, already trained (x2)
Just get in the saddle, tighten up on your reins
And a brownskin woman like somethin' fit to eat (x2)
But a jet black woman, don't put your hands on me
Took my baby, to meet the mornin' train (x2)
An' the blues come down, baby, like showers of rain
I got somethin' to tell you when I gets a chance (x2)
I don't wanna marry, just wanna be your man
Another important contributor to the Mississippi Delta Blues genre was Robert Johnson, known as the King of the Delta Blues. There is one story surrounding Robert Johnson that is more myth than truth, but it is a great story to tell! As the “story” goes, Johnson was an awful guitar player, couldn’t sing a note, flailed on his un-tuned guitar, and sent listeners far enough away to escape his bad music. Still dreaming of being a great performer of music, Johnson “went down to the crossroads” and made a deal with the devil by selling his soul to the devil to become the greatest blues guitarist of all time. He went on to record 29 amazing songs that have been listened to and covered by hundreds of musicians, then gave up his soul and died. Some say he died of syphilis, others that he was killed by poisoned whiskey given to him by the boyfriend of one of his many lovers. Whatever the truth is, Robert Johnson’s “Crossroad Blues” became a blues standard for over 50 years.
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees (x2)
I Asked the Lord above, "Have mercy, now, save poor Bob if you please"
Yeah, standin' at the crossroad, tried to flag a ride
Ooh-ee, I tried to flag a ride
Didn't nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by
Standin' at the crossroad, baby, risin' sun goin' down (x2)
I believe to my soul, now, poor Bob is sinkin' down
You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown (x2)
That I got the crossroad blues this mornin', Lord, baby, I'm sinkin' down
And I went to the crossroad, mama, I looked East and West (x2)
Lord, I didn't have no sweet woman, ooh well, babe, in my distress
The next style of Rural Blues is Piedmont Blues which developed in the region between Virginia and South Carolina, had a folk and bluegrass sound and influenced many rock musicians of the future. A good example of Piedmont Blues was The Rev Gary Davis, who was born blind on April 30, 1896, in Laurens, South Carolina and learned the banjo, guitar and harmonica at a young age. His songs and performance style went on to influence musicians from Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Dave van Ronk to Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.
Here is an excerpt from an article written by Ellen Harold and Peter Stone in culturalequity.org:
Primarily a street musician, Davis made relatively few recordings in his early career, but his virtuosic finger picking was an important influence on other regional musicians… His repertoire comprised Medicine Show tunes, white ballads, military marches, country instrumentals, the emergent ragtime piano, a virtuosic Piedmont (Carolina) blues guitar style, old church hymns, revival meeting and Gospel songs, popular tunes, original compositions based on all the above, and an archaic harmonica style rarely heard elsewhere. He produced a polyphonic style with the use of only his thumb and index finger. He told his student, Stephan Grossman, ‘You've got three hands to play a guitar and only two for a piano. Well, your forefinger and your thumb — that's the striking hand, and your left hand is the leading hand. Your left hand tells the right hand what strings to touch, what changes to make.... One hand can't do without the other.’
Two of Davis’ most influential recordings were “Samson and Delilah” and “Death Don't Have No Mercy,” which were both performed hundreds of times by the Grateful Dead over their 30-year career before the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995. “Samson and Delilah” was based on the biblical story of the same name, with lyrics by Blind Willie Johnson, who first recorded the song in 1927. However, it was Davis’ performance of this song with his unique vocals and finger picking virtuosity that made it memorable. The following are lyrics transcribed from Davis’ live recording released in 1953.
If I had my way, If I had my way (x2)
I would tear this old building down
Well Delilah she was a woman, she was fine and fair
She had good looks, God knows, and coal black hair
Delilah she gained on ol’ Samson's mind
When the first he saw this woman, and to (feel his time?)
Delilah she sat down on Samson's knee
Said tell me where your strength lie if you please
She spoke so kind, God knows she talked so fair
‘Cause Samson said, Delilah you can cut off my hair
You can shave my head, clean as my hand
And my strength will by natural as any old man
If I had my way, if I had my way, if I had my way
I would tear this old building down…
Had you read about ol’ Samson, all from his works
He was the strongest man that ever had lived on earth
So one day while Samson was walking along
He looked on down and saw an old jawbone
He stretched out his arm, God knows, and it broke like thread
When he got to moving, ten thousand was dead, good God...
If I had my way, if I had my way, if I had my way
I would tear this old building down
“Death Don’t Have no Mercy” is a haunting song that makes one think of the grim reaper coming to your house to take your life, and in the 1930s, as people are suffering lack of food and proper nourishment, death would enter many homes and take the weakest among them.
Death don't have no mercy in this land (x2)
He'll come to your house, and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death don't have no mercy in this land
The third form of Rural Blues is Memphis Blues and the most original sound coming out of Memphis was the Jug Band. A Jug band is described by the Memphis Music Hall of Fame as “the quintessential expression of the Memphis music underground, of giving the power to the people.” The Memphis Jug Band was the most prominent group of musicians of that genre, performing from the 1920s all the way to the late 1950s and producing at least 80 audio recordings. Their sound was like other Jug bands with a jug taking the place of the tuba or trombone, but they also added the kazoo as one of the lead instruments. The other instruments in the Memphis Jug Band were the harmonica, fiddle, mandolin, banjo or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. Their music repertoire was extensive, performing slow blues, contemporary pop songs, upbeat dance numbers, rural blues songs and even Appalachian fiddle tunes.
The fourth genre of Rural Blues in the 1920s was Texas Blues. Texas Blues is described by allaboutbluesmusic.com as “a combination of Delta slide-guitar and Piedmont fingerpicking… into their repertoire of Folk songs, Spirituals, ragtime tunes and vaudeville numbers, much as they did all over the South.” Many consider the creator of this blues genre to be Blind Lemon Jefferson, also known as the Father of Texas Blues. Probably born in 1893 in Couchman TX, Jefferson was blind at birth but had an amazing future in front of him. He picked up his first guitar in his early teens and started performing at picnics and private parties. Before long he had befriended Leadbelly and influenced many other musicians including T-Bone Walker, Charlie Patton, Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, and the Beatles, who covered his song “Match Box Blues” as “Matchbox.” In the introduction to Rollin’ and Tumblin’: The Postwar Blues Guitarists, Jas Obrecht described Jefferson as:
The most famous bluesman of the Roaring Twenties, with his fleet-fingered, unpredictable guitar style and booming two-octave voice. A man well acquainted with booze, gambling, and heavy-hipped mamas, Blind Lemon lived the themes that dominate his songs, and his lyrics provide a stunning view of society from the perspective of someone at the bottom. Jefferson’s 78s crossed racial barriers, inspiring country musicians and bluesmen alike.
One of Jefferson’s earliest recordings in 1926 was “Black Snake Moan,” which contained the typical AAB blues construction, was belted out by Jefferson, and contained an obvious double entendre.
I, I ain't got no Mama now (x2)
She told me late last night, ‘You don't need no Mama no how’
Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin' in my room (x2)
Some pretty Mama better come and get this black snake soon
Ohh-oh, that must have been a bed bug, baby a chinch, can't bite that hard (x2)
Ask my sugar for fifty cents, she said ‘Lemon, ain't a child in the yard’
Mama, that's all right, Mama that's all right for you (x2)
Mama, that's all right, most seen all you do
Mmm, mmm, what's the matter now? (x2)
Sugar, what's the matter, don't like no black snake no how
Mmm, mmm, wonder where my black snake gone? (x2)
Black snake mama done run my darlin' home
Blind Willie Johnson was a contemporary of Jefferson who was seen on the streets of Texas in the 1920 busking with a similar musical style. He was born in 1902, in Temple, Texas and permanently blinded as a young man by his father who threw lye into his face. He was known for playing guitar and singing gospel songs on Texas streets, eventually recording 30 songs. His performance style made him unique and influential. According to biographer Joslyn Layne,
Instead of (using) a bottleneck, Johnson actually played slide with a pocketknife. Over the years, Johnson played guitar most often in an open D tuning, picking single-note melodies, while using his slide and strumming a bass line with his thumb. He was, however, known to play in a different tuning and without the slide on a few rare occasions.
Recorded in 1928, his fifth recorded song, “Dark Was the Night” has become Johnson’s most influential recording. It was described by musician Ry Cooder at the “most transcendent piece in all American music.” It has a feel of gospel with the sound of blues. While based on an old Gospel tune, Johnson provided groans and moans to accompany his pocketknife slide. Columbia Records proclaimed along with the release of his 78 rpm records: “This new and exclusive Columbia artist sings sacred songs in a way you have never heard before. Be sure to hear his first record and listen close to that guitar accompaniment. (You will hear) nothing like it anywhere else.” According to blues artist Eric Clapton, Johnson’s musical style was “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear.”
Urban Blues, as opposed to Rural Blues, is actually a combination of the topic of Rural Blues with the sounds of Dixieland Jazz. It was Mamie Smith who opened the door for women to explore the many nuances of Urban Blues. Mamie Smith was born as Mamie Robinson in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 26, 1883. Leaving home at an early age Mamie was taken in by a dancing group called the Four Dancing Mitchells and eventually married singer William “Smitty” Smith in 1912. As quoted in encyclopedia.com, Victoria Spivey said:
Miss Smith walked out on that stage, and I could not breathe for a minute. She threw those big sparkling eyes on us with that lovely smile showing those pearly white teeth with a diamond the size of one of her teeth. Then I looked at her dress. Nothing but sequins and rhinestones plus a velvet cape with white fur on it … and when she sung, she tore the house down.
After recording “That Thing Called Love” and “You can’t Keep a Good Man Down” Mamie put to disc her most famous recording: “Crazy Blues.” This 1920 recording, originally labeled as “Harlem Blues,” went on to sell somewhere in the range of 75,000 copies in its first month of release, eventually selling hundreds of thousands of copies. You can hear Mamie Smith’s combination of the Dixieland jazz music style along with the vocal sounds of the blues.
I can't sleep at night
I can't eat a bite
'Cause the man I love
He don't treat me right
He makes me feel so blue
I don't know what to do
Sometimes I sit and sigh
And then begin to cry
'Cause my best friend
Said his last goodbye
There's a change in the ocean
Change in the deep blue sea, my baby
I'll tell you folks, there ain't no change in me
My love for that man will always be
Now I can read his letters
I sure can't read his mind
I thought he's lovin' me
He's leavin' all the time
Now I see my poor love was blind
Now I got the crazy blues
Since my baby went away
I ain't got no time to lose
I must find him today
Now the doctor's gonna do all that he can
But what you're gonna need is an undertaker man
I ain't had nothin' but bad news
Now I got the crazy blues
The popularity of “Crazy Blues” not only helped change the sound of Jazz and popular music in America, but it also made Mamie Smith famous, going on to appear in several films such as Jailhouse Blues in 1929 and Paradise in Harlem in 1939. According to Smith biographer James Manheim, the 1920 Smith recording “did so much to define blues as an American musical genre more resembled what we would call jazz today…. ‘Crazy Blues’ opened the doors for recordings by other blues singers, at first primarily women, who were bringing the downhome blues of the South to the nation’s large cities.” It only takes one to open doors of opportunity.
Following Mamie’s success, other women were given opportunities to duplicate the success of Mamie Smith, especially Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. They followed in her footsteps with blues songs containing subjects that were relevant to women everywhere. Ma Rainey, also known as the Mother of the Blues, recorded several songs in 1923 including “Bo-Weevil Blues,” which included the line “Don’t want no man to put sugar in my tea, I’m afraid he might poison me!” Bessie Smith, known as the Empress of The Blues, also made several recordings in 1923 which included "Downhearted Blues." Written by Alberta Hunter, this song is an obvious comment on mistreatment and unrequited love that leads to alcoholism.
Gee, but it's hard to love someone
When that someone don't love you
I'm so disgusted, heartbroken too
I've got those downhearted blues
Once I was crazy 'bout a man
He mistreated me all the time
The next man I get has got to promise me
To be mine, all mine
Trouble, trouble
I've had it all my days
Trouble, trouble
I've had it all my days
It seems like trouble
Going to follow me to my grave
I ain't never loved but
Three mens in my life
I ain't never loved
But three men in my life
My father, my brother
The man that wrecked my life
It may be a week
It may be a month or two
It may be a week
It may be a month or two
But the day you quit me, honey
It's comin' home to you
I got the world in a jug
The stopper's in my hand
I got the world in a jug
The stopper's in my hand
I'm gonna hold it until you
Meet some of my demands
As different styles of jazz were developing in the 1920s from Dixieland and Ragtime to Rural and Urban Blues, two rising talents in the white community would develop the jazz orchestra and then its combination with elements of European classical music: Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin.
Paul Whiteman was born March 28, 1890, in Denver Colorado. His early career included playing viola for the Denver Symphony Orchestra the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Joining the Navy in World War One, Whiteman led a 40-piece navy band in marching tunes and various show music. Whiteman had a strong sense of the direction of American music and by 1920 he made his way to New York City recording one of his most popular tunes, “Whispering” and commissioning George Gershwin to write “Rhapsody in Blue.” “Whispering” (which sold over 2.5 million copies) had the sound of World One music with its sweet, orchestrated sound and melody provided by a few instruments including someone whistling. Whiteman called his innovation “An Experiment in Modern Music.” Whiteman was also in films, starting with “King of Jazz” in 1930 and providing music for at least six Broadway shows. In fact, his music became so popular, that his 1925 song “Charleston” actually contributed to a new style of dance called “the Charleston” and was all the rage in the roaring 20s!
As mentioned above, George Gershwin got his big break with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Born on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, as Jacob Gershowitz, Gershwin started earning a living playing piano at the age of 15. The music he composed seemed to defy description and categorization. One of his piano teachers, Charles Hambitzer, described Gershwin: “I have a new pupil who will make his mark if anybody will. The boy is a genius.”
“Rhapsody in Blue” in not only Gershwin’s most notable work, but it is also still extremely popular in the twenty-first century. It could be categorized as jazz, classical, and even as a show tune. Gershwin described the creation of his masterpiece to biographer Isaac Goldberg:
It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise.... And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance
While Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin were exposing their experiment to the world, Duke Ellington was taking Whiteman’s orchestrated jazz and bringing it to a whole new level of rhythm, style, story and feel. Duke Ellington was born in Washington DC on April 29th, 1899. Like Woody Guthrie (who we will discuss in the next chapter), he started out as a sign painter, but when encouraged by drummer Sonny Greer sometime in 1919 to pursue a career in music, Ellington’s life went through a dramatic change. Performing at Harlem’s Cotton Club with his ten-piece band the Washingtonians, in the years 1927 through 1932, Ellington fine-tuned his musical style. According to an on-line biography, Duke Ellington had a lasting impact on American music: “Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and charisma, Ellington is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional musical genres.” Another biographer wrote that “Combining all those innovations within the ongoing history of one band is only half the story, despite the fact that no other figure managed to be creatively involved in so many different stages of jazz development.”
His first masterpiece was a number he wrote with trumpet and cornet player Bubber Miley called “Black And Tan Fantasy.” Their piece seemed to incorporate all the different styles of Jazz and Blues that were developing in the 1920s. The song started with a minor key piano melody moving into a major key alto sax melody. That was followed by solos from a trumpet, piano and trombones. The song ends with a trumpet-trombone combination that reflex the “funeral march” theme. “Black and Tan Fantasy” became the one musical number that he was closely associated with his entire career. Just as “Maple Leaf Rag” was always associated with Scott Joplin, “Black and Tan Fantasy” and Duke Ellington were not only connected forever, but they both had a dramatic influence on the evolution of American popular music, especially jazz. By the 1930’s, The Duke was not only a star of Big Band music, and a star of film, he also had the most popular dance band in America, leading to him to earning 12 Grammy awards, a lifetime achievement award, an honorary PhD from Berkley College of Music and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for contributions to music and culture.
Armstrong was educated at the Fisk School for Boys and Colored Waif's Home for Boys. Also known as “Pops” and “Satchmo,” Louis Armstrong was successful at whatever he did including several groundbreaking films. His greatest contributions to American music were his virtuosity as an improvisational trumpet soloist and his contribution to the developing sounds of scat. Armstrong learned his craft in New Orleans and Chicago playing with Joe “King” Oliver. Two pivotal recordings made by Armstrong were “West End Blues” which showed his skill at taking a melody and translating it into his own heightened sound, and “Heebie Jeebies,” which showcased the vocal nonsense sound of scat.
As African American music was becoming popular in the American culture, leading to new dances, new styles of dress, and new slang vernaculars, the white community was adopting and adapting this new musical culture to their own situations. Jazz and blues were not just sounds of the African American community – they were becoming the sounds of Americans across the country. Jazz and blues spread across the United States through live performance, radio broadcasts and 78 rpm recordings; and America’s white communities heard and fell in love with these new sounds. One of the strongest forms of flattery is duplication, and this is exactly what white America did. Many new musicians dedicated themselves to exploring this new music developing and growing right in front of their eyes and ears. While America was discovering and falling in love with jazz and blues, the technology of audio recording and the improvement of transportation, another form of American music that was spreading: Country music.
While Jazz may have been the new popular music in 1920s America, Country music was still a favorite in southeastern and rural regions of the United States isolated by vast mountain ranges. Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are two excellent examples of this kind of popular country music.
Jimmie Rodgers born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi, and began his career as an entertainer at the age of 13 by creating traveling shows and mini concerts. Working as a water boy and a brakeman for the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, Jimi was able to hear the songs of working people from different parts of the country. At the age of 27 Rodgers returned to organizing traveling road shows throughout states in the south. Periodically returning to working on a railroad, Rodgers eventually made his first appearance on a North Carolina radio station, WWNC. Rodgers’ music was described by the The Asheville Times as “quite different than the station’s usual material, but a kind that finds a cordial reception from a large audience.” His most famous recording was “T for Texas,” which was released under the title “Blue Yodel” and eventually sold half a million copies. It contained his now famous Yodel which has been copied by country performers for decades.
The Carter Family was founded by Alvin Pleasant Delaney Carter, Sara Carter, Maybelle Addington Carter, Mother Maybelle, and sisters Maybelle Addington Carter, June Carter (who eventually became Mrs. Johnny Cash), Helen Carter, and Anita Carter. Probably the most famous singing country group, the Carter family would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. They also earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. The Carter family would influence generations of folk and country singers from Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash. One of their early hits was “Wildwood Flower.” This song contained the finger picking style associated with American country music. The melody of this song would become a standard in folk music, used many times by Woody Guthrie, including his pro-war song “The Sinking of the Rueben James.”
Boogie Woogie is a music style that developed in the 1920s as a combination of the Ragtime created at the end of the Nineteenth Century, the Blues that had been evolving since the Civil War and Jazz that was created in New Orleans at the start of the Twentieth Century. Two artists that showcased this new Boogie Woogie style were Clarence “Pinetop” Smith and Fats Waller.
Clarence “Pinetop” Smith was born January 11, 1904, in Troy, Alabama and learned how to play the piano by his teenager years. Moving to Chicago in 1928, Smith became involved in “frequent all-night jam sessions” where he “made a name for himself on the city's house-rent party and club circuits.” One of Smith's first songs was the spirited "Pinetop Boogie Woogie" which became a Boogie Woogie standard. The exact origin of this new sound is unknown, but it certainly has a sound that was unique and inviting. Combining the Dixieland style that evolved in New Orleans and the Ragtime music that took the country by rage 15 years earlier, Smith was able to develope a sound that would eventually evolve into early rock’n’roll immediately following World War Two.
Fats Waller was another artist that helped create this new Boogie Woogie sound. Born on May 21, 1904, in New York, NY, Thomas Wright Waller became known as The Crown Prince of Jazz. Learning to play the piano at the tender age of six, Waller also absorbed himself in other instrument such as the reed organ, the string bass, and the violin. His first big gig was playing the organ at the Lincoln Theatre in Harlem at age 15. Waller started recording for the label Okeh in 1922 and joined forces with Andy Razaf, an excellent song writer in his own right. The two together wrote songs such as “Honeysuckle Rose” and “Ain't Misbehavin’” that would eventually become standards on the Broadway stage
Tin Pan Alley is a term that has come to identify all the songs that were popular in the 1890s through the 1910s. There was an actual location where many songs were written during this period. Tin Pan Alley was located at West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. It was a place where several music publishers set up shop and if you wanted to sell a song that is where you had to go. The origin of the term Tin Pan Alley is unclear. According to one account:
The name is attributed to a newspaper writer named Monroe Rosenfeld who while staying in New York, coined the term to symbolize the cacophony of the many pianos being pounded in publisher's demo rooms which he characterized as sounding as though hundreds of people were pounding on tin pans. According to the story, he used the term in a series of articles he wrote around the turn of the 20th Century, and it caught on.
Paul Leroy Robison could be considered one of the greatest Tin Pan Alley singers of the 1920s. Born April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey, Robison was an African American star athlete, actor and singer. Attending Rutgers University on a scholarship, Robison won awards for his oratory skills and athletic ability making him the class valedictorian at his graduation. While teaching Latin and playing Professional Football, Robison earned a law degree from Columbia University's Law School. Eventually staring in shows like All God's Chillun Got Wings, The Emperor Jones, Othello, Showboat (which contained his signature song “Ol’ Man River”), and movies like Body and Soul, Borderline, and Tales of Manhattan, Robison used his fame to advocate for civil rights and socialism. Robison had very strong feelings regarding the denial of equal rights to African Americans. He said: “My father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it.”
Gene Austin is considered as was one of the most popular white singers of the end of 1920s. Born Lemeul Eugene Lucas on June 24, 1900, in Gainesville, Texas, Austin left home at age 15. While at a vaudeville show in Houston, Texas, he gathered enough courage and jumped up on stage to sing “as a Southern Baptist choir boy.” Apparently, the audience reaction was so positive that the group offered him a singing job, and the rest is history. After joining the U.S. Army at the age of 17, Austin had the opportunity to play piano in some of the seedier establishments in New Orleans. Even though Austin wrote over 100 songs, it was his distinct tenor that became popular in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1927 Austin recorded his best-known number “My Blue Heaven,” which by 1928 reached the #1 spot and stayed there for 13 weeks.
Finally, there can be no discussion of the music of the 1920s (especially singers) without an examination of the music and cultural significance of Al Jolson. From his first hit in 1919 with “Swanee” to the first movie with sound in 1927 with The Jazz Singer, Al Jolson was a consistent top-notch performer on the hit parade. Some of his famous songs were “Toot Toot Tootsie” in 1922, “California Here I Come” in 1924, “I’m Sittin’ On Top of the World” in 1926 and “My Mammy” 1927. However, it was the film The Jazz Singer that made Al Jolson a household name. Labeled as the first talkie, it was actually a silent film with a few segments of music and singing synchronized to Jolson on the screen. The movie was the story of a Jewish man who wanted to sing this new music called Jazz. His father, an orthodox Jew, wanted him to sing traditional sacred music, but the movie’s main character wanted to swing. An important element to this film that helps understand American musical culture was the fact that Jolson performed his musical numbers in “black face.” This was a performance style that had its origins going back to the 1830s in the southern states with various vaudeville singing groups like the Ethiopian Serenaders and the Virginia Minstrels. While singing in blackface helped propel Al Jolson to stardom in minstrelsy, the most popular form of entertainment between the 1870s and the 1920s, it was also exceedingly racist and a completely un-authentic form of African American music and culture. According to film historian Adam Knee, “The film articulates certain fundamental white American perceptions of race, ethnicity, and assimilation at the same time as it marks a quantum shift in film technology and form.”
The music of the 1920s was a microcosm of the ethnic, cultural, political, and economic diversity in the United States on the eve of the Great Depression. American music ranged from Ragtime to Popular Minstrelsy and included some of the most eclectic music ever produced. Ragtime, Dixieland, DixieRag, Urban Blues, Rural Blues, Orchestra Jazz, Improvisational jazz, Big Band Jazz, Swing, Classical Jazz, Country Blues, Classical Country, Boogie Woogie, Tin Pan Alley and Black Faced Minstrelsy is an extremely eclectic collections of musical styles to come out of one very diverse country. When the Stock Market Crashed in 1929, and the world seemed on the verge of economic collapse, the American people were still filled with hope for the future and the dream of a better life for their children. While the music of the 1920s reflected the amazing diversity within the nation, the music that was written, performed, and recorded in the 1930s reflected the fears and hopes of a diverse people. The musical diversity of the 1920s set the stage for the music of hope and despair of the 1930s.