Jazz

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JAZZ.

The diffusion of jazz in Europe was a major musical phenomenon of the twentieth century that combined creativity with "Americanization" of the musical culture. Jazz brought European music a new kind of acoustical freedom. What follows briefly develops the phases of this history at the expense of portraits of individual artists.

Jazz, black American music with African roots, developed at the end of the nineteenth century, predominantly in the southern United States. Its two principal roots were vocal—the religious spirituals and the profane blues. However, when this music spread to Europe in the first decade of the twentieth century, it was first exposed in orchestral form while retaining, from its vocal origins, an original and highly expressive instrumental performing style modeled on the human voice.

Several other attributes characterize early jazz heard in Europe after World War I. First, jazz is a physical and sensual music. Rhythmic structure plays a key role both in composition of the orchestra and in the structure of the musical pieces themselves. Indeed, a jazz band typically included a tripartite rhythm section of bass, drums, and guitar or banjo (sometimes piano), and a melodic section of one or two cornets, trombone, clarinet, and at times a violin. Rhythm was essential to the music, and "swing" became a defining element. Second, jazz was partly "functional," and the early jazz bands played a good deal of European dance music. Third, jazz is a "living" music rather than formally composed, an art in which performance is more important than composition. With improvisations, solos, and variations, the role of interpretation is paramount. Finally, jazz was also a music of black people. Race prejudice in Europe was much different from that found in the United States. Coming to popularity during the era of European colonialism, jazz acquired special status as a "roots" music and enjoyed the appeal of authenticity.

Jazz became popular in Europe in several phases. The first black musicians in Europe were American soldiers during World War I, most memorably those with the 369th Regiment known as the Harlem Hellfighters, and with the 350th Artillery Corps, called the Seventy Black Devils. In February and March 1918, the Hellfighters toured for six weeks, visiting some twenty-five French cities, though not exclusively playing jazz. Other groups about the same time, predominantly composed of white musicians, performed in London and Paris. In 1919 in London, the Swiss orchestral conductor Ernest Ansermet (1883–1969) heard the Will Marion Cook band with Sidney Bechet (1897–1959) and upon returning to the Continent praised their performance in the review Revue romande.

In the 1920s jazz was in vogue in Europe. In 1925 the musical review, La revue nègre, was a huge and scandalous success. European dance orchestras began including drums, banjos, and saxophones. Jazz triumphed at the music hall and significantly influenced classical musicians. A market developed for records from the United States.

Enthusiasm for jazz continued to spread in the 1930s. Some of the American jazz stars toured in Europe, including Louis Armstrong in 1932 and Duke Ellington in 1933. In 1932 a small group of enthusiasts in Paris formed the Hot Club of France (HCF), led by Hugues Panassié, whose mission it became to educate the public about jazz. Beginning in 1933, the HCF organized concerts and the next year started to issue recordings, organizing the record company Swing in 1937. It published a review, Jazz Hot, beginning in 1935. The quintet of the Hot Club of France with Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt was the first European group genuinely able to compete with American groups. Others would follow.

In Britain as well, an indigenous brand of jazz appeared in the 1930s. Musicians with a background in brass fanfare, such as Tommy McQuater and George Chisholm, began to play jazz, and some went on to record in New York—Spike Hughes, in 1933 with the Benny Carter Orchestra, is a good example. Although Germany prohibited jazz after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, jazz spread to Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. During War World II, jazz benefited from overseas appeal as a symbol of liberty. After the war, jazz was welcomed on European radio stations, such as the Jazz Club on the BBC, and could be heard on stage in prestigious theater venues, such as the Salle Pleyel. Bebop, which became highly popular in the United States, also won passionate fans in Europe. Jazz in its various styles in the 1950s became part of the new style of sociability at that time, symbolic of the postwar recovery of musical freedom.

In the 1960s jazz musicians began reorienting their work toward investigations of sound and rhythm, questioning the nature of composed music. Free jazz, rock jazz, jazz fusion, and neobop helped broaden the audience and led to diversification of styles. Finally, beginning in the 1970s, jazz won institutional legitimacy. European festivals became an important showcase for musicians. In France, in particular, conservatories began to teach jazz, and the Orchestre National de Jazz was formed, a durable unit of about twenty musicians with a distinctive sound. One should also mention the Académie de Jazz, founded in 1955, which dispenses prizes and awards.

Since the 1930s jazz has exercised tremendous influence on entertainment generally and has become an integral part of the artistic landscape in the broad sense of the term. By the end of the twentieth century, jazz had become world music.