The New American Musical Voice

When I was applying for financial assistance for medical care on Monday, abruptly I was reminded that jazz music radically expanded the technique of many instruments.  I know this, because recently I began researching a college level jazz history course.  The music evolution transpired in the first two decades of the twentieth century are significant and substantial.  I would be bold enough to say most people aren't aware of their substance and sophistication.  Early jass or jazz most often is characterized by the term Dixieland, which was coined in Chicago to describe New Orleans jazz that traveled up the Mississippi River when Storyville was closed by the Navy in 1917.  "Dixie" commonly was applied to the American South.  "Dixieland"mistakenly has been applied to Early Jass, and upon closer examination it represents a genre of itself not necessarily the same as the early black music of New Orleans.  Most likely it was a white term.  Dixieland does represent a particular body of American popular songs played in a style very different from later jazz music.  It was loose rhythmically and played in a "Two Beat" feel.  The term "Two Beat" itself merits its own study, but I will suggest that musical term alla breve is the root.  An important distinction in playing jazz music is how and when to play with a two feel rather than "Straight Four."  Early Jass for the most part utilizes a two feel or "Two Beat," and this feel is a major characteristic of the music.  The genius of the two feel is it is poly-rhythmic, and you can count or feel the music in either of two ways.  One is with a two beat subdivision, and one is with a double time straight four subdivision.  The most effective metaphor for alla breve used in jazz allows dancers to articulate either rhythm of their choice.  If they dancing couple does not possess the gumption to Jitterbug or Lindy Hop at its fast and athletically demanding tempo, simply they can choose to "Glide Walk" or Foxtrot.  It is graceful, elegant, and conservative movement.  The "Two Beat" feeling of Early Jass is a unique and surprising rhythmic feeling.  It is tighter than later jazz, and this more compressed rhythmic subdivision is articulated with a zestful and energetic energy.  Musicians play swing sixteenth notes derived from the natural strumming pattern of the American four string banjo.  That jazz music transformed the technique of many instruments also is of equal significance.  The refinement of European orchestral and chamber music adequately did not express emerging African-American exasperation, desperation, or need.  While there is a similar depth of feeling in "classical" music, a more primitive, visceral, and often erotic expression was desired.  It was rebellious, playful, and sexual music, and most importantly it was infused with manic energy.  The ready availability of cocaine is a likely source of this exuberance.  The "Blues" emerged as a necessary African-American expression after the Jim Crow laws were passed in the American South.  The slaves had been freed by Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" and a bloody civil war, but the South failed to acknowledge the equality of Negroes.  Instead they waged a horrific campaign against American blacks, which often resulted in their hanging from ropes dead.  Africans captured, bound, and trafficked to America for sale to plantation owners against their will now were fraught with equal consternation about their rejected entree into American society by Southerners.  It was a shite state of affairs, and the lamentation inherent in the new "Blues" music was crucial to Negro psychology.  Moaning, crying, and the mournful wail of the steam engine's whistle combined to create a new canvas for African-American musical expression predicated on white oppression.  It was a natural evolution for black musicians to express these deep feelings in a different way on musical instruments.  Because they had been slaves working tirelessly in the masters' fields, their physical prowess readily was applied to musical technique.  While classical and jazz instrumental technique are not mutually exclusive, a division has been created by the same racism and discrimination expressed by the American South during Jim Crow.  Donald Trump successfully unearthed this seeming dormant white nationalism during his 2016 Presidential campaign, and implemented a similar policy of divisive, extreme, and inciting rhetoric in America while President.  Jazz has not recovered, and again America is searching for her appropriate musical voice.  For the nation to heal it is imperative for this expression to come to fruition quickly.