Blog #2: Oppan Chicago Style!

Which city was more important to jazz in the 1920s—Chicago or New York? Why? What role did social and economic conditions and the racial communities of that city play in shaping the expression of jazz in that city? Was there a Chicago or Harlem style of jazz? If so, what was it, who played it, and what distinguished it from others? Whose (band or individual) art best represents the culture and community of the city you chose? Why? Please provide references from the readings and lectures.

By the 1920s, New Orleans had played its hand and jazz had moved on to gain prominence in Chicago and New York. Although both cities played an important role in the evolution of jazz, but Chicago certainly had the greater impact.

First let us consider the role played by New York. There, jazz flourished in the plebeian half of Harlem culture. The other half, the sophisticated intellectual class of Harlem, tended to look down upon this type of music. New arrivals from the South were eager to let go of their cultural heritages like Delta blues and New Orleans jazz, in a desperate attempt to assimilate and appear sophisticated. As Willie “The Lion” Smith recounted, “The average Negro family did not allow the blues or even the raggedy music played in their homes.” (Gioia, p. 90) On the other hand, rent parties became an integral part of the lesser culture of Harlem. In order to make money for their inflated rent prices, people would hire musicians and charge others to come and party. This led to an explosion in the use of piano and resulted in the jazz form of stride piano. However, this form is less akin to what we today consider to be jazz; many of the great contemporaries even relegated their own work as not exactly jazz. James P. Johnson said that there were no jazz bands, but that ragtime piano was played all over. Duke Ellington declared jazz to be just a stunt when he was starting out. (Gioia, p. 91) It has even been said that Fletcher Henderson’s bands would likely not have regarded itself as a jazz band. Although these artists are now considered classic jazz musicians, the word ‘jazz’ itself was given a bad name by the countless imitators of the ODJB. (Lyttelton, p. 106) Thus, it is difficult to consider New York’s role in jazz most important of the period. 

In stark contrast, Chicago exuded the essence of jazz in the 1920s. Many of the biggest names in jazz came to prominence in the Windy City, including King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Eddie Condon, among other. Some of these musicians became so big there that they ignited a “mythology” of the Chicago jazz man. As Gioia describes, “Chicago jazzmen […] embodied in their lives and attitudes a fascinating series of antihero contradictions.” (Gioia, p. 73) The immense interest in Chicago jazz can be partly attributed to the northward migration of a half million Negroes, one tenth of them ending up in Chicago’s South Side. Regardless, a key turning point was Joe Oliver’s invitation in 1922 for the teenaged Armstrong in New Orleans to join his band in Chicago. The recordings they produced with the Creole Jazz Band are considered a major source of the jazz ‘mainstream’ of the time. (Lyttelton, p. 38) Thus, the Chicago style is partly encompassed by the styles of King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. On the other hand, the Austin High School Gang, although not as technically proficient as these other artists, gained enormous popularity at the time. As Lyttelton puts it, “The most significant thing about ‘Chicago style’ as exemplified [by the Gang] is that it was not a style at all.” (Lyttelton, p. 162)

In hindsight it is clear that New York played a less significant role. Chicago had the greater impact on jazz in the ‘20s. As one contemporary put it, “In the 1920s the world of jazz music was centered in Chicago. No town or city in the forty-eight states had the talents or the spirit to generate the kind of jazz that caused toe-tapping rhythm to course through the veins and arteries of Chicago.” (Travis, p. 75)

Gioia, T. (2011). The History of Jazz 2^nd Ed. Oxford University Press

Lyttelton, H. (2008). The Best of Jazz. Anova Books

Travis, D. J. (1983). The Autobiography of Black Jazz. Chicago, IL: The Urban Research Institute, Inc.