Red Space Rocket

Notes from History on Friday

Jazz

Americans bought more than 100 millions record in 1927.
More than 100 “territory” bands toured the country playing at dances.
The Deluxe Melody Boys
Jesse Stone’s Blue Serenaders
Walter Page and his Blue Devils.
Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy

In small town America jazz was an annoyance and made morals loose.
Professor Henry Van Dyck of Princeton University.
“it is not music at all. It is merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing”
“”jazz” is an unmitigated cacophony, a combination of disagreeable sounds in complicated discords, a wilful ugliness and a deliberate vulgarity.”

Fears of jazz often racially based;
Some said Jazz originated in “the Negro brothels of the South.”
Critic Carl Engel worried about the effects on American youth of “Semitic purveyors of Broadway melodies”.

ACTIVITY
What music is considered dangerous to morals today?
Give example of genres and artists.
What are behaviour do critics claim this music encourages?
How much does this have in common with the reaction to jazz?

Famous composers and musicians included;
Louis Armstrong
Irving Berlin
George Gershwin
Duke Ellington
Jelly Roll Morton
Al Jolson