¶ … JAZZ: KANSAS CITY AFTER-HOURS CLUBS IN THE 1930S & THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO JAZZ
The objective of this work is to examine the question of what would have happened to jazz if there had been a crackdown on illegal "after hour" clubs in Kansas City in the 1930s? Toward this end, this work will examine the literature in this area of study.
In the 1930s, while the rest of the United States and its cities were in the grips of The Depression, Kansas City was churning out jazz all night long. Kansas City was for all intents and purposes under the control of a local politician/mob boss/entrepreneur in the form of Jim Pendergrast who upon dying passed his power to his brother who was not as honest or ethical as Jim but who sustained an economic boom in Kansas City right in the middle of The Depression.
Where Did Jazz Get Its Versatility?
In order to understand how Kansas City and Jazz became so closely integrated it is necessary to understand that in the rural South and this is examined in the work of Nathan W. Pearson in the work entitled: "Goin' to Kansas City" which relates that "Saturday night was often the time for six-day-a-week farmers to relax and attend a supper put on by a local family. For a small admission charge, people ate, drank, gambled, sang and danced to the music of the local songster -- a musician who could satisfy nearly any song or dance request." (Pearson, 1994) This versatility was that which "characterized most jazz bands of the twenties and thirties, their ability to play in a variety of styles enriched the music of that period and allowed the bands to find employment in a variety of settings." (Pearson, 1994)
II. Social Elements Characterizing the Development of Jazz
The work of Lewis A. Erenberg entitled: "Swinging the Dream" states that the jazz musicians in the 1920s "between the poles of Harlem and Broadway, black and white" were referred to as "mongrels" which is an interracially forced musical vocabulary. (Erenberg, 1999) This music is stated to have been "forged by blacks and children of immigrants" and was a new music that was "unmediated by moralist and governmental desire to uplift the music" and served to form a new diverse and mixed culture and population "in the vernacular arts." (Erenberg, 1999) Jazz is stated to have expressed for many individuals "a new model of pluralist democracy capable of challenging classical music for the mantle of cultural legitimacy and American national identity." (Erenberg, 1999)
IV. The Jazz Revolution
The work of Ogren (1992) entitled "The Jazz Revolution" states that the audience for jazz in the 1930s was "inadvertently stimulated when Congress passed the "Volstead Act" which banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in 1919. Illegal clubs operated underground and after hours and were "often tied to bootlegging ringsJazz was immediately associated with the carnal pleasures of the cabaret." (Ogren, 1992)
III. Prohibition and Jazz Protestors
Supporters of prohibition based their campaign against alcohol sales and consumption on the preservation of "traditional American values." (Ogren, 1992) The sights and sounds of the jazz band excited American youth who were "in revolt against what they saw as stuffy prewar society, and their critique joined that of young dissenters including writers and critics such as Malcom Cowley and Ernest Hemmingway. This generation was labeled "The Lost Generation" by some such as Gertrude Stein. (Ogren, 1992) Ogren states that jazz was "a powerful new music, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythms, improvisation, blue tonalities, and a strong beat." (Ogren, 1992) Jazz took place during change and was derived from those changes on the social level.
V. Kansas City and The Rise of Jazz
During the era of prohibition Erenberg relates that dance halls and nightclubs folded one after the other all across the United States including the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and "only Kansas City, protected by the Pendergrast machine, ran unchecked." The "decline of live entertainment...
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