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Chicago: The Jazz Capitol of the 1920s

“One of the supreme ironies of the history of New Orleans jazz, [where it originated], is that so much of it took place in Chicago” (Gioia 43). Chicago did not only make an unparalleled contribution to the evolution of jazz in absolute terms but it immediately follows the story line of jazz development with respect its chronological order. By the 1920s the jazz center had shifted from New Orleans to Chicago where many former New Orleans jazz legends continued their legacy far away from their native soil and transformed Chicago into the hub of contemporary and forward-looking jazz (Gioia 43).

During the Great migration between 1916 and 1919 nearly half a million African Americans left the South to seek more tolerant communities in the North, such as Chicago. This vast population shift encompassed the whole spectrum of society ranging from doctors, lawyers and merchants to manual laborers and musicians all of which shared the common ambition to seek a better life in cities that provided a larger economic base to draw from. Greater economic vertical mobility and opportunistic financial stability were among the driving factors in the creation of the New Orleans jazz diaspora and its success in Chicago (Stewart). The closure of the Storyville red light district in 1917 provided the necessary contrast of the discrepancy in economic opportunity between Chicago and New Orleans.  For this reason many of the New Orleans Jazz legends migrated to Chicago searching for increased personal freedom and tolerance which provided hope for long-desired horizontal racial integration within a multi-cultural society. The large metropolitan setting of Chicago delivered a more tolerant white audience, which was more receptive of African American jazz, allowing jazz musicians to be seen as serious cultural performers while acknowledging the cultural value of jazz in vitalizing communities and allowing jazz artists to live the romantic notion of self-expression which many of them were deprived of in the racially divided south. The mass culture present in Chicago became in the hands of black artists a way of turning African American vulnerability and dependence on mainstream society into a demand for respect (Cohen 156).

The appeal of the Great Migration during which jazz musicians gravitated toward Chicago was amplified by the social setting characterized by a more progressive society and economic opportunity. In addition to increased racial tolerance and a greater audience Chicago was one of the few cities that managed to maintain a vibrant nightlife throughout the years of Prohibition. Organized crime and mobsters collaborated with politicians to ensure that the Prohibition did not jeopardize the lucrative business of night clubs and dance halls in the “wet city” (Cohen 155). Furthermore the zoning ordinances in Chicago which separated the white middle class neighborhoods from the “vice district” managed to avoid an uproar of the former against the pulsating social scene, which was inevitable for the success of jazz in Chicago (Cohen 155). The indirect support for jazz through organized crime by creating the essential atmosphere of enthusiasm for celebration and music paired with direct contracting of jazz musicians to play at their night clubs catapulted jazz over interracial boundaries. White audiences were listening to black artists perform while white jazz artists were inspired and collaborated with black jazz artist from the New Orleans school of jazz (The Chicagoans).

The coincidence of the invention of the radio and the migration of many of the most prominent jazz musicians to the city of Chicago created a setting that projected jazz to unparalleled fame and popularity, thereby facilitating the emergence of Chicago’s reputation as being the jazz capitol of the 20s (Cohen 155). Jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925. Leaving behind the Henderson group in New York, Armstrong infused the jazz culture with his novel improvisational style of the soloist which diverged from the ensemble improvisation style of the classic New Orleans style (Cohen 156; Gioia 57, 60). Some of greatest jazz recordings of all time were produced in Chicago in a collaboration between Armstrong and Earl Hines who was “responsible for pushing the jazz piano beyond limiting horizontal structures of ragtime and into a more versatile and linear approach” (Gioia 61). Other significant figures of the Chicago jazz scene included Jimmy Noone who worked together with Hines on the famous Apex Club recordings producing “crisp clarinet-piano dialogues [which] would stand unsurpassed until Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson” (Gioia 62). The racially diverse jazz culture of Chicago also included several white jazz musicians and bands that, inspired by the New Orleans legends, contributed their own unique style. The Austin High School Gang or Leon ‘Bix’ Beiderbecke expanded the diversity of jazz by emphasizing a “self-expressed, romantic, anything-goes approach which ignored the unwritten laws and precepts of the New Orleans style” (The Chicagoans 159).

The interracial mixture and diverse cultural setting of Chicago created its own unique style which carried on too influence future generations of musicians throughout the entire nation. The divergence of improvisation to a soloist centered approach was a novel element in jazz as the New Orleans style was built upon ensemble improvisation (Gioia 57, 60). For the first time in history the jazz was “pure and simple, freed from both the shadow of ragtime and the dictates of dance music” (Gioia 63).  The jazz created in Chicago was not just the music of a time and place - it was a timeless style of performance, a way of life, thus making it one of the most significant contributors to Jazz History and Chicago deserving of the title “Jazz Capitol of the 20’s” (Gioia 71).

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References:

T. Gioia “The History of Jazz”. Oxford University Press. Second Edition 2011

L. Cohen “Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939”. 

“The Chicagoans”

Commented on Chase Racich’s Blog