Race in the Swing Era

Prompt

Given that race has always been a discourse in the history of jazz, why did race become explicitly written and talked about in the 1930’s in the “Swing Era?”

The melting pot of races, cultures and traditions that was New Orleans in the early 20^th century gave rise to the amazing musical genre of jazz. It was inevitable that the culture resulting from this genre would eventually become very entangled with racial issues. Specifically, jazz of the 1930’s, also known as the swing era, brought light to much of the racial discourse present in America at that time.

Jazz had classically been a colored peoples’ music; whites would listen, but rarely played. This changed in the early 1930’s, partially due to the invention and popularization of radio and records, and partially due to the Great Depression. Radio made it hard to distinguish what race the artist was, and so whites could play without being immediately judged negatively by the color of their skin (blacks were often seen as superior in their jazz abilities (Swing Changes, p 61)). The Great Depression also caused such a shortage of jobs that becoming a jazz artist seemed like a much more realistic opportunity for many whites. Unfortunately for the existing jazz artists, however, this provided them with a lot of competition. Not only were there more aspiring artists with their same profession, but their music was broadcasted for free, and distributed in a large scale on records. (Stewart, 12 February, 2015) In addition, the end of Prohibition in 1933 meant that, “Both [alcohol and jazz]  could now be easily consumed at home.” (Gioio, chp 5) This decrease in demand and increase in supply of jazz artists meant that a few of the top artists could provide all of America with a satisfying amount of jazz, leaving much less of a market for jazz played regularly at night clubs and theatres. Due to the racism present at the time, whites began to have a much easier time getting radio segments and releasing records. This was catastrophic for many of the beloved jazz artists of the 1920s, including Bechet, Morton, King Oliver, Smith, and Beiderbeck. (Gioia, chp 5)

Thus far, most of the discussion of jazz has centered around Negroes. Whites had participated, but mostly in the role of mistreatment of the jazz artists, owning the clubs and paying unfair wages, with unfair hours. Now that whites began to enter the industry as artists, several became prominent figures. John Hammond, for example, played an interesting role, as he was not a musician himself, rather a reviewer that was so deep in the culture, and so in love with the music that he made his name almost as famous (if not more famous) than many of the artists he reviewed. (Swing Changes, p 55) Being part of the community, so closely involved with (and thus such good friends with) so many Negro jazz artists naturally made Hammond into a civil rights activist. He saw the cruelty and unfairness that blacks had been enduring for all of their lives, and wished to put it to an end.

What is possibly the most astounding, however, is that the so-called ‘king of swing’ was actually white. Benny Goodman, raised in Chicago with influences such as Bix Beiderbecke and The Austin High Gang, had a father who pushed him into his musical career. (Gioia, chp 5) This in itself is telling of the time—had he been born twenty years earlier, this would have been impossible, especially in a white family. With the dedication to jazz of a true Chicagoan, alongside natural talent and support from his family, it is no surprise that he became the father of the “Swing Era” of jazz in the 1930s. Changes like these caused race to be a prominent subject of the 1930s.

Many factors contributed the issue of race in the jazz culture of the 1930s. The most important players here were the Great Depression, the technological advancements of the time, as well as the more intimate relationships developing between people of separate races, specifically people such as John Hammond, who fought for race equality. In addition, the migration of jazz from being an all-black genre to being a mix-race phenomenon gave rise to much discussion of race in the Swing Era.

Comment – Jenny Eberle