Music in African American Community Life

Music in African American Community Life
The origin of African American music traces back to the period of slavery in the United States. As enslaved people worked in the fields, they could sing songs to pass the time. These songs were a way of sharing their life stories. The invented songs, rhythms, and dances helped African Americans from various ethnicities and nationalities to conduct their secular and religious rituals, social gatherings, and festivals in an exciting way as they aimed to cope with the New World realities (Gioia, 2011). During slavery, enslaved blacks became the preferred musicians for white celebrations because they were acknowledged as the best artists (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). Since then, the involvement of African Americans in music-making has influenced every genre of American Music. Jazz, a musical genre invented during African American slavery, explored the pain and troubles black Americans went through in the past. This essay discusses the central role of jazz music in African American community life. It also outlines the musical features that define the performance style of jazz and explains the historical circumstances of African American life during the period of this genre.
Central Role of Jazz Music in African American Community Life
Jazz is a distinctively American musical style invented by black Americans influenced by Europeans (Gioia, 2011). Its roots include work songs, spirituals, and blues (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). It also borrowed from nineteenth-century band music and the ragtime piano playing style (Farley, 2011). Jazz's distinctive elements include rhythm patterns, harmonic patterns, and improvisation (Gioia, 2011). Jazz music is usually defined by its use of blues and speech intonations. As an art, jazz is regarded as one of America's classical music pioneers.
Born in New Orleans, Jazz was a way for African Americans to air their grievances and express themselves musically. It often described the African Americans' plights and struggles. In other words, this musical genre opened the door for African American voices to be heard. A notable artist is Langston Hughes: One of the earliest inventors of jazz poetry and a renowned leader of the Harlem renaissance (Gioia, 2011). Because jazz was a significant musical genre of black culture in the United States, Hughes and other like-minded artists adapted it to create African-American voices that the audience could easily distinguish from the work of white poets (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). Most of Hughes' poems resembled the famous jazz and blues songs. He provoked racial discrimination and stereotype, protested social injustices, and expanded how black people perceived themselves.
The primary role of jazz in the African American community life is to tell the stories of the black people, self-define their identities, and express their attitudes, while demanding change. In other words, it gives African Americans the platform to communicate their worldviews and demand social justice, following their past experiences in America. Expressing these world views creates a sense of originality, identity, and social cohesion among African Americans. According to Méndez & Törngren (2019), jazz acts as a way of exhibiting the contributions of black people to American society by highlighting African American history and culture. For some people, this genre reminds them of an oppressive and racist society (Gioia, 2011). In this context, jazz reflects all the challenges in the lives of African Americans like any artistic expression.
In the African American culture, the role of music is to fulfill social functions. Life and music go hand-in-hand in this community. That is why jazz will remain associated with their racial identity based on African American cosmology (Gioia, 2011). By doing so, jazz music creates a sense of originality, identity, and social cohesion among African Americans. Méndez & Törngren (2019) stipulated that jazz has acted to showcase African American contribution to American society, highlighting the black history and affirming black culture. For some people, this genre reminds them of an oppressive and racist society, which helps them accept the problems and develop new hope.
The American Civil Rights Movement was prominent in the mid-twentieth century, and jazz took part in it. Many musicians released African-influenced albums. An example is Max Roach's it is time (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). Artists demanded change using this genre. The free jazz movement confirmed that black people saw themselves as propagative and non-passive people who were proud of their identity. When African-Americans regained their identity and demonstrated it with pride, they sought social and political changes beyond their racial boundaries (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). This explains why beboppers escaped their confinement from the ''Race records'' labeling.
Jazz also integrates or unifies people regardless of their ethnicities. It is evident in the way jazz has unified white and black people. Despite the discrimination in America, musicians have somehow been considered equal in the jazz community. Jazz music has also brought people together internationally. Great jazz artists integrated global ideas into their music. An example is Duke Ellington, who has an album called ''Far East Suite'' (Gioia, 2011). The recording industry has played a significant role in jazz commercialization, leading to uniformity. The music, which appealed to white and black alike, provides a culture that embraces the two races. It offers a platform where people are judged based on their ability instead of race.
During the modern jazz era, big band music was popular, and it was played a lot on radios and television channels. Both black and white people enjoyed this music, opening a common ground for the two races that began embracing each other. The white people started traveling to black neighborhoods to enjoy the jazz performed by talented African American jazz musicians (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). The two races began to make jazz and perform together at some point. This helped reduce some racial issues because the artists and the audience had to attend the same concert to hear the music they enjoyed. The tension between races began to weaken a bit since cultures mixed, although racial prejudice was still rampant at the time. For instance, white jazz musicians were given more airtime than black jazz musicians on radio stations due to racism (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). Despite the racism experienced by the jazz world, there is no doubt that this genre was, and still is, a meeting space for all ethnicities.
This musical genre is full of expressions of love, hope, desire, transcendence, desire, transcendence, and victory. Even more mellow, sad, depressing jazz expressions have an exciting way of celebrating the darker side of life (Farley, 2011). The genre is about accepting the challenges and overcoming them. While declaring his love for Jazz music, Martin Luther King Jr. noted that jazz music enabled black people to take the most complex realities of life and develop a new hope or sense of triumph (Gioia, 2011). The role of jazz in the black community is based on the history of this genre and its style. As noted, jazz was developed during African-American slavery in America, and they realized that music could help them express their suppression.
Jazz is a fundamentally democratic style of music—the relationship between jazz musicians when playing reflects the ideal democratic society. Besides, the relationships jazz's musical elements like harmony, melody, dynamics, repetition, and improvisation also mirror democratic ideals. In this genre, everyone makes personal contributions to the collective musical goal. Like democracy, jazz focuses on balancing tradition and innovation, past and future, individualism and collectivism, as well as stability and change (New York Jazz Workshop, n.d.). These elements are also critical in defining the role of this musical genre in African American life. The democratic style of jazz music reflects the fights for Civil Rights by the African community during the social injustices in America.
Musical Features that Define Jazz's Performance Style
Jazz is characterized by improvisation, swing, syncopation, bent notes and innovative modes, and distinctive voices (Wildridge, 2020). Syncopation places rhythmic stress in surprising places to create unexpected rhythm on the ...