Jazz: Chicago Style

     Jazz’s transposition into Chicago from New Orleans was more of an evolution than its growth in New York. Even professor Stewart has said that when we talk of the Jazz Age, we are predominantly referring to Chicago style jazz. In Chicago, the solo artist emerged from the brass bands of New Orleans, the genre transcended class and race more so than in New Orleans, and it became a modern art form born out of a Southern tradition. In contrast, its’ development in Harlem, New York was mired by a fragmented Black community split into the highbrow Harlem Renaissance intellectuals and the lowbrow “slum” dance halls and intimate rent parties, as well as the restrictions on artists as imposed by the mob and racial segregation. Jazz in Chicago was unifying medium for all of the black community, but the same cannot be so strongly said about jazz in New York.

    Out of Chicago emerged arguably the greatest jazz musician in history, Louis Armstrong. Although he migrated to Chicago like many New Orleans musicians, it wasn’t until he was pushed by his wife Lil Hardin to seek individual fame that the solo jazz artist was brought to light. Armstrong paved the way for a more emotional and personally connected genre that Chicago allowed. Along with the solo artist, Chicago jazz featured a bluesy swinging rhythm section and a brash, sparkling, and upbeat trumpet (as opposed to the centerpiece being the piano in New York), according to lecture.

     In New Orleans, jazz was played in the brothels of Storyville and the lower class black community. However, with the rise of the middle class as facilitated by the Industrial Revolution, respectable middle class blacks found entertainment and leisure in listening and dancing to jazz. Therefore jazz transitioned into the more suitable dance pavilions where blacks could get dressed up and have a nice distraction from the grinds of everyday industrial life. In this way, jazz became an art form for all classes to enjoy. In contrast, jazz was only enjoyed by the lowbrow black community of New York and effectively ignored by the Harlem Renaissance intellectuals.

     Chicago Jazz was enjoyed by both blacks and whites as well. According to chapter six of An Autobiography of Black Jazz, white jazz artists would go to the black jazz clubs to learn from the true masters. “Alberta Hunter, the South Side’s favorite singer during that period, said, ‘Sophie Tucker came to see me do “Some Day, Sweetheart” at the Dreamland. Later she sent her maid, Belle, to ask me to come to her dressing room and teach her the songs. I would never go…’” (Travis 68). Chicago jazz was not only recognized by all classes as a significant musical movement, but people of different races as well. Even if whites only visited clubs like the Dreamland to steal material, it was still an accomplishment for black jazz musicians’ skill to want to be copied.

     To return to Louis Armstrong, he epitomized the Chicago style of jazz. A virtuoso trumpet player, he shined at the head of the band. He also recorded numerous tracks that would go on to be jazz standards; his recordings symbolize the modernization of the Chicago jazz movement.