{"id":2715,"date":"2023-09-06T01:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2023-09-06T01:00:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T05:00:06","slug":"the-jazz-threat-on-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/09\/the-jazz-threat-on-npr.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Jazz Threat” on NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In my book Dvorak\u2019s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong> I call \u201can antipathy to jazz\u201d one of the defining attributes of American classical music during the interwar decades. I\u2019ve also written a lot about \u201cthe jazz threat.\u201d In the US, jazz bore a Black taint; it was linked to brothels and nightclubs; it was declasse. Henry Ford\u2019s notorious Dearborn<\/em> Independent<\/em> denounced jazz as a \u201cmorally filthy\u201d alliance of crude African-Americans and clever Jewish \u201cmerchandizers.\u201d European-born composers more greatly esteemed jazz than their American colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is the topic of my most recent \u201cMore than Music\u201d\u00a0NPR documentary <\/strong><\/a> [click to open]. I explore the jazz affinities of Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Paul Hindemith. Moving on to today, I cite the Swiss-born composer Daniel Schnyder, who achieves a bristling jazz\/classical fusion without shortcuts. And I sample the jazz-infused performances of Schnyder on saxophone, pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-fen, and bass trombonist David Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, I ask Michael Dease if the jazz threat persists. An award-winning trombonist, Dease is white-passing though his mother is Black \u2013 so he finds himself eavesdropping on conversations bearing on music and race. His short answer is: yes \u2013 jazz remains more prestigious abroad. To hear his long answer, go to 39:00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrapping up, I observe that a lot of what\u2019s being composed today sounds \u201cmakeshift\u201d to my ears \u2013 a panoply of mixed musical genres and styles unsupported by a panoply of knowledge. \u201cEspecially in the US, the jazz threat we\u2019ve been talking about compartmentalized<\/em> music \u2013 classical versus popular, high versus low. Today\u2019s music, by comparison, eagerly squeezes the ‘big [musical] sponge’ Daniel Schnyder extols. The challenge is to squeeze the sponge in a really informed and considered way. The composers we\u2019ve sampled all furnish lessons in doing precisely that. \u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A nation\u2019s music anchors its identity. That America\u2019s music is formidably Black creates tensions that continue to stress the national fabric.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Most of the performances here were recorded at last summer’s Brevard Music Festival, supported by a “Music Unwound” grant<\/a><\/strong> from the NEH. The next Brevard NEH Music Unwound festival, next July, will be the first of four celebrating the sesquicentenary of Charles Ives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A LISTENING GUIDE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART ONE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

00:00 — Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis<\/em>, with its jazz fugue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:10 — Berlin’s Comedian Harmonists sing Cole Porter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:45 — Woody Herman’s Bijou<\/em>, an influence on . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:30 — Stravinsky’s Ebony<\/em> Concerto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART TWO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12:00 — A sublime “Blues” by Ravel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15:40 — Josephine Baker in Paris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16:50 — Paris as a refuge for Black American musicians<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18:45 — Aaron Copland and Roy Harris on the limitations of jazz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21:00 — Ravel and Gershwin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25:00 — Ravel’s jazzy piano concerto in G<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART THREE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30:15 — A fabulous Duo for saxophone and bass trombone by Daniel Schnyder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

34:00 — David Taylor plays Schubert on his bass trombone <\/p>\n\n\n\n

37:00 — Min Xiao-fen plays Thelonious Monk on her pipa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

39:00 — Michael Dease on why jazz remains more prestigious abroad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

47:00 — Schnyder’s bass trombone concerto — an exemplary “musical sponge” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my book Dvorak\u2019s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music, I call \u201can antipathy to jazz\u201d one of the defining attributes of American classical music during the interwar decades. I\u2019ve also written a lot about \u201cthe jazz threat.\u201d In the US, jazz bore a Black taint; it was linked to brothels and nightclubs; it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-HN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2715"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2728,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}