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JAZZ
Updated August 31, 2001 (first published June 29, 1999) (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) - We believe that jazz music, like rock & roll, is worldly and unwholesome. Some of our readers might find the following quotes about jazz from our files useful --
THE TERM "JAZZ" MEANS SEXUAL INTERCOURSE AND WAS INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH MORAL FILTHINESS Like the blues, boogie-woogie, and ragtime, jazz was born in the unwholesome and sensual environment of sleazy bars, honkytonks, juke joints, and whorehouses. The very name "jazz" refers to immorality. Blues historian James Dickerson notes: "Sex was inextricably linked with blues and jazz. It was not a prejudice: it was a fact of life. &Mac183; In truth, black parents were also disapproving of blues and jazz music, and often pulled out the broomstick when their daughters showed an interest in the 'devil's music'" (Dickerson, Goin' Back to Memphis, pp. 29,30). "The origin of the word 'jazz' is most often traced back to a vulgar term used for sexual acts. Some of the early sounds of jazz were associated with whore houses and 'ladies of ill repute'" (www.jazzhistory/introduction). "Disputes over entertainment are as old as the country. America's forefathers grumbled about the bawdy ballads sung in public houses in 16th century England before they packed up to head to the New World. Fans of impromptument in New Orleans shocked the Establishment in the early years of the century by naming it 'jazz'Creole patois for sexual intercourse. 'Rockandroll,' itself a bluesmusic term for sex, suggested rebellion and abandon as much as it did a new style of music when it first jarred adult sensibilities in the 1950s. 'When you're growing up,' says Jerry Kramer, a prominent director of music videos, 'you like rockandroll for one reason: Because your parents don't'" ("What entertainers are doing to your kids," U.S. News & World Report, October 28, 1985, page 47). "'Jazz' (also called 'jass' in its early days), like 'rock and roll' a couple of generations later, had its origins as a slang term for sex &Mac183; the word's risqué roots no doubt boosted its popularity in that age-old search by hormonal, rebellious young people looking for edgy, exciting new ways to express themselves and, if at all possible, worry their parents as well" (Larry Nager, Memphis Beat, p. 87). "Among the young whites &Mac183; in revolt against traditional values, the most rebellious were jazz musicians. Jazz had emerged as the urban voice of black culture, essentially a protest music in which blacks played out their daily experiences. This found favour with white kids seeking a vehicle for their own thrash against society, a music guaranteed to shock the squares, as rock 'n' roll did in the mid-fifties. &Mac183; New Orleans represented the best the new music had to offer and gave to jazz its sleazy reputation. The New Orleans spirit was one of permissiveness and non-interference, very much a musician's creed. From its earliest days a city of low life, thieving, gambling and above all prostitution, New Orleans 'tolerated with impartiality small-time hustlers and high crimes, self-serving royal governors and fifty-cent whores.' &Mac183; The Mafia made a major incursion into the entertainment business and, ironically much to the benefit of jazz, gangsters dominated the clubs, cabarets, dives and bars in many American cities. &Mac183; John Hammond of CBS reckoned that three quarters of all the jazz clubs and cabarets were mob-controlled. In New York there were 1,300 licensed clubs and speakeasies, while Chicago boasted 24,000 night spots in 1926" (Harry Shapiro, Waiting for the Man: The Story of Drugs and Popular Music, pp. 26-30). JAZZ AND DRUG ABUSE The following quotes are from Harry Shapiro, Waiting for the Man: The Story of Drugs and Popular Music:
(Harry Shapiro, Waiting for the Man: The Story of Drugs and Popular Music). JAZZ WAS REJECTED BY GODLY PEOPLE WHEN IT WAS CONCEIVED Jazz originated in the sleazy bars and nightclubs of New Orleans and other cities in the States. It grew out of the blues and ragtime and boogie-woogie, all of which were intimately associated with the licentious nightlife of honky-tonks and saloons. It was music particularly designed to accompany gambling, drinking, dancing, and whoring. In her extensive history of "The Music of Black Americans," Eileen Southern says jazz came "from the fusion of blues, ragtime, brass-band music, and syncopated dance music." She notes that "the most distinctive features of jazz derive directly from the blues." Early jazz had a "striking rhythmic intensity" that was "derived from solid, driving, four-beats-to-the-measure rhythms coupled with strong accents on beats one and three." Rock researcher Michael Moynihan, who is no friend to Bible-believing Christianity, observes that in the first half of the twentieth century jazz "was considered particularly dangerous" for its "potential to unleash animal passions" and for its connection with evil (Lords of Chaos, p. 2). The jazz rhythms were described as "sound loud and meaningless" by the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1918, and it warned that such sounds could have "an intoxicating effect, like crude colors and strong perfumes, the sight of flesh or the sadic [sadistic] pleasure in blood." The mother of famous jazz singer Lil Hardin's (who was married for eight years to Louis Armstrong) had the following to say about her daughter's music: "[Jazz] is worthless immoral music, played by worthless immoral loafers expressing their vulgar minds with vulgar music" (cited by Larry Nager, Memphis Beat, p. 92). JOHN PHILIP SOUSA REJECTED JAZZ AS PROSTITUTED MUSIC "I heard a fellow say in the Y.M.C.A. not long ago (they were playing a piece of what is called 'jazz'), 'If jazz is music, then a dime novel is literature.' Yet the world has gone crazy over it. I have never heard but one definition of it, and that was given by John Philip Sousa. He said, 'Jazz is prostituted music, and the sooner we get rid of the stuff, the better for our boys and girls'" (Harry Vom Bruch, 1892-1962, "The New Birth," Modern Prodigals and Other Sermons, reprinted in Soul Stirring Sermons: Evangelistic Voices from the Past and Present by Ken Lynch, Chester, PA: Ken Lynch, 1996). DEFINITIONS OF JAZZ The following quotes are from A History of Jazz in America by Barry Ulanov (New York: Viking Press, 1952) --
JAZZ, LIKE PAGAN RHYTHMS, CAN PRODUCE MASS HYSTERIA "The mass hysteria present in recordings of the rhythmic chants of primitive peoples and the similar mass hysteria of the modern 'jam session' indicates--at times, all too clearly--the emotional tension producible by subjecting groups of people to concentrated doses of rhythm" (Dr. Howard Hanson, The American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 101, p. 364; Dr. Hanson, an American composer, conductor, and teacher, was Director of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester).). JAZZ ASSOCIATED WITH JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND INSANITY "A report from the Illinois Vigilance Association claimed that in 1921-2, jazz had caused the downfall of 1,000 girls in Chicago alone. The leader of the State Hospital in Napa, California declared: 'I can say from my own knowledge that about fifty percent of our young boys and girls from the age sixteen to twenty-five that land in the insane asylum these days are jazz-crazy dope fiends and public dance hall patrons. Jazz combinations -- dope fiends and public dance halls are the same &Mac183; where you find one, you will find the other'" (Waiting for the Man, p. 47). NEW EVANGELICAL BIOLA UNIVERSITY'S ACCEPTANCE OF JAZZ LEADS TO MORE WORLDLINESS The following is from a report on BIOLA University from the book New Neutralism II: Exposing the Gray of Compromise by John E. Ashbrook (Here I Stand Books, 1992, 536 Greenside Dr., Painesville, OH 44077. 216-354-7725) -- A second area of tolerance is that of music. Foundation for July/August 1981, published an official statement from the BIOLA music department giving the University position on the use of jazz music. The statement says the following: "...to a great degree, contemporary jazz has become 'classical.' It is also true that traditional jazz has to a great extent left its original association with the brothels of New Orleans, social dance, drinking, and other social practices which have represented 'worldly values.' Jazz, in effect, must be considered 'classical' in the broad sense of the term. It is entirely possible for college students to rehearse and perform jazz purely as another style of concert music." Foundation goes on to make a correct observation that, "The official statement follows the usual new evangelical philosophy of defending worldly things on the basis that they are contemporary." I grew up in the jazz era. My parents forbade that style of music. As I look back, I am thankful for the dances, drink and dives their prohibition spared me. The world's music, in any era, has never enhanced the Lord's message. The devil was not able to be as blatant in the jazz era as he is in the rock generation, but the same raunchy fellow is behind both styles. Both mediums represent classic worldliness. Toleration of jazz led to another step in 1988. According to the BIOLA Chimes for May 25, 1988, the University removed its historic prohibition against dancing. The article states that, "Under the latest revision of the code, first written in the 1920's, students will be allowed to decide for themselves whether to dance, drink, smoke or gamble off campus during vacation periods." The article went on to say, "In addition, students will be allowed to dance off campus during the regular school year, but the school will sponsor no dances." BIOLA's President, Dr. Clyde Cook said, "I think it's a good step in helping to develop integrity and responsibility." The Baptist Bible Tribune for April 22, 1988, had a story, with pictures, by Dr. R.L. Hymers recording his attendance at a campus dance in the school gymnasium. The event was billed as a concert with the slogan, "Stay mild or get wild" and was advertised as a concert with "no chairs." JAZZ ACCEPTED BY LIBERAL AND ECUMENICAL CHURCHES (RNS, November 27, 1995) Jazzman Dave Brubeck is known for his striking syncopated rhythms that emanate from his piano on concerthall stages. But he and other jazz enthusiastsboth musicians and ministershave discovered a connection between those feelgood rhythms and the spiritual depths of the musicloving public. The work of jazz greats like Brubeck, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane is finding its way into churches, where saxophonists and drummers in sports jackets are replacing organists and choirs in robes. Sometimes, the music is a familiar hymn with a jazzy twist. Often, though, it's straightahead jazz, THE SAME TUNES HEARD IN SMOKY CLUBS and openair festivals. "To me, if you get into that creative part of your mind when you're playing jazz, it's just as religious as when you're writing a sacred service," says Brubeck, who has composed jazz for both the sacred and secular musical world. While the trend has been around a whileone New York church began featuring a jazz liturgy 30 years agonew services are springing up in cities across the country as clergy and composers find a way to blend the lively spirit of jazz with the ineffable spirit of God. "Jazz is a deeply creative and spiritual music, and I think it's another avenue for religious expression," said the Rev. Daniel Webster Aldridge Jr., pastor of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. Aldridge's church offers a jazz service two afternoons a month. "We would argue that the spirituality is in the music itself, even when it's not expressly spiritual," he says. In Orlando, Fla., Trinity Lutheran Church features a jazz quartetkeyboard, sax, trumpet and drumsand sometimes a vocal trio. On a recent Sunday, the Communion hymn was a swinging version of "This Is the Feast," a traditional church song. At St. Peter's Church in Manhattan, another Lutheran congregation, jazz combos frequently perform such standards as "Take the A Train" and Miles Davis' "All Blues." "It was a novelty when it first started," Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., says of the melding of reigion and jazz. Now, he says, it's become "quite commonplace." "THERE WAS A TIME WHEN PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED ABOUT IT. THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF DISCUSSION AS TO WHETHER IT BELONGED. ... Nowadays, it seems very acceptable." So acceptable, in fact, that a "jazz nativity" has been performed for a decade in New York City at churches, Lincoln Center, and even a synagogue that once bailed out the production when it found itself without a home. Last year, the performance, titled "Bending towards the Light," featured Latin persussionist Tito Puente, trumpeter John Faddis and tap dancer Jimmy Slyde as the Three Kings. Puente played his timbalesdrums common in Latin American musicinstead of presenting the Christ Child with the traditional gift of myrrh. The unique drama was performed first at St. Peter's, which has premiered a number of sacred works with jazz overtones and eulogized luminaries such as saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. St. Peter's made waves 30 years ago when Lutheran leaders officially called for a fulltime pastor to run a jazz ministry there. Now, the congregation has internationaly known Sunday afternoon jazz services that, depending on who's playing, draw several hundred worshipers. "It really has ministered (to) a whole group of people who might not have come to church otherwise," says the Rev. Dale Lind, who succeeded founding jazz pastor John Garcia Gensel in 1994. Lind, who wears a stole embroidered with a lute, drums and other instruments of the Bible during jazz services, said he places no boundaries on the musicians who make guest appearances as music leaders. "WE DRAW NO LINE BETWEEN SECULAR AND SACRED MUSIC HERE," said Lind. "We rejoice in all kinds of creations." During vespers at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, there's a fine line between jazz asnd gospel music, but it's the results that interest the pastor, the Rev. Joan SalmonCampbell, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). "FOLKS HAVE COME FORWARD TO JOIN CHURCH ON SOMETHING LIKE 'FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE I'VE GOT SOMEONE WHO NEEDS ME.'" SamonCampbell says, referring to the hit made famous by Stevie Wonder. "I (interpreted) it to mean the someone that needs me, yes, is God." At Trinity Lutheran in Orlando, a predominantly white church, more nonwhites than whites show up for the jazz services two Sunday mornings a month. "During the offering, our jazz band will go off on an 'Amazing Grace' improvisation that blows people's mind, but the melody is there," says the Rev. Mark Joeckel, who helped start a jazz service at the church more than two years ago. "You come in and you sit there for a second and you think, 'Wow, I've heard this song before.'" Experts say the interest by churches in jazz brings the music genre fuill circle. Jazz has its roots in spirituals and other elements of the black church. "In jazz, there's a very strong element of the sort of gospel church in the South," said Stanley Dance, author of "The World of Duke Ellington." Ellington, who died in 1974, "was always a religious man" who read the Bible from cover to cover some seven times and felt jazz was another form of prayer, Dance says. Toward the end of his life, the pianist and composer wrote and performed in sacred concerts that featured hymns, orchestration, choirs and, of course, jazz. "One of his themes," Dance says of "the Duke," "was that every man prays to God in his own language, and his musical language was jazz" (Christian News, Dec. 11, 1995, p. 19). NEW EVANGELICAL THEOLOGIAN J.I. PACKER LOVES JAZZ J.I. Packer loves the classics. Especially King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong early jazz classics. Dr. Packer has an ear for the order and liveliness of jazz and a mind for the discipline and harmony found in Calvin and the Puritans -- classic theology. So if you want to soak up the classics, come to Regent College. And open your mind (and ears) to this wonderful world (ad in Christianity Today, Dec. 11, 1995, p. 50). During his student years, Packer played jazz clarinet in the "Oxford Bandits" at Oxford University. JAZZ WELCOMED AT ECUMENICAL KEY '73 Key '73 Hymn Contest encourages writing of new songs in four categories: contemporaryconventional, contemporary, folk, and rockjazz. States, "Language must be simple but in today's conversational language. Words such as 'vouchsafe', 'beseech', and 'eschew' simply aren't understood. Some words have also come to mean something different through usage, e.g., 'righteous.' Such words should also be avoided" (Key '73 Congregational Resource Book, an ecumenical evangelistic program in 1973, p. 96). JAZZ FEATURED AT MODERNISTIC, NEW AGE, ECUMENICAL PROGRAM New York (RNS) In the World's largest cathedral, all 2,500 seats were full, and a restless standingroom crowd of another 2,500 packed the side aisles and the back of the dimly lit nave, straining to catch a glimpse or hear the words of the gently smiling man in Buddhist monk's garb. Passing up the debate between President Reagan and Walter Mondale at home on television, this throng of 5,000 worshipers had come to the massive Cathedral of St. John the Divine on a Sunday night to join in a colorful interfaith service celebrating "The Oneness of the Human Family." The reverberating acoustics of the cavernous church enhances the poignant jazz prelude by saxophonist Paul Winter and an unseen organist, and the piping voices of a children's choir. But most listeners in the echoing nave could understand little of what was said by the two modest and unpretentious holy men whose presence had attracted the overflow crowd. Speaking strongly accented English, Brazalian Roman Catholic Archbishop Dom Helder Camara and the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, voiced words of peace and brotherhood. Just being in their presence seemed to suffice for many worshipers who could not hear all the words. The two-and-a-half service, which included choral anthems and liturgical dance, was billed as the opening of "Spiritual Summit VI," whch one of its organizes called "a spiritual United Nations of Planet Earth." Mrs. Judith Hollister, 66, told the crowd how the idea for the Temple of Understanding, an educational program to promote interfaith accord, was launched on Columbus Day 1959, on the Porch of her Greenwich, Connecticut, home, "while I was eating a peanut butter sandwich." Mrs. Hollister, a Presbyterian laywoman has traveled around the world raising funds and drumming up support for an institution devoted to bringing together the leaders of world religious, and using the resources of diverse spiritual heritages to help solve world problems. "Tonight, this cathedral is surrounded by oceans of love and galaxies of compassion," said Mrs.Hollister, an energetic whitehaired woman, who wore a red cape. "Twice in my life, I have been privileged to see angels. I don't expect tonight to see angels - except you're all angels." The 30 leaders from a variety of world religions attending the "spiritual Summit" were to spend the next few days in deliberations, including a session at the United Nations, where the leaders of the group hope to start an agency to carry on the work.... Dr. Karen Singh, member of India's parliament and leader of the Indian National Hindu organization, who began by chanting an ancient Sanskrit invocation, told the crowd that "the many streams of our separate religions should merge into one stream for peace and wellbeing to save mankind from total destruction. "The dark clouds of conflict seem to be gathering on the horizon," but religious faith gives "light amid the encircling gloom," he said. ... The Dalai Lama, clad in safforn monk's robes, with one shoulder bared, returned a standing ovation pressing his hands together in salute. "The most important peace," he told listeners, "is the inner peace within ourselves. For peace of mind, you need compassion and love." Dr. Robert Muller, a United Nations official and author of a 10point "Declaration of Oneness for the Human Family," noted that humanity remains divided: "Today we still live in a world where the nation is more important than humanity; religion is more important than spirituality: language is more important than communication: and race is more important than human race. "Our conflicts are exacerbated by religion," he said. "Within Christianity alone, there are 27,000 denominations." All groups on the planet, however, have something in common, said the U.N. official. "We are one human family on one little planet, whirling mysteriously in the universe. We must find what we have is common and work together for the good of humanity" ("Religious unity, peace is theme of Spiritual Summit VI, by Jean Caffey Lyles, Christian News, October 15, 1984, page 1). NEW EVANGELICAL WHEATON COLLEGE ACCEPTS JAZZ On page 7 of The Record, Wheaton College (Vol. 105, No. 1, Sept. 19, 1980), John Vita and Nancy Parramore favorably review modern singer Jackson Browne's sixth record album, Hold Out. The album tells of Jackson Browne's feelings of responsibility for his wife's suicide. The Wheaton College columnists describe it as "the music is still the tight, crisp, light rock that makes Browne's music instantly identifiable and enjoyable." On page 4 is a letter by two sophomores, Tim Cooper and Scott Strong, both of the Class of '83, publicizing the fact that they are "owners of a combined total of close to 1,000 contemporary rock albums." On page 6, column by Nancy Post under the "Arts" section and entitled "Chicago," the columnist writes: "WBEZ is at 91.5 FM, and features excellent jazz during the daytime." On page 7 of The Record (Oct. 10, 1980) is a column by AnnLouise Keating, favorably reviewing rock and jazz singer Pam Mark Hall, selected for a Homecoming Concert on Friday evening in Edman Chapel, and describing her as "one who writes her own lyrics" and has "varied musical styles, including jazz and rock rhythms" (How Liberals & Radicals Are Manipulating Evangelicals, Edgar C. Bundy, 1982, pp. 196197). |
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