MUSC 229 - Journal #1

Many factors are utilised by musicians, critics, listeners, and labels in order to attempt to categorise jazz

in a way that allows them to distinguish it from “supposedly lesser genres”, (Porter, 21) in order to sell,

socially elevate, or gate-keep the version of jazz that they represent. These factors often concern the

incorporation of “a less acceptable range of influences” (Porter, 21) that are “determined and continually

redetermined by people… who decide which musicians get heard… as jazz or not jazz.” (13) Thus, one

factor defined by the introductory chapter to Jazz/Not Jazz is the evolving public opinion surrounding the

“significance of musical works” and their place within the jazz canon. (13) The significance of jazz works

continually shift as different works become accepted, highlighted, or removed from the mainstream jazz

canon.

An interesting example of this is Charlie Parker’s 1950 performance of the jazz standard “Moose the

Mooche” on his 1950 album “Bird” Is Free. The up-tempo, bebop rendition of this tune would not have

been considered compatible with jazz’s association with popular music, which encompassed much of

jazz’s definition at that point. However, Holtz suggests that at some point during the 1950s, “jazz was

consolidated as a genre with a narrative that connected various styles of the past and present in a canon”,

(Holtz, 21) at which stage the canonised definition of jazz shifted to include bebop. It is interesting, then,

to consider that, given bebop’s ongoing position within the mainstream jazz canon, we continue to regard

this recording of “Moose the Mooche” as jazz.

A secondary factor Ake discusses is the importance of the music’s geographical situation in establishing

authenticity as ‘jazz’. While ideas related to nationalism are not always synonymous with jazz practices,

one key way that this has found success is through Lincoln Center’s “Essentially Ellington” competition,

in which American high schools are invited to compete in. Roosevelt High School's performance of ‘Blue

Room’ at the 2022 competition highlights what is upheld by these as the pinnacle of big band jazz.

Dedicating a competition of such prestige to a single composer limits the material played by American
high school jazz bands, and thus the material young players have been exposed to, grounding their

understanding of jazz in early-to-mid 20th-century American compositions.

Based on the assigned recordings, Byron’s version of jazz (if one is to assume that all of Byron’s

recordings are jazz) incorporates a large range of accepted jazz antecedents and other influences. While

“Cotton Club Stomp” is faithful to its Ellington roots, “Happy Together/If 6 was 9” clearly incorporates

and displays influences from rock, hip hop. Byron’s definition of jazz could be thought of, as Porter

suggests, as a process of “simultaneously rejecting and assimilating different definitions of musical

authenticity”, (Porter, 22) that seek to serve the role of jazz as a revolutionary genre. In other words,

Byron is simply partaking in the process that Holtz describes as challenging the conventions of a genre

through “further negotiations”, (Holtz, 20) the success of which is not clearly defined by Porter’.

Marsalis’s definition of jazz is far narrower and exclusive. Based on the readings and listening examples,

while Byron also incorporates similar antecedents to Marsalis, Marsalis does not incorporate the same

modern influences. It is easy to hear the influence of blues, bebop, and vocal jazz in Marsalis’s playing,

but he seeks confinement to these roots, innovating the conventions pioneered by Count Basie and

Ellington, rather than incorporating modern influences. In Holtz’s terms, Marsalis’s definition of jazz is

reinforcing the “codified… ‘centre collectivities” of the genre. (20)