The White Reception of Jazz in America

Author(s): Maureen Anderson

Source: African American Review , Spring, 2004, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 135-
145
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of African American
Review (St. Louis University)
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 The White Reception of Jazz in America

It came almost like a start of terror, like a sudden awakening, this shattering storm
of rhythm, these tone elements never previously combined and now let loose
Maureen Anderson is cur-
upon us all at once. (Darius Milhaud)
rently teaching and working
on her Ph.D. in Comparative
Literature at Illinois State
University with a focus on
F rom 1917 to 1930, white America was forced to realize that a oppressive rhetoric, particu-
new form of music, jazz, rising on radio waves and appear- larly rhetoric that has led to

ing in clubs worldwide, was here to stay. At the same time, arti- acts of violence. Recently,
she completed an essay on
cles analyzing, judging, appraising, and condemning jazz flooded
Mercy Otis Warren that will
into publication. Titles such as "Unspeakable Jazz Must Go" (see
be included in the collection
McMahon), "Students in Arms Against Jazz," "Why 'Jazz' Sends of biographical essays in the
Us Back to the Jungle," and "The Jazz Problem" (see Wilson) upcoming Greenwood
appeared in mainstream publications and revealed the political Encyclopedia of American
and racial endeavors of hostile white critics. By asserting in 1925 Poetry.
that jazz "is a release of all suppressed emotions at once" (Rogers
30), J. A. Rogers created a description that whites would expand
on in order to label jazz in Harlem culture as primitive and evil.
Jazz served in several ways as a precursor to fifties' be-bop and
rock-'n'-roll, eighties' pop, and nineties' rap. Principal among
them is that jazz critics, like critics of these later musical forms,
were often diabolical in their attacks on the music. Motivated by
political and racial concerns, many jazz critics during the Harlem
Renaissance publicized their dislike of jazz music in order to
express their dislike of African Americans.
In striving to analyze and to understand the concepts of jazz
music, white critics often hid behind black stereotypes in order to
explain the increased fascination the world had with jazz. Some,
in utter contempt, wrote that jazz plagiarized and then mutilated
the works of classical, white composers. Still other critics main-
tained that jazz was dangerous, unhealthy, or, even worse, a form
of bayou voodoo. In an attempt to understand jazz, many publi-
cations resorted to asking professionals why Europeans liked
jazz, since jazz was acclaimed in Europe as a form of musical lib-
eration. Magazines turned to composers, doctors, educators, and
even the black populace to explain jazz. Stunningly, what
remains consistent in the reports on jazz is not the ultimate dis-
like of the music, but the political and social dislike of the black
population. In sum, the articles on jazz that appeared in main-
stream magazines between 1917 and 1930 reveal the racial preju-
dice that white jazz critics had against African Americans.
As magazines first began to recognize jazz, between 1917 and
1920, critics' principal aim appeared innocently enough to be ask-
ing what, exactly, jazz was. Yet, delving deeper into the language
of early articles, one soon discovers that the explanations of jazz
are also the signs of aggression by white critics against the recent-

African American Review, Volume 38, Number 1

0 2004 Maureen Anderson 135

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 ly emancipated black man. Popular
publications such as Literary Digest and
Current Opinion linked jazz immediate-
ly to slavery and Africa and, shortly
thereafter, disqualified any claim jazz
might have to being a serious musical
genre. For example, in the Literary
Digest article "The Appeal of Primitive
Jazz" (1917), the critic begins by ana-
lyzing the word jazz but finishes with example, how the following passage
an outright racial manifesto against the
black man.1 Jazz, the article begins, is place of the word musicians: "The
"a strange word, an adjective descrip-
tive of a band" (26), but the article then
goes on to explain what sort of "band"
might be called a "jazz":
The groups that play for dancing,
when colored, seem infected with the
virus that they try to instill as a stimu-
lus in others. They shake and jump
and writhe in ways to suggest a return
of the medieval jumping mania. The
word, according to Walter Kingsley,
famous in the ranks of vaudeville, is
variously spelled jas, jass, jaz, jazz, and
jascz; and is African in origin.
The switch from Africa to slavery is a
short leap for this writer, since shortly
after asserting the word's African ori-
gin, the article links the word to slav-
ery:
In old plantation days, when slaves
were having one of their rare holidays
and the fun languished, some West-
Coast African would cry out, "Jaz her
up," and this would be the cue for fast
and furious fun. No doubt the witch-
doctors and medicine-men on the
Kongo used the same term at those
jungle "parties" when tomtoms
throbbed and the sturdy warriors gave
their pep an added kick with rich
brews of Yohimbin bark. (28)
The distinction between jazz and
African tribal music disappears in this
critique. Accordingly, black American
men and women and Africans become
interchangeable as the article reduces
the black jazz musicians to "witch-doc-
tors and medicine-men."
The author, instead of meditating
on how jazz, slavery, and Africa are
interlinked, jumps immediately to link-
ing Africa to the music itself.
Describing the music, the article says
that jazz "is the delirium tremens of
136 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
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syncopation. It is strict rhythm without
melody. To-day the jazz bands take
popular tunes and rag them to death to
make jazz." After establishing that this
African-originated music is "delirium"
and "without melody," the article is
able to cast the jazz player as a "con-
temporary savage" (26) rather than any
kind of serious musician. Consider, for
casually drops the word savages in
music of contemporary savages taunts
us with a lost art of rhythm. Modern
sophistication has inhibited many
native instincts" (26; italics mine). Not
content simply to label the jazz musi-
cian as a "savage," the author, in the
second sentence above, designates the
musician as a person without "modern
sophistication," which would have
"inhibited" his/her "native" or black
"instincts."
Soon after, the writer points to the
"rhythmic aggressiveness" of jazz and
the musician's "retarding and accelera-
tion" of swing (26). While this descrip-
tion could be said to suggest the tempo
of the music, the categorization of the
jazz artist as a "savage" lacking "mod-
ern sophistication" that would tame his
music implies that the root words
aggressive and retard here refer to the
musician. Consequently, the jazz play-
er emerges not as a talented artist but
as a stereotypical model of a black man
in the early 1900s. More specifically,
the black jazz artist with his "savage,"
"aggressive," and "retard[ed]" person-
ality resembles Gus, from the 1914
motion picture The Birth of a Nation, a
racial stereotype that portrays black
men as hostile, ignorant, and aggres-
sive, and a person whose only goal is
to rape white women. By the time of
the article's publication in 1917, three
years after the release of The Birth of a
Nation, this stereotype was thoroughly
integrated into and reinforced by the
white man's perception of the black
man and his music.
But even this level of racist stereo-
typing isn't enough. The author goes
on to describe the places where jazz is
played as "wonderful refuges of basic
folk-lore and primeval passion" where
"wild men and wild women have
danced to jazz for gladsome genera-
tions" (27), and he begins his conclu-
sion by combining all of the racial
implications of the foregoing passages
into Vachel Lindsay's poem "The
Congo," essentially reducing jazz
musicians to a couple of drunken ani-
mals that bang on tables and empty
barrels:
My own personal idea of jazz and
its origin is told in this stanza by
Vachel Lindsay:
Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel roomy
Barrel house kings with feet unstable,
Sagged and reeled and pounced on
the table,
Pounded on the table;
Beat an empty barrel with the handle
of a broom,
Hard as they were able,
Bo[o]m, boom, BOOM,
With a silk umbrella and the handle
of a broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay,
BOOM. (29)
The writer never thoroughly explains
the poem, but allows it to illustrate his
sentiments regarding the jazz musi-
cian. The "fat black bucks" are obvi-
ously drunk and making "boom[s]" by
banging on barrels and tables. In addi-
tion, the "bucks" are "pounc[ing]" on
furniture, implying that they are more
like monkeys or wild animals than
sane and intelligent humans.
Furthermore, the "black bucks" not
only bang with "the handle of a
broom," but also "a silk umbrella" (29).
While Lindsay's work and "The
Congo" are still celebrated by critics as
rhythmic and representative of
American culture and of the era, the
poem is and continues to be, as T. R.
Hummer suggests, "poetry in black-
face" (66).
Considering the author's evocation
earlier in the article of the racial stereo-
type Gus, applied to the jazz musician,
the reader does not need much more to
infer where, exactly, the "silk umbrel-
la" originated. After all, the wild
"black bucks," as "Barrel house kings,"
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would not have access to a "silk
umbrella" unless, as the poem sug-
gests, the "bucks" had taken it from a
genteel white woman. The implication
is clear: According to this writer, the
black jazz musician is, at base, a violent
animal who bangs on barrels and likes
to rape white women and take their
"silk umbrellas" for jungle instru-
ments.
Finally, moving from bad to worse,
the writer closes his article with the
warning a friend had given him that
seems to top the preceding racial
stereotypes and their demeaning impli-
cations. " 'Mumbo Jumbo,"' the friend
advises him, "'is the god of jazz; be
careful how you write of jazz, else he
will hoodoo you' " (29). The line is per-
haps meant to be a playful reference to
the conclusion of Lindsay's poem:
"Be careful what you do,
Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the
Congo,
And all of the other
Gods of the Congo,
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you."
But the line also reinforces the writer's
racist characterization of black musi-
cians. Considering that the article pro-
ceeds from defining the word jazz to
characterizing jazz musicians and all
black men as hostile, animalistic
rapists, the implication behind
"Mumbo Jumbo" is twofold. First, the
critic belittles jazz as "Mumbo Jumbo,"
or nonsense, thereby eliminating any
kind of musical talent from the process
of composing or playing jazz. Second,
after describing jazz as an African trib-
al ritual, the author suggests that not
only jazz, but the entire black popula-
tion, is pagan, and therefore unworthy.
Between the years 1917 and 1920,
the Literary Digest was not the only
publication to print articles by writers
who used a discussion of jazz to
express their hostile attitudes toward
African Americans. Indeed, the early
Literary Digest article seems to have
inspired other racist, white critics, for it
is often directly quoted in subsequent
THE WHITE RECEPTION OF JAZZ IN AMERICA 137
 articles. For example, in 1918, the arti- thought-provoking rejoinder in that
cle "Why 'Jazz' Sends Us Back to the same magazine in April of 1919 under
Jungle" picks up where "The Appeal of the title "A Negro Explains 'Jazz.' "
Primitive Jazz" left off. Instead of slyly Like the previous articles, the musician
hiding behind the facade of a serious defines the origin of the word jazz, but
article on jazz, the writer of "Why in doing so the writer asserts that not
'Jazz' " leaps directly into a racial cen- only is jazz American in origin but it
sure of jazz with his opening line: "One also has nothing to do with slavery,
touch of 'Jazz' makes Africa, or any of the
savages of us all" perpetuated stereo-
(165). Like the
The jazz critics of the types. In addition, the
Literary Journal arti- 191 Os and the 1920s author makes clear
cle, the Current that he's not only
are racists in print.
Opinion critique American, but an
asserts that the word American soldier in
jazz is "African in origin." In addition, the face of all of the criticizing "bish-
the author of "Why 'Jazz' " quotes ops":
from the "witch doctors" and "medi-
The Latest International Word seems
cine men" section of "The Appeal of to be "jazz." It used to be used exclu-
Primitive Jazz." The article soon con- sively in British papers to describe the
tinues to expand on what the previous kind of music and dancing-particu-
larly dancing-imported from
article asserts and in precisely half of a
America, thereby arousing discussions,
magazine page leaps from claiming in which bishops do not disdain to
that jazz "is an attempt to reproduce participate, to fill all the papers. While
the marvelous syncopation of the the society once "ragged," they now

African Jungle" to describing black jazz "jazz." In this country, tho[ugh] we

have been tolerably familiar with the
"dancers" in Chicago as individuals word for two years or more, we still
who like "smoke, and fresh bullock's try to pursue its mysterious origins.
blood, and the smell of stock-yards" Lieut. James Reese Europe, late of
and who "lik[e] jazz because it lends Machine-Gun Battalian of the 15th
Regiment, tells Mr. Grenville Vernon,
itself to intimate close dancing." Here
of the New York Tribune, that the word
jazz is not simply derived from "the comes from Mr. Razz, who led a band
African jungle," but also attracts in New Orleans some fifteen years ago
dancers that like "bullock's blood" and and whose fame perpetuated [the
"intimate close [or sexual] dancing" word jazz] in a somewhat modified
form. (28)
(165). The movement to use jazz as a
cover for racial propaganda was begun At once, the author makes clear by his
within a handful of articles in the early examination of the word jazz that he is
1900s just as Harlem and other urban directly responding to the previous
centers were beginning to usher in the articles that probe racial stereotypes in
first monumental wave of black culture order to explain away jazz music. The
in America. author also emphasizes the important
role black men play in the ongoing
world war. The author then proceeds
to affirm that "a higher plane of music
A t the beginning of jazz's world- may be attained by negroes," even if
wide popularity, the black
"white audiences seem to find it too
musicians that these articles seek to discordant." Asserting that the best
stereotype as horrible, racial brutes did music has "negro influences" that
not remain ignorant of the wave of crit- "sprin[g] from the soil," the writer
icism that sought to debase black explains that "Mr. Tires, for instance,
music and culture. In response to the writes charming waltzes, but the best
Literary Digest article of 1917, a musi- of these have in them negro influ-
cian published an intelligent and ences" (28).

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 "A Negro Explains 'Jazz'/"
addresses each racist tenet implied in
the earlier articles while also justifying
jazz as a real and serious musical form.
Like previous articles, "A Negro
Explains 'Jazz'" moves from talking
about jazz to addressing the character
of the black man. Yet unlike previous
articles that attempt to explain the
black man as a racial stereotype, this
author asserts the real heroism of black
men in the military during World War
I. The writer explains how he formed a
band for his colonel and that "the men
who now compose the band ... are all
fighters as well as musicians, for all
have seen service in the trenches" (29).
In this way, the writer brings jazz into
American culture and away from
African drumbeats, and, at the same
time, he raises the black race from
being portrayed as savages to being
conscious, intelligent, talented soldiers
that are loyal citizens to their country.
Though the talented author of "A
Negro Explains 'Jazz'" might have
pacified the racist white crowds, the
article actually fired up even more
angry sentiment toward jazz and the
black race. Between April and August
of the same year, the infamous Red
Summer of 1919 had swung into full
force. Only four months after "A Negro
Explains 'Jazz,'" the August 1919 edi-
tion of Current Opinion included a hos-
tile response to "A Negro Explains
'Jazz,' " complete with a blackface car-
toon. Current Opinion's "Delving into
the Genealogy of Jazz" vigorously
reasserts the racial stereotypes "A
Negro Explains 'Jazz' " had sought to
counter. Following a by-now familiar
pattern, the author of "Delving" begins
with the word jazz. "Just what is Jazz?"
he asks. "In striving to answer this
query, I can not hope to imitate the
admirable brevity of the word." Yet in
the very next sentence, the writer offers
a blunt and callous estimation of the
art form: "Jazz is ordered and calculat-
ed noise." What appears to be a softer
consideration of the form follows in the
next paragraph: "Certain it is that our
dough-boys, fresh from the trenches,
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with days and weeks of grim endeavor
and physical strain behind them,
turned to the Jazz furnished by their
bands and found in it relaxation and
solace and cheer which enabled them
to forget what was past and to aban-
don themselves wholeheartedly to the
joyous hilarity of the present moment"
(97). A deeper look at this quotation
makes it clear that the author's intent is
not benign.
The writer of "Delving," instead of
complimenting jazz, is, in fact, hurling
an insult at the author of "A Negro
Explains 'Jazz.'" It is the "dough-
boys," or white soldiers, that have
come "fresh from the trenches"; black
soldiers are not included in any of the
"grim endeavor[s]" or "physical
strain[s]" of the battlefield. The jazz
bands are also "their bands" -the
white soldier's bands-phraseology
which implies ownership not only of
the bands but also of the black musi-
cians within the bands. Furthermore,
the writer implies that the white sol-
diers must be excused for enjoying jazz
since, after the white soldier's "physi-
cal strain," he must "find relaxation
and solace and cheer" in order to "for-
get what was past."
As the article develops, the critic's
insults continue and eventually trans-
form into threats. The writer of
"Delving into the Genealogy of Jazz"
seems intent on disqualifying the
author of "A Negro Explains 'Jazz'
not only as a musician but also as a
genuine soldier. Jazz, to this critic, is a
random assemblage of war-like noises.
The writer asserts that, because the
author of the previous article is black
and a musician, he is not a real soldier;
the only real war he participates in is
jazz, as a member of a "motley army of
noise producers." The writer continues
to describe jazz as an attempt to mimic
the sounds of war:
The howitzers of Jazz band's artillery
are stationed in the "traps." Under this
heading we find all the instruments of
percussion, such as the big drum, the
snare drum, cymbals, triangle, wooden
blocks played upon with drum-sticks,
xylophone, cowbells, rattles, whistles
THE WHITE RECEPTION OF JAZZ IN AMERICA 139
 for the production of various weird
noises, and a host of other implements,
often the personal conceptions of the
individual players of the traps. The
trombones may represent field guns,
while the clarinets, oboes, saxophones,
alto horns and cornets, furnish the
rapid-fire batteries. The range being
point-blank, it is easy to see why the
effect of "drum-fire" is complete!
This, we are told, "creates an extremely
comical result" (97). Thus jazz, accord-
ing to this writer, is not so much a form
of music as it is an imitative and
unworthy form of noise production.
The author's next ploy is to com-
pare jazz to "Siamese music," an
Eastern form of music that he has
found "absolute[ly] unintelligibl[e]."
Upon hearing this music, he was
"astounded, for there in this Siamese
music, in spite of the strange Oriental
idioms, from an Occidental's harmonic
standpoint, was the very essence of-
Jazz!" He finds the comparison hilari-
ous. After this racial joke, the writer
directly insults the jazz legend Jasbo
Brown, a "negro musician" who, when
"he was sober," played "orthodox
music, but when he imbibed freely of
gin, which was his favorite pastime, he
had a way of screaming above the
melody with a strange barbaric aban-
don." This assault completed, the
author characterizes jazz as a "ragged
combination of letters that suggests
bumping and snorting, wind and bang-
ing blinds, broken glass and devil-
may-care back of it all," and he labels
jazz musicians "monkeys," expressing
the hope that jazz will eventually "dis-
appear" (98).
Having insulted jazz, jazz musi-
cians, and the black race, the writer, in
closing, makes a direct threat. He
shows his disapproval of Chicago's
love for jazz, asking, "If one municipal-
ity has lost its esthetic sense, has it no
respect for the feelings of others? Shall
the popcorn of Chicago blow over all
the lot?" The "popcorn" analogy con-
tinues in an uglier vein:
This is a fair metaphor, too. Put a
whole band in a giant popper, hold it
over the glowing coals of an ample
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crater, and, shaking well, command it
to make some jolly music -the produc-
tion would be meticulously true to
Jazz form. (98)
The grotesque analogy devolves into a
complete dehumanization of jazz
artists as well as the black populace.
Given that the Red Summer of Chicago
was at its height in the month of this
article's publication, the analogy ceases
to describe jazz, but instead, under the
guise of discussing jazz, describes a
lynching:
The wheezes of the scorching horns;
the popping of overheated drumheads;
the groans and pleadings of the musi-
cians, with now and then a pure sil-
very note from a thoro[ugh]bred piper
who cared not a rap that he was to be
roasted for his art; the ravings of the
crowd looking on; dervishes and holy-
rollers expressing themselves; the
chuckles of a few cannibals; and over
all the rancous imperturbability of old
horse fiddles.... That would be a
Chicago Jazz band. (98)
In the writer's analogy, the black jazz
band is burned alive with
"wheez[ing]," "popping," "groans and
pleadings," a "crowd looking on,"
accompanied by "old horse fiddles."
The threat to black jazz musicians is
clear and well publicized. The writer
ends his analogy with a map of where
lynchers might find black jazz bands.
More specifically, after the grotesque
description of a lynching, the writer
uses the word jazz to signify the black
population:
So far many parts of the East have
been spared. Washington is almost
free, New York is rent in spots. Boston
is only slightly Jazz. But the Middle
West is in the throes-it may never
know it until consciousness returns.
(98)
This writer has provided a picture,
a map for his fellow racists to follow in
identifying black populations in
America in 1919. Yet even after target-
ing the country's black populace, the
writer is still not done. He ends the
article with a horrifying racist joke,
reducing, once again, the black man to
an inhuman and ignorant savage. The
joke, about a foolish black musician
who uses a car part as a musical instru-
ment, is not worth repetition, but suf-
fice it to say that this article, which
begins as a response to another article
on jazz, becomes, by its conclusion, a
terrifying piece of racist propaganda.
The August Current Opinion article
is not about jazz, but is a call to arms
for white men to rise up against the
black race and black soldiers returning
from World War I. The racial hostility
of the article was not restrained within
the pages of popular magazines when,
in 1917, a white mob entered East Saint
Louis and killed hundreds of black res-
idents. That same year, after a black
battalion rioted following white
harassment in Houston, Texas, the U.S.
Army court-martialed a group of black
soldiers and hanged thirteen without
the benefit of an appeal. "Delving into
the Genealogy of Jazz" appeared in the
midst of the terrifying "Red Summer"
of 1919, a year in which at least eighty-
three black men, women, and children
were lynched and hundreds more
killed, injured, or made homeless by
racial violence. Racial tension in
Chicago erupted on July 27 with thirty-
eight dead, five hundred and thirty-
seven injured, and over a thousand
families made homeless. With the Ku
Klux Klan newly revived and racial
hatred seething in all major cities,
north and south, race riots erupted
well into the winter months of 1919 in
Washington, DC; Knoxville, Tennessee;
Longview, Texas; Arkansas; Chicago;
and Omaha. The hostile Current
Opinion article made its mark, striking
the discussion about jazz from popular
magazines for the whole next year
while America's black and white popu-
lations took up arms, ropes, and hate
against each other.
A nother article concerning jazz
did not appear in a mainstream
American magazine until 1921, once
more reducing jazz to animals pound-
ing on empty wine barrels. And the
black artist was not allowed to offer a
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response in the popular press during
the 1920s. By 1921, the black presence
in popular, now white, magazines was
limited to racist cartoons and bad
jokes. Blacks would move their voices
into alternative publications that by
this time included The Crisis, The
Liberator, and The Masses. Indeed,
between 1921 and 1930, while the
Harlem Renaissance jazz culture was
well on its way, flourishing in New
York, Chicago, New Orleans, and Saint
Louis, and gaining international atten-
tion as a major part of American cul-
ture, the racial innuendoes in articles
on jazz continued. Current Opinion had
been bought by the Literary Digest,
while Ladies' Home Journal would
assume a major role in the discussion.
In addition, the views of racist writers,
including physicians, began to appear
on the pages of The Etude and The New
Republic. The racist periodical circle
was complete, and the attempt to con-
tinue a discussion the authors believed
would disenfranchise jazz music and
stigmatize jazz musicians and the black
race as savage had gained real momen-
tum. By 1921, popular opinion pieces
ceased to wonder what jazz was and
instead asserted that it was a known
danger. Writers regularly positioned
themselves as experts on the moral,
psychological (Freud), and physical
hazards that they believed jazz pro-
duced.
Anne Shaw Faulkner's "Does Jazz
Put the Sin in Syncopation?" which
appeared in the August 1921 issue of
Ladies' Home Journal, revives many of
the racial stereotypes found in articles
by previous white critics of jazz. But
unlike previous articles that followed
an investigative trail into jazz only to
discover racial stereotypes and motiva-
tion to hate African Americans,
Faulkner never completely links blacks
to jazz. Instead, the racial message is
implied by key words used in previous
articles on jazz. For example, Faulkner
opens her article with a seemingly sim-
ple, yet deeply layered, sentence: "We
have all been taught to believe that
'music soothes the savage beast,' but
THE WHITE RECEPTION OF JAZZ IN AMERICA 141
 we have never stopped to consider that According to eugenicists, the Anglo-
an entirely different type of music Saxon race was superior biologically
might invoke savage instincts." This and higher on the evolutionary scale
opening might be said to be introduce than were African Americans. In the
the question -of whether jazz is appro- 1920s, the idea of eugenics went so far
priate for people to listen to. Yet con- as to place entire white families on dis-
sidering the author's repetition of the play at county fairs as examples of the
word savage and keeping in mind what superior race while minority women
earlier articles had testified was "sav- were often sterilized.
age" and bestial, the author's implica- Eugenicist politics not only perpet-
uated mass murder by Hitler in order
tion is pointed. According to earlier
to promote his ideal Aryan race, but
articles on jazz, the words savage and
also motivated white Americans to jus-
beast were used to refer directly to the
tify killing and segregating African
jazz musician as a representative of the
Americans, Jews, Irish immigrants,
black race. Thus, what might at first
American Indians, and many others
seem like a gentle question quickly
(Gould 24). Interracial marriages, con-
turns into a racist justification for not
sequently, were made illegal. Likewise,
allowing jazz to "invoke" its audiences
the panic of biological supremacy
(16). If one returns to the first line of merged with racial hatred to create
the Current Opinion article "Why 'Jazz' dangerous and irrational fears of the
Sends Us Back to the Jungle" - "One "savage." Davenport's book was, in the
touch of 'Jazz' makes savages of us minds of white racists, justification for
all" -we see reflected a real fear their fear and oppression of the black
among white racists that jazz could, in man. According to Davenport, behav-
fact, "Send Us Back to the Jungle," or, ior and physical characteristics were
more specifically, make whites as "sav- clear signifiers of biological make-up
age" as they believed blacks were. and position on the evolutionary lad-
This fear of "savage" culture was der. If a white man or woman were to
palpable in 1920s' America. In 1911, be "invok[ed]" to display that individ-
Charles B. Davenport published his ual's "savage instincts," then the per-
Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, a kind son's position on the Darwinian ladder
of social Darwinist tract which asserted would be jeopardized (Faulkner 16).2
that different races occupy different Considering this fear of "savage
levels on the evolutionary scale. instincts," and of the black population
According to Stephen J. Gould, eugen- in general, it isn't surprising to see
ics is scientific racism: Faulkner maintain "that America is fac-
ing a most serious situation regarding
... the early twentieth century's most
its popular music." The "serious situa-
influential social crusade with an
tion," of course, is the plight of whites,
allegedly scientific foundation: the
eugenics movement['s] stated aim ... especially white American youth,
[was] "improving" America's heredi- becoming, in some sense, too black.
tary stock by preventing procreation And Faulkner claims to have support-
among the supposedly unfit (called ing evidence: "Welfare workers tell us
"negative eugenics") and encouraging
that never in the history of our land
more breeding among those deemed
have there been such immoral condi-
superior in blood-line ("positive
eugenics"). The abuses of this move- tions among young people, and in the
ment have been extensively document- surveys made by organizations regard-
ed in many excellent books covering ing these conditions, the blame is laid
such subjects as the hereditarian theo- on jazz music and its evil influence on
ry of mental testing and the passage of
the young people of to-day." Thus, not
legislation for involuntary sterilization
and restriction of immigration from
only does Faulkner indicate the exis-
nations deemed inferior in hereditary tence of "immoral conditions," a
stock. (22) Davenport signifier of an inferior race,

142 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW

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but she also singles out jazz as "evil."
Indeed, after using jazz dance as an
example of the evil manifested in
young whites, she closes her article
with what she clearly intends to be a
rhetorical question: "Can music ever be
an influence for evil?" (16). Faulkner's
"contribution," if we may call it that, to
the early white literature on jazz is that
she provides a new insult toward jazz,
jazz musicians, and perhaps the entire
black populace by suggesting that all
three are evil, as well as inferior.
Over the next few years, other
writers would repeat Faulkner's ques-
tion, but in 1924, many authors joined
together to respond rather directly to
her query. Around this time, the Moore
v. Dempsey case (1923) overturned con-
victions in courts where blacks had
been systematically eliminated from
juries. In addition, the Harlem
Renaissance was flourishing and gain-
ing sufficient popularity among both
white and black populations that racist
sentiments would once more appear
with a special virulence in the popular
press. The struggle for racist white crit-
ics, of course, was how to cope with
and curtail the popularity of jazz. The
Etude, a popular magazine on music,
continued the discussion in 1924 with a
special number that seems to pull all of
the racist heavyweights into one issue
in order to debunk jazz as a serious
musical form. In the August 1924
Etude, the article "Where Is Jazz
Leading America: Opinions of Famous
Men and Women In and Out of Music"
contains the reactions of a variety of
white professionals toward jazz and
jazz culture. Given that an increasing
number of jazz musicians were by this
time white, we see some more textured
responses to the music. In some con-
texts, jazz is no longer seen as so severe
a problem and may even be enjoyed,
yet black jazz music remains "savage"
and "evil." For example, George Ade is
at once willing to call jazz "a collection
of squa[w]ks and wails" and to observe
that, "if [the] Paul Whiteman boys play
'jazz,' then I am in favor of that partic-
ular variety of 'jazz' " (515). In other
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words, if the white Whiteman plays
jazz, Ade finds it pleasing. But if black
artists play jazz, the music becomes
objectionable-or, if we are to take him
literally, black artists' efforts yield only
noise, not music. Ade's reference to
Paul Whiteman has especially severe
racist implications, since, true to his
name, Whiteman only hired white
musicians while billing himself as "The
King of Jazz."
As reviews from the famous con-
tinue, similar sentiments are voiced. Lt.
Com. John Philip Sousa states that
"jazz, like the poor, are [sic] ever with
us" (520). Dr. Frank Damrosch offers
his scathing opinions of jazz in order to
comment on the black race: "Jazz is to
real music what the caricature is to
portrait," and its creators were savages
whose evil is adversely affecting the
white populace. "If jazz originated in
the dance rhythms of the negro,"
Damrosch remarks, "it was at least
interesting as the self-expression of a
primitive race. When jazz was adopted
by the highly civilized white race, it
tended to degenerate it towards primi-
tivity." Like Faulkner, Damrosch pro-
ceeds from a position of racial and cul-
tural superiority, and believes that
whites somehow degrade themselves
by enjoying or playing jazz.
Damrosch's critique recalls the ideas of
Davenport and other early white writ-
ers on jazz, especially when he charac-
terizes the black musician as infantile
and animalistic: "When a savage dis-
torts his features and paints his face so
as to produce startling effects, we smile
at his childishness; but when a civi-
lized man imitates him, not as a joke
but in all seriousness, we turn away in
disgust" (518). Like previous articles
on jazz, the tenor of "Where Is Jazz
Leading America" becomes progres-
sively racist as it moves toward its con-
clusion. In its final segment, the article
includes a disclaimer against any of the
voices that readers might in some way
have construed as pro-jazz or pro-
African American: "Please don't imag-
ine that The Etude has gone 'Jazz-Mad.'
We are merely discussing the problem
THE WHITE RECEPTION OF JAZZ IN AMERICA 143
 because it has become a vital question
all over the world" (italics mine). After
designating jazz as a "problem," the
entry concludes by listing future arti-
cles where "in fearless words the real
truth about the odious origin of jazz"
will be told (520).
The August 1924 issue of The Etude
continues its attack on jazz with Henry
Fink's "Jazz-Lowbrow and
Highbrow." Fink categorizes different
kinds of jazz not by musical difference,
but by race. Following the established
racist convention, the article begins
with a review of the definition of the
word jazz, noting that "the word jazz is
African in origin" and "lowbrow
jazz -is African." Fink explains that
jazz must be African since "wild
African tribes as described by explorers
and missionaries" with "their drums
and gongs and rattles" produce "musi-
cal orgies rather than performances,"
which is the way Fink sees jazz. As the
article continues, Fink adds a new
dimension to the history of racist jazz
reviews by offering a detailed analysis
of why, when white people play jazz, it
is jazz music, but when black people
play jazz, it is jungle noise. Fink begins
his discussion in a way that at first
seems relatively benign, stating that
"we must ... be on our guard not to
assign a Negro origin to everything we
hear that is boisterous and barbaric."
At this point, an enlightened reader
might be a bit encouraged by the fact
that Fink intends not to limit the desig-
nation "boisterous and barbaric" only
to African Americans. However, as
Fink continues, it becomes clear that
his willingness to proclaim the music
of non-African Americans "boisterous
and barbaric" is premised on the per-
ception that the playing of certain
white jazz musicians seems to him too
black. "When ... [the white musician]
put his tomato can on the end of his
cornet it seemed as though the music,
with its strange quivering pulsations,
came from another world (one can
guess which world)" (527).
As Fink continues, he removes the
black musician's claim on jazz and
144 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW
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asserts that jazz, as an innovative form
of music, is white. For instance, Fink
initially observes that "the banjo is an
African instrument," but then adds
that only Paul Whiteman's band can
really play it. Fink then continues to
explore several instruments he consid-
ers jazz instruments. The saxophone,
he states, "an essential ingredient of a
jazz band," is "not African." Likewise,
"the trombone, too, is not African"
(527). And since jazz instruments are
not African, the jazz music played on
the instruments cannot possibly be
African American. In fact, Fink so easi-
ly interchanges the word African for
every black man, woman, and child
that the entire black populace is
reduced to representing primitive
tribes that have only just arrived in
America in the 1920s from uncivilized
jungles. Consequently, everything the
black race represents in America is
excluded from being truly American.
Indeed, Fink so removes the black race
from jazz that by the end of his article
he can safely assert that "there is noth-
ing African about it" (527).
F rom defining jazz on their own
terms, to insulting and threaten-
ing black artists, to eventually stealing
from the black race, the jazz critics of
the 1910s and the 1920s are racists in
print. From the 1910s until 1960 and
beyond, in more articles than can be
treated here, writers use the topic of
jazz music in order to express a dislike
of African Americans. Consider, for
example, the 1923 article "Jazz and Its
Effects," written by a teacher who dis-
cusses the purportedly harmful effects
jazz has on the learning capabilities of
white students. Alternatively, observe
the 1926 article "The Jazz Problem,"
which addresses its own racist views
under the auspices of criticizing jazz
music (Wilson). Or consider how many
white musicians of the 1920s made jazz
their own by hiring only whites and
playing for white audiences, operas,
and movies. Yet, however many Paul
Whitemans and Finks try to remove
jazz from its African American origins,
it remains an accomplishment not only
of Harlem culture, but of African
American culture as a whole. Fink con-
cludes his article with the assumption
that, once the horrors of World War I
have dissipated, jazz will eventually
fade and be replaced by "high-brow"
classical music. He even goes so far as
to state that individuals who assert that
jazz has a future are wrong: "I do not
know anything in the world quite so
foolish as the attitude of these so-called
futurists." And he continues by mock-
ing jazz fans who claim that "in ten to
twenty years," jazz "will be liked. Little
do they know the public!" (528).
Luckily for fans of jazz in the
decades that followed, Fink was
wrong. Not only was he wrong about
jazz, but just as previous writers assert-
ed behind the cover of jazz that the
black race was savage, primitive, and
ignorant, Fink was wrong in his esti-
mation that the black American musi-
cian was nothing more than an African
savage. Instead, jazz/blues is, and
remains, America's only original con-
tribution of a new form to the musical
world as well as a wholly African
American form.

1. If the title "The Appeal of Primitive Jazz" doesn't imply in and of itself the racial stereotypes that Notes
underlay this purportedly thoughfful article on jazz, consider the Ube of the article that immediately
follows: "Make a Scrapbook for Sammy," an article that offers a step-by-step description of how to
create a collection of "American"-i.e., racial-jokes for "the boys in France" (30). After all, the article
suggests, American "men must have American jokes" (30).
2. Even today, an ongoing batte still exists in the scientific community surrounding eugenics.
Eugenicists believe that people are products of their biological make-up, particularly products of spe-
cific hereditary genes that determine not only anatomy but also "complex facets of personality."
Racism in eugenics becomes apparent when eugenicists do not include social influences on an indi-
vidual, maintaining that, regardless of education, influences, or life experiences, people are biologi-
cally predetermined to be amoral or less intelligent (Gould 25).

"The Appeal of Primitive Jazz." Literary Digest Aug. 1917: 26-29. Works
"Delving into the Genealogy of Jazz." Current Opinion Aug. 1919: 97. Cited
Faulkner, Anne Shaw. "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?" Ladies' Home Joumal Aug. 1921:
1640.
Fink, Henry T. "Jazz - Lowbrow and Highbrow." Etude Aug. 1924: 527-28.
Gould, Stephen J. "The Internal Brand of Scarlet." Natural History 107.2 (1998): 22-33.
Hummer, T. R. "Laughed Off: Canon, Kharakter, and the Dismissal of Vachel Lindsay." Kenyon
Review 17.2 (1995): 56-97.
"Jazz and Its Effects." Etude Aug. 1924: 531.
McMahon, R. "Unspeakable Jazz Must Go." Ladies Home Joumal Dec. 1921: 34.
Milhaud, Darius. "The Jazz Band and Negro Music." Living Age Oct. 1924: 169-73.
"A Negro Explains 'Jazz.'" Literary Digest Apr. 1919: 28-29.
Rogers, J. A. "Jazz at Home." The New Negro. Ed. Alain Locke. 1925. New York: Simon, 1992. 216-
24.
"Students in Arms Against Jazz." Literary Digest Mar. 1922: 35.
"Where Is Jazz Leading America?: Opinions of Famous Men and Women In and Out of Music."
Etude Aug. 1924: 517-20.
"Why 'Jazz' Sends Us Back to the Jungle." Current Opinion Sept. 1918: 165.
Wilson, E. "The Jazz Problem." New Republic Jan 1926: 217-19.

THE WHITE RECEPTION OF JAZZ IN AMERICA 145

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