780.

97 W59J
Whiteman
Jazz

780.97 W59J
Whiteman
Jazz

64-09175

64-09175
$7*50

r r q LLflla

THE JAXZ DYNASTY

by

PAUL WHITEMAN
and

MARY MARGARET M C BRIDE

Illustrated

J.

H. SEARS

6?

COMPANY,

NEW YORK

INC. 1926

COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY
J.

H,

SEARS &

C(X, INCORPORATED

Pubtislud,

May,

Second Printing, May, 1386

OOPTBIGHT, 1028,

THE

CURTIS PUBLISHING

Set up, Printed and

KINGSPORT
KINOSPOKT

COMPANY

Bound

at the

PRESS
TENNESSEE

United States of America

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.

II.

III.

TV.

V.
VI.
VII,
VIII.

IX.

X.

XL
XIL
XIIL
XIV.
XV.

PAGE
3

Beginnings

The Mango Seed

15

Growing fains

47

An Experiment
What Is It?

87
115

Art?

125

Jazz in America

137

Tin Pan Alley

161

Is It

Tricks of the Trade

....

191

Orchestration

217

On Wax

223

Jazz Makers

235

One-night Jazz Stands

253

The Future

275

As

for

Me

of Jazz

293

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE

The Jazz Dynasty

The King

Frontispiece

of Jazz dons his chaps

38

Jazz welcoming Jazz back from Europe

Everybody everywhere, drawn by J. F.

Litic

Jazzing the Florida boom at Coral Gables

78
118
150

Jeanne Gordon, of the Metropolitan Opera, crowning

the

King of Jazz

Jazz within the

Law

Teaching the young how

206

262
to

Jazz

278

COVER DESIGN adapted from drawing by Jean Henry

Beginnings

I:

/AZZ
ago

Beginnings

came to America three hundred years

in

chains.

traders, sailing in

The

psalm-singing

Dutch

a man-of-war across the ocean in

1619, described their cargo as "fourteen black Afri

can slaves for

sale in his

Majesty's colonies."

But

priceless freight destined three centuries later to set

a whole nation dancing went unnoted and unbilled

by the stolid, revenue-hungry Dutchmen.

For that matter, the negroes themselves knew no
more of jazz than

their masters.

In their tropical

home, up to the day a hostile tribe fell upon them,

they had been accustomed to make a joyful noise
with voice and drums to gods who supplied corn

and game

plentifully.

They had performed

labors to the throb of the tom-tom

their

and measured

off

rhythm of a zither.
Suddenly the gods had become angry, delivering
their bewildered worshipers to an enemy.
The
their journeys to the

Jazz
by a clanking
remember the songs

blacks, harnessed each to his neighbor

weight, were too frightened to

of propitiation their fathers had sung, and besides,

drums had been broken

their

in

war.

They under

stood, indeed, scarcely anything of their plight ex

cept that they

had been traded

to the

Dutchmen

and rum by men as black as themselves*

They had never heard of the great "New
World" for which Spain and France and England
for beads

were

cold on the
hot,

They knew only that it was very

ocean after the warmth of their own

fighting.

sunny

Even
onies

plains.

Virginia, brightest

and the

first

to

and gayest of the

buy negro

slaves,

dreary and bleak to the Africans,

from

their

lips

yet

although they did not

heritage

and was

to

only for

know

it,

the

seemed

So song
time.

was part of

be their gift

to

col

fled

Jazz,
their

an alien

posterity.

The

thrifty

Dutch

traders, after they

cessfully disposed of their

wittingly assured a future

to

put

their

to church

money

and

in the

praise the

human wares and un

for jazz, returned home

bank and to
Lord for
4

had suc

repair piously

his goodness,

Beginnings
Meantime

to the virgin continent in

1619 were

hurrying the strongest and most courageous

and the

of Europe

The

for-nothings.

spirits

failures, criminals and good-

best of those

who came were

ambitious, restless adventurers escaping from the

traditions

and

little

brought

restrictions

They
new

of elegance or culture to their

home; they were

garded as more

interested in something

They wanted

vital.

order and they wanted

and change

of the Old World.

it

quickly.

they re

a different

There was chaos

Europe then, following the great

wars, just as there is to-day; but the settlers of
America wanted more change and they were not
in

willing to wait for

it.

was great need for youth and spirit in

New World. Food, clothing, shelter the

TheJre

the

whole of existence

Easy short

had

to be wrested

And

soil.

cuts to living were out of the question.

The man who would not work

be able to

from the

literally

would not

eat.

so those

who had come

to realize ideals

and those who had come to forget them, joined

from necessity in the sharp struggle for the essen
tials

of

life.

Temporarily,
5

at

least,

the

New

Jazz
World was a completely materialistic proposition,
Even if there had been a desire for it, there was no
leisure for elegance

carious.

where mere living was so pre

True, the immigrants

who poured

in later

brought whatever of culture they had; but these

thin streams were soon lost in the immense tide of
crude hard work.

Aristocracy

was of strength and

youth, not of breeding, wealth or art.

Under

the stimulus of the vast resources

and

and wilderness, the

disillusioned gradually grew hopeful and the
hope
ful buoyant* It seemed there was
nothing the rich

thrilling struggles with Indians

land could not be made to produce.

When the
had
done
what
pioneers
they could with their hands,
they at length turned to making machinery, im
patient to enjoy better

and more luxurious

living.

Expansion, invention, booms became the fashion

of the times.

People began to enjoy more com

forts in America than anywhere else in the world.

The mind

of the country grew more and more

ingenious.

We

became and have remained the

most inventive nation.

diligent statistician re

cently revealed that in a single year

when 5,807

patents were issued in this country, Germany, next

6

Beginnings
on the

list,

had only 1,083,

Another demon tab

ulator has estimated that without American inven

tions

would take the hands of one

it

billion persons

or two-thirds of the population of the world

work

ing ten hours a day to manufacture all the mer

chandise consumed by the peoples of the earth,

whereas

The
ders.

now

it

takes only fifty million persons!

busy, growing days brought forth daily

won

Fulton's steamboat was throwing open the

Hudson and

finally

making ocean

travel a

The

speedy and comfortable proposition.

mdre
loco

motive, fearfully called a devil's invention because

it

ran at the unheard-of speed of fifteen miles an

hour, developed from an

awesome miracle

commonplace

Lightning

down Ben

necessity.

Franklin's kite string,

had

come

and was soon

The rhythm

electrifying the continent.

to a

of machin

ery became the rhythm of American civilization

a clanging, banging,

terrific

rhythm, full of an

energy that promised accomplishment.

climate, with
its

its

Even

the

sudden changes from hot to cold,

cyclones and thunderstorms, proved more in

vigorating than the climate anywhere

else.

Soon there was food and to spare for everybody.

7

Jazz
Machines developed a material

civilization

with

Through them, too, was

and the beginnings of an

built

unheard-of rapidity.

up a

leisure class

tocracy of wealth.

for luxuries

and the machines supplied

lowed

machines

supplied

beauty of

So

demand

art,

everything

but

aris

fol

them.

The

beauty

the

music, literature.

far, there

were no American

arts.

The pot

which had been tossed many fragments of

culture had never been heated to the blending
into

Such poetry, sculpture and music

point.

new land

in the

up

Europe.

The

as

grew

unmistakably in
Yet the young country held rich material.
originated

great melting pot was every

substance of a nation finding

The brew needed no

day receiving the

itself.

longer to rely, for richness,

upon foreign-grown ingredients. And the leisure

class was demanding ways to spend its
money
beautiful

homes,

books,

paintings.

British novelists, Italian architects,

It

imported

French dress

makers-

So

little

heed

was paid

to

the premonitory

bubblings of the melting pot that stunned amase-

ment greeted

its

boiling over with the poetry of

Beginnings
Whitman,

unconventional,

blunt,

short story of

startling;

the

Hawthorne and Poe, compressed,

vigorous, dramatically telling; the skyscraper, pile

upon

pile of steel

and stone reaching toward the

heavens, dwarfing all the

puny

efforts of the past,

crude as the

New World

its

magnificent energy.

power,

there

If

there
jazz*

its

was

was

itself,

yet satisfying in

over these outpourings,

surprise

which was

positive horror over the next,

Jazz, given

its

start in life

by the righteous

old Dutch traders, had been biding

its

time

among

the black laborers in the cotton fields of the lordly

Southern planters and the negroes lounging in the

sunshine along the
lost

none of

its

New

Orleans levees.

It

had

primitive African swing through

mingling with the clanging of the machinery, the

broken crashing rhythm of Whitman's poetry, the
gigantic steel and stone of the skyscrapers.
at once barbarous

ness

tamed

and sophisticated

It

was

the wilder

to the ballroom.

hundred million people seized it and began

to sing and dance to it.
Ministers, educators,
organizations pitched into
barbaric,

demoralizing,

it

vigorously

degrading.
9

called

it

thousand

J dz z
headlines daily proclaimed that

and

dead

thousand

ten

it

was dying

kept

humming

it

insisted the highbrows.

else that

was our own,

questionable*

its

was

it

could be

Like everything

merits were,

left to

They

then flushing

common

so

Nothing

esthetic,

So

upstart.

absent-mindedly,

and apologizing.

promptly

saxophones

mocked the premature rumor.

Americans were ashamed of the

was

we

Europe

thought,

to discover

the possibilities of our creature.

After Darius Milhaud had worked jazz motifs

into

his

"La

du

Creation

Monde" and

Igor

Stravinsky had written a jazz piece called "Rag

time," American musicians began to look interested*
Perhaps,

mused

they, there

is

more

to this strange

we have thought. But what is this

thing? Where did it come from? Where is

invention than

jazz
it

going?

The

questions are

still

being asked, though jazz

has been more or less taken into the bosorn of

society.

They have been put

to

me

so often that

in self-defense I have set about trying to find

kind of answer that will be adequate.

this

book

is

meant

to be

10

an answer

some

That's all
to the ques-

Beginnings
tions people

connection with
style
I

me

have asked
it.

about jazz and

my

have not attempted to put on

I certainly haven't tried to be literary for

am no

writer, but only the conductor of a jazz

orchestra.
I sincerely believe in jazz.

the spirit of America and

I feel

more of future than of past

to help

that future

pan

out.

I think it expresses

sure

it

has a future

or present.

want

Other Americans

ought to be willing to give jazz a respectful hear

If this effort of mine helps toward that end,
ing.
I shall

be

satisfied.

11

II

The Mango Seed

II:

The Mango Seed

-^BROWN-SKINNED

Indian fakir stands

in the midst of a half-bored, half -curious

street crowd.

In his hand

is

mango

seed.

His

face inscrutable, his heavy-lidded mysterious eyes

narrowed to

slits,

he makes a few motions and be

fore the eyes of those

who watch,

sprouts, grows, buds, blossoms

the

mango

and bears

seed

fruit, all

in the space of a scant sixty seconds.

America has a magic mango in jazz. One

ment jazz was unknown, obscure a low noise

low

dive.

The next

it

had become a

mo
in a

serious pas

time of a hundred million people, the favorite

diversion of princes
as

it

has

it

it.

millionaires.

Only

just

took centuries to produce the mango seed, so

taken

The most
in

and

all

of

human

life to

bring forth jazz.

primitive and the most

For hundreds of

modern combine

years, savage tribes in far

places rolled out rhythms on harsh

IS

drums of home-

Jazz
tanned hides, rhythms that stimulated to war or
soothed to peace as the need of the
tated.

The

dic

vitality of the world's youngest nation

has absorbed, added

first

moment

and

in ragtime

to,

and carried on that rhythm,

blues,

now

in jazz.

There was every reason why jazz should have

burst upon a startled world at the touch of a hun
dred or more orchestra leaders in 1915.

The time

was ripe for almost any explosion. The war spirit

was on the loose. The whole tempo of the country
was speeded up. Wheels turned like mad. Every
factory was manned by day and nigljit shifts.
Americans and the term included Slavs, Teutons,
Latins, Orientals, welded into one great mass as
if

by the gigantic machines they tended

harder, faster than ever before.

lived

They could not

go on without some new outlet* Work was not

enough and America had not yet found out how
to play.

The

hard-working young
country had no folk songs, no village dances on the
green.

The

off the lid

hard-pressed,

incredible pressure

and

it

was bound

to

might conceivably plunge a whole

nation into nervous prostration or insanity.

chologists,

real

blow

and pseudo, sensing

16

this

Psy

danger,

The Mango Seed

mas

issued long technical warnings, quoting their

ter,

William James, on

ery of

stimuli

which,

the peril to mental

machin

upon being received and

recorded, are not acted upon.

Meanwhile was brewing

in

New

Orleans

The

restorative for the national nerve complaint.

great American noise, jazz,

was then

just drifting

out of the shanties and tango belt to begin

ascent into the ballrooms of the cultured.

man, Joseph K. Gorham,

its

show

gets credit for first real

izing the possibilities of the underworld waif.

Gorham, a newcomer

to

New

Orleans, heard a

group of musicians playing on the street to adver

He was halted first by the per
tise a prize fight,
spiring, grotesque energy of the four players.

shook,

They

they pranced, they twisted their lean legs

and arms, they swayed like mad men to a fantastic

measure wrung from a trombone, clarinet, cornet
and drum.
hats

to

They

free

tore off their collars, coats

themselves

for

very

frenzy

and
of

As a finger-snapping black listener

they played "like all the debbils was atter

syncopation.

put

it,

'em."

With

the sure instinct of the good showman,

Jazz
Gorham pushed

his

way through

interviewed the leader.

He

the crowd and

discovered that not

one of the players in Brown's orchestra, as the odd

group called itself, could read a note of music.
Nevertheless, the

showman knew

that he had

name with an

a find and he listed the conductor's

address on

Street for future reference.

Camp

did not then note

down

made

He

the aggregation as a jazz

band, though he undoubtedly

knew

the

word

as a

slang phrase of the underworld with a meaning

unmentionable in polite society. Probably it had

never then been applied to a band. The rise of the
term was interesting.

It reached the

drawing room

on the strength of its terse expressive virility.

the way up, it was variously a verb and a noun,

finally

On

generally denoting speed or quick action of some

kind.

It appears

member of
good

social

now

that long

to be firmly established as a
list

of American words in

standing that began their careers in

the depths of moral and social disgrace.

Brown's orchestra was never

jazz,

I believe.

There

is

officially

considerable discussion

over exactly

who

with

authorities giving the

many

labeled

did invent the term, "jazz band/'

18

honor to Bert

The Mango Seed

Kelly of Chicago, who described a group of musi
cians that he hired out to the Boosters' Club at
the Hotel Morrison in Chicago as a "jazz band."

The

Boosters' Club promptly raised all

alleging that the new-fangled jazz

But before

this,

taken over by Mr.

came

its prices,

high.

Brown's orchestra had been

Gorham and

Caf6, also in Chicago.

The

placed at Lamb's

players burst upon the

unsuspecting pork-packer world with a bang that

nearly shattered the roof.

The manager

telegraphed Mr. Gorham

to

Gorham, worried, rushed

call

to send

two

discreetly
his

band.

wires,

one to

off

manager counseling patience, the other to

band, telling them to ease down a little.
the

his

Apparently they did, for they were allowed to

stay on with great profit to themselves and the
establishment, people being turned

away

in droves.

This, so far as I can discover from cabaret history,

was the honest-to-goodness beginning of jazz.

Since Mr. Kelly's experiment with the word,
there have been hundreds of attempts to find a

name

modern American music, but the public

them all. They are used to "jazz" and the

for

refuses

word

new

expresses something the music seems to mean.

19

Jazz
I

cannot see that

matters much.

it

Sometimes

have regretted the origin of the word because I

think it probably has stirred up sentiment against

But

the music.
it

product,

jazz turns out to be a good

won't really make

called.

it is

if

Words,

much

men,

like

difference

slip

down

what

or climb

up in the world and when a word has made good

and stands for something real and worth while, I

would never be the one

up

bring

It is

took

I wish the preachers

who put on

it

where

it,

Burma

sheets

really,

it

uplifters

to

go jazzI don't de

to Sydney, either.

it,

somebody

ripe for that.

would have.

else

If I

had not

The time was

Conditions produce the men, not

the conditions.

the fortunate person

place and the time.

nate.

found

nor the snorting editorials from

All I did was to orchestrate jazz.

men

and club lady

and pillow cases

klanning wouldn't concentrate on me.

done

past

be able to prove at last that I

relief to

did not invent jazz*

serve

its

it.

against

and

to

It

merely happened that I was

who combined
At

least, I

the idea, the

think I was fortu

Others are not so sanguine.

20

The Mango Seed

The

details of

my

home

family and

life are

per

haps not important to anybody except myself, but

I shall relate

everybody

some of them here partly because,

else,

mostly because of the

deny about

to

my

stories I

early

am

life.

youth, and

my

enjoy recalling

like

always having

Apparently jazz

gives you a past whether you've had one or not.

should at least like folks to

Dad

did their best for

very

fine,

know

me and

even though I did take to jazz.

best-balanced

man

know.

my

He

is

father,

For thirty

Denver

never had a drink until he was

and never smoked

wasn't priggish in the

was

until he
least.

He

M.

C. A,

has always been

me

the

named me among a

dozen physically perfect fellows in the

He

fifty-

Yet he

sixty.

keen on athletics and was really proud of

time the Denver Y.

the

years, he

director of musical education in the

schools.
five

Mother and

that their best was

Wilberforce J. Whiteman,

was

that

was plumb disgusted when

and used to try to make me box

gym

class.

began to get fat

it off.

Mother sang in oratorio and in the Denver choirs

when I was growing up, managing a home and a
career easily before

women began
21

to

make

so

much

J a xx
of the idea.

Her

ment

She used to rehearse while she cooked

to me.

singing was always an enchant

and she certainly could and can cook* Her

mince pie would hold any home together, and as
for her pop-overs

from

New York

My

mother

is

time

my

well, in

He

was

born in

have gone

Denver for a pop-over.

more than six feet tall and comes

to

Her

of a family noted for height.

Dallison, was a

in

yeoman

this country,

were

all

Sam

Victoria's guard.

Queen

six feet three inches tall,

father,

and

his five sons,

over six feet*

My

name was originally Wightman and on that

of the house, I am a mixture of Irish, Scotch,

father's
side

English and Holland Dutch.

bom

I was, then, actually

can't say I take

that no matter

much

stock in the family stories

how mad

always stop squalling to

And

into music, though I

was as a

used to cry to

the"

would

listen to a

soprano voice*

who

claims that I

expect the doting aunt

kid, I

chromatic scale

is

gifted with a

As for the legend that I jiggled

"Hearts and Flowers" at the age of six

loyal imagination.

my

feet to

months
of

me

on a par with the picture

at the same period sitting naked in a bowl.
well,

that's

22

The Mango Seed

Both the legend and the

picture, to

my

great

em

barrassment, used to be trotted out for company

until I got old

enough

to

make an

effective stand

against such indignity.

Better admit that I was no prodigy, even

love music from the
I got the taste

first

when

time I heard

it.

if I

did

Perhaps

I accidentally rolled

down

Colorado mountain with a violin and a watermelon

at the age of nine months.

But more

likely I in

herited the music part, at least.

An

astrologist friend looked at the stars

birthnight

(March

28, 1890)

and

on

my

predicted that I

would have a stormy career. I've often wondered

She said the planets were all
if she meant jazz.
whizzing eater-cornered when I was born. There
were also a number of hurricanes, cyclones and
earthquakes in places like Portugal, Gautemala and

Bly went round the world in

seventy-two days that year and a branch of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded
Buffalo,

Nellie

in Cleveland.
I

have one

lessons

when

sister,

I got

Feme, who

started taking vocal

my first violin.

in a big house with wide

Luckily we lived

lawns between us and the

23

Ja z z
neighbors.

Cooped up

in a

New York

apartment

house, I shudder to think where we'd have landed.

In a police court probably. Even as it was, a new

neighbor once rushed over pell-mell in answer to
what he mistook for a frantic call for
Sis
help.

and

were practicing a high note

simultaneously.
The house was always full of brass bands and
I

singers touching high C, partly family

I

began making
noises when I was three.

guests,

taught

me

to pick out

play for

my

share of the family

On my

toy violin,

some tunes that

had

and partly

Dad

used to

wear velvet pants and

company,
submit to being patted on the head by dear old
ladies; but I was a roughneck just the same and
I

to

fairly accurate with

better than to call

my fists, so the fellows knew

me sissy. I guess they wouldn't

have anyway, though, come to think of it, for most

of them liked music
nearly as well as I did*

That was Dad's doing.

Before he got through

explaining music to them, every kid in Denver was

crazy for a trombone or a French horn. He told
the taxpayers they
ought to finance music in the
schools, just as they did

began

to*

rich

plumbing, and finally they

man named Wilcox

24

got so in*

The Mango Seed

terested in the idea that he put

the

up

money to
boys who

buy instruments and instruction for

couldn't afford them and we had some corking
amateur

and we

orchestras, too,

in one

Father

orchestras.

from the time

who

Lots of boys

played in those.

all

was

was

to

my

was

got their musical training from

orchestra.

grow up

ten.

Dad make good money jazzing now.

of them in

oratorio

organized

my

had some

how

I often think

lucky

In most places, I'm

in Denver.

quite sure the boys of

I've

generation would have

tabooed oratorio orchestras as

sissy

and

wouldn't

have wanted to disagree with the crowd. That

would have been a tragedy, not because the world

would have

anything in losing

lost

but because

cian,

doing the thing

nothing so sad to

who

would have

do best and

me

as

me

as a

lost the thrill of

like most.

a misfit

musi

man

hates his or her job and mopes at

There
or

is

woman

it.

had no aspiration
toward missionarying and the idea of some day try
Naturally as a youngster,

ing to convert America to music as a he-man's in

wouldn't particularly have appealed to

as an ambition, even had I thought of it.

terest

25

me

Jazz
Yet

that's

what jazz

is

glad to feel that whatever

the good

work along.

time, though, until

doing to-day and

I

contribute

is

am

helping

was just a question of

somebody would have attempted
It

put jazz on a real musical footing. If I had not,

then some other boy from Denver might have. Or
if not from Denver, then from one of the other rare
to

spots in America where honest-to-gosh boys took

music as part of

their lives, real as the ole

swimmin'

hole or stealing watermelons.

My

notion

is

that the chief contribution of the

white American to jazz so far has been his recogni

tion of

it

as legitimate music.

And

he would never

have seen beauty in it if he had always set music

up on a pedestal as something too high and holy
for everyday life.
The trouble with people who
think of music in that

know

its

life.

They

history or

way

its

that they don't really

meaning in terms of human

are ignorant worshipers of

culture or imitators of

Americans have no art

to

is

borrow or

steal

European

They complain that

because we are not content
it.

the admirable and beautiful

things of another land.

Our

attitude does not necessarily

26

mean

that

we

M ango

The

Seed

do not appreciate what other countries have done,

but why shouldn't we scout around a bit for our
selves, pioneer fashion?

I didn't get the

Like

ing instinct very early, of course.

hated to practice and at seven,

ated to a better instrument,

when

pioneer

all kids, I

was gradu

was supposed

to

always had
something important on hand when that hour came
round and pretty soon I was deliberately cutting.
practice an hour a day.

The

report of

Seemed

as if I

defection, as those things will,

my

seeped through to the head of the house.

He

me on

was

the carpet.

I explained,

with what

thought

logic, that I didn't like to practice.

He

fixed

me

with a cold eye.

I fidgeted,

pecting chastisement then and there.

ex

But he only

"Well, Mother, we can lead the horse to

said:

water, anyway."

was locked
fiddle.
sea.

called

From

then on, every afternoon, I

into Mother's sewing

I sulked

and threatened

Nobody made any

objection.

room with
to run

In

away

fact,

my
to

nobody

paid a great deal of attention to me, except to see

that I was locked up promptly.

Then

had another

put into action.

inspiration

smashed the
27

which

violin,

I quickly

banging

its

Jazz
head over the flywheel of the sewing machine.

The

explosion was most satisfactory, something like a

custard

me

noticed

me

blowing

factory

pie

all right

up.

The family

that time.

And Dad

"Son, you

can put in your

invited

to the woodshed-

he said:

Later

practice hour to-morrow cutting the lawn.

You

know you've got to pay me back what that violin

cost." At the end of five years, I was still sawing
wood
As

to
I

for that expensive instrument!

pay

got older, music affected

fever.

I couldn't

the "Erlking

the opera, I

afterward.

J>

kind of like a

even bear to hear Mother sing

around the house.

was

me

sick

If I were taken to

and weak for a whole day

Perspiration stood out all over

me

as

soon as the music began and I was like a person

in a trance until it stopped.
It is

sifal" is

week

a good deal like that even to-day.

my

"Par

favorite opera, but I'm little good for

have always thought it

would be a pleasant way to end this existence if
one died listening to that immortal music.
Yet
a

after hearing

it.

these days I mostly go to a musical comedy, or a

laugh show,

if I

have a night
28

off.

They

are safety

The Mango Seed

That

valves.

So

is

is

why

they are so well patronized.

jazz a safety valve.

As a boy,

my

heroes were Paderewski,

Harold

was taken

to hear

Bauer, Kreisler and Isaye.

them when they played in Denver and sometimes

was allowed to go with my father back stage.

They were always

once
if I

let

me

liked

its

Kreisler

play his violin and indulgently asked

tone.

and unaffected.
truly great.

simple and cordial.

The

others were just as kindly

That seems

to be the

way

of the

have yet to see a real genius with

the big head.

I

must here

confess

thwarted ambition.
to

for

Once

the

had

become a mechanical engineer.

I tinkered

For

time to a

first

my plans set
In my spare time

all

with engines, but not very successfully.

instance, I

made a motorcycle and

forgot to

put on the pedals and brakes. And I built a launch

that would run everywhere except in water. My

summers were spent in such experiments at a farm

we had up in the mountains. I lived outdoors and
hunted, fished and swam.
I

I guess it is a

good thing
inherited a certain musical knack from my par

ents, for I lack stick-to-itiveness.

29

Yet

I invariably

Jazz
admire most the hard things.

me

attracted

jazz

That

is all

what

is

The popular

to jazz.

a snap to play.

is

That

idea

enough

to qualify in a

score as written.

played as

it is

it

that

is

After

wrong.

you have mastered your instrument,

first

is

easy
the

symphony by following

But a jazz

score can never be

The musician has

written.

how to give the jazz effect.

The nearest to jazz I can remember

to

know

boy was
a thing called "Tale of a Bumblebee," which made
an impression on me because the title page was
as a

decorated with a bumblebee sharpening his

a grindstone.

At

sixteen I started ragging

heard of jazzing then

I

won a good

of course

the classics.

tail

we hadn't

friend

which

and

deal of notice with this trick from

members of the Denver symphony

had then begun to play. They used

the older
I

keep us at

it

on

Our

for hours.

in
to

favorite classic for

jazzing was the "Poet and Peasant" overture.

The warden of

Nebraska Insane Asylum

heard us and thought our music might soothe his
patients.

He

the

invited us

the asylum and

down

we played
30

for a week-end at

all the pieces

we knew.

The Mango Seed

We made
who

a great

He

called himself Nero,

own and

an old fellow

especially with

hit,

had a

tried to imitate us.

fiddle of his

have heard jazz

opponents say that Nero probably jazzed while

Rome
there
I

I'm sure

burned.

had been any Rome

my

got

ented musicians.

worked

can't

Nero would have,

Max

bow

in

my

and

father

Bendix, for

whom

San Francisco symphony.

remember the time when

feel of

my

All were serious and tal

One was

later in the

if

to burn.

education in music from

the teachers he selected.

this

hand, and

know

the

lesson

was

I didn't

my

first

taken from rny father when I was such a baby that

I actually

have no recollection of

At seventeen

was

it.

chief viola player in the

Den

ver symphony, and three years later I went to the

Pacific Coast to seek adventure.

citement

found the ex

craved in the San Francisco exposition

and played with the World's Fair orchestra until

I was at the same time a
the exposition closed.

member

of the Minetti String quartette.

When

the

exposition ended, I looked around for something

new

to do.

By

symphony work.

that time I

was

dissatisfied

The pay was poor and

31

there

with

was

Jazz
little

chance for

And

initiative.

along came

then

jazz!

We

jazz and I

met

first

It screeched

the Barbary Coast.

me from

had been blue

And

I got

all day, starting

I cracked

a button off

my

my

it

hit

me

hard.

At

rehearsal

with the morning

I

am

There was

shaving mirror.

coat.

wisdom tooth jumped.

linist

at

and that was one of the

My

coffee

three-minute egg hard-boiled.

It rained.

and bellowed

out of bed on the wrong side.

superstitious sometimes
times.

dance dive on

a trick platform in the middle of a smoke-

hazed, beer-fumed room.

when

at a

was

cold,

my

the salt.

I spilled

my fiddle went blooey. A

When the old second vio

groaned that a musician's

life is

a dog's

life,

I bitterly agreed.

By
Bay.

evening I wanted nothing but bed or the

Then Walter

dropped in and

said,

"You may make

like," I grouched.

Bell,

"Let's

fellow

musician,

make a night

a whole week of

it

of

it,"

if

you

"I'm going to bed."

But Walter was a determined man and he was

on taking me out with him. Brute force finally
won. Walter picked the jazziest of the jazz

set

32

The Ma n g o Seed
me up, he said. We ambled at
mad house. Men and women were

to cheer

places

length into a

whirling and twirling feverishly there.

Sometimes

they snapped their fingers and yelled loud enough

to

drown

My

music

if

whole body began to

was

It

the music

it

was.

up and take

sit

notice.

coming out of blackness into bright

like

My blues faded when treated to the Georgia

blues that some trombonist was wailing about. My
light.

head was dizzy, but

that tune.

whoop.

wanted

Even then

it

it

seemed to

and truth

was trying

can,

just

wanted

Yes.

Crude

sure as

I liked

then.

as

in

it.

it,

you
the small-pox and

catching as

cerity

seemed to understand

to dance.

Raucous?

Unmusical

was jazz

feet

to pat wildly.

They began

did them alL

edly.

my

to sing.

undoubt

But rhythmic,
That
spirit-lifting.

to

it

have

In spite of

puzzled me.
vitality,

its

man

sin

uncouthness,

to say something peculiarly

an uneducated

to

live.

though

me

wanted

Ameri

struggles

un

grammatically to express a true and original idea.

I

wanted

to

know

jazz better and

was imme

was going to. Coming, as I

from an environment where music was taken

diately clear that I

did,

it

33

Jazz
for granted as a sort of daily necessity, jazz never

did really shock me.

me.

The

only worried and obsessed

It

drummed

fantastic beat

had

after the strident echoes

in

died,

my

ears long

and

sleep for

became a saxophonic mockery. Strains pes

tered me like a hunch you can't get the hang of.

nights

In those

days I never thought seriously of

first

taking up jazz playing, yet in the back of

was the conviction that

leaf soon if I

wanted

was one of those

every boy's

to

ought to turn over a new

amount

to anything.

get to a place where

wear out your interest in

It

suppose, come into

crises that, I

You

life.

my mind

you

the things you are

all

used to doing and need something fresh and ex

citing td keep you from becoming a loafer and a

At

ne'er-do-well.

least it

was

so with me.

symphony, I was pretty sure

A
to continue following the line of no resistance.
viola player could go little further than I had
If I stayed with the

Ready-made

already gone.

playing

made

it

unnecessary for

And

originality.

scores

had such

it

to go into

my
34

to attempt

any

stores of vitality to

be turned into some channel.

chance for

me

and methods of

If there

was no

was

likely to

work,

it

The Mango Seed

be diverted to wild
a good

parties.

requisite of

be

and that he be a good

anyway

buyer of drink for

was a

in those days that he

symphony player

a good drinker,

It

his superiors.

Don't imagine for a moment that all this mor

alizing was clearly worked out in my mind. I only

knew

Of

course I

had.
I

that I was

We

listless,

had money

dissatisfied,

despondent.
All of us

troubles, too.

often took extra jobs to

make ends meet,

drove a taxicab myself for a while, and even

then was usually broke.

Then jazz stepped in.

I have to smile when
the role of reformer.

us off the page.

I start presenting

jazz in

hope no reader will

have often

felt,

hiss

when peda

that
gogues and parents were panning my protege,
I ought to speak up and defend it as a moral agent.

Because

it

good old phrase,

Not

me up and, more
"make a man of me."

did pick

or

less,

that I cherished any such hopes of

in the

it.

new music because it

began to experiment with the
was interesting. That is to say, soon after I heard
jazz for the

first

time, I resigned
35

my

job with the

Jazz
symphony and applied

San Francisco

at Tait's in

for a place in a jazz band.

two days lived in a sort of daze.

The thing that rattled round me like hail wasn't
music in the sense I had known it, I couldn't un
I

got

derstand

But

and

it

for

couldn't really get the

it

others were getting

had never

fat-faced

it

in their lives listened to

cept cheap thin popular tunes

women who had

me

that

first

night

rouged, young-old

and made them

up, jazz

it

and human,

It

wasn't alto*
earth was it?

up," the conductor "would

snort impatiently at about this point in

tions.
if

And

would

something held

me

try,

had hap

real

What on

gether sex appeal, either.

it

something that shook

spontaneous and alive for once.

it

men who

never once heard a real concert.

off their false faces

"Jazz

it.

any music ex

Something happened to them, just as

pened to

hang of

but

I couldn't.

too tight inside.

my
It

reflec

was

as

wanted to

rhythm like the other players.

I wanted to sway and pat and enjoy myself just as
they seemed to be doing. But it was no good.
give myself

up

to the

The second day

kind enough, but

the director fired me.

brief.

36

He

was

The Mango Seed

"You
nodded

can't jazz,

that's

he told me.

all,"

dully, watching the red hat of a girl at the

other end of the

room bobbing

Then

syncopation.

an ecstasy of

walked out of Tait's mild as

milk and went home to

I slept clear

in

around the

my

bedroom and

hall

clock.

When

slept.

I woke up, I

was mad.
So they said
I'd show 'em.

did they?

I couldn't jazz,

I'd learn to jazz.

Well,

I'd learn if it

took a year.

You know

the thirst for knowledge that attacks

the ambitious young

when he

man

in

the

advertisement,

reads about mail-order training courses?

I felt just like that;

but though there are plenty

of them now, there were no correspondence-school

jazz courses then, so I had to invent a method of
educating myself.

This was to
being played.

where jazz was

arose here.
I had no

visit the restaurants

money and they

difficulty

expected you to order food and

drink in all those places.

old awe for head

My

waiters increased during this time about a thousand

fold.

They were

so muscular.

had never noticed

what brawny fellows a restaurant uses

37

for head-

Jazz
In an argument with them, one would

waitering.

be nowhere at
Luckily

all.

had a

fairly presentable dress suit left

over from symphony days.

moderately

In

prosperous-looking

this,

made a

and

figure

there

was no way that a head waiter who didn't

know me could tell that I hadn't a dime in my
really

broadcloth pocket.

My
height.

cue was to appear

I

when

the music

was

at its

would hang around the entrance

as

though waiting for somebody, but really studying

the orchestra. If necessary, I would make an effort
to get a special kind of table such as head waiters

give only to best-paying patrons.

Of

course, with

out the proffer of kale, I had no chance, and thus

my way would

be paved for an indignant

The drawback was

retreat.

that this trick couldn't be used

more than once on a

restaurant.

These, as you might say, mere snatches of study,

I eked out with experiments in

Two

landladies put

me

my

hall bedroom.

out during this period, on

complaint of tenants above and below; for I ex

perimented with

and

pencil.

my

violin, as well as

with paper

There were no saxophone-proof apart38

THE KING

OF JAZZ

DONS His CHAPS

The Mango Seed

ments in those days.
invented them stands
After

many

orchestration

No

wonder the

make a

to

who

fortune.

attempts, I finally

and learned what

architect

worked out an
wanted

to

know

Faking was what the early jazz or

chestras relied upon. That is, they had no scores,
about faking.

each

man working out his

as he

went along.

Up

part for himself, "faking"

to that time, there

been a jazz orchestration.

started

the

into

it

made

orchestra

jazz

sounds simple, but

wasn't.

had never

the

first

That

business.

The

first

and

hundred

days of any business have their discouragements and

was nobody hankering for the opportunity

of financing my jazz band
not after I got myself
there

fired

because I couldn't jazz!

However,
dollars

ployees'

managed

on personal
salaries.

to

credit

What

borrow a few hundred

to

guarantee

my em

could scrape together

wasn't enough to guarantee any salary for myself,

though, and so in those days I learned a good deal

about plain living and high thinking.

It

was slow work

collecting

wanted only those who could

trying to do.

I hardly

knew
39

men, because I

realize

what

was

myself, except that

Jazz
I

saw

on a

music

possibilities in the

if it

could be put

The usual jazz

scored, trained basis.

orches

gang was no good for my purpose and neither

were the more set-in-their-way symphony players.

tra

needed musically trained youngsters

bitious, slightly discontented

ture a

who were am

and willing

to

adven

little.

In San Francisco band

as a sort of nut, I think.

circles I

At any

became known

rate, all the

men

that other leaders couldn't handle because of freak

or stubborn streaks
other, I suppose.

into
for

my
it.

came

to me, as

Occasionally one of these did

scheme exactly as

At

one nut to an

if

last

I frad seven

War

broke out.

fit

he had been created

men

of spirit and

enterprise.

Then

the

the midst of a rehearsal.

course, broke up.

We
And

got the news in

the rehearsal, of

In the following twenty-four

hours, I tried all recruiting stations within walking

distance

and got turned down.

In

spite of recent

thin living, I weighed almost three hundred pounds

and the

rules said I

was no good for "combatant

purposes/*

After

much

argument, Washington ruled that I

40

The Mango Seed

could enlist as a band leader ^nd I finally put on

Navy

uniform, especially made.

seven picked men, but the

lost

my

offered plenty of

Navy

Best of

material for experimentation.

had

we had

all,

discipline, so that the trombonist couldn't get off

practice whenever he

had been out

late the night

before and the French horn never dared pipe a

word about headaches.

Though

I led a band, I

and

officers, too,

had plenty of superior

I learned something about being

disciplined as well as disciplining.

forty-two dollars a month and got

more regularly than

men
I

when

it

was paid

a good deal

was paying other

forty times that.

At

that, it

was

out, I

too,

later

and

was a

was

so there

orchestra again.

grilling sort of life,

all nerves.

after

was short of funds,

was no chance of

As a

and

starting

my own

stop-gap, I took charge of

the Fairmont Hotel orchestra in

San Francisco.

punchy number and then I would go

out of sight and cry for ten minutes. This went on
until I lost exactly a hundred pounds, falling off

would

direct a

in three

months from 285

to a doctor, he told

me

to 185.

to stop

41

When

went

work and worry,

Jazz
him

I told

as if

Td be

perhaps

had a

fat chance.

worrying until

it is all

right for

It

I died.

me

And

right here,

to say that there is

a good deal of truth in the old proverb that

never darker than just before dawn.

much on

the Pollyanna

known what
nerve and

There

my

it

was

to lose

but after

my

it is

am

all, I

not

have

ambition and

and find them

health

I was, a

stuff,

me

looked to

my

all again.

symphony player determined

to

break into something that the best people then con

sidered the lowest of the low.
I

It didn't look as if

had much chance to get anywhere, did

it?

Or

Yet not long before

had only known it, something

jazz, either, for that .matter.

in

New

York,

if I

had happened that showed the mango magic was

working.

The

original Dixieland

Jazz Band had come East

and been hired by the Reisenweber Cafe, Up to

Chi
then, New York had not heard any jazz.
cago and New Orleans had, and San Francisco, but
not

New

York, where after

all,

modes

Reisenweber' s

made something of a

band's debut

raised the cover charge

42

are made.

point of the

and boosted

The Mango Seed

the food prices.

The

dancers came, too, but

they heard the music, they didn't

make of

when

know what

to

it.

The band played an

a soul stepped out on the

ager, standing

on the

The

floor.

side-lines,

The men

with wretchedness.

And

cafe

was ready

to

man
weep

guests were suddenly

conscious of their high collars and the

shoes that hurt.

Not

entire jazz selection.

there sat the

women

of

unhappy band,

banging away, surrounded by a scene as festive as

a funeral.

but
Finally the manager, desperate, dry-lipped,
determined, raised an arm to halt the incompre
hensible music.

"This

is

pleaded.

Perhaps

ladies

jazz,

was

gentlemen,"

he

be danced to/*

"It's to
it

and

his

woe-begone countenance that

At any

somebody laughed
and every gentleman grabbed his lady and began
relieved the strain.

to cavort.

Bang, bang, slap bang, hip hooray!

Jazz had hit

down

before

rate,

New York

and

New York

had gone

it.

In two years the thing had sprung from

43

New

Jazz
Orleans to Chicago, from Chicago to San Fran

had taken rough form and overrun the con

tinent, had captured New York and spread from

cisco,

North to South and from East

isolated portions of

New

to

West with only

England and

landism holding out against

it.

New

Eng-

Ill

Growing Pains

Ill:

Growing Pains

REPORTER

o//

success story

who came once

from me

complained that I

hadn't undergone enough hardships to

worth writing about.

any

real value for his

He

to get a

make me

explained that to be of

kind of

should have

tale, I

gone to work at twelve to support an invalid

mother and fourteen small sisters and brothers of
Another thing he deplored was that
hadn't "fought my way up." In fact, he inti

assorted sizes.
I

mated that

it

seemed as

if I

had

risen without a

great deal of trouble and then promptly slid

again of

my own

flattering estimate of jazz

is

not alone in
It is

tervals

That was

accord.

down

his far-from-

and jazz players and he

it.

true that I have only been broke at in

and

that,

even then, I might have called

upon relatives for help if

But just the same, I feel
47

had been

as if jazz

so

and

minded.
I

have

Jazz
come over some pretty rough roads together. We
have had to fight for every inch of recognition we
have ever had, and folks have never spared our
feelings if they felt inclined to tell us

thought of us.

They

as far as that goes.

emphasizes
to

consider us fair targets,

still

Every day or

somebody

so,

horrible jazz present

by

referring

honorable symphony and string-quartet past.

my
am

am

vulnerable to such digs

less

standing on
I

my

what they

my own

trying to do.

legs

now

that I'm

with a clear idea of what

And

don't

mind admitting

that having the price of a good-sized meal in

pocket adds a lot to

my

self-confidence.

You

my

can't

away from human nature at least I can't and

have no patience with the idea that art and

get
I

starvation are twin sisters.

It's

quite all right to starve for

an ideal

if

you've

but in America you don't starve long if the

ideal is worth starving for, in the first place. There

got

to,

no country in th,e world where the common

people, so-called, reward sincerity and honest effort
is

in

any

it's

line as lavishly as ours do.

In that respect,

a case of America's virtue being her

ishment, for

it

own pun

seems to be the fashion in certain

48

Growing Pains
high-brow groups to say contemptuously that we
haven't any artists because none of them

What

the jazz group

is

trying to

is

do

in the long run to be worth while, or

starving.

may prove
may not.

it

Only time will show. The point I am trying to

make is that we believe in jazz. We didn't chuck
our honorable places among honorable musicians
just to go out after the filthy lucre, not
tinker's

We claim

dams.

we're

still

by

several

musicians, per

haps even better musicians than we would have been

we hadn't

if

strayed off the straight and narrow

paths allotted by convention to

first-rate

members

of our profession.

At the same

time, I

want

to

make

it

clear that

the financial side of recognition means just as

me

as

it

firmer

on

my

to

does to any man.

legs, because,

much

I stand a good deal

when

I slap

can hear a reassuring jangle of coin in

my

pocket,

it.

There was a sorry time when legs and pockets

gave out all at once. That was after the War when
I

broke

my

down

at the Fairmont

and had

to give

up

orchestra and take to bed for several months.

For a while, then,

I really

hadn't better give up and

49

did debate whether I

let the I-told-you-so's,

'Jazz
who
it

would bring

said jazz

their

no good end, have

own way.

I didn't, but

when

got well, I hadn't a

I finally

penny and was warned by

much

rne to

my

work for a

responsibility or hard

finally set out to build

doctor not to take on

up a band

My

Hotel in Santa Barbara.

while.

at the Potter

old pre-war

were too expensive to be thought of in

venture, so I

had

to

my new

make

this

men
new

with raw

start

recruits.

These came

chiefly

from the high school.

Bright,

ambitious, nice youngsters they were, thrilled about

jazz and eager to learn.

The

trouble was, not one

them had been taught to read music.

hearsals had to be conducted by ear and

Our

of

build

my

boys into

my

It

was

of free verse out of children

When

for

a job,

plied

a lad
I

had

to

musical idea without a trace

of musical foundation.

alphabet.

re*

who

hailed

like

who

making

didn't

writers

know

the

could read notes ap

him

as

manna from

heaven, and he turned out to be the worst of the

lot.

He knew

no more about music than a parrot

knows about grammar.

Those untrained children, with
50

their eager desire

Growing Pains
made me

to learn,

the schools
it

realize

what could be done by

they would only take hold.

if

Why

is

that wealthy patrons of music will pour out mil

lions for

symphonies and not a cent for music in the

public schools?

It's

my idea

that every child ought

go to school with books under one arm and a

horn or some other instrument under the other.
to

Music

that

music that they play themselves

is,

arouses the interest of boys and girls alike,

sure, I believe, to

good ones

make

and

is

bad ones good and the

the

better.

From what

have

seen, it

seems to

me

that most

music teachers must be teaching music as Latin

as though it were a dead
teachers teach Latin
language, something without any meaning in real

something to be learned by rote. Music is a

language all right but a living, changing, vital
life,

some people give it

belongs only to things dead and canonized.
One of those Santa Barbara boys, a little chap
language.

The solemn

who played

respect

the cornet, once

woke me out of a

sound sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning because he

had forgotten how a difficult scoring ran. He was
so interested that he didn't
51

seem to think of apolo-

Jazz
gizing for his unceremonious call, taking

it

for

granted that I would feel just as he did about the

He

urgency of the situation.

said he couldn't

sleep for thinking of the music, so

walked

he got up and

five miles to reach first aid.

Probably he didn't wake me up, anyway, for I

was losing considerable sleep myself just then over
the conditions that were

me

to carry out

my

making it impossible for

plans for an experimental or

Hardly a day passed that

chestra.

didn't get

some new idea for scoring or instrumentation, but

I didn't have and couldn't get an adequate lab

my

oratory for testing

inventions.

The more

worked with jazz, the surer I was that its authentic

vitality would take root and develop on what I
called a

symphonic

anyway.

basis.

was longing

painter must feel like that

to try

when he

it,

is

confronted with an extraordinarily paintable sub

ject

and there are no brushes

in reach.

Saving money became suddenly a passion with

me

spendthrift that I

to save

now

because I

a good orchestra.

dering minstrel

had always been.

wanted to be able

For a while I led a

life,

wanted

to afford

sort of

wan

directing orchestras in Pasa52

Growing Pains
dena, Los Angeles, and San Francisco as oppor
tunity came.
It

was

at the

was presented

Maryland Hotel

in Pasadena that

to the king of the Belgians,

who

requested that I be brought up after he had heard us

play.

It

was the

time I had ever been intro

first

duced to royalty and I got all mixed up on what

to call him. Ever since, I have been afraid that I
addressed him as "king," but I have never dared
ask anybody.

He was

very gracious, anyway, and asked some

questions about certain of the queer noises

ing the saxophone and clarinet effects.

mean

explained

as best I could, getting sort of red

and

flustered,

and then he

Europe some

said I should

come

to

time and play, and somebody mercifully led me

away to a corner where I could mop my brow in

peace and wonder just

how many bones

had

pulled.

Intent on making as

much money

as I could as

quickly as possible, I joined a group which played

for dancing at the beach hotels

pays-the-fiddler plan.

on a the-dancer-

We musicians were equipped

with a big can into which our patrons threw dollars

S3

Jazz
in return for jazz.

At

first this

made me

miserably

were acting the capholding monkey for the hand-organ grinder on a

street corner. But my need for money was so great
ashamed, for I

felt as if I

just then that,

when

abandoned

scruples.

my

saw the coins pouring

in, I

We players

walked about among the crowd, and

when one piece was finished, we waited for some

body

to feed the can before

The movie

we

started another.

folks were

good customers
that we often allowed credit to the more
ones, including Charlie Chaplin.

When

so

good

reliable

they were

dancing with someone they liked, they would hold

their fingers to indicate

up

how much

they were

pay to have the dance prolonged. We

followed them around with our eyes and, as long
as they'd continue to hold up fingers from time to
willing to

time,

and

we would
if

some

continue to play*

little

We

enjoyed

from the provinces was

girl

dancing with a movie hero, she certainly did,

Once

it cost

too.

an Iowa grocer sixty dollars to keep

a certain film varnp for six dances.

to drop

it

away from

People began

the floor at the fourth dance

without a pause between.

54

During the

fifth,

only a

Growing P azns
few couples still hung on and when we were going
fervently on into the sixth, the last of them puffed
off the floor

and

still

the

lowan danced

before the days of cutting

as long as his

in,

so he

safe

up no more

stopped, he came breathless

and we tackled him

was

in the back of his mind,

stir

for during the sixth he held

When we

It

enough
but he was fat, and

wind held out

perhaps thrift began to

was

on.

for our

money.

fingers.

off the floor

He

tried to

shade the price until one of our number basely sug

gested that perhaps he would rather have us send

home town.

the bill back to his

Then he came

through.
It

wasn't pretty, but

it

was

certainly

life

absurd, ridiculous, chaotic, full of vigor, change,

Meantime, I was slowly pil

ing up some money and hanging on doggedly to my
ambition. But if it hadn't been for John Hernan,
excitement and battle.

Fm

not sure

Fd have

held out.

fornia hotel man, was the

believed in

on his

me and my

first

Hernan, a Cali
person

who

jazz enough to risk

ever

money

belief.

One day when

was feeling

to me.
55

blue,

he came up

Ja

z z

"Think you could make good with a

chestra

if

real

or

you got the chance?" he asked me

casually.

"Aw, what's the use of talking?"

even looking at him.

"How

"I haven't got the chance/'

do you know?" he shot back, and there

was something

in his voice that

grabbed him by the arm just as

to walk off.

"What do you mean?"

hurt his

I muttered, not

arm with

woke hope in me.

he was pretending
and

I begged,

the grip I

had on

I expect I

it.

"Well," said he, preparing to dodge thanks by

fleeing round the corner, "I've just guaranteed your
salary for a month to the management of the Alex
andria in Los Angeles.

You

start the thirteenth."

Another time that "thirteenth" might have given

me superstitious pause, but this was one occasion
that I didn't even think of
thirteenth, too,
if I live

and

I'll

got about

in the movies that I

Alexandria.
all

We

did open on the

never forget that

first

night

to be a million years old.

Word had

sion,

it.

They

dressed

among some of my

was making

my

friends

debut at the

rallied full force for the occa

up and

in joyful

56

mood.

They

Growing Pains
clapped and we played on and on and on
than

we had

better

ever played at rehearsal, better, I

sometimes think, than

we have

ever played since.

some of the crowd must have gone out

between dances and telephoned friends to come on
I guess

over, because couples kept pouring in.

them

now

all

lesquing

Charlie

Chaplin

can see

solemnly

bur

conducting while everybody roared,

my

Pauline Frederick, Mabel Normand, gayest and

Harold Lloyd, Cecil de Mille but

would take a blue book of the films to list them

prettiest of
it

all,

all.

You
illicit

see, in spite

of the stories you hear about

Hollywood

gayety,

its

gets pretty dull of eve

nings and the stars were glad enough to have some

thing

new

to

do.

Wallace Reid was

there,

remember, and played the drum with the orchestra.

He

often came in after that to try out the

saxophone.

We

drum

or

were always glad when he chose

was

drowned

the saxophone because

it

Poor Wallie was a

fellow and a splendid actor,

fine

easier

out.

but not much of a drummer or saxophonist.

Of

we were

pleased that the first night

went off so well, but we knew we weren't out of
course,

Jazz
woods yet by a long shot, so the next day and
the next and the next, we tried harder and harder,
the

some during that time,

can't remember any periods of sweet, dream

suppose

but

less

ease.

us and so

must have

Our

slept

customers stayed with

first-night

many more came

that, at the

end of the

month, John Hernan was told we had made good

and would be

kept.

At

the close of the year,

phonic jazz had proved

sym
the

that

successful

so

Alexandria's cover receipts had risen from $300 to

$1200 a day.
It would seem that
plenty of

money by

should have been earning

this time,

ing on a shoestring as

but I was not.

we adopted

had,

cooperative plan in the orchestra.

the largest share of the proceeds.

was

my men

better offer, I

had

to take

salary to keep

him

satisfied.

One day a
offer

from another leader

at

getting.

58

have
all

was that

threatened to accept a

fellow came

Without a word, he handed

to

the

That was

right as far as it went, but the difficulty

whenever one of

Start

something

off

up with a
it

to

me and

my own
telegram.
I read

an

$25 more than he was

Growing Pains
"Well?" he prompted, when I didn't speak.
The reason I didn't speak was that I was figuring

how much

I could cut

for myself

and

man and

still

wanted

down on what

was keeping
He was a good

eat regularly.

to be fair with him.

Finally

"Will a thirty dollar raise be all right?"

said it would and hurried off, jubilant. That

I said:

He

week and for many weeks following,

thirty dollars of

my own money

found he had faked the telegram.

had another

I paid

him

until one

He

day I
hadn't even

offer.

The men averaged $100 a week.

I got sometimes

$40 and felt myself lucky. Indeed, for

a time after I was leading a successful jazz orches
as little as

and getting a lot of publicity for

scraping by from week to week.
tra

It

was not

until

much

later,

it,

was barely

when we began

to

men

over the cooperative

among the
system and we gave it

up.

It wasn't very fair.

For

make

records, that dissatisfaction arose

a record, the drummer,

instance, in

who might

strike his

making
cymbal

once in an entire number, got the same as the

who played

five

or six instruments

every second of the time.

59

man

and worked

After that, I paid each

Jazz
man a
ability

straight salary,

and usefulness.

varying according to his

And from that time, I be

gan to make some real money for myself.

For quite a while I did the arrangements and
orchestrations, as well as the conducting, but

much

too

for one man, so

we

Now

the

(or band, as

we

symphony player and composer.

two of us work out our ideas together.

called

it

for the orchestra

then), to go East, came

when

the

Ambas
S.

W.

make

the

sador Hotel at Atlantic City was opened.

Straus agreed to lend us the

money

to

He

trip.

But

was

took on Ferdie Grofe,

talented

The chance

it

it

gambled to the extent of $2,600 on us.

was all right. We made good and he got

money back.
Until we went

his

nition

those

to Atlantic City, the only recog

we had won,
who danced to

from the approval of

our music, came from persons
aside

interested in our trick of jazzing the classics

is,

of applying our peculiar treatment of

and

that

rhythm

color to well-known masterpieces.

The

notice this brought us

the pleasantest.

was not always of

Certain correspondents called us

scoundrels and desecrators and one

60

man

described

Growing Pains
us as ghouls "bestializing the world's sweetest har

monies," rather a mixed metaphor,

A woman

seemed to me.

with a gift of epithet termed us "vul

devouring the dead masters."

tures,

mad

I don't get

at these communications

Sometimes

always read them.

tice in

them.

Besides,

that people think of us.

we have done

that

it

classics.

and

can even see jus

good to know the worst

But of course I don't agree

it's

such very terrible things to the

them

I don't think we've even insulted

much.
I

worship certain of the

spect

them

all.

But

doubt

sky or even Bach when

have

written

provided

compositions of theirs

classics
if it

we

myself and re

hurts Tschaikow-

rearrange what they

we

choose

and play

appropriate

to people

who

haven't heard good music before.

I

my

have never had the feeling that I must keep

hands off the "dead masters," as people feel

they must not speak the truth of the dead unless it

The masters are not
is a complimentary truth.

dead to me.
not as gods

I think of the great writers of music,

who

finished their jobs forever in seven

days, but as plain

human men,
61

as

human

as

any of

Jazz
They were working on a job

the rest of us.

will never be finished as long as

human

that

beings live,

much a part of life as the heart

beat.
Every human being has music in him if he
would realize it and let it out. The masters had
for music

is

as

genius where probably, at the very best, I have only

talent; but they didn't care a bit

more about beauty

than I do or try any harder to capture

And

it.

they didn't scruple to take any material they could

lay their hands on to help them, either.

You remember
"When

the verse of Kipling's:

'Orner smote

men

bloomin' lyre,

'is

by land and sea;

An what e thought e might require,
'E went an* took, the same as me,"
'E'd 'card
5

Not

sing
5

that I

mean

to

imply that there was any real

musical value in our jazzing the classics.

not.

It

was partly a

We

work.

were just

est material,

The
use.

and partly experimental

fooling around with the near

working out our methods.

jazz orchestra

scores that

we

course

trick

old masters are not the best material

degrees

Of

is

better off

we can

when playing

have been written expressly for

it-

are accumulating a library of our

62

By
own

Growing Pains
But

music.

that's another story to

which I shall

return later.

The
while

prospect of the trip East frightened even

it thrilled us.

was home

California

of us and while the folks there

humored

to

most

hammered us oc

We

might be
wild, but we were theirs and they were fond of us.
The effete East we always spoke of the East as
casionally, they also

effete

had no personal

do worse than scorn

us.

interest in us

and might

ignore us.

it

might
So we were nervously uneasy as we swung
aboard the transcontinental express bound for New

York and
new world
first.

Atlantic City was like a

points East.

a world we didn't like so very well at

Indeed, after a few weeks of it, the boys

begged to go back

The golden

to the Coast.

sunshine

and

the

whole-hearted

camaraderie of California had taken on increased

enchantment

as the distance

between us widened.

My

gang didn't think folks were very friendly in

Atlantic City and they claimed the Atlantic Ocean

was vastly
ties in

inferior to the Pacific.

Even

the neck

the shops were sadly lacking in pep, they

complained.

In short, they were good and home

sick.

63

Jazz
Moreover, the Ambassador Hotel was out of the

we

beaten track, being far up the Boardwalk and

were newcomers, unknown to the East, so patronage

did not exactly rush our way.

always maintained

I've

started us

name

her
ever

on the road

her

was a

girl

to popularity.

or where she

known about

it

came from.

is

that she

and brown eyes and danced

like

who

finally

I don't

All

know

we have

had yellow hair

a wood nymph.

gloomy day when we were playing for

a handful of people, she walked into the room with

One

listless,

a typical masculine tea hound.

showed

He

it.

tried to

She was bored and

make conversation and

she

pouted.

Then

the music started.

our delight, she began

snap out of

it."

The next day

tableful.

We

They danced, and

as the trombonist
all

felt

put

it,

an interest in

to

"to
her.

came again, bringing a whole

After that, she rarely missed an aftershe

noon and she was always accompanied by a large

Business fairly bounced out of its depres*
party.

we

We

We never

spoke to the girl nor she to us, but

knew she was press-agenting us all over town.

sion.

certainly were grateful, too,

64

Growing Pains
Even though we

eventually did well at the

Am

bassador and began to pay Mr. Straus back,

we

might have gone home if the Victor Phonograph

Company had not held a convention at Atlantic

City.

happened

representative of theirs, Calvin Childs,

Ambassador and heard us

to lunch at the

play.

were being rushed for a

Childs came up and fervently

After that, I felt as

fraternity at college.
insisted that

if I

we do nothing about a phonograph

contract until he had time to communicate with

his firm.

Only

six of our

men had come East and

I suggested that he wait until he could hear us all.

"We sound much better

full force/' I apologized.

"Nonsense," he incredibly responded, "you can't

be

much better than you are now. 'S not possible !"
And a few days afterward, we got a nice, fat

two-year contract.

many

unbelievable cyclonic happenings that

gan to get used

largest cafe in
us.

to miracles.

New York

City,

so

we be

The Palais Royal,

waved a contract at

Vaudeville scouts approached us.

were in the papers.

still

That was the beginning of

Our

pictures

Sometimes, of course, things

went awfully wrong; but on the whole, we

65

Jazz
were in good danger of getting our heads turned.

To

the Palais

Royal came

names and foreign

night at

visitors of

we could

all,

all

the country's great

renown, too.

Any

look out and see Vanderbilts,

Drexel Biddies, Goulds and the

rest

dancing to our

Lord and Lady Mountbatten, cousins of

music.

the Prince of Wales, were

guests one night.

among

They had

the distinguished

just arrived in this

country to spend their honeymoon.

After that night,

adored dancing.
pair that

they came often,

for

they
a
were
such
friendly, jolly
They

when they were

in the room,

we

invariably

played almost nothing but their favorite pieces.

We

had many conversations, and Lord Mount-

batten got to be friends with every

boy in the band.

"You've simply got to come to London," he kept

"The Prince must have a chance to hear
saying.
the

band

And
there

that's all there is to it."

had gone back to London,

with crests and coronets on its

after the pair

came a

seal, telling

letter

us again that

where Lord

we must come

Mountbatten himself

to

London

"wanted the

pleasure of presenting us to the Prince."

Part of the result of our

66

New York

vogue was

Growing Pains
that smart hostesses began to

The

parties.

of these, at the

first

very well-known

rich,

fizzle.

Up

want us

New

to this time,

for private

home of a very

Yorker, was almost a

we had played

for private

where nearly everybody

There we were all fairly prosperous, with

parties only in California,

knew

us.

small cars of our own, well-fitting tuxedos and no

idea at all that anybody was better than
So, while

we played

we

for the guests for pay,

were.

we

al

ways ate in the dining room and received the same

consideration from the host that any visitor to his
house would get.

But the

East,

it

seemed, was to be different.

Orchestras were hired by the social secretary to play

an entertainment and then turned over to the

for

So when I got to the house

in question on the night we were to play there, I
found all the men out in the street.

butler to look after.

'

What's up?"

I asked

amazed.

"Well," said the biggest sax player,

know what you would want us to do.
us,

when we rang
went

we

didn't

They

told

the front doorbell, to go round

We

to the servants' entrance.

"

to the front door

67

aren't going."

and obtained an audi-

Jazz
ence

with

the

rather

flustered

and embarrassed

host.

"My men

don't wear second-hand tuxedos nor

and they are a good deal

told him casually.

eat with their knives

gentlemen," I
After that,

had been

we were always

like

we

treated just as

in California.

Into the midst of our already busy days, about

this

time came a contract for a season with the

The

Ziegfeld Follies.

first

night

we played with

them was one of the most miserable

We

ever spent*

were seated on a platform designed to move

When

forward.
didn't.

the time

came for

it

to start,

it

We had stage fright,

ure of the

mechanism

to

anyway, and the fail

move on schedule fairly

froze the smiles on our faces.

We

thought we sounded worse than

rehearsal we had ever had.
And
I

weren't expecting

a skittish colt,

it,

played on, but

the worst dress
then,

when we

the platform gave a leap like

flinging

us forward and almost

knocking our teeth down our throats.

I thought, of course,

we were

a flop and wouldn't

even read the papers the next day.

surprise, I

But

to

my

heard they spoke not so badly of us and

68

Growing Pains
the next night

New York

we

is

got on

a queer

platform and

fine,

city.

have the theory

that novelty, not luck or ability

New York

there.

its

It

palate or
is

what

is

gets

doesn't care about merit so

as it does about something

new

to tickle

The newspapers

its ears.

all.

by

much

its eyes,

reflect this.

a city of press agents and I used to wonder

how

they all lived.

"It's

easy enough/' one told me,

city editors like press agents

They

"New York

who produce

the goods.

don't want you to pretend with them, but if

you have a

story, that is different;

they will give

you the front page any time."

The bizarre and the unusual get not only the
headlines, but the homage and shekels. Naturally,
anything new has always an army of imitators and
soon one's vogue wears out. There is nothing real
or lasting in novelty alone.

We

realized that to

New York we

were just a

novelty at a dull season, something to make the

the
great city stop, look, listen and dance for

We

We

be taken seriously.
even believed that there was something worth

time.

had a hankering

while about jazz

to

danceable, as

69

it

was.

We

were

JazZ
doing the best we could with
there

was the

ming

really

good

and once in a while

it

satisfaction of hearing a flapper

good music without knowing

something we had "sold" her.

But no one took us

seriously.

At

hum

it

was

that stage,

it

wouldn't have done to say anything about jazz

being an art, even a lively one. The artistic would

merely have scoffed and the flapper and her beaux

would have looked sheepish at being accused of a
liking for anything that
I thought it

New

was highbrow.

would be a good time

York, for a while.

everybody must

see,

And

Altogether,

to get out of

since I

had

seen, as

the American adoration for

the European, I played with the idea of going

abroad.
girls,

knew

singers, nice

who were unable

American boys and

to get a hearing in their

own

country until they had studied in Italy or France.

They were not particularly improved by the Euro

pean period that

I could see.

they usually lost something

made them

On

the contrary

whatever

it

was that

But the point was, they

public seemed to want them

distinctive.

had gained what the

to have
foreign flavor.

Especially if they re

turned wearing a foreign name.

70

Growing Pains
my

I figured that

more
of

orchestra

serious consideration for

my

head to do,

if

would probably get

what was in the back

we obtained

And we

foreign stamp for ourselves.

little

of the

wouldn't need

to bring back any Russian prefixes or French suf

fixes, either.

The end
March

3,

American

Most

of

was that we

it

sailed for Europe,

1923, on the S. S. President Harding,

line.

We were a strictly American bunch.

of us had never been abroad.

erners

all,

we had managed

Wild West

to adapt ourselves to

Broadway, but Europe was something else again.

There was a terrified lump in my throat as the
Statue of Liberty curtsied out of sight. I had a
premonition we might better have stayed at home.

The

boys, though, were excited

"Lookut what we did to

and

New

confident.

York," one en

couraged me, as I was loudly proclaiming on a very

seasick

day that

risking $18,000 of

wished we hadn't come.

my own money

on the

was

trip and,

in spite of the fabulous salary the newspapers cred

ited

me

with receiving, that

much ready

mighty big to me, especially

71

as I

cash looked

had got married

Jazz
in

New York

lady to

and was learning what

shop on Fifth Avenue.

The moment our

it

costs

dropped anchor at Liver

pool, it seemed that rny premonition had not been
Our coming had been heralded, and
groundless.
ship

the British Ministry of Labor

We

had been engaged

was waiting

for us.

to play in "Brighter

Lon

don," a revue at the Hippodrome, and the matter

we thought, fixed up.

Now, however, we found we had another guess
coming. The Ministry of Labor had an idea we
of labor permits had been,

had

better not land.

set foot

on English

We
soil,

were finally allowed to

but were told we would

not be allowed to play, so to speak, in English

We

The matter became, in a way, international.

cabled our own Secretary of Labor to help us

out,

and the

air.

politico-legal tangle

England objected to
make out, on the ground that,
jazzy.

grew more than

us, so far as I
if

could

American jazz was

once heard in England, tens of thousands of Eng^

lish musicians, unable to play it, would be thrown
out of employment.

Our

success

was taken for

which was very flattering, and I could

only hope that the belief was based on the fact that

granted,

72

Growing Pains
some member or members of the Labor Commission

had heard us
fort if

But

play.

we were

flattery wasn't

much com

be sent home unheard.

to

At length we were given permission

3

"Brighter London/

to play in

but were denied the right to

take the orchestra to a restaurant or supper club.

Finally

we

got around that restriction, too, by hir

ing the same number of English musicians as

had Americans, and were allowed

Galleries,

a night club.

to get the

hang of

Our

to play at

Grafton

recruits never

jazz, though.

we

seemed

There was some

was perfectly foreign to them.

Perhaps they took it too seriously. But since that
was what I had been praying for seriousness in
thing about

considering

it

it

that

suppose I shouldn't have minded

that.

remember one day asking one of my English

musicians, "Can you. ad lib?"
Perhaps I should
I

mention that "ad

lib"

is

a jazz musical term

mean

ing to improvise, to invent as you go along.

"Certainly," answered the man, rather nettled,

"I can ad lib anything."

"Then do

it," I

requested.

73

Jazz
"All right, just write something for
3

lib/

me

to

ad

he agreed.

Orchestra leaders used to come to our rehearsals,

bringing their men, and

what we

could.

we were glad

They played

to

show them

beautifully, too, so

Give them a perfectly

scored jazz orchestration and they could do it so
long as they could imitate.

well that
it

came

it

sounded

like the real thing.

But when

down.

Jazz was

to originating, they fell

simply not in their blood.

taneity,

the

They
the

exuberance,

lacked the spon

courage

know what. The something, whatever

I
it is

American, the indefinable something that

They

didn't have

it

and

do not

we
is

call

jazz.

it isn't

something that can

be put on the outside like a plaster. Most of the

jazz orchestras that have since sprung up in

London

have failed simply because of that fact.

There was plenty of opposition to us, even
apart
from the labor trouble. "Why should a man check
his mentality

with his hat at the door?"

inquired

a distinguished British
organist,
tried to bring

him

when somebody

to hear us play at
supper.

many felt the same way.

The most unsuccessful

And

benefit I ever played in

74

"Growing Pains
my

was one at Albert Hall for the

life

In the

hospitals.

first

place,

my

pieces followed one of seventy.

big for us and I

the same,

who had

am

sure

we

air service

band of twelve

The

place was too

did sound awful.

we were hardly prepared

Just

to have the

man

asked us to play the benefit come up after

wards and

tell

us

he had ever heard.

was positively the worst band

it

Still, that's

usually the

way

of

People seldom appreciate what they get

benefits.

for nothing.

We
after

had a good time in London, though, and

they got over their prejudices, some of the

Londoners seemed to
them.

was

like us.

fond of

especially

the largest I have ever seen.

policemen, that are bigger

One day

Certainly

And

their

we

bathtubs,

their bobbies, or

still.

saw a huge bobby calmly

lift

one of

those tiny English cars right out of the road

it

came

time,

farther than

liked

he had directed

it.

when

Another

Mrs. Whiteman was driving down Bond

and happened to see a coat she liked in a

shop window. She almost forgot her wheel in her

Street

effort to see the price tag.

75

Jazz
The bobby
the matter?
5

"Oh,

at the crossing called out,

m sorry," she told him,

"I was just trying

to see the price of that coat in the

He

Well,

window."

toward the window.

turned

one?

"What's

55

it's

madam." And

forty guineas.

all

Now

"The green
drive along,

with a wide smile.

We

were introduced to the autograph habit in

London. I never knew we had it here until re

when everybody seems

have got the bug.

But in England, they appear always to have had it.
cently,

People carry fat

and

ater

street,

little

to

books into the subway, the

stopping persons they happen to

recognize.

Once

was unwittingly a source of income to

some sharp
girl

little

stopped

and when

me

English messenger boys.

A small

was leaving the Hippodrome

writing my name for her, some

as I

I finished

people came running over from a queue forming at a

theater on the other side of the street. I wrote my

name

until

my arm

that the same

and again.

ached and suddenly I realized

two urchins were coming back again

They were

selling the autographs for

a penny apiece to the queue.

76

Growing Pains
The

orchestra played at Grafton Galleries every

evening after the performance at the Hippodrome

and often we were honored by the patronage of the

Prince of Wales, The first time I saw his Royal
Highness, however, was about a week after we
landed.

True

to his promise.

Lord Mountbatten

gave a party for the Prince and asked us to play.

There were just thirty-two guests, all related to
the throne and

it

was the

nicest party I ever

There was no swank and no

to.

guests were

how to enjoy themselves.

The Prince had already
into the room, but I
tell

was

him from any of

The
who knew

ostentation.

cordial people

all simple,

went

arrived

when

went

so nervous that I couldn't

the others.

had a bad

at

tack of stage fright and I wished I were somewhere

Lord Mountbatten was disgusted with me.

else.

He

is

such a democratic, unassuming chap himself

anybody getting into what he

a "funk" over a mere meeting with a prince.

that he can't imagine

calls

"What on
know,

earth shall I call

him?"

wanted to

distractedly.

Lord Mountbatten looked

"Why, you

aren't

at

me

British

77

disappointedly.

subject," he

re-

Jazz
"What do you

minded me.

call

Just

anybody?

be natural."
I

was

hope

was natural, but

later; for the Prince

If I

put

me

wasn't at

first,

instantly at ease

with some flattering comment about the orchestra.

He

was wearing evening clothes and

had never seen a man's shoulders look

The

dress.

Prince of

Wales

is

but for some reason, partly the

I suppose,

self,

you never

I thought I

better in such

really rather small,

way he

realize

it,

carries

him

even in his

pictures.

saw him many times

times

we played

after that evening.

Some

for parties he or others gave at

private houses; and whenever he

wanted me, in

stead of sending an equerry to

"command" my

presence, he

fashion if

We

it

would come himself and ask

would be convenient for us

in friendly

to play.

never accepted any pay from him.

He

in

upon it many times, but I told him we had

come to London mostly to play for him and con
sisted

sidered

it

honor enough to have that privilege.

We

did, too,

and

a prince.

Everybody does things for him because

him so much, and I believe, if he were

they like

it

wasn't altogether because he was

78

Growing Pains
just plain

John Smith, he would

still

have the

winning personality that gets favor for its owner

everywhere. I am sure of one thing if the world
were choosing a king, the Prince of Wales would
win the crown by popular acclaim.
As a host, he was splendid. The first night we
played for him,

caught

my drummer

rushing out

of the house.

"What on
"I'm
of

earth's the

goiix to cable

matter?" I called, worried,

my

old

man

that the Prince

Wales served me champagne with

his

own

reason the Prince did not entertain at

York

hands," he shouted back.

The

House where he
hall there.

he keeps bachelor's
So when he wants to give a party, he
lives is that

must borrow a house somewhere.

His Royal Highness

dancer,

rhythm.

drum

so

his first

is

an

extraordinarily good

should say, with a splendid sense of

Perhaps that

is

one reason he

likes the

much for its rhythm. He told me he got

drum when he was four and immediately

under the tutelage of some old

It is not strange that
soldier around the palace.

learned to beat

it

royalty should be captivated

79

by the drum,

for their

Jazz
measured by

entire lives are

are born, the

drums

beats.

its

When

they

are beaten to tell the story.

When

they are married the

again,

and when they have an

drum comes

into play

heir or go to

war

or die.

The drummer with our

orchestra explained all

Royal Highness and claimed also

have learned a special rat-a-tat from his pupil.

his tricks to his

to

The papers always play up any preference of the

Prince so energetically that
feels he will

think he sometimes

never again say what he does

did confess, though, that he

and the bagpipes.

Oxford and there

He

is

like.

He

fond of the ukelele

learned to play the pipes at

a story that his friends (for he

was a regular good fellow and into all the life of
is

the school) stole into his

the air

from

room one night and pricked

his favorite bags because

they got so

tired of hearing

him

practice.

his title to the "Prince of

We

all

as Prince.

They

also

changed

Wails."

addressed his Highness quite informally

He once remarked upon this habit of

Americans who, he
like barking.

The

Edward Albert was

says, Prince

him

quality I liked

until he feels

most in young

his consideration for others.

80

Growing Pains
saw a hundred instances of
tendants and others

who

it

with his personal at

served him.

He

noticed

that a saxophonist was absent one night and asked

solicitously if he were

When

ill.

next he saw the

man, he remembered to inquire all about his grippe.

I have never seen such a memory for everything
It
as the Prince has.
facts, names and faces

was

after I

Canada.

came back

to

America that he

visited

him a message asking him

I sent

to the

He couldn't come
New York, the first

re-opening of the Palais Royal.

and

later,

when he reached

me

thing he said to
couldn't

on

my

late to

The

come

was:

"I was mighty sorry I

to your opening, but I

was way up

ranch and didn't get your message until too

make

it."

orchestra

members were

all delighted

when

Clarence Mackay, arranging a great ball in his

Highness's honor, asked us to play.

That was a

gorgeous party the beautiful Mackay estate on

Long Island, with its flowers and lights and the
prettiest

women

gowns and

in the country decked in their finest

jewels.

We were counted three times on

way into the house, the last time by Mr.

Mackay himself. Guards were everywhere and the
our

81

Jazz
had been

invitation cards were watched as if they

jewels, for it

was a

"celebrity hunters"

The

Prince,

safe bet that a lot of the city's

would try to force

on the occasion of

their

this, his

way

second

in.

visit,

had become more popular and more interesting

than ever, so that he was not allowed even breath
time

ing

away from watching

But Mr.

eyes.

Mackay was determined he should have

at least

one partly undisturbed evening.

As

far as that went, the guests at the ball were

almost as interested in the royal guest's movements

as the outside

Every time he came on

was a sound like the catch

world was.

the dancing floor, there

ing of breath and every

woman

there watched

him

with wistful eyes. For of course, he might, just

might, ask her to dance.

He

was

his usual pleasant self

with us and sev

eral times asked for favorite pieces to be played.

He

also asked

me

if I

would send him the record

of the "Rhapsody in Blue."

Of

course, this

is

really getting

ahead of

story, for the visit of the Prince to this

second time and the party at the Mackays'

after

my

return from London.

82

We

my

country the
all

came

came back

Growing Pains
we got homesick. Funny we had
a wonderful time in England and when we had
really because

been in

New York
we

Westerners,

But

and thinking of ourselves as

hadn't cared so

much

for the East.

we suddenly began to feel that

Broadway was superior to Bond Street or the Rue de
la Paix or any other street we had ever seen.
in London,

We had

some good

offers to stay in

London and

a group of capitalists in Paris wanted to build a

theater for us if we would come over there.
But

we had been working hard

enterprise that
itself,

and

it

out.

try

was

for a long time on

as close to

wanted

my

to get back to

All this time, you

heart as

home

New York

we had been

see,

an

and

testing, dis

carding and endeavoring to get volume with the

instruments

we

and sweetness.

had, and trying also for

We

harmony

weren't quite ready for the

experiment I wanted and yet dreaded to spring, but

thought we needed the American atmosphere

for rehearsals. So we sailed back again to America.
I

And

if you'll believe

dreamed

it

open arms

might

be.

it,

all

was quite

New York

as I

received us with

gave us a great reception, as

83

had

if

we'd

Jazz
been distinguished foreigners coming on a

visit.

We
filled

caught sight of Liberty and of airplanes

with bands almost at the same minute. They

serenaded us from the

The Mayor

land.

Bay

to

meet us and

air,

from the water and from

sent a representative

down

the

so did the Police

Department.
That night at the Waldorf they gave us a dinner
a dinner with speeches by all sorts of personages

and such a greeting that we couldn't believe they

meant us at all. When they asked me to make a
response, I
It is

found

tears rolling

down my

cheeks.

a great thing, after a long hard struggle,

and appreciation. For a moment, I

forgot any cynicism I had felt about the false value

to find success

of

the

European

label

in

America.

Cynicism

doesn't take deep root in an American, anyway.

only felt happy, touched, almost overcome by the

warm-hearted generosity of our welcome home. It

seemed to me then that everybody understood me,
that my orchestra was a real success, that there was
nothing in the future but sunshine and roses. But
even at that moment, I didn't forget that we had

come home

to

do bigger things in jazz than had

ever been done before.

If

84

we

could.

IV

An Experiment

IV:
7

JlSIONS

An Experiment
of playing a jazz concert in what a

has called the "perfumed purlieus" of

Aeolian Hall, used to rouse me up at night in a cold
critic

Sometimes a nightmare depicted me

being borne out of the place on a rail, and again I
dreamed the doors were all but clattering down
perspiration.

with the applause.

That's the

way

I lived during

waking hours, too,

all the time I was planning the Aeolian Hall ex
periment alternating between extremes of dire
fear

and exultant

confidence.

We

began to rehearse for the concert as soon AS

we came back from England. The idea struck
nearly everybody as preposterous at the

start.

Some

hold to the same opinion still. But the list of

pessimists was a little shorter, I believe, when at
half-past

1924,

we

five,

on the afternoon of February

took our fifth curtain

87

call.

12,

Jazz
"What! an
friends,

all- jazz

concert?" one of

my

best

a musician, shouted when I confided

plan to him in

strictest secrecy.

simply can't be done.

You

"Why, my
mustn't try

my

boy,

it

it.

It

would ruin you! You have your future to think

of and your reputation. So far you've been get
on splendidly with your dance music and if
you watch your step, you will undoubtedly be able
ting

put away a good smart sum while the vogue

to

But a jazz

Honestly, my boy,
I'm afraid you've got softening of the brain. Be
guided by me in this and you will never regret it,"
lasts.

concert!

Such expressions were naturally depressing, espe

cially since I myself realized that I was gambling
with public favor.

There were plenty of similar

warnings from other friends and those

who

weren't

in that category said even worse things.

called

"fresh,"

"publicity-hungry,"

until

but tolerant

"money-mad"

air,

now

talked themselves red in the

face about the insolence of jazz boys

force their ridiculous efforts
the

was

most admired, who

then regarded me with, a slightly amused

and some of the musicians

had

who want

upon the world

world meaning, I suppose, their own

88

to

by
little

An Experiment
coterie, the final court of critical

appeal in their

opinion.

Here's something I have never been able to

Why

understand.

should

be supposed that

it

the good taste in the world

is

all

monopolized by a

few people? Isn't it possible that the so-called

masses have considerable instinctive good judgment
in matters of beauty that they never get credit for?

My

notion

that beauty

is

is

for everybody, that

anything too precious for the common gaze is out

of place in a world God has created for ordi

nary people.

That's

why

I resent the self-assurance

of certain high and mighty art

However,

was not a time

And anyway,

arguments.
theories, I

it

circles.

for

me

to start any

in spite of all

was mighty anxious

to

my

fine

win the approval

be enough for me
simply to gather into Aeolian Hall a capacity audi
ence of flappers and dancing men.
had to have
of the select few.

It wouldn't

We

the musicians, the

type of

man who

or avocation.

critics,

the

takes music seriously as vocation

Even

although that
should be taken.

the music students

the one

isn't at all

89

who

my

takes

it

solemnly

idea of the

way

it

'J

It's extraordinary,

timid

we

all are

azz

when you think of

own

about our

something but we don't

like

that someone

who

who

is

it,

We may

opinions.

like it until

supposed to

know

how

we

find

says he likes

"Stand a sheep on its hind

legs and you do not have a man; but stand a
flock of sheep on their hind legs and you have a

it.

I forget

said,

crowd of men"; but he was nearly

deep

down

in each one of us there

something sheep-like.

we

tion until

We

And

right.
is,

after

all,

hate to go in any direc

look around to see

if

someone

else

has started that way.

So a great many people,

their
it

own

in their timidity, smother

This

natural tastes.

can't really

especially true,

This idea that the arts

seems to me, in music.

are so high

is

an ordinary common man

know anything about them is combined

and

fine that

As long

with our natural timidity.

as the critics

condemn a new musical development, the common

man may
"I don't

And most
to

like

it,

but he

shame-faced about

know anything about

it.

music," he says.

of the time he doesn't have the nerve

go ahead and add:

Now

is

"But

know what

as a matter of fact, critics are just

90

I like."

human

An Experiment
beings like anybody

The only

else.

difference is

that they aren't afraid to say that they

they

like.

They have had

a lot about what I

music.

They know

of musical terms.
or any other art

mon man who

may

know what

opportunities to study

call the superstructure

of

technique and a whole language

But the foundation of music

is

in

human

doesn't

emotion.

counterpoint from

know

harmony, may know what he

The com

likes

that

is,

what

appeals to his deep, fundamental, human emotions

In fact, he may know it
as well as any critic.
better, because his musical education doesn't get

more simple
and direct. And in the history of art, it is a fact
that only the art the common people have recog

in the way.

His approach

nized and loved stands the

to

music

is

test of time.

The American people ought

to

age in their attitude toward the

they would realize that their

have more cour

arts.

own

Perhaps then
opinions about

Or perhaps they
music have some importance.
critics are
might if they knew a little about how

made

and musicians,

Some people seem

too, for that matter.

to think I've

climbed upon

some high mountain peak of importance

91

just be-

Jazz
new music. But
what am I, when you come down to it? Just a
Denver boy, who had some knowledge of musical
technique pounded into me when I was a kid. I've

cause I'm one of the leaders of the

spent

my

life

learning more and

more about

know no more about

nique, but I

tech

music, the deep

meaning of the tone harmonies that arouse the

depths of the

sponds to

And
cisco

human

soul,

than any

well, I

know one

man who

re

it.

the critics

who was a

police reporter

would have been a

critic if

in

San Fran

and probably never

the regular one hadn't

been on his vacation one day when a concert was

The

scheduled.

city editor Sent the police reporter

to report the concert

and he turned in a good

story.

So when the regular critic quit, the police reporter

was put on music. And now when that critic says
a conductor

is

good, all San Francisco agrees with

him.

A dramatic critic on a New York afternoon

was

sheet

more money by a powerful morning

combination and accepted precipitously. A rewrite
offered

man came
assigned

in to

work

as usual that

by the managing
92

editor to

day and was

cover an im-

An "Experiment
With

portant play that night.

but

like the

man

paper

soldier

good

always

he went.

is,

was appointed dramatic

The

and trembling,
that a well-trained news
fear

The next

day, he

critic.

I'm making isn't that these men

haven't sound opinions, worth listening to. They
point

But what

have.

who

boys

want

to say

is

that

Denver

haven't grown up to conduct orchestras

and police reporters who haven't got jobs as critics

have sound opinions, too, and we ought to listen to

When

them.

all the

day are dead and

musicians and

not

we

say, it

men

that will stand.

opinion that will determine whether or

are remembered, just as,

was

number of

I'm bound to

their opinion that kept "Abie's Irish

Rose" running in

flayed

of to

dust, it's the verdict of these ordi

nary, musically-uneducated
It's their

critics

New York

for a record-breaking

seasons after every critic in

town had

it,

If I'd been willing to wait a

a verdict on

my

few

centuries for

work, I wouldn't have been so

wrought up over the Aeolian Hall concert. But

here I saw the common people of America taking
all

the jazz they could get and

93

mad

to get more,

Jazz
yet not having the courage to admit that they

took

it seriously.

1 believed that jazz

was begin

ning a new movement in the world's art of music.

I knew it
I wanted it to be recognized as such.
never would be in
authorities

My

my

lifetime until the recognized

on music gave

idea

the

for

it

their approval.

concert

skeptical people the advance

was to show these

which had been made

in popular music

from the day of discordant early

jazz to the melodious form of the present. I be
lieved that most of them had grown so accustomed
to

condemning the "Livery Stable Blues" sort of

thing, that they went on flaying modern jazz with

out realizing that

early attempts

was

it

that

it

different

from the crude

had taken a turn for the

better.

My task was to reveal the change and try to show

that jazz
tion.

had come
was not a

It

to stay

and deserved recogni

light undertaking,

but setting

Aeolian Hall as the stage of the experiment was

probably a wise move. It started the talk going,
at least,

and aroused

Hall!"

the

"What

is

curiosity.

conservatives

cried

the world coming to?"

94

"Jazz in Aeolian
incredulously,

An Experiment
While we were

we gave a
them

series

getting ready for the concert,

of luncheons for the

critics,

took

and explained painstakingly

prove, at the same time display

rehearsals

to

what we hoped

to

ing our orchestral tools for the enterprise.

They

were good sports and many offered helpful, though

doubtful, encouragement.

That took one weight

off

my

mind, for I saw

that they were at least curious enough to come to

the concert.
scared.

We

But

was good and

just the same, I

were trying to get a favorable hear

ing from the most hide-bound creatures in the

world educated musicians. It was educated musi
cians

who

scorned Wagner, resisted Debussy and

roasted Chopin, you

could
I
lists

But

we

expect?

may remember.

What,

then,

Annihilation, perhaps.

trembled at our temerity when

we made

out the

of patrons and patronesses for the concert.

in a few days, I exulted at our daring, for the

in
acceptances began to come

Godowsky, Heifetz,
maninoff,

Rosenthal,

Kreisler,

from Damrosch,

McCormack, Rach

Stokowski,

Stransky.

We

had kindly response, too, from Alda, Galli-Curci,

Garden, Gluck and Jeanne Gordon. Otto Kahn
95

Jazz
and Jules Glaenzer agreed to represent the patrons
of art on our roster and the prominent writers we
asked

were

equally

These

obliging.

included:

Fannie Hurst, Heywood Broun, Frank Crowninshield, S. Jay Kaufman, Karl Kitchin, Leonard
Liebling, O. O. Mclntyre, Pitts Sanborn, Gilbert

Deems Taylor and Carl Van Vechten.

Anybody who has breathlessly, almost unbeliev

Seldes,

watched a precious ambition finally flower,

will not think me maudlin when I confess that I

ingly,

used to pore over that

a

new

way one

the

picture of one's self, scanning

again for the

Perhaps

may

list

it

does over

again and

mere pleasure of looking.

have emphasized what some readers

regard as the least important feature of the

projected concert

main

the audience.

But

it

was, after

Before I began
on it, I had the orchestra ready with a program I
believed would launch our test adequately.
I
all,

the

item, being uncertain.

wasn't afraid of that angle.

My

boys had been

playing what I called interesting music in a crowded

restaurant where clattering dishes, staccato talk

and

laughter interfered with "reception," as the radio

fans term

it.

At Aeolian Hall,
96

the orchestra

would

An Experiment
have a

put over our musical message

fair chance to

to a judicial few.

That
on

it.

concert cost $11,000.

The program

about $7,000

alone, together with the ex

planatory notes, cost $900.

weeks and

I lost

We rehearsed for .many

was outside our regular work,

every rehearsal meant extra pay for the men. Nine
musicians were added for the occasion and their
since it

salaries also piled

I didn't care.

me

up
It

the total.

would have been worth

But never

at any price.

stage fright as that day.

in

my

life

had

it

to

I such

had no doubt of the

or

But how would people take it? Would

we be the laughing-stock of the town when we woke
chestra.

the "morning after"?

was trying

to be smart

smart-alecky?

crowd that
designed to

Would

the critics decide I

and succeeding in being only

Or might

be able to convince the

was engaged in a sincere experiment,

exhibit what had been accomplished in

the past few years with respect to scoring

ranging music for the popular band

making a bona

fide

in popular music

that

and ar

we were

attempt to arouse an interest

rhythm for purposes of advancing

serious musical composition?

97

Jazz
Fifteen minutes before the concert was to begin,
I yielded to a nervous longing to see for

what was happening out

my

coat over

front,

myself

and putting an over

concert clothes, I slipped around to

the entrance of Aeolian Hall.

There

imparted

gazed upon a picture that should have

new

my

vigor to

wilting confidence.

It

was snowing, but men and women were fighting to

get into the door, pulling and mauling each other
as they do sometimes at a baseball game, or a prize
fight, or in

this time, that I

by

in.

It

wondered

my

state of

had come

if I

mind

to the

And

then I saw Victor Herbert

was the

right entrance, sure enough,

right entrance.

going

Such was

the subway.

and the next day, the ticket office people said they
could have sold out the house ten times over.
I

went back stage

again,

more scared than

Black fear simply possessed me.

gnawed

we

my

thumbs and vowed

offer after all.

I even

made

Now

that the

had really nothing

to

excuses to keep the

curtain from rising on schedule.

But

finally there

was no longer any way of postponing the

98

floor,

I'd give $5,000 if

could stop right then and there.

audience had come, perhaps

paced the

ever,

evil

mo-

An Experiment
ment.

The

up and before I could

was tempted to do, and announce

curtain went

dash forth, as

that there wouldn't be any concert,

midst of

we were

in the

it.

was a strange audience out

villians, concert managers come
It

the novelty. Tin

Pan

in front.

to have a look at

"Livery Stable Blues,"

earliest

sym

composers,

Alleyites,

phony and opera stars, flappers,

mixed up higgledy-piggledy.
Beginning with the

Vaude-

jazz composition,

we played twenty-six

selec

tions designed to exhibit legitimate scoring as

trasted with the former hit

were also called jazz.

all

and miss

At that time

was not jazz that was

so called.

that "Livery Stable Blues"

apart, that to speak of

confuses the person

so

modern American music.

which

I argued that
I still believe

in

its

talented composer,

many

millions of miles

them both

who

effects

con

and "A Rhapsody

Blue," played at the concert by

George Gershwin, are

all

cake-eaters,

is

At

as jazz needlessly

trying to understand
the

same

time, in the

course of a recent tour of the United States, I have

become convinced that people as a whole like the

word "jazz."** At least they will have none of the
99

Jazz
numerous substitutes that smart wordologists are
So I say, let's call the new
continually offering.
music "jazz."
This, then,

is

the jazz

program we played that

day:

TRUE FORM OF JAZZ

a.
b.

Ten years ago "Livery Stable Blues"

With Modern Embellishment "Mama
Loves Papa"

Boer

COMEDY SELECTIONS
a.

Origin of "Yes,

b.

Instrumental

We

Have No Bana

nas"

Silver

Comedy

"So This

Is

Thomas

Venice"

(Adapted from "The Carnival of Venice"}

CONTRAST
a.

LEGITIMATE SCORING
True Form

"Whispering"
b.

vs.

JAZZING

Selection in

Same

Schonberger

Selection with Jazz Treatment

RECENT COMPOSITIONS WITH MODERN SCORE

a.

"Limehouse Blues"

b.

You"
"Raggedy Ann"

c.

"I Love

Braham
Archer

Kern
100

An Experiment
ZEZ CONFREY (Piano)
a.

Medley Popular

b.

"Kitten on the Keys"

c.

"Ice

Airs

Confrey

Cream and Art"

d. "Nickel in the Slot

35

Confrey

{Accompanied by the Orchestra)

FLAVORING A SELECTION WITH BORROWED

THEMES
"Russian Rose"

Grofe

(Based on the Volga Boat Song)

SEMI-SYMPHONIC ARRANGEMENT or POPULAR

MELODIES
Consisting of

"Alexander's Ragtime

"A

Band"

Berlin

Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" .... Berlin

"Orange Blossoms in California"

Herbert

SUITE OF SERENADES
a.

SpanisK

b.

Chinese

c.

Cuban

Berlin

d. Oriental

101

Jazz
ADAPTATION OF STANDARD SELECTIONS TO DANCE

RHYTHM
Moon"

a.

"Pale

b.

"To a Wild Rose"

c.

"Chansonette"

Logan

McDowell
Friml

GEORGE GERSHWIN (Piano)

"A Rhapsody in Blue"

Gershwin

(Accompanied by the Orchestra)

IN THE FIELD OF CLASSICS

"Pomp and
I

Circumstance"

was very proud of the

Elgar
suite the late Victor

Herbert wrote especially for that occasion.

a great-souled, wonderful musician and

He

my

was

loved

His encouragement during the weeks we

were rehearsing meant a great deal to all of us. I
friend.

asked him to conduct the

me do

watched

place, because

it,

suite,

and

had

after he

he almost consented to take

my

he thought I wasn't getting the most

out of his music.

"But

I'll

wait," he said, his eyes twinkling.

wait, Paul, until you've tried

then

if I

it

little

'Til

longer and

say to you, 'Yes, Fll be pleased to conduct

the Suite/ you'll

know what
102

mean."

An Experiment
Evidently

me

my

conducting improved, for he told

at last that I did very well.

"I guess I won't take the stick, Paul/' he decided*

"There would always be some fool critic to say that

I was better than you or you were better than me
and it might cause hard feeling."

He

was

joking, of course, for it

nearly impossible for

a genius like him and

me

to

my

have

would have been

felt

hard toward

friend as well.

I relied

judgment always and his approval, when

I
it came, was priceless, because it was so sincere.
am glad that he was alive to sit in a box at the

upon

his

performance and bow to the cheers that greeted

the playing of his Suite.
Writing for a jazz or
first

chestra

was new

to

him and he complained a

little

about the doubling which he said hampered him

when he wanted an oboe, say, and found the gentle

man who

should play the oboe busy with the bass

clarinet.

he
respected the rules of the game,"
boasted, "and I might even say of this Suite, in

"But

the words of the Seventh Century nun, that even

if other
it is I

people do not like

who

did

it, it

it."

103

pleases

me

because

Jazz
"A Rhapsody
as the

most

in

Blue" was regarded by

significant

critics

number of the program.

It

rhapsody written for a solo instrument

and a jazz orchestra. The orchestral treatment
was developed by Mr. Grofe, Mr. Gershwin's man

was the

first

uscript being complete for the piano.

It

was a

successful attempt to build a rhapsody out of the

rhythms of popular American music. None of the

thematic material had been used before. Its struc

was simple and its popularity has been re

It is
markable since we put it on the records.
music conceived for the jazz orchestra and I do
ture

not believe any other kind of orchestra can do

full justice,

though some have played

The audience

it

it.

listened attentively to everything

and applauded whole-heartedly from the first mo

When they laughed and seemed pleased
ment.
with "Livery Stable Blues," the crude jazz of the
past, I

had for a moment the panicky feeling that

they hadn't realized the attempt at burlesque

that

they were ignorantly applauding the thing on

merits.

I experienced all sorts of

program went on, most of them

was.
104

qualms

its

as the

unjustified, as it

An Experiment
A

few of the men had accidents with

struments,

picking

up one

another, but nobody noticed.

when one man

times

My

their in

when they wanted

This happens some

plays five or six instruments.

twenty-three boys that day played thirty-six

instruments.

Perhaps

it

would be

struments used in that

interesting to list the in

first

concert.

section consisted of eight violins,

The

string

two double basses

and a banjo. There were two trumpeters, two

saxo
trombonists, two pianists, a drummer, three
phonists,

and two French horn

players.

All these

men, except the violinists and one or two others,

doubled on some instrument. These extra ones
included accordion, bass tuba, flugelhorns, eupho

nium,

celesta, flute, oboe, bass oboe, heckelphone,

E-flat, B-flat

and bass

clarinets, basset horn,

Octa-

E-flat alto
vion, E-flat soprano, B-flat soprano,

E-flat baritone saxophones.

and

We

never let us go.

people would
encores we knew and still they ap
played all the
heart was so full I could hardly
plauded.
that
as I bowed again and again. The spark
It

seemed as

if

My

speak,

in the pera responsive audience can always kindle

105

Jazz
formers had been glowing
result,

we played

When

finally

all

better than I

we bowed

afternoon and, as a

had ever hoped.

for the last time, the

me

a pile of notes from congratulat

ing friends and the doorman said people were wait
There was a letter from Walter
ing to see me.
usher brought

Damrosch that

I particularly prize.

He

said he

we had done wonders with our instruments

thought

and added that he had "enjoyed every minute of

it."

This friendly praise was very sweet, but I knew

I

must wait for the papers

to learn the best or the

Later that week, the Musical Digest pub

worst.

lished a sheaf of critical

comments from the

dailies,

and the sentiment, not merely as we culled it for

publicity press notices, was divided, but on the whole
encouraging.

W.

J.

Henderson of the ^Herald described the

concert as "one of the most interesting of a busy

season.

Mr. Herbert's music was

delightful.

Mr.

Gershwin's composition proved to be a highly in

genious work, treating the piano in a

manner

call

ing for

much

chestral

background in which saxophones, trombones

technical skill

106

and furnishing an or

An Experiment
and

merged in a really

clarinets were

of orchestration.

If this

way

lies

skillful piece

the path toward

modern music

the development of American

into a

high art form, then one can heartily congratulate

Mr. Gershwin on his disclosure of some of the pos
sibilities.

Nor must

the captivating cleverness of

And

Zez Confrey be forgotten.

there

was Ross

Gorman, a supreme virtuoso in his field, who

played ten reed instruments, and Roy Maxon and
Paul Whiteman himself, a born conductor and a
musical personality of force and courage

who

is

to

be congratulated on his adventure and the ad

mirable results he obtained in proving the euphony
of the jazz orchestra."
5

"To begin with/ wrote Mr. Lawrence Gilman

of the Tribune^ "Mr. Whiteman's experiment was

an uproarious

This music conspicuously

success.

and ingenuity of rhythm,

possesses superb vitality

mastery of novel and beautiful effects of timbre.

For jazz is basically a kind of rhythm plus a kind
of instrumentation.

music

is

only half

But

it

alive.

seems to us that this

Its

gorgeous vitality of

rhythm and of instrumental color is impaired by

melodic and harmonic anemia of the most perni107

Jazz
clous

kind.

Listen

compositions

of the

Kern and Gershwin.

Messrs. Archer and

"Ignore for a

the

to

moment

the fascinating

rhythm
and the beauty and novelty of the instrumental col
oring and fasten your attention on the melodic and

How

harmonic structure of the music.

feeble

and conventional the tunes

are,

trite

how

and

senti

mental and vapid the harmonic treatment. Old

stuff it is.
Recall the most ambitious piece, the

Rhapsody, and weep over the

ody and harmony,

pressive.

And

inventiveness

lifelessness of its

mel

so derivative, so stale, so inex

then recall for contrast, the rich

of

the

rhythms,

the

saliency

and

vividness of the orchestral color."

Deems Taylor

of the

bert's four serenades

World found "Victor Her

not only charming in thematic

material, but they demonstrated the fact that his

skill

in orchestration extends to

handling the un

usual instrumental combinations that a jazz

presents.

band

George Gershwin's Rhapsody, in a way

most interesting offering, despite its short

comings, chief of which were an occasional sacrifice

the

of appropriate scoring to

momentary

effect

lack of continuity in the musical structure

108

and a
pos-

An 'Experiment
two themes of genuine musical worth
and displayed a latent ability on the part of this

sessed at least

young composer

to say something in his chosen

idiom."

In the Times, Olin Downes mentioned "remark

ably beautiful examples of scoring for a few in
struments: scoring of singular economy, color and
effectiveness; music at times vulgar, cheap, in poor
taste,

and

elsewhere of

swing and insouciance

music played as only such

irresistible

recklessness

and

life;

players as these

may

play

it

like the

melo-maniacs

that they are, bitten by rhythms that would have

twiddled the toes of

"And

St.

Anthony.

then there was Mr. Whiteman.

not conduct.

He

trembles,

He

does

wabbles, quivers

piece of jazz jelly, conducting the orchestra with

the back of the trouser of the right leg and the

face of a mandarin the while.

Mr. Gershwin's

composition shows extraordinary talent, just as

also shows a

it

young composer with the aims that go

far beyond those of his

ilk.

In spite of technical

immaturity, he has expressed himself in a significant

and on the whole highly original manner.

fresh and new and full of promise."
109

This

is

Jazz
Henry T. Finck
Stable

of the Post thought the "Livery

and

Blues"

"Mama

superior to Schoenberg,

the "futuristic fellows.

Loves

Papa"

Milhaud and the

far

rest of

Mr. Herbert's serenades

were a delightful specimen of musical mirth, mel

ody and

local color.

Paul Whiteman conducted

quite as well as Herbert himself could

and that

is

the highest praise that could possibly be bestowed."

Gilbert Gabriel of the Sun called the concert

"one long strong, musical cocktail.

Whatever

it

was, fun or fol-de-rol, glorious, gory or just plain

galumphing,

"The

title

it

was wine that needs no bush.

of the rhapsody was a just one for

Mr. Gershwin's composition

suitable to covering a

degree of formlessness to which the middle section

of the work, relying too steadily

of the piano, seemed to lag.

the ending of
ticularly,

it

on

tort

and

retort

But the beginning and

were stunning.

The beginning par

with a flutter-tongued, drunken whoop of

an introduction that had the audience rocking.

Mr.

Gershwin has an

The

irrepressible

pack of talents.

Serenades

were done in Mr. Herbert's ever-ready

and bright

style.

Mr. Whiteman has some amazing

110

An Experiment
musicians under him and he shines out as an ex
traordinarily well-rounded musician/*

That was what they said. Not all compliments

by any means even in some places a suggestion of
But after all,
dissatisfaction with the newcomer.
the critics

had come to the concert instead of send

ing second-string men.

lead paragraphs to
bilities.

it,

They had devoted

too,

and admitted

Poor, imperfect, immature,

going somewhere, they

said.

magic worked on.

Ill

And

it

its

their

possi

still

so the

was

mango

Whatlslt?

What

V:
is

Is

It?

jazz?

I have been dodging this question for

years, because I haven't been able to figure out

adequate answer.

Whatever

Probably

it

I think, there will

an

doesn't matter much.

be

many

to disagree

Jazz has always made a grand hostess

help, for it will throw the most conservative dinner
with me.

company
ment.

and disagree
a theme for which every man demands

into paroxysms of discussion

It is

freedom of expression.
It is almost easier for

explain what jazz

it

is.

First,

by the way,

nearest to

Here

is

it.

it

like

not, than to try to say

then, jazz

dictionary makes
tionary,

is

a word novice

is

me

to

what

not exactly what the

It has only got into the dic

in the last 'three years*

The

used to be "jazey, a woolen sweater."

what they have

inserted :

"Jazz, a form of

syncopated music played in discordant tone on vari115

Jazz
ous instruments, as the banjo, saxophone, trom
bone, flageolet,

This

is

drum and piano."

obviously an uninspired, colorless

describing a very colorful subject.

who

writes jazz, does better.

He

of

Irving Berlin,
calls it

"musical

discords used in an

pandemonium accomplished by
ascending progression/'

way

My friend,

Gilbert Seldes,

writing in "Seven Lively Arts/ refers to "subdomi-

nant seventh chords, successions of dominant sev

enths

and ninths and dissonances."

whose name has been

lost to posterity

declared illuminatingly that "Jazz

is

is

Somebody,

unfortunately,

jazz and blues

blues."
I feel

a good deal the same

body who knows

jazz and

themselves, but

you don't

if

to clarify them.

way and

so does

any

blues.

They explain
know them, words fail

have heard some folks refer to

jazz as an "obnoxious disease," as "musical pro

fanity," "the true voice of the age"

American

art."

hedging.

Who

You
is

and the "only

can readily see

why

keep

going to find a definition to sat

isfy all these folks?

But

me

to get

down

to business, jazz does seern to

to be, as nearly as I can express

116

it,

a musical

What

Is It?

treatment consisting largely in question and answer,

sound and echo.

It

is

what

call

It includes rhythmic,

counterpoint.

unacademic

harmonic and

melodic invention.

To
joint

rag a melody, one threw the rhythm out of

making

Jazz

syncopation.

goes

further,

"marking" the broken rhythm unmistakably.

great

art

the

in

jazz

orchestra

is

The

counter

balancing of the instrumentation, a realization of

tone values and their placement.

With a very few but important

is

not as yet the thing said;

ing

Some

it.

critics

it is

exceptions, jazz

the

manner of say

think this fact establishes the

unimportance or even the vulgarity of jazz, I be

lieve it is true that if jazz does not develop its own
theme,

its

own

distinctive language, it will fail to

be musically valuable.

We

might, for

But

clarity,

it

will do so.

make a rough

parallel

between jazz and language. In 1700, the Ameri

can Colonists were beginning to speak a dialect that
used tones,
might be called bad English. They
inflections and rhythms in words and sentences that

were not the English spoken at the court of King

George.

They

that
expressed themselves in
117

way

Jazz
because they were no longer living in England,

they were no longer Englishmen.

By

their talk

was revealed the change that had taken place.

They said the same things that were being said on
the other side of the Atlantic, but they said them

That

differently.

is

where jazz

is

to-day.

was not the fact that the Colonists spoke dif

ferently that was important. The important point
It

was that the Colonists themselves were

The

conditions in which they lived

different.

made them

so.

They expressed this difference first in their manner of

talking. As the difference grew, they expressed it in
the words they used, then in the ideas they uttered.

To-day there is an American language, a language

full of new words and ideas, full of meanings that
can hardly be expressed in any other tongue. A few
Englishmen still speak of the American language
as

an "English

simply

illustrate the

realities.

We

dialect."

have a

language

all

racy,

will be

French say

idiomatic,

our own,

American character.

new

do, they

English slowness to admit

as the

It is

But when they

suited

to laugh.

flexible

to

new

American

expressing the

This, I believe,

is

what jazz

musical language, expressing

"

new

GREAT BRITAIN

SPAIN

EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE

What
Or

meanings.

Is It?

at any rate, fresh combinations of

old meanings which

opment has ever

any musical devel

that

is all

been.

To-day, however, jazz is a method of saying the

old things with a twist, with a bang, with a rhythm
that makes them seem new.
is

instrumental

effects.

Strictly speaking, it

large part of

its

nique consists of mutes being put in the brass.

first

beat in any bar, which normally

is

tech

The

accented,

is

passed over, and the second, third or even fourth

beats are accented.

This can be roughly illustrated with a familiar

bar of music.
Suppose we take "Home, Sweet

Home."

Here

it is

in

its

original

form

Original
.

rt

Now

let

us jazz

it

up

Jazz Fox Trot

A
ft

^*-r.

Jazz Waltz

That won't be

quite the real thing, though.

119

The

Jazz
jazz treatment

is

hard to put into written music.

Follow the notes as carefully as you like and you will

merely be like a person trying to imitate, for in
stance, a Southern accent

If

blood.
the

notes

make

it is, you'll

that

is

in your

add the indefinable thing

spontaneous

jazzing

that

to

will

the music talk jazz as a native tongue.

While we
way,

unless jazz

it isn't

are

still

using the old themes in this

every composition that will lend

This

self to jazz treatment.

only a succession of sounds.

sound.

is

because music

is

it

not

It is also quality of

It is really not very satisfactory to take

anything written for a symphony and try to play it

with a jazz orchestra. That is the same, in princi
ple, as taking a composition scored for an orchestra

on the piano. And how would

Debussy's "L'Apres Midi d'un Faune" sound on
an organ? Imagine trying to get the tone and color

and trying to play

it

of that lovely composition in any such way.

I suppose it will surprise a good
many people to

have

me

say that some things can't be jazzed.

as a matter of fact, it

is

not literally true.

And

Almost

anything can be played by a jazz group on jazz

instruments in the jazz manner.
Anything can
120

What
be jazzed

But

that

it is

common

is,

Is It?

subjected to jazz treatment.

not fitting to jazz everything.

sense, together

And

with a loving knowledge

of music, will indicate whether to jazz or not.

might mention fdr instance "Onward, Christian

1
which should not be jazzed. There is a
Soldiers,
'

sturdy, majestic tune with a religious connotation.

We could jazz it easily,

but

we

wouldn't.

Neither

would we jazz the "Tannhauser" march nor any of

On

the lovely operatic arias.

would be no

sacrilege

though the tune

people.

was a

is

in jazzing

"Dixie/* even

deep in the hearts of a Southern

And "Song

ballet in the

the other hand, there

we

did jazz,

was

all right.

of India," which

first

place, so that

a matter of feeling. Some things were

written for sober* sublime moments. They should
It is just

be left for such moments.

But the "Peer Gynt"

overture

why

Jazz then

They do not

suite, the

fit

jazz.

"Poet and Peasant"

not jazz them?

is

a method.

But

it's

not only a

method of counterpoint and rhythm; it's also a

method of using tones, using the color of sound.

The

instruments for making jazz music are, as I

shall point out, legitimate

121

and have been used in

Jazz
various

combinations for making serious music.

have already spoken of the original meaning

of the word jazz. John Philip Sousa, who with
I

by the way, has come nearer the

his military band,

any musical

hearts of the people than

America ever has had, says jazz

vocabulary by

way

institution

slid

into

our

of the vaudeville stage, where at

came back on

the end of a performance, all the acts

the stage to give a rousing, boisterous finale called

a "jazzbo."

a particu
larly jazzy darky player, named James Brown and
called "Jas" from the abbreviation of his name, was
There

the source of the

is

also a legend that

peppy

little

word that has now

gone all over the world.

At any
are

now

New

rate, in spite

of

its

early troubles,

anxious to claim the word, and to

many

my mind,

Orleans presents perhaps the best evidence.

Maybe some

future encyclopedia will settle the

moot question

for us.

The compilers

will have to

build the case on a good deal of supposition, but

once

we

suppose' s"
Also,

down without any "I

and "probably's," we shall be set at ease.

see it all written

some future chronicler will undoubtedly

answer another popular query:

122

"Is

it

art?

"

VI

Islt Art!

Art?

VI: Is It

I DON'T really care whether jazz

There

and

is

is

art or not.

always a hubbub going on about art

I can't see that

it

gets anywhere.

A good part

of the controversy depends upon definition and I

would rather be working to do something than to de
fine

it, any day.

Webster says

art is "a system of rules or of or

ganized modes of operation serving to facilitate the

performance of certain actions an occupation hav

ing to do with the theory or practice of taste in
the expression of beauty in form, color, sound,

speech or movement."

That
merely

is

too complicated for me.

the capturing in

versal beauty.

other

man

doesn't

Still,

have

make

I think art

some form of a

let

Mr. Webster and any

his opinion just so long

art out to be snobbishness.

worries about art have never done

and hinder the

is

bit of uni

real artist.

125

as he

Snobbish

much but annoy

Jazz
It is fairly safe to

say that those folks

who

scorn

everything American because being American,

can't be artistic,

despise everything the

common

would have been a good deal the same

Athens when the Acropolis was being built. As

people
in

and

it

like,

sure as fate, they'd have been

mourning for the

pure art of ancient Crete and talking about the

It's a way we
vulgar commercialism of Greece.
mortals have.

The Greek
atists

sculptors

weren't talking

too busy working.

and musicians and dram

much about

They were

art.

There was the same difference

between the talkers and the

artists

that there

is

to-day.

To me

the test of art

of humanity.
is

The

intelligible to all

is its

must say something that

the people. He must go so deep
artist

that he touches the basic

if

he has been

real.

appeal to great masses

human.

He

always has,

It was the people of Athens

who

cheered Praxiteles, and the Florentines, the crowds

in the street,

whose verdict

settled the fate of the

works of Andrea del Sarto and Leonardo da Vinci.

In music, the same thing has happened.

All the

masters have suffered heartbreak and discourage126

Art?

Is //
ment because

the cultured

few whose judgment was

taken as a criterion refused to countenance anything

was the common people who found beauty

in the fresh forms and insisted upon a hearing for

new.

It

the artists.
I

hope

thing that

have not seemed to say that every

is

popular

is art.

I claim

no

teddy bear or the cross word

tinction

for

puzzle.

But

which

reserved for the art-snobbish

is

from the

far

the

artistic dis

I do believe that the so-called art

line in

few goes as

one direction as the teddy bear

does in the other.

Beauty
universal.

emotion, not intellect

is

Nobody

is instinctive,

human

is

needs a long course of school

ing in order to respond to beauty.

sponse

and emotion

The

first

re

fundamental, out of the depths

appeals to the

And it is only when a work

depths of human emotion that it has

any chance to

outlive

of

emotion.

Beauty

is

It

is

jects.

theme.
art.

its

generation.

sometimes found in unbeautiful sub

the treatment that counts, not the

If the design

is

to shock, then that

is

bad

Sometimes jazz deals with unbeautiful themes,

127

Jazz
but the best of

it

is

beautiful out of

its

material.

trying to

Music has never had a chance

make something

to reach the multi

Yet they respond to it whenever

The masses of the
opportunity.

tudes in America.

they have the

people of America are fundamentally the same in

artistic appreciation, or

it,

as the masses

Americans

are, after all,

the lack of

of the people of Europe.

same blood, with the same age-old cultural

background. And good music is sung and hummed
the

and whistled from Moscow to Naples, from Cher

bourg to Budapest.
As far as the matter of appreciation
cerned, there

is

no earthly reason

why

is

con

the classics

should not be the daily musical preoccupation of

working men, stock brokers and farmers from New

York to San Francisco. They never have been be
cause there has always been this rigid wall of in
sulation,

put up by the highbrows.

Highbrowism was slipped over on

us.

Our

pio

neer grandfathers were too busy keeping alive in

the wilderness to spend any time learning to be
"cultured."
ers,

The backwoodsmen,

the Indian fight

the farmers on the frontier were cut off from all

128

Is It

Art?

music except a few simple melodies old English

folk songs and American songs of the same type.
This

is

very lovely music, but our forefathers didn't

think of

it

as music because a

few

rich folks in

the cities had a copyright on the word.

They aped

everything European and imported music with

fashions and their books.

The

first

their

attempt to popularize music was the

humble beginning of Tin Pan

great street of popular song.

Alley,

New

York's

corset salesman

who loved music was among the first of the melody

manufacturers. The early efforts were in the main
tawdry and banal.

Perhaps you remember "Smoky

Mokes," "A Hot Time in the Old Town," "The

Curse of

An

Even then

Aching Heart."
the pieces that really took hold on the

popular fancy had some flavor of real music.

Men

Song" had a mighty fascination

in the street and everybody sang the

delssohn's "Spring
for the

man

melody in popular songs thinly disguised.

The beauty of the original theme caught the

ear,

but the crudity of the development proved tiresome,

so that the fashion in songs shifted constantly.

The

public felt the same uneasy dissatisfaction that

129

Jazz
with style in clothes, which not being bas

it feels

ically beautiful,

At

thing new.

spoiling the ear

Then

is

constantly changed for some

the same time, this banality

and debauching the

the phonograph companies

was

taste.

came along and

began to put out good records. It is to the credit

of the American people that there was a general

and instantaneous, to this new musical

opportunity. But nothing in music really took hold
response,

of the whole population until jazz set all America

humming, singing, dancing.

Jazz is not in the "tradition" of music, accord
ing to the old sense, but

is

not the real tradition

of music one of constant change and

ments?

Jazz isthej^

catches

up the underlying

new

develop
It

life

motif of a continent

and period, molding it into a form which expresses

the fundamental emotion of the people, the place

and time

so authentically that it

is

immediately

recognizable.

At the same
colors,

new

time,

it

evolves

new

technical methods, just as

forms,

America con

stantly throws aside old machines for

more

efficient ones.

130

new

newer and

Is It
I think

it is

Art?

a mistake to

call

jazz cheerful.

The

optimism of jazz is the optimism of the pessimist

who says, "Let us eat, drink and be merry, for to

morrow we

die."

This cheerfulness of despair

is

deep in America.

Our country is not the childishly jubilant nation

that some people like to think it. Behind the rush
of achievement

is

restlessness of dissatisfaction,

a vague nostalgia and yearning for something

beyond our grasp.
few discerning critics have heard

in

definable,

but they

call it a hint of the Russian, or

of the Oriental.
writers

reason,

this in

That is
and

because, for

critics

jazz

a flavor

some unknown

generally talk of the

"soul of Russia" and the "soul of the Orient/*

Apparently nobody ever thinks of crediting Amer/

ica with a soul.

We are supposed to be a nation of crass material

We are supposed to care for nothing but
ists.
money. We care probably less for material things,
money than any people on earth.
want something something beautiful, good,

less for

We

and with our tremendous energy we

keep building and destroying and building again, in
satisfying;

131

Jazz
our passionate desire to have

That

isfied.

that

the thing expressed

is

that pain,

longing,

a desire never sat

it

behind

by that

all

the surface

The

clamor and rhythm and energy of jazz.

may

call it Oriental, call it Russian,

thing they

America and America recognizes

Some months
the

New York

who

ago,

critics

call it

any

an expression of the soul of

It is

like.

wail,

it.

Simeon Strunsky, writing in

Times, rebuked the flood of writers

constantly speak of jazz as the expression of

the American

"Does

it,"

spirit.

asked Mr. Strunsky, "express Presi

dent Coolidge, our party system, our Rotary club,

our Puritanism, our capitalism and our

Ku Klux

Klan?"
No, jazz does not represent these varying aspects
of America, any more than it represents hot cakes,
corn on the cob, grapefruit and
fast.

What

it

thing which will

idge, the Irish
clair,

does represent

mark

is

meat

for break

the indefinable

the Puritan President Cool

Tammany ward

leader,

Harry Sin

Babbitt and Mr. Simeon Strunsky himself,

every one of them, as Americans, in any city of

132

Art?

Is It

them

the composite essence of

It represents

Europe.
all.

That

may be

essence, if I

forgiven for taking

the liberty of attempting to describe anything so

elusive, is energetic, wistful, enterprising

and

self-

confident, above a substratum of humility.

Of course, anybody

else

at defining Americanism

who likes may take a fling

and do

But whether we can say what

Americanism

by

us,

is

recognized by us

it

means or

all,

what we

beauty into

label
life*?

it,

is

or

is

not art

if it lives

And

if it

label matters even less.

133

not,

and not only

but by every foreign shopkeeper who

coming from afar.

As to whether jazz
ter

better than

it

does

sees it

it

mat

and brings new

does not

then the

VII

Jazz

in

America

VII

HE

Jazz

careful condemnation.

went to put together

little

comparatively
cal

way about

structive

America

jazz age has been the subject of pro

found and

when

in

and

I found,

these notes, that while

has been written in an analyti

jazz, as music, the criticisms, con

otherwise, of so-called jazz

and morals, would

fill

manners

a library.

have kept a jazz clipping file for nearly five years

and whenever I feel blue, I take it out. It is more
I

enlivening than a vaudeville show.

Ministers, club

women, teachers and parents have been seeing in

jazz a menace to the youth of the nation ever since
the

word came

that

it

into general use.

They have claimed

They have
"suppressed" it. Noth

put the "sin" in "syncopation,"

scolded at

it,

satirized

it,

ing has done any good.

"Jazz music causes drunkenness," one despatch

quotes Dr. E. Elliott Rawlings of New York as
137

Jazz
saying.

"The quick and

tempo of jazz

staccato

music, with the plaintive and pleading notes of the

and the

violin

clarinet, the

imploring tones of the

saxophone, the rhythmic beating of the drums

all

these send a continuous whirl of impressionable

stimulations to the brain, producing thoughts

imaginations which overpower the will.

and

Reason

and the actions of the person

are directed by the stronger animal passions.
In

and

reflection are lost

other words, jazz affects the brain through the sense

of hearing, giving the same results as whisky or any

other alcoholic drinks taken into the system

of the stomach.

and one

It has the

may become

same

addicted to

effect as

its

by way|
a drug

use."

Wails the president of the Christian and Mis

"American girls of
sionary Alliance Conference:
tender

age

are

approaching

jungle

standards

American

girls are maturing too

under
the
hectic
influence of jazz and
quickly
.

little

speed."

The next
on to

same missionary goes

women old in their twenties,

generation, this

relate, will see

unless the jazz tendency

is

halted.

of the times was blamed "by Dr.

138

The jazz

Harry M.

spirit

Warren,

Jazz

in

America

president of the Save-a-Life League, in his 1924

report, for

many

of the fifteen thousand suicides in

the United States.

Nathan

Ketelovitch, a musician, was said to have

been driven

mad by

his hatred for jazz music.

He

came from Missouri.

"The jazz band view of

American

home/*

life

declared

is

wrecking the

Professor

Herman

Derry, speaking in Detroit, Michigan.

Dr. Florence H. Richards, medical director of

the

William Penn High School

for Girls, Philadel

phia, based her opposition to jazz

on a long and

careful study of the reactions of 3,800 girls to that

kind of music.

"The

objection of the physician," she explains,

on certain human emo

"is the effect that jazz has

tions.

All sorts of excuses

may

be made for

it,

the consensus of opinion of leading medical

other scientific authorities

is

harmful and degrading to

that

its

but

and

influence is as

civilized races as it al

ways has been among the savages from whom we

borrowed it. If we permit our boys and girls to be
exposed indefinitely to

this pernicious influence, the

139

Jazz
harm

that will result

may

tear to pieces our

whole

social fabric/*

More than one American

week, has become divided in

city, instituting
its citizenry

music

over the

question of whether jazz shall or shall not be played

in short, whether jazz

is

or

is

not, music.

famous domestic economist rose recently to

remark that jazz is cheating the home since folks
are spending on dances and cafes the

money they

might otherwise put into wall paper and saucepans.

A Canadian physician produced statistics to show
that jazz had
States.

doubled insanity

in

sometimes think there are

the

United

statistics to

prove anything.

specialist in diseases

of the ear and throat

declared that if the epidemic

of

fc

bees knees,"

"Apple Sauces" and "Dadas" continued, a whole

nation would be overwhelmed with ear
paralysis.

Because her husband was so fond of the

great
American noise that he played "What'll I Do" on
the victrola until

A.M. six days a week, an Ohio

wife was granted a divorce.

time,

Judge Lamberton of
140

Just about the same

Illinois said that three-

Jazz

in

America

fourths of the divorces in his court were caused

by

jazz.

An

Arkansas

man bought up an

that he

resort so

could ban jazz in the place.

Thomas Edison was quoted

usually

entire pleasure

played jazz

records

they sounded better that way.

as

saying that he

backwards because

A poet

complained

that jazz was drowning the music of the spheres

that the

man who wants

finds his efforts balked

commune with

to

by

radio.

the stars

(Personally, I

never heard a radio in any dewy lane.

But then

I'm not a poet.)

A committee on "Sabbath and Family Religion"
found, after careful deliberation, the morale of the
average American family in a state of terrible jazz.
Writing in a contest on the value of music in
the home, a Japanese

word

new

to this country put in a

against the prisoner at the bar

"Music for use

sound.

we may

If

in the

when he

home must have

we seek a better home by means

find

it,

except

by

jazz,

which

said :

natural

of music,
is

not in

nature."

In a small Nebraska town, jazz was classed as a

public nuisance. Not far away in Kansas, a deter141

Jazz
mined historian found

in jazz

a new cause for the

be that

Roman Empire. (My own idea would

Rome fell because the Romans had to read

Caesar.

In the days when

fall of the

had

to

do

that, I

would

have been equal to razing any town.)

I do not want to seem continually to be defend
I

ing jazz*

crudities to

really

do

effect of

am
be

too conscious of its faults

its

gallant knight,

anyway.

and

its

But

think, in spite of all the talk, that the

jazz on American morals

is

just nothing

at all.

If flappers flap and jazz jazzes, neither one

the effect of the other.

They

is

are both effects of

the fundamental character of the times.

It used to

War for everything the

Now one berates jazz

be the fad to blame the

moralists
that's all.

didn't

like.

Besides an attack on jazz has a lot of

publicity value.

As a matter of
the speed of the

fact, the

War

merely accelerated

movement that was under way

in

19135 and jazz merely expresses it. It will take a

hundred years or more to get a perspective on what's
the matter, if anything.

a hundred years
to find out what was the matter with life in the
It took

142

Jazz

America

in

early nineteenth century and Europe was then hav

ing almost the same kind of turmoil

we

are having

now, due to the revolutions and wars of the

late

eighteenth century.

Everybody thought the world was going to the

There were crime waves and suicide epi
dogs.
demics.

The Greenwich

Villagers

and Bohemians

of the time advocated excesses that are unprintable

now, wild as we are supposed to be. Yet the world

didn't go to the dogs and the chances are that it
won't

this time.

Certainly, if

it

does, I for one, shall never hold

As a matter of

jazz responsible.

fact,

why

isn't

a good deal better to express one's self in song

rather than in action? Making unholy yowls with

it

a saxophone, or even dancing till breakfast time in

a state of exuberant, joyous excitement doesn't
usually have any effect more serious than sending
the jazzer to sleep completely tired out.

Not long ago

in the clinical notes of the

Ameri

can Mercury

I found some interesting paragraphs

on music and

sin.

',

"Jazz," wrote Mr. Mencken or Mr. Nathan, "is

not voluptuous at

all.

Its

143

monotonous rhythms

Jazz
and puerile tunes make

it

a sedative

rather than a

Jazz, which came in with prohibition,

stimulant.

blame which belongs to its partner. In the

old days when it was uncommon for refined women

gets the

to get

drunk at dances,

it

would have been quite

To-day, even Chopin's Funeral

harmless.

March

would be dangerous."

Then

the writer goes on to recall

eker's story of the

prudent opera

James Hun-

mama who

to let her daughter sing "Isolde"

refused

on the ground

no woman could ever get through the second

without forgetting God and adds that there

that
act

are piano pieces of Chopin, not to mention Puccini's

"La Boheme,"
"Isolde."

that are a hundred times worse than

The "Salome" and "Elektra"

Strauss have been prohibited

by the

of Richard

police, at

one

time or another, in nearly every country of the

world

and

these instances could be multiplied.

Almost everybody has some theory of what's

wrong with the world. Those who don't blame
jazz because

it

expresses too

much, are blaming

the lingering traces of Puritanism because

presses too

wag

along

much.
about

I firmly believe the

as

usual,

144

it

re

world will

regardless

of

fa-

Jazz in, America

and crusaders and

natics

all their theories.

If I

thought jazz was actually doing any harm, I should

worry most sincerely. The charge of wrecking the

menacing the youth and throwing an

entire nation into criminal ways is not a pleasant

home

life,

one at any odds, even if one is only supposed to

have helped in the disastrous campaign.
But when the evidence is all in, I think we can
refute the charge.

When you

eliminate from the

mass of attacks on jazz all those that obviously

came out of some one's desire for notoriety and all
the others

like the divorce cases

that were writ

ten because some newspaper reporter wanted to jazz

up a

dull story, there remains,

it

seems to me, only

one serious ground for objecting to jazz. That is

their
the effect the rhythms have on the emotions
intoxicating effect.

There's no question whatever about

does

stir

up the whole human being. I

it.

Jazz

believe that

made which

experiments have been

some

scientific

show

that listening to jazz increases the heart-beat,

raises

the temperature,

and makes

all

the senses

quickens the respiration,

more

acute,

true that people get drunk on jazz.

145

It is quite

Nor

is it

old

Jazz
wine to

sip*

to gulp,

Rather

it is

a valiant, strident Martini

warming the blood

at once

and quickening

the senses.

But

it is

yet to be proved that getting drunk on

My

jazz does anybody any harm.

that

it

does everyone good.

own

opinion

is

I'm heartily in favor

of that kind of intoxication.

There's no getting

human

beings

drunk.

now and
made

It

and

away from

all the

seems as though

Needs

then.

breathless

and

the fact that

animals, too
life

will 'get

needs intoxication

to be stirred up, quickened,

excited.

catnip and get drunk on

it.

Cats go miles to find

Mice get together in

great crowds and run in circles until they're so

dizzy they can't stand up.

Elephants in the jungles

will assemble every so often and mill around until
they work themselves into a kind of frenzy. And
every society of

human

beings

earth has had intoxicants

known upon

this

not only drinks and

drugs of various kinds, but seasons of intoxicating

themselves with song and dance. The lowest sub-

men in the jungles of Africa have these seasons in

common with the ancient Greeks, citizens of the
highest civilization in the

modern world.

146

That

is

Jazz

America

in

to say, both the savages

and Greeks get drunk on

song and dance.

More than that, every

human being has some

kind of intoxication.
I know there are lots of
worthy men and women who won't believe this for
a minute.

Tell them they get drunk and they'll be

horrified.

They'll assure you they have never tasted

a drop of intoxicating liquor in their lives and never

expect

to.

There's nothing they hate more than

Demon Rum.
I don't

doubt

But

it.

they're missing the fact

that getting drunk doesn't necessarily have any

thing whatever to do with drinking.

Depend upon
you will

it,

find they all

when you

really

know them,

have some way of intoxicating

some way of stirring up their emotions,

getting excited, living more vividly than normally.
I never knew it to fail. Sometimes they get drunk
themselves

on poetry, sometimes on

religion,

sometimes they get

their release, their frenzy, in the very fury with

which they attack drink as Carrie Nation did.

Sometimes they are militant suffragists, or worktill-they-drop settlement teachers.

Whatever they

are,

every
147

human

being,

from

Jazz
to the
the highest to the lowest, from the pulpit
wants this sense of fuller life, this intoxi
gutter,

cation of
gets

body and

And

spirit.

every

human being

somehow, sometime.

it

Now

maybe hundreds
intoxication. Some are good

of course, there are scores,

of ways of getting this

and some are bad. Maybe my use of the word intox

ication in this sense, applying it to the
tions as well as to the bad,

people-

I hope not.

My

may

good intoxica

offend some good

dictionary says that the

word "intoxicate" means to

excite to enthusiasm or

madness.
In this sense, then, the ecstasies of the saint, the
fervor of reformers

social workers, the spiritual

and

human being temporarily

humdrum things of this world, are

a
experiences that take

away from

the

all intoxications.

The

other end of the scale

stupor of the drug addict

who

lies

is

the

in the gutter dead

to the world, but intensely living in

some gorgeous

dream.

Jazz as an intoxicant comes somewhere between

these

that

two extremes,
it is

obviously.

My

own

notion

is

well on the upper side of the line that

148

Jazz
divides good

America

In

from bad.

as an intoxicant,

is

I firmly believe that jazz,

a tremendous influence for good

in the world.

The

works through rhythm.

Now, I don't know a thing about the fundamental
super-intoxicant

meanings of rhythm, and

doubt

anybody does.
written on the subject

All I have been able to find

me

seems to

to be merely words

of chasing definitions.
is

of

But

somehow bound up with

I do

if

a sort of game

know

the very deepest centers

There's rhythm in everything

life.

that rhythm

in the sea

sons, in the courses of the stars, in the beating of

the heart, the rise and fall of the diaphragm, in day

and night, waking and

Maybe

this will

sleeping, birth

seem

lieve that everything

fantastic,

wrong

and death.

but I almost be

disease of the body,

unhappiness in the spirit may be due to a disturb

ance of the natural rhythms. Maybe these intoxi
cations

that every living thing needs and gets

somehow

are simply a shaking-back into the right

rhythms.

Could

be that the difference between the good

intoxications and the bad is simply this: that the
it

good intoxications get one back into the right

149

Jazz
rhythms

"in tune with the infinite/' as the

New

Thought people call it and that the bad intoxica

tions do the same thing temporarily but leave one
more out of tune than

and drugs
All this

nary

man

As, of course, drink

before.

do.
is

rather highbrow stuff for a plain ordi

like

me who

know anything but

doesn't

music and not much about that.

ideas and when we come

right

But

down

hasn't
sorts

There's

known what

and cheered

hardly
it

was

to earth,

my

most

a person

own ex
living who

to be blue

and out of

people can check up on them from

periences.

these are

just at the worst

their

moment by

lively bit of rhythm.

Street crowds are constantly being dragged out

of collective gloom by barrel organs, or outdoor

phonographs or passing bands. Try some time

standing across the street from one of those wheezy,
asthmatic mechanical pianos that play in front of

neighborhood motion picture theaters. Hundreds

of people pass by, absorbed in their own affairs,
looking tired and dispirited.
wJbea

you

(And

if s astonishing

see the faces of crowds, feow

look ss if they ever had

worn a

few of them

smile.)

But

as

Jazz

in

America

soon as they come within sound of the rhythm,

they begin to seem more lively.
up, their feet go

more

briskly,

Their heads come

keeping time, time,

Their eyes brighten and their whole aspect

It is almost as if they had penetrated
changes.
time.

into another world.

And

this effect will last for

two or three blocks

beyond the sound of the music. Then the crowd

becomes dull again. But it becomes no duller
than before.

There is no

after being cheered

reaction,

no katzenjammer

up by rhythms.

I firmly believe jazz has the

power to take people

out of a dull world, to shake them up, to give them
an intoxication of rhythm and movement which

makes them happy, makes them better, makes them

live more intensely.
Even the nostalgia, lament

and longing that

are in jazz create a

form of happi

ness because they express something that lies deep

in the soul.

of jazz which are so widely

advertised come not from jazz at all but from other
I believe the

ill effects

things that are sometimes combined with jazz.

don't say that a person

stuffy, hot, smoke-filled

who spends

all night in

room, probably drinking

151

Jazz
bad

liquor,

headache.

ache
a

is

won't wake up in the morning with a

He or she will be lucky if the head

man has

him from

ing or from going crazy on

but

wood

nicotine poison

alcohol.

good for what

itself is

it isn't

ails

most people,

a cure-all or patent nostrum.

hear people blaming

suicides,

fact that

been dancing to the rhythms of a jazz or*

chestra isn't going to save

Jazz

The

the extent of the damage.

all

the

it

When

for all the crime, all the

wrecks of young girlhood

as

though these things had never been heard of before

jazz was invented, I am reminded of a story I
once heard about vaccination.
"I don't believe in vaccination," said the fanner,

boy was vaccinated in school

and within a week, he was dead. None of my chil

"my

neighbor's

little

dren will ever be vaccinated

"Did the

little

not

if I

know

it/*

boy die of the vaccination or of

small-pox?" somebody asked.

"Neither.

He

fell

out of a tree and broke his

neck/*

People forget that jazz to-day is a national

music a part of the whole American life which
includes housewives, business
152

men, boys and

girls

Jazz

in

America

and not by any means confined to the occasional

low dance hall. And they blame it for all the

harm that

evil influences do.

ably give

it credit

They might

for all the

as reason

good that good

in

fluences accomplish.

I don't go to the extreme of the latter.

But

and here of course and perhaps not for

time in the course of this book I shall be

do believe
the

first

accused of rank over-partiality; though I

giving

my

am

honest and thoughtful opinion

spiritually jazz

is

only
that

saving America from calamity.

Professor Patterson of Columbia University says

somewhere in

his studies of

rhythm that the music

of contemporary savages taunts us with a lost

art.

he points out, has inhibited many nor

mal instincts, and the mere fact that our conven

Modern

life,

tional dignity forbids us to

sway our

bodies, to tap

our feet when we hear rhythmic music, has de

prived us of normal outlets for natural impulses.
I will go even farther than that. I believe all
the tendencies of modern living
lization

are to

htiman brings.
everything.

make

of machine civi

crippled, perverted things of

The machines

are standardizing

There never was before such an era

153

Jazz
of standardization as there
States.

is

to-day in the United

It invades everything,

crushing all the

normal impulses of human beings.

At their work, men and women are the victims
of efficiency, the Taylor system, so that humanity
itself is

being

home, on the

humans

made

into machines.

streets, in

On

their

way

the cars, subways, trains,

are transported in masses, like wheat run

The tremendous business ma

through a mill.
chines, turning out millions of standard products,
dress us all alike, feed us alike, give us the

things to read, the same ideas, the

on

life,

There

the same manners, the

is

increasingly less

same outlook
slang.

room for individuality

revolts against this pressure.

Hu

energies have got to break through it

some

and humanity

man

same

same

where.

Human

beings

aren't

machines.

aren't standardized products, all alike.

They

They
can't

stand living in masses, under compulsion; working

all at the same speed in the same kind of offices,
in the same kind of factories, at the same kind of

machines; playing in masses,

all

packed in the same

grandstands, watching the same professionals play

the same games*
154

Jazz
Human

America

beings want to run, to dance, to sing,

and to express themselves in

They've got to do it, or all that

They want
their

in

to play

play.

dammed-up energy

is

going to break loose in some

The Machine Age

thing a lot worse than play*

as

bad

as the Puritan Age, in that it brings repression.

In America, jazz
lease.

is

Through

savage, if

you

it,

like,

is

at once a revolt

we

and a

re

get back to a simple, to a

While we

joy in being alive.

are dancing or singing or even listening to jazz, all

We are

the artificial restraints are gone.

we

are emotional,

are natural.

And

it's

good

and

weigh so heavily, the nat

delight there

comes to the surface.

After

it,

really

an intoxica

The world seems

living.

brighter, troubles don't

ural joy

rhythmic,

We're

living to a pitch that becomes

living
tion.

we

That

is

in just being alive

is

a good experience.

one goes back to everyday

affairs rid

of the

pressure of the suppressed play spirit, refreshed

ready for work and

difficulties.

This, it seems to me,

in American

Jazz has
"way,

and

is

the great value of jazz

life.

affected America, however, in a musical

and in many more material

155

senses.

It is bulk-

Jazz
ing increasingly large in economics.

There are to

day more than 200,000 men playing it. The

number of jazz arrangers is around 30,000. Thus
two entirely new industries have grown up in less
than ten years.

They

are lucrative industries, too.

the best of the

Players in

modern jazz orchestras have come

from the symphonies where they were paid

$30, $40, or at the most $50 and $60 a week. Now
straight

they get $150 up.

Jazz has made fortunes and bought automobiles,

country houses and fur coats for many a player,
composer and publisher.

Indirectly it has filled the

pockets of the musicians

opera and symphony, for

who
it

are identified with

has interested a greater

part of the population in music.

The

accessories of jazz figure

conspicuously in

the buying

and

selling of the nation.

In 1924, the

United States spent $600,000,000 for music and

musical instruments, and Tin

Pan Alley

claims that

eighty per cent, of that amount, or $480,000,000,

was paid out for jazz and
instruments.

jazz-making
of the world

It cost
ninety per cent, of the rest

approximately the same

sum

156

to get completely

Jazz

America

in

The foreign market

jazzed up.

Tin Pan Alley not

in pre-jazz times was poor.

only had no special selling

also
hits

on

for American music

abroad, but

facilities

Europe wrote most of the world's popular song

and America bought them songs like "Rings

"Has Anybody Here Seen

Fingers" and

My

Kelly?"

Then jazz of
and the whole

the irresistible appeal

was

situation

came along

reversed.

repre-

sentative of the largest music publishing firm in

London, with branches

in

New York

all

over the continent, said

the other day that jazz has shot the

formerly stable English ballad market all to pieces.

Nobody wants to sing old-fashioned sentiment any

more.

And

American
It is

so jazz takes its place

among

profitable

exports.

a striking commentary on the

of jazz-making that so

many young

possibilities

college grad

uates are going straight from the classroom to the

jazz orchestra.

I do not

know

the exact figures,

because as yet the colleges are a little embarrassed

about the jazz players they turn out. I know un
officially,

however, of one school that has fifteen

future jazzists

among

its

hundred
157

seniors.

Another

Jazz
class

of two hundred has twenty-five prospective

jazz leaders and ten

men

out of two hundred and

ten in a third school have announced that they hope

to join the liveliest art of all.

Musically as I have tried to show, jazz has

helped thousands to a glimpse of the beauty of the
classics.

I believe this country will

more of the

classics,

get jazz, whether

it

known.

to see

but the people will never for

ever gets to be

Another thing jazz has done

finest set

want

is

an

art or not.

to develop the

of brass players the country has even

This

is

admitted even by musicians

are otherwise prejudiced against the great

who

American

noise.

Jazz has fostered originality among players and

has aroused a whole nation to an interest in music,
opening our eyes and ears wider to the message of
new writers* It is waking the people of America
to a spontaneous interest in all kinds of music,

giving all musicians a larger native audience.

because of jazz^ but through

musically

self-confident

help?
158

it,

we

people.

Not

are becoming

Won't

that

vm
Tin Pan Alley

VIII:

Tin Pan Alley

IN PAN ALLEY

j[

was the grade school of

Nowadays, the

jazz.

tin dinner pail has passed

higher learning.
still

But

pupil with the

little

on to

for all that,

institutions

of

Tin Pan Alley

claims her and in the main, acts as her guard

ian and caretaker.

Perhaps the Alley has caught a little of the spirit

of uplift, too. At any rate, not so long ago,

prominent song writers sent up an official plaint

for a new name for their stamping ground. They
wanted, they
nified

and

and

said,

a name that would be more dig

some

express* to

aspirations of the

extent, the true ideals

famous old

street.

Like everybody else, I think of the Alley as a

As a matter of fact, Tin Pan Alley exists
street.

now only as a tradition. The original alley was

on West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Ave
nues,

New

York.

am

told that it

161

was

in

1899

Jazz
Witmark & Sons moved

that the publishing firm of

"way up town"

to 51

West 28th

Street, the

whole

and Broadway.
Then, Broder & Schlam, publishers from San Fran
cisco, also moved over and were followed in due
sale

florist

from

section,

13th

time by Chas. K. Harris, Leo Feist and others.

Thus Tin Pan Alley was born and though the

christening was delayed for a while, it came off in
due season under the auspices, I believe, of a
newspaper man who had taken up song writing.
In late years. Tin Pan Alley has scattered.

Music publishers ply their trade

Forties on both sides of Broadway.
however, that

it is

all

along the

I do not think,

the inaccuracy that troubles song

writers about the name.

It is

only that

well,

you

can see for yourself that Tin Pan Alley has certain
intimations of informality not suitable for higher
art.

Just the same, the

name

will stick

and

am glad.

a deal of poetry and memory in the phrase

that for more than twenty-five years has served a
There

is

useful purpose.

Why

should

it

be turned off now,

an old servant who has outgrown his place?

The Alley is one of my favorite haunts. I can

like

162

Tin P an Alley
well understand that the clatter of hundreds of

pianos above which

out

new

songs

however, and

is

rise

hundreds of voices trying

Bedlam

to the stranger.

To

me,

to all the other habitues of the place

these are only the signs of a thriving market.

perish the day

when

For

the pianos are stilled and the

voices otherwise employed!

This will mean that

some new-fangled mode of entertainment has been

discovered

For the

by

those

present,

who

please the fickle public.

Tin Pan Alley

is

the commissary

for America's 8,000,000 phonographs, her 9,000,-

000 hand-played and 800,000 foot-played

But never

pianos.

anybody tell you that the Alley is

not business-like. There are as many yards of red
tape

let

wound about

reaches

you as

the

"Mammy"

song that finally

there are about the automobile pro

duced in any up-to-date factory. Tin Pan Alley is

divided into departments with heads, super and
under, clerks, secretaries, telephone operators and
authors.

It takes as

many

long-drawn-out confer

on blue, yellow, pink and

as it
green sheets of paper to run a song factory
does to build a skyscraper. For the Tin Pan Alley

ences, house messages

factory generally takes

its

product straight through

163

Jazz
from the

step to the last.

first

There

composition.

is,

The

step is

first

of course, a chance that you

write a song which will earn you $25,000,

as George Cohan's "Over There" did for him, but

may

that chance

is

exceedingly thin.

your manuscript?

have consigned

it

and on one

they look at

That

Yes, usually.

is,

if

you

with special tenderness to their

care, writing in ink, or

writer

Do

even better, on the type

side of the paper.

to send your offering registered.

Also,

An

it is

official

well

of one

of the largest publishing houses admits that a song

manuscript which comes into his

is

office unregistered

returned to the sender without an examination.

"I figure," says the publisher, "that if the writer

puts no very high value on his product, I shall not

be able

to.

Besides, the registered ones keep a large

And we

much

office force

hard at work.

out of

I can count on the fingers of one hand

it.

the hits that

we have been

able to

millions of contributions that

He can give no adequate

come

don't get

draw from the

in."

reason for the outlander

not being able to write acceptable songs.

it is

Perhaps

because the popular song phrasing changes al164

Tin Pan Alley

What

most in a minute.

become
Still

is

hot slang one week has

and almost forgotten by the next.

there are occasionally some strange freaks.
stale

Leo Wood, who has made

several

hits in times past, collected

home

runs off his

on one that was ten

years old.

composer wrote a song called

"Somebody Stole My Gal/' The song was a flop,

In

this

1914,

in the technical language of the Alley

did not

about

It

sell.

it,

was shelved and

that

Wood

is,

it

forgot

as experimenters in the Alley are likely

having learned that even the smartest of

them will never be able to work out the exact

to do,

formula for a

hit.

Ten

the shop called, "Hey,

new
"What

your

years later, a pal around

Wood,

congratulations on

hit!"

d'ye

mean?" asked Wood.

'"Why, your hit 'Somebody Stole

Didn't you know you had a hit?"
All

excited,

Wood

found that sure enough

unsung effort was now
hot cakes.

At

first,

Then he found out

My

Gal/

began to investigate and

his ancient

and completely

selling like the proverbial

he was completely puzzled.

that the song

165

was being plugged

Jazz
by former students of the University of Pennsyl
vania who had liked it and played it in their school
orchestra

when

was

it

men became an

first

brought out.

orchestra leader

interested in professional or

and

One

others were

amateur musical or

ganizations throughout the United States.

Stole

played "Somebody

hit of

My

Gal"

until they

They
made

it.

"That's

What God Made Mothers For"

to be a hit ten years after

it

was

interim, it gained popularity in

brought back to
Mothers' Day.
its

of the

New York as
Now it makes

also got

written.

In the

England and was

a song suitable for

a lot of money for

publisher and author.

George Cohan has a

you exactly

how

to

song in which he tells

compose a popular hit. First,
little

you make up a little rhyme and then put it to music

on the piano. After that, you take it to the pub
lisher and he puts it in all the shop windows for
everybody to buy. Naturally, then, you have, says
George, a hit. Just as easy, he adds, as falling
off

It does

log.

he makes

it

sound simple, doesn't it?

And

work.

Most popular music

is

166

written on assignment.

Tin Pan Alley

That

the head of the sales department, the pro

is,

fessional manager, or one of the arrangers decides

that

it is

time to have a certain kind of song.

up with the proper heads of de

takes the matter

partments and

who

tunesinith

He

everybody agrees, the particular

if

specializes in that variety of

The

told to get busy.

staff

work

is

usually contains ex

mammy, mama, and mother songs, if you

get the distinction. And that is another reason why
the outsider fails to land. He doesn't know about

perts in

these vogues.

an age of
I

am

This

is,

as has frequently been said,

specialization.

told that generally the professional

ager, the

head of the

sales

man

department and one of

the arrangers, form a jury to accept or reject songs.

They get more practice in rejecting than

But when occasionally they accept and
have been

fitted

as the case

accepting.

the lyrics

with music, or the tune with lyrics

may happen

to be, the real

work of

jputting out a popular song begins.

The
This

men

is

first

step

is

engraving the plates by hand.

delicate work.

It is said there are only fifty

in the country capable of doing

imagine what the

effect

would be
167

if the

it.

Just

stem of a

Jazz
note were to be broken off or

be

filled

quarter.

in

by
That

why

a half note were to

appear to be a
sheet music is not printed

making

accident,
is

if

it

but lithographed. Millions of copies can be run

off in this way and often millions are. The first of

must be for

these are the copyright copies which

warded to the Library of Congress.

Professional

who

will plug the

copies, prepared for the artists

songs,

come next.

tions prepared

in

Then

there are vocal orchestra

several

different

keys.

Small

motion picture theaters throughout the country use

art slides with the chorus surrounded by a flary
border to be flashed on the screen after the soloist

has sung the verse and the audience

is

being be

sought to join in on the chorus.

In this day of many orchestras, the orchestrations

for bands, jazz and non-jazz are almost as im
portant as the song plugger himself. And the song
plugger has always been the chief voice of the
Alley.

It is his job to sing loudly

into whatever ears he can reach.

where he can break in

benefits, picnics, races,

ings.

He

and convincingly

He

goes every

motion picture houses,

circuses and social gather
to

really needs to be

168

an adventurous soul

Tin Pan Alley

and one who

New York

Every day in a
two song pluggers

takes rebuffs lightly.

vaudeville theater,

climb up several hundred feet

among

the pipes of

an organ and sing almost from the ceiling to a

puzzled audience who try to figure where the music
is

coming from.

While plugging

is

important* the publishers con

tended recently that there can be too

much of any

good thing. The "too much" in this case was radio.

So the publishers and composers sued the radio
people to compel them to pay a royalty every time

a popular song

is

sung over the radio.

Their ar

gument was that if John Smith tunes in every

night on a red hot mama song, he may soon begin
to wish never to hear that particular song again.

And

this,

say the publishers and composers* will

undoubtedly hurt the

sale of the piece of sheet

music.

The

type of plugging which takes a song

the country

These

is

done by the various vocal

men and women

professional

offices,

all

over

artists.

get their songs from the

and comedians

like

Al Jolson

and Fanny Brice can "make" almost any number,

Nearly always after a number is sensationally pop*
169

Jazz
a story gets out about starving youths who
have sold their inspiration for the price of a meal
olar,

and continued

new

posits

to starve while the publisher de

millions from

and

its sale

fails

even to

send flowers when the defrauded youths at last

expire of malnutrition. I suppose there have been
instances almost as sad as this, but

what with

the

from the movies, which re

veals practically everybody as a potential villain
and the radio, which broadcasts not only news about
sophistication gained

profitable investments

any

but also the etiquette for

occasion, I doubt if there are

in the world.

Most of

those

many dupes left

who write popular

demand an advance of something like a thou

sand dollars. The usual author's royalty on the
songs

song

is

about two cents on each copy of sheet music.

The mechanical
and piano

royalties arising

roll records are

from phonograph

usually protected in the

contract.

One
is

of the most pathetic figures along

the "one-song man."

He

is

Broadway

the person

who has

created a single hit and has never been able to pull

it off

again but neglects everything else in the vain

hope that some day he may repeat.

170

You

will find

Tin Pan Alley

his type in almost every line of creative work.

know one man who wrote a

two

short story that

won

and the praise of Rudyard Kipling.

is now an embittered, discouraged fanner

prizes

That man

Middle West.

He

a one-story man.
Sometimes, song writers bob up in strange places*

in the

is

Phil Kornheiser, genius hit-picker for the flourishing

was astonished one day to

get a manuscript from his chauffeur and to find,
moreover, that it was good. Elevator boys, truck
Feist Publishing concern,

buds are others who have sprung

surprises on him from time to time.
drivers,

and

society

Jazz, the latest phase of American popular music,

is

the hardest of all to write, the tunesmiths say.

The

lyrics,

however, are easier.

Previous to 1897

every song had to have six or seven verses and each

had eight or ten lines. Now there are two

verses of a scant four lines each, and even at that,
verse

the second verse counts scarcely at

story

must be

usually there

told in the
is

very

first

little

to

verse
it

all.

The whole

and chorus and

anyway, the music

being what matters.

In the old days,

it

took six months to spread even

the most sure-fire song over the United States, for

171

Jazz
there

was no radio and the

far between.

few and

orchestras were

To-day, the provinces beat

New York

Not many of the old-time

men who produced the ballads

to almost everything.

song writers, the

have been able

and coon songs of another

era,

break themselves in to the

new vogue.

They

to

are

too verbose.

Somebody recently lent me an old volume of preTin Pan Alley songs, some dating as far back as
1835.

Among

the ballad writers of the Forties

was Dr.

K, Mitchell, the plot of whose 'Tve Waited

Long" was, he said, taken from life.
J.

"In composing a song/' he explained in a fore

word

to his publishers, "I always fall into

which, according to accident,

now

is

strain,

original or recol

lected.

The one

nal

which, on account of the singularity of

air,

source,

may

send you

is

a simple,

origi
its

please some of your subscribers of that

sex whose virtues, so often witnessed in

my

sional pursuits, I take pleasure in holding

profes

up

to

imitation.

up one gloomy winter night with a poor

gentleman who returned, after a long absence, to
"Sitting

172

Tin Pan Alley

finish his sickly

remainder of

home, I heard the

life in

an impoverished

tale of early love,

long deferred

hope and disastrous fortunes, which

have told

with more than poetic truth in the simple verses

now sent to you. The good being who waited, wel

comed and watched, has faithfully performed her

promise, and he whom she loved in absence and unto
death, has departed to a happier world, blessing

with his

last accents the angel

hand of

tireless

and

disinterested affection."

The

verse of this, which directions say

is

played tenderly and with much feeling, runs :

"I've waited long, but not in vain,
Though youth and health are gone;
And days of sorrow, nights of pain,

Have found me

still

alone,

I've waited long for thee,

And now thou comest back to me,

With sorrow on thy furrow'd brow,

wreck from fortune's sea."

The second

verse is even

more touching:

"But welcome still, thou broken one,

Tho* nothing's left of thee,
But that fair name and thrilling tone,
So dear of yore to me.
173

to

be

Jazz
Tho* gone the

flush of love's young day,

calmer light will come,
shed a purer, softer ray,

Its

To

On
There

sorrow's stainless home/'

"Song of the Tee-Totaller" writ

ten by Rev. Geo. W. Bethune, D. D., and running
like this,

also a

is

animate:

"Let others praise the ruby bright

In the red wine's sparkling glow,
But dear to me is the diamond light

Of the fountain's clear flow;

The feet of earthly men have trod
The juice from the bleeding vine,
But

the stream comes pure

hand of God

To

fill

this

from the

cup of mine."

After every verse, the treble, alto, tenor and bass

alternately sing as solos

and

finally in chorus the

following:

"Then give me the cup of cold water!

The clear, sweet cup of cold water;
For his arm is strong tho' his toil be long,

Who drinks but the clear, cold water,

Who drinks but the clear, cold water."

the lisping comic song entitled

**Wery Pekoolier," as sung by Mr. H. Russell and
Interesting also

composed by

is

<L Blewitt.

There are

174

five verses

of

Tin Pan Alley

and each

this

The

verse has eleven lines.

refrain

goes thus :

"Wery

perkoolier!

from that day

tho*

to thith

have

never

Theen or thpoken

to

but thomehow I can't help

her,

thinking

Her behavior

to me,

it

was wery perkoolier

! !

!"

"The Charming Woman," an "admired song,"

written

by Mrs. Price Blackwood,

recites

the

charms of a certain Miss Myrtle who could read

both Latin and Greek and was said to have solved
a problem in Euclid before she could speak, but

Mrs. Blackwood, who evidently belonged to the old

school, deplored the fact that Miss Myrtle had
never been taught to
she

was "a

little

hem and

to sew, also that

too thin" (it seemed that

possible to be too thin, then)

and her

it

was

dresses were

up to her knees." The moral which Mrs.

Blackwood draws is that no sensible man will ever
marry a charming woman.
"nearly

The
jazz
ago.

is

transformation in American music of which

the upshot started nearly twenty-five years

Following the era of the popular ballad and

coon song, ten years

later

came ragtime.

175

Jazz
The

best

way

have found to

tween ragtime, blues and jazz

by a

The

line.

ragtime line

is

differentiate

be

to indicate each

is

Blues has a

jerky.

and the jazz line rises to a point.

"The Maple Leaf" was the first rag. "Memphis
Blues" was the first blues, so far as I have been

long, easy line

was by Scott Joplin, the

At least these were
C. Handy.

The

able to find.

second by J.

first

the earliest compositions that America called

by the

names of "ragtime" and "blues." Yet syncopation

and rhythm which were the distinguishing marks
of the ragtime were not really new.

And when you

added counterpoint and harmony to the melody and

rhythm of ragtime, you got blues, essentially a trick

of harmony. But the blues were not new, either.

Can anybody who has

ever heard

it

forget the dis

tant shore in the opening of "Tristan

and Isolde"

which shimmers in a blue haze that one can feel?

At

first

both ragtime and blues were a sort of

piano trick passed on from one performer to an

other.

Up

orchestra in

to the time that

Memphis,

single blue measure

it is

Handy

organized an

doubtful whether a

had ever been put on paper.

176

Tin Pan Alley

Handy

wrote out the "blue" notes for the

first

time*

According to John Stark, publisher of ragtime

in St. Louis, ragtime originally meant a negro syn
copated dance, and the real negro blues were never
intended as a dance at all, but were a sort of negro

more

opera,
else.

Big

among
c

like

a wail or a lament than anything

sessions of blues

were held in the South

the colored people, the biggest of all at

liouse rent stomps"

when a negro found himself

The "stomp" consisted
rent.

unable to pay his

of a barbecue with music afterwards, during and

The guests raised a purse to save their

home and also composed a new blues for the

before.
host's

occasion.

A high mark in popular musical history was "The

Magic Melody" of Jerome Kern

in 1915,

piece introduced a modulation which brought

This

new

harmonic richness and variety into American pop

ular music where only stereotyped rhythms and
melodies had been before.
pioneer, for folks called the

brow

Mr. Kern was a

"Magic Melody" high

terrible indictment in those days if

earning your living writing music.

177

real

you were

Jazz
Times and events have, of course, colored the
evolution of both serious and popular music.

The

Period songs mark the activities of a people.

pioneers

and

settlers

sang hymns and folk songs.

War brought a partisan

The

Civil

the

ballads

of

the

type of song and

Spanish-American

wartime

a country emotionally stirred, singing

"There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To

painted

night" and "Break the

Jazz, which

is

News

to

Mother."

ragtime and blues, combined with

a certain orchestral polyphony which neither had,

was
it

still

another

way

of letting off steam.

At

was mainly rhythm running wild, tempos

ing with tempos.

first,

collid

It is interesting to note that

the earliest jazz was found uncopyrightable

certain judges.

by

Interesting indeed are the reflections

of Judge Carpenter in the District Court of Northern

Illinois,

Eastern Division, on October 14, 1917, in

LaRocca against E. Graham. A piece

'"Barnyard Blues" and another called "Livery

the case of
called

Stable Blues,"
other,

which decidedly resembled each

were involved in

Said the Judge:

this copyright dispute.

"This
178

is

a question of each

Tin Pan Alley

one claiming the right to

No

claim

is

made by

this

musical production.

either side for the

calls that are interpolated in the score,

made

barnyard

no claim

is

for the harmony, the only claim seems to be

for the melody.

Now,

as a matter of fact, the

value of this so-called musical production

terpolated animal calls.

is

only

the in

These so-called animal

sounds are not in question, are not claimed under

the copyright. The only question is, whose brain
conceived the idea of the melody that runs through
the so-called 'Livery Stable Blues/
to take the view of Professor

White

am

inclined

that this

is

an old negro melody which witness said he heard

I think with Professor White
fifteen years ago.
that neither

Mr. LaRocca nor Mr. Nunez conceived

the idea of this melody.

band of

players,

This band was a strolling

none of them, according to the

testimony, with a technical knowledge of music.

"This, of course, is not an essential to the pro

duction of pleasing or entertaining music.

Take

the Hungarian Strollers, with their wonderful music

which has come down to us. They were untrained

musicians in a technical way.

So with

With a quick ear and a

memory, they hear,

retentive

179

this

band.

Jazz
remember and reproduce, and perhaps no living man
could determine where that melody came from.
What they produced was a result that pleased their
patrons and

it

was the variations of the

music that accomplished the

original

result,

not the original

human being

to listen to that

music,

"I defy any living

production played upon the phonograph and dis

cover any music in

but there

it,

is

a wonderful

rhythm which in case you're a dancer and young,

will set your feet moving/'

So ended the

first

jazz controversy, also the

decision in regard to pilfered music*

was

cussion

catch question

are

you bored by

Does the very word

because

it

Which

to be renewed.

"classical"

is

But the

dis

brings us to a

classical

music?

make you nervous

sounds so highbrowish?

chance, declare that jazz

first

And do

you,

by

the only kind of music

you can possibly understand?

If the answer to all these questions

on you.

For the truth

is yes,

you

are listening to your favorite

jazz tune,

are

most

classic

really

of

likely

is that,

the

when

joke

is

you

absorbing strains that are most

all the classics.

180

Do you

not know that

Tin Pan Alley

more than half

modern

the

art of composing

popular song comes in knowing what to steal and

how

to adapt

it

also, that at least nine-tenths

modern jazz music is turned out by Tin Pan Alley

frankly stolen from the masters?
That's

a good

why

over lowbrows

who

is

of the jazzists chuckle

say they can't abide classical

music and highbrows

jazz.

many

of

who squirm when

Pretty nearly everybody knows

they hear

now

that

Handel's Messiah furnished the main theme of the

well-known "Yes,

We

Have No Bananas/*

Per

not such general knowledge that most of

the '"banana" song which wasn't taken from the

haps

it is

Messiah came from Balfe's famous "I Dreamt That

I

Dwelt

in

Marble Halls/'

Chopin supplied "Alice

"Avalon" was Tosca straight.

Blue Gown/'

Chopin came

into the limelight again with

"I'm

Always Chasing Rainbows," taken from the beau

tiful "Fantasie Impromptu Opus 66."
The same
master furnished the theme for "Irene."
Can't Get the
if

One

you are good at

Want"

"If I

can be traced to Bach,

tracing things.

"Marcheta"

is

"Merry Wives of Windsor."

came from "The Blue Danube Waltz."

reminiscent of the

181

Jazz
"Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining" more than sug
"The Love Nest" is
gests a Paderewski Minuet.
"Russian Rose"

Tschaikowsky.
r

tion of the

*Volga Boat Song."

a frank adapta
Equally frank is

is

the popular version of the "Song of India."

There

is

no

legal limit to this kind of lifting, so

long as the model chosen has not been copyrighted,

and even then a few

expert can

strategic notes

make everything

changed by an

quite safe.

As

to the

moral aspects of the theft, there aren't any. There

are, naturally, morals among musicians, but they
aren't concerned with this question.

of the world

is

All the music

a kind of common storehouse, and

Kipling expresses the musician's attitude toward

it.

Not long

ago, the heirs of a composer brought

suit against

a certain publishing house to recover

The publish
house
ing
produced in court the music to prove that
the composer had himself taken his themes from the

damages for

this

kind of thieving.

folk songs of several

European

composer's heirs lost their

suit.

The

folk songs

never been copyrighted and were perfectly

mate material for the composer

jazz musician*
182

The

countries.

had

legiti

but also for the

Tin Pan Alley

It has never

been a scandal in the musical world

that the greatest composers of every period bor

rowed freely from each other. There is a nice little

story told of Wagner and Liszt. They were listen
ing together to one of Wagner's earliest rehearsals,

when Wagner
from your

said,

"Now you

will hear something

St. Elizabeth."

"Oh, well," replied Liszt, "then

it

will at least

be heard."
There's a Handel story, too, that the composers

of the "Banana" song ought to know.

friend

pointed out to Handel that he had used the therne

of a rival in his own works.

"Have I?" murmured Handel, carelessly. "It

was much too good for him, anyway. He never
knew what to do with it."
There is no question but that Handel knew what
to

do with the theme that was

into "Yes,

We

later to

Have No Bananas."

be jazzed

But Handel

himself would no doubt have enjoyed the song that

proved that the jazz musician knew what to do

with it, too, in his own way.
This

common

use of muscial themes

is

so general

that a hundred instances of it leap into the mind.

183

Jazz
At random

may

mention Tschaikowsky's use of

the Marseillaise in his "1812 Overture"

bert's use of it In

"The

Two

and Schu

Grenadiers," the

"Star Spangled Banner" in Puccini's

"Madame

Butterfly," Beethoven's borrowing of the "British

Grenadier" in his "Septet Opus 20," and "The

Campbells Are Coming" that romps gaily in Volkman's "Richard III Overture."
Still,

about

even Congress has recently been stirred up

these

customary

predatory

practices

of

This was when Alfred E. Smith, rep

composers.

Music Industries of Commerce, ap

peared before the House Committee on Patents in
Washington to oppose the measure in the new copy
resenting the

right bill

which was intended to give every composer

exclusive financial rights to his theme.

Why

should they need protection, Mr. Smith

wanted to know, when they themselves had always

taken whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted
it,

wherever

it

was?

I suppose there will always be

into courts of
sician

who

is

somebody dashing
law to claim damages from some mu
blithely following the usual custom

of stealing good things here and there.

An

enter-

Tin P an Alley
was that brought by a choir leader of
Spokane, Wash., who wanted damages from an or
chestra leader, on a general charge of syncopating
taining suit

The

the classics.

choir

leader

claimed that he

suffered acute anguish because his artistic sensi

bilities

although I don't know

were harrowed

he needed to

listen to the orchestra

why

and that he

sustained also a serious financial loss because chil

dren were having their musical taste perverted and

no longer wanted

As a matter

real musical education.

of fact, even

when an

irate protector

of the masters does get action to suppress certain

music,

it

does

this is that

him very

little

good.

The

reason for

music bootleggers have arisen who for

a price will furnish the coveted orchestration to

any leader who

applies.

The

bootleg orchestration

headquarters are rather like the ancient blind tigers

of local option days.

That

is,

they masquerade as

pants-pressing establishments, junk shops or even,

in

extreme

cases,

the

neighborhood

which also supplies music to

its

patrons.

Well, bootleg or not, the jazz

bination

is

drugstore

classical

com

really cultivating a taste for classical

music.
185

Jazz
At

first

glance this

true;

and

also

it is

may seem

But

strange.

natural enough.

it is

People grow

familiar with the themes in jazz, their interest in

music

is

stimulated by their love of jazz, and the

natural next step

ward

is

to follow the themes back to

their original sources.

The

original sources

of musical themes are so far back in folk-song that

would probably be a lifetime job to trace only

one. But just behind the jazz use of them is classi
it

cal music.

Now, most Americans

for

many

reasons that

have already given have been afraid of classi

cal music.
They were too humble; they thought
I

So they didn't
music, and more or

they couldn't understand

They avoided classical

scoffed at

it.

But when they come

of jazz, they find

they do.

it.

it isn't so difficult

They may not know

musical jargon

which

is,

to it

try.
less

by way
it, and

to like

all the

highbrow
a tech

after all, only

nical vocabulary, just as a mechanic's special vocab

ulary

And

is

technical

but they do

know what

after all, music is written to

they

be appreciated by

the people, not to be argued about

by

critics.

This trend toward getting acquainted with

186

like.

classi-

Tin Pan Alley

cal

music

a good thing.

is

should like to see

home

every jazz record in every

in America accom

panied by the record of the classical music from

which the jazz theme was taken.

The

am

all for it.

real lover of music likes jazz the better for

all music, just as

knowing

he

likes all

When

music the

a jazz ver
sion of "The Song of India," for instance, and

better for

knowing

jazz.

I play

been to increase the

am

per cent., I

record has

my

learn that the effect of the sale of

sales of the original record fifty

delighted.

pened after "Russian Rose"

The same

thing hap
was put on the market;

the public clamored for the beautiful record of

"The Volga Boat Song."

Instances of this kind

are multiplying every day.

no theory of mine that jazz is making

America into a truly musical nation. There are

So

it is

facts

and

strange thing
in America,

everywhere to prove it. The

the spectacle of the patrons of music

figures
is

who

for years have been keeping

music barely alive in

this country

by

ulation,

by maintaining splendid

had

be subsidized by the

to

artificial

orchestras that

rich,

while

lamented the lack of a musical public in

187

good
stim

this

they
coun-

Jazz
One would

try.

think they

would

rejoice, to see

music rising like a wave and engulfing America, to

see people music-mad. But a great many of them
don't.

Some of them

and say that jazz

is

Well,

vulgar.

old Latin sense of the word.

it is

the possession of the

and

common

little

everywhere, classical music

sion of the

American

is

it is,

in the

good

It is vulgar; that

as sheet music can be printed,

records turned out,

hands in horror,

raise their

people.

As

is,

fast

and phonograph

orchestras organized

becoming the posses

public, too.

One thought

that

was what these music patrons wanted, all the time.

But when every Tom, Dick and Harry takes to

humming

operas in this country, as Italian peasants

do, will these lofty ones call the operas vulgar?

They
world.

should, to be consistent.

Consistency

may

But

it's

a strange

be a jewel; but most

people would rather wear diamonds, even

188

so.

IX

Tricks of the Trade

IX Tricks of the Trade

:

/ NVARIABLY,
cover that the

layman is amused to dis

saxophone and the banjo, both
the

regarded by him as essentials to jazz, were not in

cluded in the original jazz band at all. As a matter
of fact, the saxophone, which was invented more

than seventy-five years ago by Antoine Sax; was

It was
designed as a very serious instrument.
heard oftener in church than anywhere

else

and the

story goes that Mendelssohn refused to allow

his orchestra because

it

was too mournful

it

in

have been invented by a

At any
negro plantation hand from a cheese box.
rate, it Is strictly American and there are foreign

The banjo

is

said to

instrument makers to-day, as well as perhaps some

here at

home who would

consider that

it

is

un

worthy to be called a musical instrument if only

there were not such a great demand for it.
The original jazz band consisted of a piano, a
191

Jazz
The

trombone, a cornet, a clarinet and a drum.

fundamental harmony and rhythm were supplied

by the piano, the player of which could usually
read notes.
it

The

other performers

mattered not at

to read music.

parts

all that

had no

notes, so

they had never learned

They simply

filled in the

and counter melodies by

ear,

harmonic

interpolating

whatever stunts in the way of gurgles,

brays,

squeals and yells occurred to them, holding up

the entire tune, though still keeping in the rhythm.

The

clarinetist

devoted himself to the

shrill

upper notes of his instrument while the trombone

and cornet were muted at will, or according to the
ingenuity of their manipulator.

The drummer, meantime, would

take shame to

himself if at any one time he was working less than

a dozen noisy devices.

Those days are gone forever or nearly

sidered musically, the ideal orchestra

is

so.

Con

one which

a quartette of every kind of legitimate

orchestral instrument, thus permitting a four-part
will contain

Harmony

in every quality of musical tone.

Al

though this does not prove entirely practical, it is

still an ideal which every orchestra leader tcnday
192

Tricks of ike Trade

The

sets for himself.

is

result, I will

venture to say,

that the United States has a greater

number

of efficient economical, small orchestras than has

ever been

known anywhere.

The jazz

orchestra of to-day differs

in that the foundation of the

symphony mainly
symphony

All other instruments are

is its strings.

added for tone

from the

In the jazz orchestra, the

color.

saxophone has been developed to take the place of

the cello. In fact, it has been developed to such a
high degree that it can be used for the foundation
of the entire orchestra, taking the place of second
violins, violas

and

cellos.

The

brasses then are used

for contrast.

The wood

winds, as the clarinet, form the basis

The jazz band then may be

of the military band.

come somewhere in between the symphony

and the military. We have computed that one
said to

baritone saxophone

is

equal in sonorousness to a

section of nine or ten cellos; that one alto saxo

phone equals sixteen

first

violins or twelve seconds;

that one tenor saxophone equals eight violas. That

is why, with twenty-five men, including only eight
first violinists

and four saxophones we have been

193

Jazz
an eighty piece symphony
Leopold Godowsky, famous

able to get the volume of

At

orchestra.

least

has declared we have approximately that

pianist,

volume.

The saxophone,

then,

Because of

jazz orchestra.

in

a way, king of the

this,

such demands have

is,

been made upon the saxophone player that the

manufacturers of the instrument have had to de
velop

to

it

meet the new needs.

ferent product twenty, or

what

it is

now.

was a very dif

even ten years ago, from
It

As a matter of

fact, all instru

ments have been perfected in much the same way

that is, a demand for better tone quality and a more
perfect scale has sprung
'has

had to comply with the new

Some demon
are

up and the manufacturer

now

world.

10,000,000

The

the reality.

statistician

specifications.

has estimated that there

saxophone

players

in

the

estimate probably falls far short of

And

those amateur music makers

who

are not playing the saxophone have taken to the

They say some good genius always arises

meet any national need. Is it any wonder that

banjo.
to

the

sound-proof

apartment

reality?

194

is

now

glorious

Tricks of the Trade

Musicians recognize four general classes of in
struments in speaking of the orchestra

wood

strings,

winds, brasses, and the battery of traps,

made

chiefly of instruments of percussion.

up

The

legitimate strings

viola, the violincello

may be added

include the. violin,

the

To

this

and the double

bass.

a few such instruments as the viol

da gamba and the

Other strings
stand in a musical sense midway between these and
the instruments of percussion. These other strings
viol

d'amore.

include the piano, cymbalon, harp and a vast

num

ber of the mandolin, banjo, guitar and ukelele

fam

ily.

Of

these,

my

orchestra has eight

first violins,

two pianos, a banjo and a cymbalon.

Wood wind instruments include, first of

all the

which has many forms such as the piccolo or

octave-flute, the bass flute, the Hungarian and

flute,

Chinese

flutes, the fife,

and half

Among

the flageolet or tin whistle,

the pipes of the ordinary pipe organ.

the

wood winds

are the oboe family which

takes in all instruments having a double reed

the oboe

itself,

the musette, the oboe d'amore, the

cor anglaise or English horn, the heckelphone or

baritone oboe, and the bassoon or contrabassoon.

195

Jazz
The
more
it is

sarrusophone, which

sizes, is

metal.

named with
For

the

made in seven or
wood winds although

is

this reason, it is

takenly called a metal oboe.

which includes

all

The

the single reed

sometimes mis
clarinet family,

wood wind

in

struments, has the clarinet in various keys, the bassett horn, the bass clarinet, the heckelcarind

and

similar instruments, besides the saxophones in all

which, like the sarrusophone are

keys,

The Highland bagpipe belongs

metal.

and double reed

single

classes.

made

of

to both the

Among

the reeds

should also be put the reed or cabinet organ, some

times called a harmonium, the accordion, the

organ or harmonica, and

many

mouth

of the pipes of the

pipe organ.

Of

wood

the

phones

that

is,

winds,

my

orchestra has four saxo

four saxophone players, but all of

these play saxophones in various keys

clarinet,

oboe, English horn, heckelphone, octavon, accor

dion and piccolo.

Brasses include the trumpet, the cornet in

its

various forms, the trombone, either valved with

a simple slide or with a complicated combination of

slides

and

valves, the

French horn, which in sym196

Tricks of the Trade

phony

is

wood wind instruments;

classed with the

the alto and tenor horns; the baritone horn, or

euphonium; the tuba and contra-bass tuba; the

Bayreuth-tuba; the contra-bass horn; the bugle; the
coach horn; the saxhorn or keyed bugle, made in
seven or more
the

sizes,

and a number of

we have

brasses,

the

trumpets,

others.

Of

trombones,

French horns and tubas.

The

battery of an orchestra includes so

struments that
all,

the

list

.The truth

sound

in

one were to try to name them

if

would

is,

many

stretch

from here

into infinity.

almost anything capable of making

may be

special effects.

introduced into

Thus,

if

the battery

for

one wants thunder and

lightning, rain, hail, pistol shots, cuckoo calls, the

cackling of a chicken, or the crying of a baby, one

relies

upon the

traps player to produce

it.

Perhaps

the most important instruments of the battery are

the tympani or kettle drums, the side or snare

drums, the bass drum, the tambourine, the triangle,

cymbals, tom-tom, Chinese drum, castenets,
glockenspiel and
bones.

Of

these,

celesta,

we have

rattle,

xylophone, marimba and

the celesta,

197

two tympani,

Jazz
snare

and bass drum and dozens of

fixings for our

special effects.

It is rather hard to classify the performers in

any jazz

orchestra, for the reason that

players perform on

Thus with

many

different

twenty-five players,

forty instruments.

Doubling

most of the
instruments.

we have more
then,

is,

than

main

the

strength of the jazz orchestra,

making it possible to
get the maximum of volume and color with the

minimum

of men.

For -convenience, I
ments of

my

shall

orchestra:

summarize the instru

eight first violins,

pianos, one banjo, a cymbalon, a celesta,

two

two

B-flat

tubas,

two trombones, two French horns, two

two tympani, snare and bass drum, all the

traps,

an oboe, an English horn, a heckelphone,

trumpets,

four

saxophones in B-flat soprano,

B-flat tenor, E-flat baritone; clarinets

E-flat

alto,

B-flat

alto,

E-flat

single

alto,

B-flat base,

baritone,

tenor; octavon; piccolo; accordion

The four saxophone

E-flat

and

B-flat

flute.

players double on all the

and double reed instruments.

pianist doubles on the celesta.

One

The second
of

my

clarinet

players not only plays the clarinet in all keys, but

198

Tricks of the Trade

doubles also on the oboe, the piccolo and the

The

flute.

on the tuba, one

violin player doubles on the accordion and Fve seen
one man in the course of an evening play as many
string bass player doubles

as twelve instruments, including three saxophones,

three clarinets, the oboe, the octavon, the heckel-

phone, the xylophone and bagpipes.

So far, this seems to me a fairly satisfactory
concert jazz orchestra.

new

are always trying out

instruments and discarding old ones, so that

we

I don't feel

For a dance
sary

We

shall ever

satisfied to

orchestra, eight violins

number of

may be

be

grow static.
are an unneces

Also, one of the pianos

strings.

omitted and an extra banjo added.

At one

time, I tried out the organ for a dance orchestra,

but found

it

too heavy and overpowering for the

kind of music

have used

is

we make.

we

the harp which gives a pleasant effect

in certain pieces, but

it

Another instrument

worth having

is

not useful enough to make

in the average small orchestra.

the double reeds, I

In

am planning to add a bassoon.

Jazz players have become so adept at handling

their instruments that they nearly make each do
the

work of two.

The

tricks of the trade rapidly

199

Jazz
become public property, especially if they are put
on the records. Thus the discoveries go East and
West, North and South, to enrich orchestras in re

mote

Many

spots.

jazz conductors and arrangers

can adapt an orchestration from hearing a record

I have heard some of our arrangements
played.

which bands had obtained in that way and they

Such adaptation needs,
were well played, too.
however, a good musical ear and considerable tech
nical knowledge.

made by

first

The
known

am

told that

a record

West and Middle West gather

is

for

playing with paper and pencil.

various stunts with mutes, while pretty well

to

those in the

business,

enough to speak of in some

of mutes are

made

of metal

clever manufacturers
bits

when

certain Eastern orchestras, arrangers of

orchestras in the

the

detail.

are

important

The

chief kinds

and cardboard.

saw the

Before
of these

possibilities

of material, the players themselves were using

ingenious contrivances to get the same effects.

The

first

time I ever heard what I call the

mutes, used with the cornet, was, I think,

did "Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake."

200

wawa

when we

The

players

Tricks of the Trade

got that effect by inverting glass tumblers over the
bells of the instruments.

Did you
have

ever see a kazoo?

Of

course

you must

a small worthless-looking piece of

tin.

kazoo stuck into a mute will give a buzzy sound

that comes handy in certain pieces.
In spite of the new appliances, hats, preferably
derbies, are still used for mutes. When hung over
the instrument, these give a French horn effect
that

is,

fuller quality

and

softer tone.

soft hat,

having no resonant power, is no good for this pur

The humble tin can is useful to give a big,
pose.
open, and rather harsh tone.

The aluminum

or

copper mute gives a sweeter tone and the pressed

paper or cardboard mute

is

softer than

metal, but rather sharp in tone.

any of the

kazoo in the

end of a cardboard mute gives an effect almost like

an oboe. A cup-shaped brass mute gives a shallow
tone with a thin quality.

The

flutter

tongue in the

brasses is rather like a covey of quail flying out

from ambush.

One

of our trombonists has a special mute such

have never seen before, by which he gets a

beautiful graduation of sound very like the voice
as I

201

Jazz
of a sweet

human

In the case of

baritone singer.

most cup-shaped mutes, the air goes in and comes

out the same way, but with this one, the air goes

from one chamber

into another

and

out.

player makes his vibrato with his lower

takes, of course,

a well-trained lower

lip,

combined with natural aptitude

recipe I know to recommend.
tice

Horn

lip.

is

This
This

and prac
the only

players can sharpen their instruments a

whole or half tone by using their hands. This

again has to be worked out by practice into a
technique all a player's own.

The

glissando

of jazz.

This

is

chromatic scale.
scale, the

is

one of the chief embellishments

simply a sliding together of the

That

instead of fingering the

is,

player slurs the tones together rapidly.

Performers with brasses and reeds, especially

reeds are flexible, get a weird effect

rhythm by

this trick.

at the opening of the

the

to the

glissando on the clarinet

"Rhapsody in Blue" has

tracted a great deal of attention.

and add

if

lip that is well trained.

This

at

trick takes

Again, practice, and I

might say, a naturally obedient set of muscles, will

do the job. The wawa effect on reeds can be gotten
202

Tricks of the Trade

simply by blowing Into the mouthpiece.

tonguing

is

Slap

accomplished by sucking on the reed,

thus creating a vacuum, then hitting the

vacuum

with the tongue, causing a pop.

Jazz makes frequent use of the staccato on the

by playing near the frog of the bow.

violins also do glissando in double stops.

violin

kazoo

we

by the way, was

effect,

tried to disguise

found out.

new

tricks.

The

it

priginal with us

The

The
and

for a while but were soon

jazz band

always busy with

The drummer used to have to originate

Now

most of the sounds.

chestra tries to outdo him.

is

every

man

Some of

in the or

the effects de

pend upon very small things. Indeed, a tiny mute

gives a neater sound than a large mute which is
what we call rather "sloppy."

One

interesting device used with the

must mention.

This

is

trombone I

achieved by holding the bell

of the instrument to the small end of a phonograph

horn, with a result that has almost the qualities of

a baritone voice.

The saxophone,

to

my way

of

thinking, can

come the nearest of any instrument to

reproducing

the

clarinets

human masculine

voice.

The

are equally adept in trained hands of

203

Jazz
simulating the feminine voice.

wood winds can produce

Both

laughter that

brass

is

and

uncannily

realistic.

Some

trick stuff is all right

very worst possible

wires a

and

it.

is

in the

man who

to his face as a solo instrument

uses the piano to

himself ridiculous.

For instance, a

taste.

mouth organ

and some

accompany himself

If your trick stuff

is

is

making

clever, use

If not, keep away.

One of

the qualities in the musician that the jazz

orchestra has developed

is

ingenuity.

that he needs a certain sound

from

If he feels

his instrument,

he puts his hand or his foot in it or goes and gets

a beer bottle, if nothing else is at hand.

The orthodox

have, I think, been pretty well

shocked by the employment of curious devices for

altering the tonal quality of certain ancient

instruments.

respected

that this

is

Somebody has suggested

because the mechanism

baldly exposed.

With

and

the

is

often rather

new mutes, perhaps, this

As a matter of fact,

will eventually be improved.

not nearly

all the

jazz stunts are new.

For in

derby mute of the clarinet goes back to

1832 when Hector Berlioz directed the clarinetist

stance, the

204

Tricks of the Trade

at a certain passage in his "Lelio ou le Retour a

wrap the instrument in a leather bag to

"give the sound of the clarinet an accent as vague
and remote as possible."
la Vie/' to

The

glissando of the trombone occurs in the or

score of Schoenberg's

chestral

sande," written in
entirely

unknown.

"Pelleas et Meli-

1902 when jazz was as yet

Schoenberg

the flutter on the trombone

is

also the father of

that

is,

very rapid

tonguing on the same note. And Stravinsky, in the

days when jazz was still in its infancy, used muted
trumpets.

Yet jazz has developed much

this is its chief service to music.

thing

else, gets static in its

period

From

when
the

fresh tools

way

that

is

new and

Music, like every

development during any

are not being devised.

some of the jazz devices

one might think that it was lese

in which

have been received,

majesty to make a pleasing sound in any way in

which

it

had not been made

before.

Yet

the de

velopment of music has gone hand in hand with the

development of new instruments from the day
when the first savage found that hitting a hollow
205

Jazz
log with a club

made a sound

that stirred

human

emotions.

a story somewhere to the effect that the

who first strung a board with catgut and made

There

man

is

sounds upon

men

it

was put

to death because his fellow

resented the introduction of a

new

noise into a

world which they regarded as already overstocked

with sounds. So you see, there have always been
cranks and reformers.

The jazz band has introduced some

little-known

instruments such as the heckelphone, the slide cor

net and the czimbalon.

It has

ones as the sarrusophone.

has received so

much

developed such

And, of

course, the

attention that it

be surprising to hear of

it

new

banjo

would hardly

being taken into the

The now

notorious saxophone, in Vlsymphony.

most any of its sizes and keys, is one of the most
useful of modern instruments. It is
easy to learn

I believe there

is

a tradition that an ambitious

boy can get the hang of it in twenty minutes but

difficult to master.
But other instruments are still

more

difficult to master,

and what

is

more,

it is

not necessary to master the saxophone to play dance

music.

206

JEANNE GORDON, OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA, CROWNING

THE KING OF JAZZ

Tricks of the Trade

Saxophones supply the element of humor which
American dancers insist upon having and they are
also extremely flexible so that

more or

less difficult

may be played with

running passages

skilled hands, then, the

capable of

is

saxophone

smooth intonation in solo passages, though

reeds, the control of pitch is

With two
player, one
fects,

good

like all

not easy.

or three saxophones

may

In

ease.

for the

same

obtain a large variety of tone ef

a melody into the deep bass with

and then by picking up a smaller in

shifting
effect,

strument, obtaining a cold blue tone almost as pure

as that of the flute.

may

take the

little

acute register- to

The

Or, as they do in England, one

top sax, and push

it

up

make extremely funny

to super-

noises.

compass of the soprano, alto,

tenor and baritone saxophones is a little more than
collective

four octaves, so there

is

sufficient territory for the

complete performance of many pieces without the

use of any other instruments.

As the
phone

is

possible

basis for a three-piece orchestra, the saxo

thoroughly successful.
is

One combination

the saxophone, xylophone

and piano.

Offhand, one might think there would be

207

too-

much

Jazz
percussion and too

saxophone

is

little

melody, but a baritone

beautifully set off

the xylophone

by

the sparkle of

and the piano holds together the

rhythm.
Strictly speaking, there are
orchestras.

no more

three-piece

In a modern orchestra, two

men

often

play a dozen instruments and three men, provided

they are equipped with the right number of instru
ments, can turn themselves into a huge working
force.

The

best

one-man dance orchestra

has been the piano.

is

and always

Nine-tenths of the music in

the civilized world has been written for this old

stand-by and practically

been arranged for

is

it.

And

arrangeable music has

the best piano orchestra

the piano alone !

The
ment,

banjo, going on to the next typical instru

the instrument of highest importance in

is

our type of orchestra.

it carries
is

all

Its tone is clear,

snappy, and

farther even than that of the piano.

It

capable of rhythmic and harmonic effects that

a leader

You

put to it to find in any other instrument.

can get more pizzicato effects, you can get
is

relatively greater

volume with a single banjo than

208

Tricks of the Trade

you can with a whole symphony load of pizzicato
violins and violas and you can play passages they
wouldn't dare to attempt. There is an example in
a piece we used to be fond of playing, "On the Sip,
Sip, Sippy Shore," where "Turkey in the Straw"
The pace is furious
is introduced as a banjo solo.

and the swift and

move

flexible

indeed.

fast

hands of the

What symphony

would dare put such a passage

of his pizzicato strings?

artist

conductor

as this in the hands

Yet

the single instru

ment, in the dance orchestra, with one set of

is all

that

is

must

fingers,

required.

In the ensemble, the banjo

may

be considered

even more important than as a solo instrument. If

the banjo is a good timekeeper, it will tone down
the piano, stop the traps from banging and cause
the whole organization, no matter

struments there are, to

move on

how many

in

the beat like one

man.
Obviously, the jazz band has tried to develop
extreme sounds. The deepest, the most piercing

and the

softest effects are

produced but any jazz

orchestra leader will soon learn that he gets his

best effects if he plays softly.

209

It

is

not necessary to

Jazz
bang to get your

On

for volume.

instrument

effect or to burst the

the contrary, a good jazz or

chestra is at its best

and most seductive when at

its quietest.

The

tubists give the bass notes

definiteness

while

the

muted

an

effective soft

and high-

brasses

pitched saxophones and clarinets provide the ex

citement and color.

The

early jazz

was each man for himself and

devil take the harmony.

The demoniac

fantastic riot of accents

and the humorous moods

have

all

toning

had

to be toned

down we

shall not,

down.

energy, the

hope that in
as some critics have pre
I

dicted, take the life out of our music,

believe

we

shall.

It

seems to

me

that

do not

we have

re

tained enough of the humor, rhythmic eccentricity,

and pleasant informality to leave us still jazzing.

And while we do not have so much unrestricted in

man must

still

is to rise to

the

dividualism as in the old days, every

be a virtuoso.

critic

has said that if jazz

must overthrow the govern

ment of the bass drum and the banjo and must
level of musical art, it

permit

itself to

make

excursion into the regions of

210

Tricks of the Trade

elastic
is

Perhaps that

rhythms.

is true.

All I

know

that if somebody will write us a different kind

of music,

we

shall be glad to try to play

far the jazz orchestra

the only typically

is

So

it.

Amer

ican arrangement of instruments that has ever been

The

made.

brass

band has been done in

this

coun

try very well, but not with original instrumenta

Never

tion.

before

has

the

combination

saxophone, brass, banjo, piano, drums and

strings

As

been

tried to indicate, the

an

is

efficient

of the time.

in

Even

modern jazz

Every mem
play every minute

arrangement.

ber knows exactly what he

music.

little

tried.

have

orchestra

of

is

to

the smears are indicated in the

Rehearsals are as thorough and frequent as

any symphony.

The

discipline of the orchestra,

a good one, must be complete. Yet there

must be freedom such as I have never seen in any

if it is

symphony.
work.

The men must

get joy out of their

They must have a good time and

try to give

their audience one.

Music

is

human.

The

character of the

man

that

handles the instrument shows in his music just as

his

character shows in his handwriting.

211

Every

Jazz
human being has his own value, his own character.
It is when this variety is released into music that
music strives and grows,
the time when music was

Jazz has forever ended

to the average

American

a series of black and white notes on white paper,

to be learned
in

rection

by

rote

and played according to

a foreign language

staccato,

di

legato,

crescendo.

Jazz has taught Americans that they may take

any old thing that will make a sound that pleases

them and please themselves by expressing with it

their own moods and characters in their own

The

rhythms, thus making music.

spite of the fact that at

one time

saxophone, in

it

was used for

church music, comes romping into the orchestra like

a wild Westerner into Boston society.

tin

pan

made

is

Even

not to be despised just because

originally to hold milk.

old hat over a trumpet and

sang before.

Who cares

was

Says jazz, put an

make

that

it

the

it

it is

sing as

it

never

only an old hat.

some very distinguished persons

who started putting base agencies to work when
It was, after all,

they needed them.

Schubert used to amuse his

friends

tissue

by wrapping

212

paper around a comb

Tricks of the Trade

and singing the "Erlking" through

it,

and Tschai-

kowsky required the same implement to get his

The
effects in the "Dance of the Mirlitons."
highly respected orchestras of the seventies

em

ployed cannon that broke all the crockery for miles

around when they wished to get the effect of a
battle*

Also, the jew's-harp a century ago

was regarded

a highbrow instrument, Eulenstein playing

teen at once before the King of England and

as

ting a decoration for

it.

To

six*
get-*

be sure, the musician's

by one before he ended

with such a clatter that he was

teeth broke off one

his

career, the last

lit

thrown out of

But

no argument
against America making a joyful noise with what
ever she has nearest at hand !
erally

court.

213

that's

X
Orchestration

X: Orchestration

crHE

secret of the success of

music

music

is

is

in

its

arrangement.

modern dance
For unless the

cleverly scored, the greatest musicians can

not make

it

popular with the public.

who is planning a career as a musician

Any man
ought to know how to transpose at sight. Every
score that comes to me is analyzed and dissected at
rehearsal, down to the very last note.
Naturally,
the small orchestra arrangement will not always

so I take the music apart phrase

just where each melody

lies

by phrase and

fit,

find

according to the possi

bility of each instrument.

Did you
on some

ever stop to consider that a single note

trap instrument will carry

much memory

away with

it

as

as thirty bars of senseless pounding?

Jazz orchestrations have done more

to change

the character of the jazz orchestra than anything

The distribution of the music has been made
else.
217

Jazz
definite,

The

a balance has been kept between the

choirs.

arranger distributes the parts to his orchestra

and here

knowledge and wit are demanded.

Mr. Grofe considers the orchestra a sort of quar
all his

ranging from soprano to bass.

tette,

In the sep

arate Instrumental groups, he also divides the parts

from high to low. If you give the highest voice

and the lowest to the saxophone and the middle
voices to the brass, you will get a singularly rich
of having three or four times more than the

effect

saxophones you are using.

and the low

voice

If

to the brass

you give the high

and fill in the middle

with the saxophone, you will get

the opposite

effect.

Perhaps

it

would be

actually happens

interesting to

to a simple

show what

melody when made

ready for the use of a jazz orchestra.

Suppose we

take the popular song, "Oh, Katharina."

chestrator in this case, the talented

decided to put in
starts
first

is

with a

little

or-

Frank Barry,

German atmosphere,

"Ach

The

therefore

Du Lieber Augustine/' The

verse is left fairly

straight

and the

first

chorus

done in the regular American manner so as

to

"set" the tune.

218

Orchestration
Then comes a

half chorus in jazz.

After that

some counterpoint with a German tune. The

saxophones are changed to the oboe and clarinets
starts

playing the melody while the tuba plays "In Tiefen

Keller," the famous
brass

German drinking

song.

The

and saxophones then play the melody staccato

while the violins play the "Soldier's Farewell," a

German
The

folk song.

piece

now

softens

down

to

muted

brasses

playing the melody while the solo clarinet plays

"Hi Lee Hi Lo"

for a half chorus,

trumpet fanfare modulates into

"Oh Tannenbaum"

while the violins and saxophones try to

selves

heard with the melody.

then with

make them

A half chorus
Du

jazz and then the strains of "Ach,

Augustine" bring the orchestration to a

The main point

the tune

is set

in such orchestration

is

of hot

Lieber

close.

that after

the instrumentation shall be changed

for each half chorus.

In between, the keys are

shifted,

with a four to eight bar interlude to get

into the

new

and novelty.

key.

The new demand

is

for change

Four years ago, a whole chorus could

be run through with but one rhythmic idea.

219

Now

Jazz
there

must be at

least

two rhythmic ideas and some

times more,

On

the other hand,

it is

necessary to avoid over

crowding with material, for the melody must not

be lost. "Noodles," that is, fancy figures in saxo
phone such as triple trills, often crowd out the mel
ody, and the point to remember
else is

is

that everything

secondary to keeping this alive.

220

XI

On Wax

On Wax

XI:
l/y HEIST

our

records

first

laboratories

of the

their initial "audition/*

came down from the

Victor

visitor

Company for
exploded, "What

the dickens?"

Then he

listened to

perienced listener

The one
that

fox

step

a*

few bars

and demanded:

he was an ex

"Who

is

it?"

was dying a natural death and in

death was becoming apotheosized into the

trot.

But our

first

record was different from

Perhaps dancers in America who are old

enough will remember it. It was a twelve-inch
disc, the first I think of the dance variety ever made

either.

that size, and there was a one step on one side of

it

arranged from the "Dance of the Hours."

On

the other, was the legally immortalized "Avalon"

which gave occupation for a time to the copyright

lawyers of two continents under the theory that it

had been

plagiarized

from "La Tosca."

223

This was

Jazz
one of the greatest fox trots of the late "glide"
period.

The companion

record

was that masterpiece

of dance composition "The Japanese Sandman,"

ranking with the earlier "Havanola," which

Ru

dolph Gans had had scored by the composer and

played by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as an

example of American music.

lar ''Whispering'*

The even more popu

was on the other

side.

For years before we began to record,

it

had been

necessary for almost all recording laboratories to

change the instrumentation of nearly

all orchestral

Certain instruments, notably the double

pieces.

which were then used, the horn, the

tymand
in
lesser
pani,
degree, other instruments, failed
basses,

to yield satisfactory results.

The double

frequently were discarded and replaced

tuba.

by a

basses
single

Modifications also in the placing of the or

chestra were necessary in order to

make

the volume

of tone from a large number of instruments con

verge upon a tiny diaphragm whose vibrating needle
inscribed, upon a disc of wax, the mysterious
grooves,

which, retraced by a second needle at224

On Wax
tached to a second
voices

and

diaphragm,

gave back the

accents of music.

and study, we had to go

One
into the recording room and learn all over.
of the changes we made when we found that or

So

for all our labor

dinary drums could not be put on the record was to

The tympani and

snare drum record, but the regular drum creates a
muddy and fuzzed-up effect when other music is
use the banjo as a tune drum.

going, although solo drums

ords.

It

was at

make very good

this time that I tried

rec

out the banjo

for the ground rhythm and discovered the possibil

ities

of that small instrument which until then had

been kept in the back and hardly heard at

We

all.

also discovered that almost every instrument has

a treacherous or bad note and that when the

score calls for that note the instrument

stop playing.

An

extreme dissonance would

that the record would be blasted.

troubles, however,

had

to be

made

we were

For

better

mean

all

our

told that fewer changes

in our scoring than in

records of the time.

As a

rule

any dance
we made two records

at a time, though once I believe

three days.

had

we made

nine in

Each record averages about an hour

225

Jazz
and a half or two hours, for there must
rehearsal

and a

test before

first

be a

the perfect record

is

passed upon by the company "hearing committee/'

Recording
the day's

perhaps the most

is

work

or the lifetime's.

difficult task in

slip

may

pass

unnoticed in concert, whether across the footlights

or over the radio, and even if noticed,
forgiven, since living flesh

and

it

be

sensitive will can

not always achieve mechanical perfection.

slip in

may

But a

a record after a time becomes the most

audible thing in

it.

Everything

lected to wait for the slip

and

else will

be neg

to call the attention

of some one else uninstructed in music to a great

artist's false note.

be recorded until

from the

first,

So every composition has

it is

perfect.

well and good; but

records of each

to

If things go fine
if,

from the three

number usually made,

there

is

none

which will quite pass the exacting standards of the

committee, there must be another afternoon of

making and remaking.

Every faculty of the artist,

emotional as well as physical, must be expended in

producing a perfect result.

In late recording practice, with highly
improved
methods of capturing sound and with new scientific
226

On Wax
principles, it has

grown more and more

practicable

to record large bodies of instruments without losing

volume, without having a large quantity of tone

dilute

and

diffuse itself before reaching the actual

path of the recording apparatus.

In the laboratory, as we worked, the possibilities
of the orchestra began to loom large and the orig
inal plan with a single player for each type of

instrument began to expand.

The saxophone,

for

had always had a shadow or understudy.

third saxophone now was added and in time the

instance,

orchestra developed the full

Wagnerian

quartette

The one trumpet was

and the now popular com

of instruments in this group.

by a second
bination "straight" and "comedy" trumpets came
reinforced

into existence.

time began to

The banjo instead of just marking

make new excursions into the realms

of rhythm and the fox trot began to change with

out, however, disturbing the pedestrian order of
things.

Not

all these

the laboratory.

changes took place, of course, in

Most of

cussing and rescoring

outside

the rehearsing and dis

was done

in consultations

consultations not always free of the heat

227

Jazz
of argument.

The

actual business of recording

a star chamber matter but

secret to

it is

is

no violation of a

admit that some of our early records were

by men swearing softly at themselves be

they learned the new adroitness which the

spoiled
fore

mechanism of the recording room required.

The records of our orchestra that I have liked

delicate

particularly are fox trots like the

"Song of India,"
with its burst of two part harmony, the "Waters
of the Minnetonka," with its wood wind accom-

paniniental figure and

its

swinging climax and the

insidiously delicate "Oh, Joseph."

One

sees all one's friends

and some of

one's ene

mies at the recording laboratories and the exchange

of experience between the classicist and "coonshouter," the string quartette

band

is

and the

clarinet jazz

illuminating for everybody.

Not long

ago,

Rosa Ponselle, Mischa Elman and

I were all recording at the Victor, though in dif

ferent laboratories.

We

regardless of the fact

had lunch together and

that the temperature was

above 90, the great dramatic soprano demonstrated

a dance step for us in the best Broadway style.

Then we

sat for our pictures, she in her

228

bungalow

On Wax
apron,

Elman minus

and coat and

collar

I in

plus

four knickerbockers.
It interested

me

that the singer should have been

familiar with the current fox trot step, for with the

almost weekly changes in the dance I had begun to

believe that only orchestra leaders and college boys

could possibly keep pace.

We have even to antici

pate the change and that has become our chief

problem as the public is well aware. Dancers and

musicians, as a rule, are harder to bring together than
the various labor unions working on a big build
ing.

Ballroom dancers persistently refuse to con

form

to accepted or classical styles, or to

any

styles

which they do not determine

for themselves in the

ballrooms of the hour.

study of the long

Any

list

of our fox trots will reveal peculiarities in tempo,

rhythm and general style not to be accounted for

on the basis of "individual variation," or the timehonored principle that "nature makes no two faces
alike"; the simple truth of the matter is, that a
dance, almost,

is

no sooner

in the hands of the

public than the style changes.

During the past half-dozen years there have been

several powerfully marked variations in the ordi229

Jazz
The

nary, or "two-step" fox trot.

original "glide

two-step" fox trot of the "Japanese

period soon was succeeded

Sandman"

"radio roll" or

by the

the "scandal walk" (the two passed into one an

other)

by the

"blues," which

but in point of fact

was

officially earlier

later in the experience of

dancers than the "collegiate,"

which

set

tirely

prevailed in a few

and

up an
an en

new style of dancing and called for

new type of music. The "tango fox

entirely

cities,

many

trot"

the "military fox trot,"

entirely local dances with fanciful,

and in some

cases meaningless, names, in others.

All of these changes of style or local and in

dividual caprices in taste, have to be ministered
to

by a dance organization as large

soon perish.

Few new

as ours, or

dances, except those for

stage use, are ever brought forward

they are developed, in public,

particular skill,

and with

the dance as an art.

we

It is

little

by

teachers;

by persons of no
or no knowledge of

avowed, and on excellent

authority, that the "collegiate" sprang

from the use

of rubber-soled summer footwear and slow, sticky

dance floors at public resorts, where the skate-like
slides

and pivots of

the old-style dancer were im-

230

n
possible.

Wax

With footwear of

was

this sort it

possible

than stamp up and down. From

this developed a polka-like dance with crude hops
to

do

little else

and jumps,

calling for agility,

but with no great

degree of sophisticated grace.

Small items

like this

determine the whole power

of survival of an orchestra.
tallizes or a

dance

is

When

it is

standardized,

the younger generation everywhere

a method crys

who

done.

For

invented

it,

without half knowing most of the time what they

were about, are now through with it.

One phenomenon

I noted

when

was playing

dance music at the Palais Royal on Broadway.

fox trot was played in a rhythm exactly that of the

Habanera or Tango, but much swifter in time.

The

was that the easy "chasse" skips pe

this type of dance became impossible to

result

culiar to

the dancers

who

thereby changed their rhythm from

that of the tango to the easier two-step with the

not all of
result that six hundred fox-trotters

whom

could be charged with profound musical

knowledge

automatically were dancing in cross

rhythm.
231

XII

Jazz Makers

Jazz Makers

XII:

f HAVE

a friend and you probably know

somebody

just like

him who, when

it's

time

for the salad at dinner, immediately rolls up his

and wades merrily into the job of shaking

reluctant oil and vinegar into friendly combination
sleeves

whilst tobasco, paprika and other favorite condi

ments wait

their turn

on the

sidelines.

The

process

done by Jim always reof mixing

^minds me of making a jazz band.
The ingredients* have to be just so everything
salad dressing as

cold, the oil perfectly fresh, the vinegar not too

tart

and yet

tart enough.

But the

real art

comes in

putting in just enough of everything and not the

bit too much that will turn the mixture sour or oily
or peppery.

So

no

it is

with a

staleness,

seasoning.

jazts orchestra.

There must be

no luke-wannness, no over

It is

or under

not so easy to mix either a good

235

Jazz
Conventional
good jazz band.
measurements are of no use for the goal is individu
or

dressing

yet not an odious individuality such as comes

ality

common

with a dressing too spicy for the

or an orchestra where there are so

the blend

The

is

many

palate

stars that

not rich and smooth.

first essential

of any good orchestra

sicians of the very first water.

is

mu

But with a jazz

or

Jazz players

chestra, this is not nearly enough.

must be masters, not merely of one, but several in

struments, so that a small group can produce the

tone and color of a far larger one

by doubling on

two, three or half a dozen instruments.

Jazz players have to possess not merely musical

knowledge and talent but musical intelligence as
well.

In a symphony, the conductor

is

the per

In a jazz orchestra,
sonality which stands out.
is
more or less in the limelight. There
every man
fore each man must be clever enough to sell him
self to the

audience

in other words, he

must be

a good showman.

He

must have

tiveness

initiative,

imagination and inven

amounting almost to genius.

phony, the composer invents.

236

With

In the sym
us, that

job

Jazz Makers
falls to the player.

This versatile individual must

be young enough that the spirit of adventure is still

in him. He must be temperamental enough to feel

and not too temperamental to be governed. Neat

ness in dress and a cheerful expression are impor
tant assets and a sense of
indispensable.
optimistic.

He

humor

is

practically

jazz player must be inherently

will never get over in our business

he pulls a long, solemn face. It is better to be

overly irresponsible than overly serious-minded if

if

man

takes

up jazz-making

for

living.

Perhaps the most important item in the jazz

equipment is that each player shall be American.
It is better to be a native-born American and better
still, if

one's parents were born here, for then one

has had the American environment for two gen

erations

At

least,

and

that helps a great deal in playing jazz.

the musician must be a naturalized citizen,

which means a considerable residence and a knowl

edge of language and customs.
men are of every kind of ancestry

My

Italian,

German, French, English, Scandinavian.

does not matter.

Nor

there are almost as

That

does their religion, of which

many

varieties as there are

237

men.

Jazz
What

does matter

citizens

and nearly

are married.

men

is

that they are all American

Most of them

all native-born.

I prefer

them

so,

not that married

are better jazzers, especially, but they are

conscientious

and

more

with greater

stick to their jobs

persistence.

I got a

good many of

symphonies.

One

my

men from
Walter Bell who

twenty-five

of these

is

plays the bass and contra-bassoon.

the

He

played in

San Francisco symphony and has written two

or three symphonies himself.

He

got his start

playing the mandolin and guitar in an ice cream

parlor where the mice and rats were so thick that

he had to keep his feet up on a table to prevent the

gnawing the leather of his shoes.

It was through him that I really got to know
and like jazz and I picked him for my own or

pests

chestra

(mentally and provisionally,

of

course,

because in those days I was lucky to have a job)

at a performance of the Symphony in San Fran

was regularly playing bass but the

bassoon got sick and I being the youngest member
of the orchestra, was chased off to bring his instru
cisco.

Bell

ment down for Bell

'

to play.

238

Jazz Makers
He

played

it,

and

beautifully, but right in the

midst of the 6th Tschaikowsky Symphony, he

commenced
I don't

to play in all off-rhythms

know why he

did

it

jazz really.
a
just
crazy impulse,

symphony and curios

experiment would sound or hear

I suppose, to shock the staid

how his

ity to see

how

it

would sound,

rather.

Nobody paid much

attention except myself and I felt like applauding,

it

was

so well done.

Another
is

man who came

Chester Hazlett, also

He

was a

first clarinet

from a symphony
of the San Francisco group.
to us

at seventeen in a

symphony,
but he plays the saxophone for us because that's
the instrument he likes best.

Frank

and I played together

in the Navy and experienced together some of the
Siegrist, trumpeter,

difficulties

as

of trying to supply eight orchestras to

many company commanders when we

the makings of four.

But

discipline

was

in the Navy and nothing was impossible

Navy

slogan), so

we always made up

only had
discipline
(that's

the eight

orchestras out of something.

It

was of

Siegrist that Alfred Hertz, conductor

of the San Francisco Symphony, said:

239

"I don't be-

Jazz
lieve there is another lip like that trumpeter's

where in the world!

man

all

wouldn't give

if I

But of course you,

the money you make, can afford to pay him

could have a

with

What

any

like that!

more than a symphony ever could !"

"Well," said
tunity to rub
this

I,

it

man, for he

in a

"y u might have had

little,

tried out for

times before I got

every time!

for I couldn't resist the oppor

you no

less

than four

him and you turned him down

3*

Mr. Hertz

is

one of the

many

real musicians

who

have changed their sentiment about jazz. When he

first heard me jazz a classic (it was the "Peer
Gynt"
suite)

he was

to "sleep

on

frantic.

He

snakes, snails

out for the sacrilege, but

said he

hoped I'd have

and worms" to pay me

when we went

to

San

Francisco the last time, he called his orchestra to

gether

and introduced me with a

Henry

phony man.
class

flattering speech.

Busse, also a trumpeter, is another

sym

He has played in a number of the highGermany and knows

Yet it was he who stuck

musical organizations of

the classics thoroughly.

a kazoo in a regular mute one day (he got the kazoo

from a ten-cent store across the street) and got an
240

Jazz Makers
Oriental quality like an oboe that I had been want

ing for a long time.

Men
train.

taken from symphonies are the easiest to

They have had good

and they

discipline

usually leave the symphony because they are in

terested in jazz

new

line.

and want

to experiment along

Their knowledge of music

is

valuable

and they know their instruments. The real blues

player is more hidebound in his way than the sym

phony man.
the

man who

Blues become almost a religion and

worships them thinks nobody

who

can really play them is ever able to read music.

I had a New Orleans boy, Gus Miller, who was
wonderful on the clarinet and saxophone, but he
couldn't read a line of music.

but he wouldn't try to

I tried to teach him,

learn,

so I

everything over for him and let

ear.

I couldn't understand

stubborn or both.

He

said

had

him

to play

get

why he was

it

by

so lazy or

he was neither.

he confided one day. "I knew

a boy once down in N'Awleens that was a hot
player, but he learned to read music and then he
"It's like this,"

couldn't play jazz any more.

like that."

241

I don't

want

to be

Jazz
A little later,

Gus came

to say he

was

quitting.

was sorry and asked what was the matter.

stalled around a while and then burst out:

"Nuh, Suh,

He

I jes* can't play that "pretty music'

you all play. And you

blues worth a damn !"
that

fellers can't

never play

have paid a good jazz player as much as

$30,000 a year and none of the good ones get less
I

than $200 a week.

Many

get

$250 and $300.

good pay, but then a well-trained, welladvertised jazz orchestra demands good money and
This

gets

is

it.

choose

istics I

my men

have already

everywhere.
outs.

We

Many

set

down and

of them come to

have forty or

every day in the

too,

according to the character

me

them

for try-

fifty applications for jobs

New York

scout around for

I find

me

office.

My

friends,

and, naturally, I hear

every orchestra I can, everywhere I go. I catalogue

the likely players and some day when I have a
vacancy, I reach for the person
fill

file,

the place.

I always have plenty of

for the music business

doctor will

who seems

is

just like

recommend a doctor
242

likely to

names on

any

in another

other.

town

Jazz Makers
you if you are moving away from his section
and music men recommend cornetists and saxo

to

phonists in the same way.

Our

Every man

rehearsals are free for alls.

is

allowed to give his ideas, if he has any, about how

new pieces should be played. The orchestra makes
a kind of

game

of working out effects that will go.

and in bathing suits if

with sandwiches and cold drinks handy,

In shirt sleeves,
it's

hotter,

if it's hot,

weVe been known

to forget quitting time

sev

by

eral hours.

When we

are about to do a

new

piece, Grofe,

my

arranger, and I spend several hours discussing

from every point. Then, if we are in a hurry for

it
it,

he takes two days to arrange it, working often night

and day. Sometimes he keeps right on for three or
four days without any sleep.

The

initial rehearsal

requires only about thirty-five or forty minutes,

owing to Grofe's

skill

and the ease with which the

boys pick up new numbers.

minutes* practice,

we

That

is,

after forty

are ready to play a

one that has the typical jazz

effects

new

piece

of mutes and

special parts.

There

is

very

little

prima donna
243

stuff in

my

or-

Jazz
man.

chestra, in spite of the proficiency of each

work together

all

for

what we are trying to

any one
we stop and try it

great.

of the boys gets an inspiration,

Some of

out.

the suggestions prove,

be no good, but

Yd

do.

Cooperation can

Star stuff can spoil any group.

make even a mediocre band go

We

If

when

tried, to

far rather have enthusiastic

youth and a few mistakes in

my

seasoned, too careful old stagers.

orchestra than

The appeal of

the jazz orchestra comes from spontaneity rather

than from finished, brainy work.

And

for spon

taneity, one needs wholesale youth.

The men are as enthusiastic over a new method

or a new instrument as I am. When a queer-shaped
contraption that somebody has dug up is brpught
everybody crowds around and wants to try it.
The boys are always experimenting with fresh com

in,

binations, hoping to nose out a

I wouldn't

have a

stolid

man

new

in

my

bit of business.

orchestra.

audience would feel a lack instantly.

fire

man quicker any day for

The

I think I'd

a show of really surly

disposition than for a serious mistake in musical

execution.

Not but what my boys may

244

lose their tempers

Jazz Makers
occasionally if they find

it

necessary.

perishness once in a while

comes with temperament.

is

however, that

I shall be criti

Perhaps

on

who do

all

of tem-

natural enough and

cized for allowing temperament

lieve,

A fit

my

creative

blessed or cursed with temperament.

It

be

list.

work are
seems to

be a

way nature provides for balancing excessive

strain. Of course it can be carried to rather extraor
dinary extremes*

musical comedy star I

and screams when she comes

But

evening's work.

good-humored

morning

invariably kicks

off the stage after

at other times she

little

person.

me

that he

hotel waiter told

know

Once

a very

in Denver,

had spent most of the

De Pachmann,

offering eggs to

is

an

the musi

he wanted two eggs that matched

and he sent back nearly a dozen pairs before he

cian.

It seemed,

got two yolks that were exactly the same shade.

Sometimes what looks

self-preservation.

and the

like

Many

late Caruso,

temperament

singers,

is

merely

notably Jeritza

have made a practice of speak

ing to no one for several hours before singing.

The

audience benefits here.

An

audience,

by the way, can

245

raise

a performer

Jazz
to the seventh heaven or dash

never have

faced an

but sometimes

much.

human
up

to hell.

unkind one,

intentionally

have been greatly depressed by

coldness and stand-offishness.

so

him down

An

audience expects

People look at you, not as

being, but just as if

you are a

if

you are something

for their entertainment.

They

built

will never excuse

a mistake and they make no allowances for your

off-days,

The

players don't glare or laugh

when

the audi

ence applauds in the wrong place, but the audience

will laugh at

a mistake or even

hiss.

Perhaps

if

they understood the handicaps actors and musicians

often overcome at a performance they would be

more

charitable.

The

other day, I

at a vaudeville house fall in

after her turn

on the

stage.

saw a dancer

a heap in the wings

An old sprain had

suddenly become painful again while she was doing

a difficult whirl at the very beginning of her

act,

but she kept a smile on her face and went on

dancing. She got a few hand claps and, very likely,

some former fan of hers turned to

his wife

and

re

marked "Well, too bad> that one's getting old and

stiff."

246

Jazz Makers
A

thing I could never understand

is

actor or musician gets the swelled head.

how any
God gives

credit

and those who get it deserve very

for it. The applause doesn't last

either,

and then what have we

talent

age with

if

Do you

we

little

long,

to console our old

are just a mass of conceit?

suppose Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor

know how

Or George

they got to be comedians?

Cohan how he became the

Hard

the stage?

favorite personality of

Well, partly.

work, you say?

Good luck? Maybe, a

But mostly,

little.

just

humbly and

talent, something to accept

God-given

it's

use the best you can.

wonder what a conductor

lot of folks

I've read pieces written

anyway.

how much

speculated upon
tras

would sound

leaders.

Well,

to say that
bu.t I

it

if

by

critics

it.

who

better certain orches

they weren't handicapped by

may sound a

little

immodest

an orchestra can't do without a

do say

is for,

I wish the

critics

leader,

could hear a

Only, of course, such

not possible, for if the conductor were

really leaderless orchestra.

a thing

is

not there, some natural born leader would

the ranks to guide the rest to safety.
247

rise

from

Jazz
A

band

mander.

He

an army.

is like

It

must have a com

A good conductor must be a real musician.

should be able to play at least one instrument

well and should understand

of

possibilities

the

all

others

must be a judge of men

yet able to

it

As

and

he employs.

He

tactful, democratic,

his authority felt.

showman and

a good

ming,

make

the intricacies

likable.

He

has to be

If he isn't

won't hurt for him to be a

for the ease of jazz conducting

and

sham

little eccentric.

did you ever

stand on a space two and a half by two and a half

for just one hour?

Try it sometime. There have

been plenty of days when I've had to do that al
most twelve hours at a stretch without any rest.
Here used to be a typical day of mine : Get up
at

9 A.M. snatch a

office

tails

by
of

Attack correspondence, attend to de

10.

my

bite of breakfast, get to the

orchestra business

(I handle a

string of orchestras that play in

other cities).
take.

whole

New York

and

At

12, a rehearsal or phonograph

At 2, play at the Palace Theater. At 3,

another rehearsal or recording session.

At 8:30,

play the Palace again and after that play the Palais

Royal

until 3 A.M.

The rest of the time

248

I slept.

Jazz Makers
And mind

you, this didn't include the necessary

activities for publicity purposes,

the people

who

come bringing letters of introduction or wanting

you to hear them play or asking for aid with some

And

charity.

the benefits

mustn't forget them.

have played as many as

twenty-six weeks.

of

my best

of a job
patting

The

my

And yet a

writer

of these in

who

is

also one

friends said one

day that I have a cinch

"just standing before an orchestra and
foot indifferently well !"

radio, especially

added to

fifty-nine

my

Banner" the

labors.
first

sent through the

when

came

in, also

"The Star-Spangled
national anthem was ever

I played

time the
air.

it first

To do

it,

had

to race

madly
It was

from the Palais Royal to the radio station.

Sunday and at the station a minister was making
a speech.

They hadn't
as they have

nerve to
I

it

the system so well organized then

now and

apparently nobody had the

him he was running over his time.

pace the floor, for I had to be back at

tell

began to

the Palais Royal at

six.

But

there

the speaker was ever going to stop.

249

was no sign

Jazz
Finally the announcer, an agreeable young blond

took matters into his

<iiap,

'That's
"Just let

He

all

him

right,

can

own
fix

hands.

him," he vowed.

talk on."

rushed away, did something intricate to a

few connections, cut the poor minister

off the air

put the orchestra in front of another micro

phone and we played. Then we rushed back to the
entirely,

Palais

Royal and

picked

up

the minister,

still

talking.

I have had lots of interesting adventures in the

Once

air.

in

I gave

my

mother a birthday party, I

New

York, she in Denver listening in at a radio

I had sent her.
Another time, my little son

set

and one

night,

Newark, we played the

latest

sent aerial birthday greetings to me,

at Station

WOR in

New York

jazz hits at three o'clock in the morning

for the Prince of Wales, who was
listening in at

Brook House, London.

A
he

jazz maker

likes it.

idly

is

sure of adventure

Unless, of course,

when he

hasn't

it

and usually
crowds in too rap

had more than two or

hours of sleep the night before!

250

three

XIII

One-night Jazz Stands

XIII

^yy

One-night Jazz Stands

MERICA is in a state of jazz/'

sonorously

religious bodies after seri

proclaim many
ous surveys of the saxophone situation.
I toured our forty-eight states recently and
inclined to agree.

Only of

bodies and I are a

little

ter of definition.

They

am

course, the religious

at variance in the

mat

regard the whole topic of

jazz as deplorable and I cannot, for many rea

sons, agree with them. By "state of jazz/' I merely

mean

that the entire United States

is

whistling,

to jazz.
singing, playing, eating, and even working,
Not to speak of undergoing operations and conva

lescing to

it.

Moreover, the jazz interest in the smallest

let

and biggest

city alike

tions, so that at concerts,

is

distributed in all direc

one gets bookworms, bank

presidents, village loafers

ham

and what

great deal of the interest

253

is

not.

only curiosity.

Jazz
never develops into actual enthusiasm

Much

of

and a

lot of it

we

it

is

But

just plain scorn.

are getting people to think about u$

at least

and argue

a good sign for any enterprise.

I was more or less dubious when I prepared for a

about

us,

which

is

States.
jazz concert tour of the United

And

not

my worries was the misgiving with which

my twenty-five bdys contemplated the trip. Two
the least of

or three of the

new

ones had never in their lives been

from Broadway than Boyle's Thirty Acres

farther

in Jersey City, where Jack

pentier,

and

to hear

them

Dempsey

tell it,

licked Car-

they cherished no

ambition to better their travel record.

They

had, in short, all the real

prejudice against "the sticks."

shared the feeling.

New

Yorker's

Many of my friends

Some who have done time on

the two-a-day vaudeville circuits described country

Others, more sympathetic, encouraged

hotels.

me

by figuring that I could snatch an occasional respite

on Broadway, if life in the provinces grew too
The most confirmed New Yorkers are
difficult.
those

who have

months.

lived

in

Manhattan about

These boys nearly wore

254

me

six

out with their

One-night Jazz Stands

solicitude*

Altogether, I got so

many

condolences

that I began to feel very sorry for myself.

had just reached a

most interesting age where he could sit up and take
notice of me whenever I hove into view. It was
Besides, Paul

Whiteman,

Jr.,

about this time that I observed he even seemed to

cry for me.

So

I felt sort of martyr-like

our

first

was

in

when we

stop somewhere in Maryland.

Cumberland that

I first

I think it

had Maryland

Either there or Baltimore.

chicken.

set off for

Anyway,

fried

after

that, life looked different.

I could

do a whole book on rare foods that

doctor forcibly kept

me from

devouring as

my

we went

along.

Chicken and cream gravy at the Claypool

Hotel,

Indianapolis,

hot

cakes,

doughnuts and

strawberry short cake in Denver (mother-made!),

wiener wurst and sauerkraut in Minneapolis, corn-

bread in Louisville
lore I picked up.

condemning

all

there

But

no end

doctor

indigenous food as

rabid prejudice against

that mostly,

my

is

my

life

my

getting

to the food

had a way of
fattening and a
any

fatter.

So

between concerts consisted in

255

Jazz
glimpsing gorgeous food and being forbidden to
eat

it.

The country we

makes an

in

live

interesting

movie taken in one-night stands. To my surprise,

after all the high-brow fun I'd heard poked at them,
Rotary and Kiwanis clubs weren't too awfully bad
and I heard lots of pleasant things their members
were doing for other people. Nor were these our
only cheerful findings about human nature. Hotel

men

told

me

that only about one per cent, of the

traveling public beats its board bill.

man
And we

Topeka

judge confided that only one

in a hundred

beats his wife nowadays.

hit one

where the citizens swear there

former*

I won't tell its

made me promise not

ants

any

No,

increase in population.

a single re

isn't

name.

town

The

inhabit

They don't want

Which is another way

to.

they are unique.

It's

amazing how important a large population

the American scheme of things.
Especially

is

in

to

chambers of commerce.

the chambers of commerce.

travel long in the
I never

heard so

Of

course

It

is

we

noticed

impossible to

United States without doing

many

statistics in

256

my

life

that.

as I

One-night Jazz Stands

heard from them.

anybody ever

I don't suppose

checks them up, for they say the census takers are

very careless and leave out a good part of the pop

ulation in making a count. I mean the chambers

commerce

of

say this say

unanimity wherever you go.
I never knew there were so

world as there are in

small to be

first

it

many

this country.

in.

with

startling

firsts

Nothing

For a while

in the
is

too

kept the

pamphlets and statistics that were lavished upon

me about our leading industries, but it seemed, on
the whole, that I might eventually have to get an

extra baggage car for the instruments if I kept on,

so I reluctantly sacrificed the statistics somewhere

between San Francisco and

St. Paul.

found out some things that maybe you don't

know. Of course, everybody knows that Grand
I

But do you

Rapids leads in furniture.

it

also

is first

wanted

realize that

in fly-paper?

to see the fly-paper factories, but the

owner of them was evidently a suspicious person.

He

wouldn't

had no

let

me

in.

I tried to explain that I

desire to steal his secrets, but they told

that manufacturing fly-paper

257

is

a very

me

serious busi-

Jazz
ness,

with formulae for stickiness that must be

Did you ever smell a

guarded in a vault.

We

factory?

drove past this one.

Creek

Battle

another

is

fly-paper

Terrible!
in

place

interesting

Michigan. It leads in doctors and health foods.

After dining at one "san" on a substitute for meat,

a substitute for sugar, meltoze, sterilized butter

and hot malted nuts topped off with minute brew,

which is a substitute for a much more exciting
drink, I felt so invigorated that I

bought an

ice

went out and

cream soda and that led

cover another thing that Battle Creek

me

is

to dis

noted for

stands where you can

fancy

it is

Cities

down

a reaction

are

like

buy ice cream sodas. I

from the sanitary atmosphere.
hard-boiled

people

at the heels or neatly

plain, cheerful or

cheerful,

little

glum.

mended

up,

Most American

on the boastful

or

timid,

showy or
cities

side, fairly

are

neat

an American schoolboy, who hasn't had

many lickings and is a bit over-confident about
rather like

himself, yet diffident, too, underneath.

In spite of the prosperity, there is no subject so

prevalent as a conversation lead everywhere in the

United States as "hard times."

258

We

spend a deal

One-night Jazz Stands

of energy worrying about trade conditions and the
taxes
jazz.

Paris

new

and the younger generation and the Reds and

A good many of us go abroad nowadays

and London, anyway.

We

prosperity.

Big Pond," and we

That

call it

is

to

a sign of the

"jumping across the

are always surprised at our

selves for having the courage to

make a

trip that

once was regarded as entirely the prerogative of the

very rich.
I used to

make a game

of judging from the

smok

ing room conversation what section of the country

we were

passing through.

Not from

You

much

the accent so

as

could do

it,

too.

from the actual

you knew
he was an Easterner. And in the parts where we
were most of the time, he was in the minority.
If he didn't talk at

gist of the talk.

all,

Traveling through the West and Middle West,

everybody talked.

and coats and

As you go West,

collars are

Kansas-Nebraska

put

sector,

off.

you

talk

is

put on

In the Missouriare

treated

to

and you like it.

A Bostonian wouldn't, maybe. But why not?
There's a certain benevolence about people who
intimacies

from

total strangers

259

Jazz
take you into their hearts and

and

tell

their troubles

you

their family history.

There were other invariables such as marbled

lobbies. This is something no hotel can be without.
another hotel adjunct.

Also there are conventions

Men

standing about uncertainly, wearing badges

and a subdued air red and white and blue badges.

Earnest

talk,

guffaws

when

vigorous back slaps,

self-conscious

the talk grows lower in a group.

The American

business

man

is

curiously restless

on a holiday. He would rather be home, or at least

back at the office. He keeps long-distancing his
stenographer to be sure everything

is

going

all right

in his absence.

"H'lo,

thatchu,

Miss Williams?

Yah.

Say

how's everything going? That so?

Well, did
Jones come in? He never? That's funny. That's

awful funny. D'yu call him up? Well, you'd

better, if he don't come in first thing to-morrow.

Huh?

Why,

liams.

I got to

No,

it's

certainly

know what he proposes

won't bother about

that.

let

Huh?

Wil

to do.

Well, I

tell

up first thing in the morning and

me know what he says. And hello, hello,

you, call Jones

then

important, Miss

260

One-night Jazz Stands

Miss Williams,
than

home a day

There're several things

I expected.

Yah

worried about.
Jones.

be

I guess I'll

well,

kinda

don't forget to call

Goo'bye."
enjoy a hotel more than men.

Women

to be free of responsibility

mon

Fm

sooner

well-trained servants

Bellboys say

women

is

My

by pressing a button.

are tipping better

very prettiest ones.

beauty

and yet

They like
be able to sum

all

but the

These seem to think their

enough.

favorite

hobby on the road was

Out

hotel signs.

in Arizona, I got one that said

in large black letters:

to your rooms.

collecting

"Women, do not take men

Ladies will not."

In Texas, mine host welcomed us hospitably:

"We want you to feel at home. If you spit on the
floor at

home,

spit

on the

floor here/'

where they have some kind of law

the berths being extra-long.
A news

It is Illinois

about

all

paper

man

in Springfield suggested that Lincoln,

whose home

it

was, might have been responsible

for the law, he being a long

man.

If

he was, that

simply one more benefaction of his to the human

race.
I got a permanent crick in my back from
is

261

Jazz
much

scrooging

down

to

fit

inadequate beds and

sheets.

In

New

Jersey,

we ran

one

across the father of

of the most successful

starter in

taxi

Broadway stars acting as

a hotel.
In Kansas City, a girl

threatened to commit suicide unless

letter of introduction to

we gave

her a

David Belasco.

Everywhere we were besieged by youngsters

Sometimes it was
trying to get into jazz bands.
a colored bellboy

who proudly informed

us that he

was running a jazz band on the side. Not infre

quently, an ambitious parent of the town's smartest
set

would bring her boy

to play for us.

Folks

lugged in musical compositions to be judged and

instruments to be tuned and tested.
tried to

We

see everybody, because

will miss

you never know when you

a genius.

In Cleveland, we went on

by

jury.

trial ourselves

trial

Twelve prominent men and women

in

terested in music, but not professionally connected

put us on the witness stand and found us

"not guilty of being an absolute menace, but at the

with

it,

same time greatly in need of correction and refine

ment." Perhaps that was letting us off easy.
262

O n e -ni g Jit Jazz Stands

It

was

also in Cleveland that the pupils in the

continuation schools handed in written opinions of

jazz.

A college

because

it

sophomore said jazz is worth while

And a meat packer taking
dulls care.

a course in science said

it

was

all

wrong because

it

dulls the soul.

One of
in

the high spots of the tour for

me came

Providence when Rachmaninoff, the Russian

composer, postponed a

our concert.

And

trip for six

he liked

days to come to

us, too, so

he

said.

In Washington, I found out that men are the

Miss Jessie MacBride,
true supporters of jazz.

on the Washington Times, pointed out that

an afternoon audience more than fifty per cent,

critic

in

were men.

That was a record

for that city.

we found that three-fifths

audiences were men middle-aged,

later,

that

was a good argument

And

of our Boston
too.

for jazz*

thought

Men

don't

usually care for concerts.

Boston was one of the

surprises the trip held.

We

were prepared to be frozen out, having heard

of the traditional Boston antipathy to innovations.
Instead,

we had

to
capacity audiences and a request

play an extra performance.

263

Jazz
One of

the oddest concerts

was at Williamsport,

where we had a concert scheduled for Sunday

Pa.,

Unluckily, the ministers selected us for

evening.

an issue and hauled out the blue laws which made

Then our advance

on the Sabbath.

us illegal

had an

resentative, Estella Karn,

We

Monday morning?

it

not

minute past midnight, which

start the concert at a

would make

rep

Why

idea.

did,

with

great hilarity and a packed house.

hard to

It is

tell

why an

orchestra gives a better

performance one time than another.

pose,

it

is

the

way

mainly, I think,

And

audience.

it

Partly, I sup

members are

the

feeling but

has to do with the spirit of the

doubt

we

ever played better

even in San Francisco or Denver, both of which
I

if

were home, than we did on our

cago,
lights

first visit

to Chi

That warm glow that can cross the foot

started out front and ran right back stage,

Since then, I've thought of Chicago as the jolly,

friendly, self-made millionaire of cities, with the
heartiest

hand

The Denver

clasp of

concert was the hardest for me.

wonder, for while

too

many

all.

people

it's

No

great to get home, there are

who know
264

you.

You

have to be

One-night Jazz Stands

on your
are

toes every

any good and

minute to make them think you

you seem

if

to esteem yourself

too highly, they're likely to decide

you have the

bighead.

me when

In Denver, the fellows knew

had

a paper route and was the champion hotcake and

chili eater

of the town.

could

hold down that record

still

Anyway,

showed 'em I

That show was

probably better than the concert, but the concert

went
on

off all right, too, except that

me when

New

make a

I tried to

Orleans, being the

esting to

jazzists.

my voice gave out

speech.

home of

There are as

about the original jazz band in

jazz, is inter
theories

many

New

Orleans as

And

there are bands in the city to-day.

that

is

legion.

The most

entertaining jazz figure

a blind jazz musician,

jazz, for all I know.

Lacoume,
it.

He

is

Stale Bread,

who may have

invented

Stale Bread has a real

name

I believe, but

lost his sight

nobody ever remembers

twenty-five years ago and in

his blindness has taught himself to play the banjo,

the piano, the trap drums, the guitar, the mandolin

265

Jazz
and the bass

His

viol.

first

love

is

New

Orleans,

his next, jazz.

"New

Orleans

is

the jazz university of the coun

"You

he boasts.

let

a musician

tell

any
bunch in the world that he learned his jazz in New
Orleans and they'll give him a chance to show his
try,"

stuff."

There were eight members of Stale Bread's orig

These were known about town as
inal band.
Piggy,
Bottle,

Family Haircut, Warm Gravy,

Seven Colors, Whiskey and Monk.

The band hang-out was

Home on
organizer.

Barronne

Street.

the
Stale

Booze

old

Newsboys'
Bread was the

His instruments were a cheese box for a

box

guitar,

a half barrel bass

fiddle.

banjo, a soap

a cigar box violin and

He had also an old

tambourine, a zither and a harmonica.

The

leader trained his gang until the noise they

made was adequate even to their small-boy ears.

Then he took them out to play on the street. In
he was blocking traffic. A sour-face
He
complained and a cop pinched the band.

no time at

all,

brought them into court and the judge, trying not

to laugh, ordered

them

to play in their

266

own

defense.

One-night Jazz Stands

It

was a great moment

blind boy.

and

zoner,"

He

rose

in the life of the little

bowed

gravely,

"Hiz-

to

the spectators, raised a piece of

wood

that he used for a baton, and the dirty, ragged eight

Stale Bread thinks that was the

began.

any; court in the world ever heard jazz.

listened

solemnly.

When

the

last

first

time

The judge

fearful note

died, he turned to the leader.

"Stale Bread," said he, "you

you're a spasm band.

The name

Discharged/'

stuck and the spasm

Stale Bread

playing.

be a band, but

may

is still

band went on
playing and

playing

talking jazz.

John Robichaux and John

orchestra leaders

who

Piron,

New

Orleans

claim to have been present

at the birth of jazz, believe that the great American

noise started along the water front

Negro musicians and developed

soul of

They
critical

New

natural

into the heart

and

Orleans.

are very proud of jazz in

of visiting brands.

show *em

among

New

Orleans but

"Takes N'Awleens to

real jazz," they maintain.

When we

we found all the po*

For awhile we felt a little

got to St. Louis,

licemen out with guns.

267

Jazz
uncertain whether this was a greeting or a precau
It turned out to be merely police drill.

tion.

In this Missouri city

rag man,
still

now

lives

John

Stark, original

He

publishes and sells ragtime.

soul about everything else, but jazz

to

Mr. Stark

eighty-four years old.

him and jazz makers not much

is

anathema

He

better.

his establishment the "classic rag house,"

it,

a gentle

is

calls

and from

he issued the original "Maple Leaf Rag" of

Scott Joplin, purchased for something like fifteen

dollars.

We

couldn't get

Mr. Stark to come to our con

may have wished the

police had used their guns that day we arrived.
Perhaps, all along the line there were people who
I have a feeling he

cert.

shared this sentiment.

in Texas*

makers.

But

I trust

and believe not

In Texas, everybody loves jazz and jazz

The

hotter the jazz

is,

the better they like

The only time they resented us was when

they got the idea we were trying to be highbrow.
it,

too.

We

played

Austin.

women

Two

before

I like

Governor

women

Ma

governors

Ferguson
seems to

in

me

are cut out for that sort of thing.

of the

band were

arrested in

268

Texas because

n e -ni glit

Jazz Stands

they left their hotel after midnight to get some

thing to eat. They weren't familiar with customs
in these wide open spaces.

There are several kinds of

with a gang as

full of

risks

when you

pep as mine.

travel

successful

demands every player in his place and feel

ing right up to the mark. So we had to keep out
of fights, jails and epidemics. Our doctor usually

concert

had the fellows drink ginger

ale instead of water,

That doctor spent

though. He made me

so they wouldn't catch germs.

most of

his time

on

my

trail,

cut out meat, bread and potatoes.

good, he let

me have

every other day.

down

was very

If I

a second helping of spinach

Once

I lost fifty

pounds and got

to 230.

I think our tour

was one of the longest ever

at

tempted by a full orchestra. We played every

town and city of any note in the North and South

Los Angeles and

San Francisco and then back through the Middle
all the

West.

way through El Paso

In

Jackson,

closed church to

to

Mississippi,

come out and hear

Billy
us.

Lots of courtesies were shown us and

good time, though we worked hard.

269

Sunday

we had a

The "family"

Jazz
got to be great

be playing

little

silly

and we used always

jokers

to

pranks on one another with the

audience sometimes in on the joke, sometimes not.

One evening
teeth,

making

it

put some black

gum on my

front

look as if three or four were out,

and the boys nearly broke down from laughter.

The next night, while I was off stage, they rigged

made

themselves out in whiskers

an impromptu

The

surprise for

tour turned

bureau.

me

of false hair as

me.

into a perpetual information

Girls wanted to

know what was

the Prince

of Wales' favorite musical instrument and were his

eyes really blue?

"Will saxophone playing injure the voice?"

anxious mothers asked.
"How do you organize a
jazz band?"

"Do you

really

make

as

much money

"Can you recommend a hotel

York where I could go with two children?

as the paper said?"

in

New

I have heard lots of hotels in

New York

don't allow

children."
I got used to speaking to

women's clubs and

shaving in a rocking Pullman, though I was heckled

sometimes by the clubs and cut myself a time

two at the shaving.

270

01

One-night Jazz Stands

I

wouldn't take anything for

road.

I feel that I

my

know America and Americans

better than I ever did before.

I believe I can con

duct an orchestra better because of

standing and

am

months on the

going to

do

it

until I've proved that jazz is music.

271

my

one-night

over every year

XIV

The Future

of Jazz

The Future

XIV:

///HAT

of Jazz

end of jazz? I don't

know.
Nobody knows. One may only
Perhaps my ideas on such a nebulous
speculate.
will be the

subject are as likely to be sound as the next man's.

I don't

know.
I

Anyway,
seems to

me

First of

am no

prophet,

I can only say

possible and a very

all,

little

Artistic

Alas, no!

other music of ours?

it is

Europe grants

Have Europeans

and applauds.

probable.

jazz has a chance because

sheer Americanism.

what
a

this

ever accepted any

We

have assim

made none of them

Henderson, New York musical

ilated the arts of Europe, yet

our own.
critic,

puts

As

W.

it:

teenth century,

J.

"Up to the beginning of the nine

we produced nothing which still

3
moves before us/

If

we made

a play,

quhar, or Sheridan.

it

was patterned

When we
275

after Far-

painted a portrait,

Jazz
we

fixed a reverent gaze on Sir Joshua Reynolds.

When we

fashioned a public building,

before the shrines of

Wren and

Our music followed

is

not the best way.

if

we had been

the

we bowed

Gibbs.

same

lines.

And

We'd not have had

satisfied

that

a Ford

with European ways

nor

perhaps a phonograph, nor a steamboat, nor a sky

scraper.

It is

something to branch out at

ourselves in music as in other efforts.

we

not mean of course that

create art.

But

shall

last for

This does
immediately

then, neither does the fact that

many
mean

look upon jazz as a sort of artistic blasphemy

that

it is so.

those

who

are shocked at

We

jazzists

might reply to

what they

call bizarre

sounds evoked by our instruments, as Turner did

to his lady

critic.

"Mr. Turner," said the dame, "I never

colors in the sunset as

you

see such

see."

"Don't you wish you could, ma'am?" reparteed

the painter.

Turner was ahead of his generation and knew it.

Perhaps we jazzists are ahead of ours. But I must
confess in all humbleness that

276

we have moments

The Future
when we doubt

this as

Jazz

of

much

as

any of those who

cavil.

We
like

encouraged occasionally by musicians

are

Leopold Stokowski, John Alden Carpenter and

who

Fritz Kreisler

tell

us that jazz will live.

We

wish there were more of them writing jazz. They

could answer the jeers directed at our infant art
better

by composition than by words.

Not
cism*

that I for one

Was

it

what was the

opening of the

know and

Haydn

am

greatly affected

by criti
not Mendelssohn who, when asked
root of the strong discord at the

c<

Wedding March,"
don't care."
Even

replied, "I don't

the law-abiding

called the rules of music his servants

wrote consecutive

fifths that

and

must have shocked the

academic of the time.

When
a

Beethoven began his first symphony with

discord, all the orthodox were scandalized.

They might even have

accused him of "jazzing

it

up," if the phrase had been invented then. The

new is always bearing the brunt of our human ten

dency to find fault. That doesn't matter. What

does matter is that there have been advances in
jazz which prove that the material has something
277

Jazz
The

rhythms of the pres

ent day represent great progress from the crudities

worth while.

soft jazz

of ten years ago.

Because

it

must be played by Americans

well-played, jazz

chance.

It will

to be

giving the

young musician
continue to do that.
It has
is

his
al

ready compelled the musical world to take George

Gershwin seriously. He has been commissioned to
write for the

New York Symphony.

never

seriously

taken

until

the

But he was

"Rhapsody

in

Blue/' though he had been writing musical revues

and popular songs

.

Some

day,

it

for a long time.

will be with jazz here as

the races in England.

it is

Everybody who can

scrape

together a few shillings goes to the races.

are a national institution.

Jg^j^iojial

with

They

Jazz^will be^ari^mer-

institution^

Every boy, whether he

is

normally musically in

clined or not, wants to learn to play something.

Jazz has given him the opportunity of his life and

something is going to come of it. Perhaps that
something will be a new art. Certainly it will be
a good deal of musical composition, some of

bad and some of

it,

I hope, very good.

278

it

very

The Future
Will

/,

J az z

be possible eventually to establish chairs

of jazz in universities? I do not see why not. My
conception of a college is a place which teaches its
it

students that which will be useful and pleasant for

them

to

know.

Jazz music

who have worked

is

certainly useful-

their

way through college

a
or
twanging a banjo can often
blowing saxophone
step into jobs that pay $75 or $100 a week. I mean
Players

jazz banding jobs.

that

starts

Tell

me any

other occupation

the June graduate off at any

such

salary.

An

example of the financial

possibilities of the

by Roger Wolfe Kahn, son

of Otto Kahn, wealthy New York banker and art
This youth of seventeen has an income
patron.
jazz band

is

furnished

of $1,000 a week from his five bands, while his

banking business
from the bottom up, receive less than a quarter
of his weekly wage per month.
friends, starting in to learn the

One

of the

first

conceits

after the debut at Aeolian

the

Academy

the

money taken

at

Rome.
in

my

orchestra played

Hall was a

The

story got about that

was to be used

to establish

chair of jazz at the foreign institution.

279

benefit for

lot of

Jazz
They wrote

people got terribly excited.

letters to

and inveighed against such a

scheme, predicting the fall of everything that was
high and holy in music. I hope they will live to
the

newspapers

see

what a jazz

I think they

do to

chair will

may be

For

civilization.

agreeably surprised.

One

thing must happen before the future of jazz

can be assured. That is, the critics must stop com

paring jazz and symphony orchestras.

comparison
in

is

not

fair.

instrumentation,

are quite another.

almost as

The symphony
and

scoring

is

Such a
one thing

To my mind comparing

silly as the talk of

a jazz opera.

not believe there can be a real jazz opera.

is

too

much

contradiction

We

direction.

of terms.

us
I

is

do

There

The very

theme of jazz is unfitted to opera. The operatic

form was built for folk lore. You can't fit such a

form to the romance, say, of the skyscraper which

is, after all, an expression of jazz.

Nor do

see

why anybody would want

to.

Every honest musician must concede that grand

opera is the worst possible form of music. In fact,
it is

not music at

all

a hash of music, drama

it is

and tableau in which they

all are debased.

280

Think

The Future

of

Jazz

of gargling for half an hour to express toe simple

fact that one

absurdity,

Opera

is

Yet

hungry.

what happens

one of

is

to spend at

moves

is

it,

my

that,

in every

favorite sports

or

known

when

but nobody can deny that

slowly, held back

and forced

while the drama catches up with

an equal

to

opera.

have time
its

music

mark time

and the stage

it

Jazz does not move slowly.

Anything written around a jazz theme would have
to be a musical show, not an opera.
I do not see

hands

shift scenery.

why we

should not have

sake, let's

own new

this.

But

for goodness*

throw away the old forms and create our

ones.

something that can dispense with

known forms and make a form of its own, or else
Either jazz

it is

now

is

America has a marvelous chance just

to get even with Europe. For the first time,

nothing.

Europeans are interested in something besides our

up our simplest jazz trick. When

I was in France a few years ago, the Paris Conserv

dollar.

They

eat

atory sent a representative to ask for jazz scores

for their library.

I suggested other

American com

positions to them, but they said they

wanted

jazz.

All the records of the past seem, if not to point

281

Jazz
to the future greatness of jazz, at least to argue
it

first

presented,

it

esthetic ear than jazz

1879 confided

When

Wagner's music was

was even more revolting to the

has a chance.

that

is

Clara Schumann in

now.

to her diary:

"I have been glancing

through a number of

new musical

The

influence of

feel depressed.

reaching and injurious.

No

for melody.

The way people

is

terrible.

something

productions and

Wagner

is

far-

one cares any more

fling

harmony about

Resolutions are considered

unnecessary."

And

then there was the sarabande.

word brings up

to

To-day the
most of our minds the slow and

rhythms of Bach or Handel. It makes us

think of noble and dignified strains in sonatas and
stately

operas of the eighteenth century.

bande,

when

Yet

the sara-

the restless younger generation in the

Spain of 1588 took to dancing it, was more of a

blow to the orthodox than is the most shocking jazz
to-day to the same class.
Father Mariana, writing in 1609, accused the
sarabande of having done more harm than the bu
bonic plague

Middle Ages.

which devastated

Yet eventually
282

Europe in the

this outrageous af-

The Future

of

Jazz

front to the morals of the unco' guid became the

inspiration for some of the greatest musical

com

posers.

The Waltz had almost

as stormy

Lord Byron had something

tion.

an introduc

to say of this in

novation :
"Not

soft Herodias, with

danced

off another's

Not Cleopatra on

winding tread, her nimble feet

head;

her galley's deck, displayed so

much

of

limb or more of neck

Than

thou, ambrosial waltz."

Perhaps these instances of the past prove noth

ing, after all, except the need for a certain generos
one were attempting
to be a prophet, it might not be bad logic to predict
that some day jazz will mean what sarabande does

ity

and

tolerance.

At any

to-day.

Still,

if

rate, jazz,

though maligned,

is

in

a better position than were the German operas in

France during the period that a man could be put
into jail for whistling one of them.

a parallel of the past to be drawn, too,

between jazz and folk songs. What folk song

There

is

would have amounted

writer

had not put

it

some great
Jazz
into a symphony?

to anything if

wears elaborate garments well,

283

too.

Why may one

Jazz
not hope to see

it

one day dressed in the best?

Not

symphony, but in some new and equally beau

Folk songs are simple
tiful garment of its own.

in

melodies.

The harmonic

folk song,

it

wholly unim
portant, yet these tunes have been used as themes
by the greatest. Jazz is elemental, too. Like the

an undeveloped

satisfies

and emotional craving.

esthetic

meets and

is

setting

who hope

further comfort for those

thing better in the future of jazz

that the jazz music

movement

is

some

the fact

lies in

accompanied by

the same tendency in art

and

ment

bound by

so widespread seems

for

literature.

all the

move

laws of

chance to contribute something of permanence.

Sometimes

when

average
think
rather

it

will

than

knowledge

am

the

how

asked

the jazzists will

pendulum swings back

.as

many

and the standard becomes "thought

quality

spirits,

rather

than

rather

irreticence,

than

color,

intelligence

rather than singularity, wit rather than romp, pre

cision rather than surprise,

and dignity rather than

impudence."
I confess I

standards.

do not

see

why

After all emotion

284

these should be the

is

the foundation of

The Future of Jazz

art as it

of

is

And

life.

certainly jazz has enough

of emotion and to spare.

I wish our jazz discussions could spare the in
vectives.

Even defending

If one could remain

be defiant.
it

jazz, one

would accomplish more

ton reviewer put

it,

whether or not jazz

"One can
critic,

take

"for here

it

is

is

inclined to

amused and

letting, as a

Washing

"the nose glasses fight over

music."

or leave it," adds this irreverent

it is,

thumbing

its

snippy nose at

the sticks-in-the-mud, the high and holy.

just

aloof,

a glorious joke on elderly musicians,

If

it is

it is

good one."
I like to remember that

my

it

was

after he

had heard

orchestra that Dr. Leopold Stokowski, inter

nationally

known conductor

of the Philadelphia

symphony, gave out an interview declaring that

jazz had come to stay. He did not prophesy that
jazz itself would ascend to true greatness, but held

was an epoch-making influence, the tendency

of which might bring about a revolution in the
that

it

whole world of music.

He

predicted that, through

the influence of America, the entire art will be vul

of the word and enter

garized in the best sense
285

Jazz
more and more
fluencing

them and becoming part of

He

ophy.

into the daily life of the people, in

pointed out three obvious trends which

have sprung from jazz.

First, he said, there

building of

all

is

which will

in the

their philos

either necessitate the re

instruments

method of

now

in use or a reform

their use since to

play

it

requires

an instrument for many hands.

The second trend was toward the development

with the eventual combination of

visual color symphonies

and tonal

effects.

Third, he saw the development of music into

multiple jforms Jn which there would be the elim
ination of prohibition in music so that all forms

would be permitted, with the

result of greater

variety to appeal to all sorts of people.

The

quarter tone idea in music

interest

to

The

the orchestra*

is

of particular

orchestra

is

ob

viously the one and only "musical instrument with

many

hands."

May

not jazz development there

fore lend a widespread

movement toward com

munity play? Instead of one musician with piano

and violin, two, three, four or six persons may play
286

The F uture of Jazz

together, indeed

must play together

if

they are to

use the greatly extended, beautifully flexible scale

of greater tones.

back into

its

Thus, perhaps music will be put

proper place in the

munity, making

in

it

home and

it is

a vital factor.

life

Perhaps that is far-fetched but

it might come.

am

com

American towns what

already in European village

the

it

me

seems to

ambitious for jazz to develop always in an

American way. I want to see compositions written

around the great natural and geographical features
of American
lieve this

own
their

life

would help Americans to appreciate

country

their

Hudson,

Painted Desert.

in each of these.

no mouse

we are
It is

written in the jazz idiom.

castles

True,

There

lorelized rocks,

That

We must make

not old enough.

time we began.

thematic material

we have no

on the Hudson,

their

Grand Canyon,

their
is

I be

is

because

traditions.

Jazz can help by catching

our national themes fast in composition.

want jazz to give the young musician his

chance. The unknown composer has to pay to get
I

his compositions played

by a good symphony.

he usually has no money

so his chance

287

is

And

gone.

Jazz
is

hope jazz
for

its

hope

going to give him his chance.

lies in

The charge
all

must

in youth.

that has been

made

is

true

jazz

up and has hardly any place to

because so few composers are writing

dressed

That
it.

him

It

is

The

minded

best of

for jazz.

them are too old and

don't dance.

is

go.

for

serious-

They

don't

catch the rhythm of the younger generation.

We

must look

to jhe

They

ypUDgjfote for the jazz compo^i-

We

tLQns,^of,.theJ'uturc

must

see that

comes as much an education staple in

Who

as reading or spelling.

concerts

mostly

Except

to-day^

men and women

There

way

except in his chosen

line.

tainment.

And we must

the school room.

music

to educate

students,

an American

That way

is

by

enter

start the entertainment in

we must

train the popular

composer to become a better musician.

the

symphony

Since the high-brow composer will

not write jazz music,

teach

country

over forty.

only one

is

this

goes to

for

music be

rhythmic invention,

the

We

must

contrapuntal

construction and formal variety needed in the best

of jazz composition.

When
288

this is done, I venture

The Future
to say that the future of

of

Jazz

modern American music

will reveal itself soon enough.

Of

what jazz really needs is a fairy god

mother to endow it. So far there has been no
course,

chance to take time

millionaire has

off for experimentation.

come forward

funds for laboratory work.

No

to offer the necessary

It is not so easy to

keep only the best when one must at the same time
be thinking of how to make one's bread and butter.

But we

shall keep trying

the fairy godmother

289

until perhaps

we

find

XV
As for

Me

XV: As for
RE

you

Me

really going to devote

your

life

to jazz*?" asked a friend who hates jazz,

I didn't answer at once because I never before

had looked
come,

it

was

I don't

but when the answer did

so far ahead
yes.

know

exactly

to jazz, but such as

it is,

has been good to me.

ads, it satisfies.

what

my

As they say

It gives

me,

It affords

It has

won me a

recognition

and

it

first,

me

Jazz

in the cigarette

a medium of

field for experi

certain

amount of

among people whose opinion

has paid

be worth

I offer it gladly.

musical expression.
mentation.

life will

In

well financially.

I esteem
this last

good deal more profitable to lead a

jazz orchestra than to be president.
respect, it is a

And when

I see

what a worry

ident, I can't help preferring

it is

my own

to be pres

job.

whole, I have rather a full and interesting

293

On

the

life as

Jazz
man who

does any

is

doing work he

I live

likes.

in the country in summer, near

so that I can get a

swim

after

enough the ocean

work. I am a dub

at golf, but possess one friend I can beat.

I find time occasionally for the theater, books

(mostly on music), romps with

my
it

were not too

is

my best

trite, I

should say here that

pal and severest

critic.

was, before her marriage,

known

my

If

wife

Mrs. Whiteman

Vanda Hoff,

well-

and she knows and loves music.

dancer,

She goes to

boy, talks with

commonplace American man.

just a

wife

my

all

our rehearsals and

tells

me how

terrible they are.

I get

mad, of

talking.

In spite

and she calmly keeps on

of myself, I listen and generally

course,

end by thinking pretty much as she does.

time

we

really quarrel is

throw out

my

when

The only

she threatens to

locomotives which she says mess

up

the house.

go blithely on insisting that jazz is the

American music, To prove my assertion, I

I shall
real

shall play all of it that I

can lay

my hands

on, the

more pretentious the better.

Young composers
may have the assurance at all times that ours is one
294

Me

As for

organization from which the native product

may

get a hearing. Whether jazz will make music or

not cannot be settled by arguing about it. The

only
I
I

way

is

to try it out.

have dozens of experiments to make with jazz.

am

convinced that

has therapeutic value.

it

way will be found to use it in curing dis

of mind and body, especially melancholia that

believe a
eases

amounts eventually

to insanity.

used by Southern planters of

all

Music has been

time to speed up

used to such an extent

work among the negroes

that special song leaders were hired on the same

basis as

workmen.

So far

no

there has been

serious attempt to

em

ploy music in practical everyday life. I think this

will all come. Already it has been ascertained that

a person totally deaf gets certain vibrations from

jazz music which raise the pulse beat and produce
all the

symptoms of

exhilaration.

Being a jazz missionary

life.

is

not the easiest job in

Frankly, the ultimate purpose

public taste until

serious music.

it

But

is to raise

the

will accept a full evening of

it is

a ticklish business, trying

295

Jazz
to

put jazz in the position of being recognized as

a serious medium.

On

the one hand,

we must not dash

at once into

music that sends away the very ones we ;want to

educate. On the other, we must not offend the per
sons whose approval
progress

we

need.

So for a

time, our

must be a compromise.

Meantime, there
from the

front.

is

considerable cheering news

Siegfried

Wagner, son of the

famous writer of music drama, who

visited this

country not so very long ago, thinks jazz "is a

step to real musical achievement."

know

pianist, plays jazz for his

and Mrs. Kreisler complains that

Levitski, well-

own amusement,
since her

husband

discovered jazz, he scarcely ever practices

plays jazz.

Eva

just

Gauthier, singer, has placed jazz

on her concert programs. Darius Milhaud and Igor

Stravinski have been influenced by jazz rhythms
in their work and admit it. We have Leo Sowerby,

young American composer, doing "Synconata" and

other pieces for the jazz orchestra, and and Ernest

John Alden Carpenter, Cole Porter,

Deems Taylor, George Gershwin and Ferde Grofe

Schelling,

experimenting with the idiom.

296

A
Once

Me

for

in a while, too, comes a letter like the one

from Rudolph Gans, conveying kindly sentiments

about what we are trying to do and adding: "I
can listen to well- written and well-played jazz for
quite a while with pleasure, sometimes with
emotion."

To

be

sure,

then I get tired

Mr. Gans presently admits, "and

of it, to say the least. But so would

overcome by a program of purely sentimental

romantic music. Anyway, legitimate dance music
I feel

has never been so beautifully symphonic as

and has never been

as melodically

now

and harmoni

cally satisfying as in the outstanding works written

in jazz

form and jazz

however,

it

spirit to-day.

Melodically,

has been to a great extent at the expense

of the recognized masters of music.

This

is to

be

regretted."

For the

rest,

world where

there

is

tired ears

not hear jazz

strains.

at least one place in the

rest assured

may
That

is

in

they will

an English

jail.

I hear that the Commissioners of Prisons for Great

Britain have banned all jazz music, finding

it

too

amusing.

However,

I shall not try

297

a British

jail as

a jazz

Jazz
When

refuge.

am

finished with jazz, or

it is fin

ished with me, I shall retire to a certain ranch near

Denver

a ranch that jazz built

haps

who knows?

among

the classics.

spend

THE END

298

my

and

there, per

declining

years