Lately I’ve really wanted to get into Hot Jazz/Prewar Jazz but it’s almost intimidating. There’s a wealth of music that deserves to be acknowledged, but also dismissed (in my opinion) as this was a time where black music was easily and often exploited/stolen/mimicked. Paul Whiteman deemed himself the King of Jazz, when he was more realistically a Criminal of Jazz. It’s arguable as to whether or not white adaptations of black music helped or hurt, but that’s another day and another conversation.
I feel like one obvious reason that Hot Jazz is so hard for people to bear is simply because of the poor quality of recordings and the difficulty finding material. I have to admit that I used to hate poor recording quality, but to a certain degree it really adds to the overall aesthetic. This was the cutting edge of recording technology at the time, and all things considered, it’s impressive how great some of these recordings sound.
This video was still technically in the era where Duke Ellington was acclaimed for his “jungle sound.” Granted the idea of “jungle music” is clearly racist, but this era of jazz is so outrageously fascinating. It’s a bit of a novelty, but I love the interjection of voice into the trumpet as well as the use of the mute during this time. It’s so specific to this particular time in music that using some of these techniques today would almost be disingenuous. Also, I’m not a fan of vocal jazz, but when it comes to Billie Holiday my heart melts and or breaks when she sings. All I need to do now is find more of this hotjazz!
