Jazz And The Essence of America
Considering how jazz is transcribed in Chinese , you may be misledsintosassuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among black Americans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the very bottom of the American social heap.
So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in todays American culture? Mr Darrell A Jenks, director of the American Center for Educational Exchange, and also a drummer in the jazz band Window, analyses the phenomenon for us here. Jazz: the soul of America
Perhaps the essence of America is that you could never get two Americans to agree on just what that might be. After thinking about it for a while, we might chuckle and say, Hmm, seems like being American is a bit more complicated than we thought. Certainly things like individualism, success , innovation and tolerance stand out. But these things come together because of our ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse we might be.
Some, like African-American writer Ralph Ellison, be-lieve that jazz captures the essence of America. For good reason,for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of individual brilliance that cant take place without thesgroupsefforts of the rhythm section. Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence of America in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of the African roots of American culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of the Africans whose culture came to dominate much of what is American.
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2016-02-26
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