Jazz and Tango (was Jazz & Jewish musical identity - 1925)

[Lloica <mezzo...>]

  Very interesting indeed.  I wonder how clear is the parallel between the
way that jazz represents the American identity and the way tango does the
Argentinian.  To start with, the place jazz comes from seems to be similar
to where tango comes from.  Perhaps one could argue that the mixed nature
both of jazz and of tango make them suitable for Jews to feel identified
with its complexity and adopt it to express their own.  For example, is it a
coincidence that Porgy and Bess was written by a Jew?  Or was he so
"assimilated" by then that his Jewishness didn't count anymore?

  Of course one must bear in mind that the US and Argentina were the two
main recipients of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe up to the 1930s,
but even so, is it a coincidence that a similar phenomenon was occuring in
at least two different countries?

  By the way, Al Jolson also premiered the tango Oh Donna Clara by Jerzy
Petersburky in the US, before it became an international hit.  So he
performed both tango and jazz, as did many of the Jewish cabaret and Yiddish
theatre singers of the time.

  Any thoughts?  Is there any literature written on this topic?

  Lloica




  *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
  Lloica Czackis - singer and researcher
  Tangele: Argentinian Yiddish Tango Ensemble
  email: tangele (at) lloicaczackis(dot)com
  www.lloicaczackis.com/tangele.htm



  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Sam Weiss" <SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net>
  To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
  Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 7:19 PM
  Subject: Jazz & Jewish musical identity - 1925


  > "Notes From Zamir", which I referenced earlier regarding Salomone Rossi,
  > is turning into a very interesting Jewish Music magazine.  In their
current
  > issue devoted to Jewish Musical Theatre, also available online,
  > http://www.zamir.org/Notes/
  > There's an article by Mark Slobin on "The Jazz Singer," from which
  > comes  the following excerpt which I thought would be interesting to
many
  > on this list:
  > -S.W.
  >
  > < <...A young man named Samson Raphaelson did understand the inherent
  > dramatic possibilities of the rise of the immigrant entertainer. While
  > still in his twenties, Raphaelson wrote a short story called "The Day of
  > Atonement," and then turned it into a highly successfiil Broadway
  > production of 1925 called The Jazz Singer. It starred George Jessel, who
  > apparently gave the performance of a lifetime. Indeed, some New York
  > reviews concentrated on the remarkable dramatic skills of the
vaudevillian
  > and even presumed the play was put together as a vehicle for Jessel's
  > crossover to legitimate theater. It was, however, a goal far from
  > Raphaelson's mind. The author laid out his own agenda with extreme
clarity
  > in a preface to the published version of the play:
  >
  > >      In seeking a symbol of the vital chaos of America's soul, I find
no
  > > more adequate one than jazz... Jazz is prayer. It is too passionate to
be
  > > anything else. It is prayer distorted, sick, unconscious of its
  > > destination.... In this, my first play, I have tried to crystallize
the
  > > ironic truth that one of the Americas of 1925-that one which packs to
  > > ovefflowing our cabarets, musical reviews and dance halls-is praying
with
  > > a fervor as intense as that of the America which goes sedately to
church
  > > and synagogue....
  > >&I have used a Jewish youth as my protagonist because the Jews are
  > >determining the nature and scope of jazz more than any other race-more
  > >than the Negroes from whom they have stolen jazz and given it a new
color
  > >and meaning. Jazz is Irving Berlin, A' Jolson, Sophia Tucker. These are
  > >Jews with their roots in the synagogue. And these are cx-pressing in
  > >evangelical terms the nature of our chaos today.
  > >      You find the soul of a people in the songs they sing. You find
the
  > > meaning of the songs in the souls of the minstrels who create and
  > > interpret them. In "The Jazz Singer," I have attempted an exploration
of
  > > the soul of one of these minstrels.
  >
  > Notice Raphaelson's insight into the linkage of the Jew "with his roots
in
  > the synagogue" with the social ferment here loosely generalized as jazz.
  > There are both literal and metaphoric truths lurking in his purple
prose.
  > Literally, he is correct: many of the main figures of Jewish-American,
  > internal entertainment began their careers as choirboys; in addition, a
  > figure like Irving Berlin had similar experiences, and Jolson himself
  > really was the son of a cantor. Metaphorically, the sense of the star
  > entertainer as being on a par with the ecstatic, shamanistic ritual of
the
  > evangelist and medicine man is an insight regarding American popular
  > culture that was just beginning to emerge in 1925. Raphaelson had
grasped
  > the fact that the immigrants could wield power through entertainment,
and
  > that their power stemmed from an ability to channel their indigenous
  > expressive systems into strategic, socially rewarding directions. It is
no
  > accident that he calls these entertainers "minstrels"; they literally
were
  > minstrels. Virtually every major entertainer-Jolson, Cantor, Jesse,
Sophia
  > Tucker, even the Yiddish comedienne Molly Pico-appeared in blackface
early
  > in their careers. Some of them explicitly state, in memoirs, the comfort
  > they derived from putting on that all-American mask of burnt cork. In
  > blackface, they were no longer the immigrant-they were one with the soul
of
  > America as represented by the grotesque co-optation of the slave's
persona.
  > As bizarre as such a phenomenon must have been for Eastern European
Jews,
  > so completely unfamiliar with the concept of black vs. white as cardinal
  > principle of social organization, they quickly understood its value for
  > them: the ritual mask of the powerless gave them, the underdogs, sacred
  > strength in this strange and dangerous New World...> >
  >
  >
  > _____________________________________________________________
  > Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ
  >
  > _____________________________________________________________
  > Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ
  >
  >
  >
  >



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