Florin Ciocanu

MUEL 2750
The Jazz Academic Establishment
The article What Did We Do to Be So Black and Blue? by Scott DeVeaux presents
reviews of some of the more influential Jazz history works such as Cats of Any Color by Gene
Lees, Reading Jazz by David Meltzer and Jazz: The American Theme Song by James
Lincoln Collier, and addresses their respective authors attitude towards the idea of Jazz being
considered black music. DeVeaux addresses each of these writers individually, concentrating
on their most popular or most recent volumes and summarizing each view of the history of Jazz
and the role of skin color within it. All three writers being reviewed seem to have more or less
the same belief that Jazz is greatly influenced by white Americans, but the background for this
belief is different for each. DeVeaux has his own theory on the question and attribution of Jazz to
a certain race. According to DeVeaux, the ideal way to describe Jazz and its history is to strip its
retelling of racism and make the platform on which it is delivered as transparent as possible.
Although very noble, DeVeauxs idea of transparency and his criticism of the three other writers
are dated and while important and true in my opinion, doesnt have much significance in todays
society.
DeVeaux starts off his review with a self-introduction and the events that led to him
addressing the issue of attribution of Jazz to African-Americans. He was influenced to write this
review and express his own opinion on the matter after taking the job of a history of Jazz
professor after the previous professor vanished. He was met with a refusal of a coloured Asian
student to answering any questions because of issues of racism and segregation. This peaked

DeVeauxs interest in the issue of discrimination within Jazz research and academia and brought
forth his idea of a perfect discourse in which the delivery be as transparent as possible and bring
forth the facts and situations from the past with little to no bias towards any race or other factors.
DeVeaux first addresses Gene Lees Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White. He
attacks Lees reliance on anecdotal evidence, such as blues singer Bessie Smiths death being
caused by the refusal of admittance to a white hospital and pianist John Eaton being asked to
play music of black composers with a grotesque portrait of Duke Ellington on stage and Lees
reliance on exclusive evidence, such as an article from The Crisis claiming Jazz as black music
being neglected by the xenophobe white institution. Lees refutes the article and accuses the
opposite white musicians being marginalized. That is not the case as seen in black musicians
holding white musicians in high esteem and citing them as of developmental importance.
DeVeaux addresses Lees upbringing and how it let to him joining a generation of liberal and
pro-black, white critics and how Lees outrage at any form of discrimination clouds his view on
the actual history of Jazz, but makes his book, Cats of Any Color worth reading.
David Meltzers opinion on Jazz being black music is conceded without comment, but
only to be contradicted later by the claim that Jazz is a white invention. DeVeaux attacks
Meltzers lack of experience in the academia and by extent his ignorance on the rhetoric said
academia presents. Meltzers mission is supposedly to provide a more common view of Jazz
history; however, DeVeaux sees it more as a work of fiction designed to instill emotion as
derived from Meltzers profession as a poet.
Colliers works are studied and described more in depth due to the larger number and
more diverse exposition of ideas. Unlike the previous two writers, DeVeaux mentions Colliers

career as a professional musician and an academic outsider. He also describes Collier as

skeptical, detached and scholarly in his insistence on grounding his arguments in documented
evidence. The last bit is important because he is later accused of using selective evidence. Collier
cites DeVeaux that explains Jazz as being heavily identified with African-American culture.
While the excerpt is close to implying that DeVeaux himself agrees with the idea that Jazz is
black music, DeVeaux defends the context as being strictly historic. He is contradicting himself
slightly when he answers Colliers question: "Is it really possible to assign ethnicity to a cultural
artifact. DeVeaux says yes, which drives away from his claim that a good history of Jazz is one
devoid of bias. In the case in which DeVeaux means that we assign ethnicity to cultural artifacts
in day to day life and try to stay away from it within an educated academia, separating the two is
not as simple, where a professor would switch his bias on or off, therefore I find this point
DeVeaux makes fallacious and lightly ignorant. Collier, like Lees, asserts that Jazz shouldnt be
attributed to anyone, because it takes away at white musicians that put their life in it. DeVeaux
says the scenario of discrimination against whites is not really plausible logically and
empirically. DeVeaux also notices Colliers misinterpretation of a survey concerning Jazz
popularity within different ethnicities. Collier proceeds to unfairly berate Jazz historians that
wrote on the genre during its apogee to which DeVeaux proclaims his attacks as narrow-minded
and while some of previous writing is parochial, to disbar the entire community a priori is not
fair. Collier arrogantly indirectly declares his superiority over academics across multiple
generations through his experience as a musician.
I do agree with DeVeauxs idea that Jazz or any other creative or cultural device should
not be exposed to any bias from chroniclers; however I find his actual intent somewhat suspect
after his assertions about naturally identifying for example Verdi as Italian and so forth. I will

grant his the benefit of the doubt, assuming he changed his opinion between writing
Constructing the Jazz Tradition in 1991 and this article in 1996. While I do support DeVeaux
and like his review of the three pieces presented, I am not sure how representative are these three
assumptions compared to the rest of the library on the topic. Further, since this article was
written in 1996, I find it dated and not very relevant to todays society and culture. Jazz was a
very influential genre for many of todays trends, it is not addressed or played much anymore,
meaning the issue of attribution has not completely disappeared, but has diminished so much that
I believe not much effort should be put into raising it again or changing peoples mind. Also, in
todays society racism has comparably diminished in comparison to 1996 or earlier, so people
are more sensitive about attributing Jazz to an ethnicity. The article is a great piece of writing in
spite of present circumstance and is a great insight on the debate of association and different
positions held during the 1990s and well worth reading.

Notes:
Scott DeVeaux, What Did We Do to Be so Black and Blue? (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996)