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JAZZ MUSIC: IT’S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE
DR. ITISHRI SARANGI
Assistant Professor (II),
KIIT University,
Bhubaneswar.
ABSTRACT
Literature and music have become a budding and flourishing
area. Many writers consider music as the healing and
therapeutic force against all types of oppression in the society,
may it be social, racial, emotional, sexual tyranny and the
suppression of the society. The meanness inflicted and imposed
on mankind can be overcome through music as an alluring
factor. The Jazz narratives found an expression in music and
later as a literary form. The Jazz literature speaks of the
struggles, pain and the fight in an unconcealed way. Jazz
literature challenged the pessimistic impression of the
blackness that was experienced in white world order. The
powerful narrative of the Jazz narratives are the outburst of the
pent up feeling that has long been gathered in the mindset of
the Afro-Americans which found an expression in the music
and literary form that spoke about the pain and fight in an
unconcealed way. Subjugation leads to creative talent and Jazz
literature is one among them. Jazz is one of the most intricate
and multifaceted form of American literature and the most
original creation of the Afro-American community.

Key words: Afro-Amercian, Blackness, Protest, Creative art form, Jazz Literature.

New Orleans was the place that gave birth to Jazz. Slaves needed an art form to survive. Most
of the slaves were from Caribbean and South America. Slaves got the freedom only after the
Civil War. No one actually knows from where the word jazz originated. It is said that the
prostitutes of the New Orleans wore perfumes made up of jasmine and the best of the music
came from their houses in New Orleans. The word jazz came from the word Jass which was
later converted to Jazz. The jazz music was an explosion of feeling and an outburst of the
emotion was through music art and writing. The black voices were heard, celebrated and even
applauded, gave voices to the voiceless. It didn’t follow the traditional pattern of music. Jazz
was a combination of both European and African form of music. I became a source of
entertainment to the whites. Jazz music taught the whites not to rule in people’s lives.

The Harlem Renaissance was called as a “New Negro Movement” It began after world war. It
was an era of blossoming Afro-American culture where music, theatre and visual arts were
embraced. The movement broke the white stereotypes and their racist beliefs. Jazz therefore
was instrumental in the cultural awakening of the Afro-American community. The Harlem
movement led to the migration of the Afro Americans on a mass scale from their rural setup
to the urban space. The movement brought race pride. “Develop an interest in life as you see

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it; the people, things, literature music. The world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich
treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people” (Henry Miller).Many jazz musicians left
for Europe in 1960’s to earn a living, performing jazz.

The music is a blending of European and African music tradition. The main instrument that
was used by African- Americans was percussion instrument i.e. the oldest instrument that
gives sound by being struck scraped or shaken. The instrument was always followed by
human voice. The word percussion stands for drumming, beating, sticking, hitting, bass beat
and thumping. The European on the other hand used brass piano and woodwinds. The
anthropologist considers these instruments to be the first music device. Valaida Snow was a
Jazz player. She was later named as Junior Louis. Louis Amstrong considers Valaida to be
the world’s best Jazz performer. She became a professional jazz player at the age of 15. She
was eventually mentioned as a “Colored Queen of the Trumpet”. She had a musical lineage
and by the age of 18 she established herself as a singer.

Louis Amstrong, one of the influential figures in jazz music. He was a jazz trumpeter and a
singer as well. His skin colour was considered secondary to that of his music by the whites
and he was popular all over the globe. What Did I Do To Be So.is a famous song of
Amstrong.
Old empty bed, springs all of lead
Feel like old Ned, wish I was dead
All my life through I've been so black and blue?
How would it end...ain't got a friend
My only sin...is in my skin
What did I do...to be so black and blue
(Louis Amstrong 1929)

Later Louis Amstrong became the cultural ambassador who performed all over the world.
The jazz influenced the young generation for its style, attitude. Later it was not liked by the
bourgeois class for its relation to sex and drugs like marijuana and heroin. The Afro-
American response to jazz had a mixed response. Some of them took jazz to be low class.

We see the reflection of jazz in the poetry of Langston Hughes, the earliest innovator of jazz
poetry and a central poet of Harlem renaissance. Jazz poems comprised of various rhythms,
form and sounds as a form of communication. Hughes contribution to jazz genre is immense.
Through his poems he celebrated the Afro-American culture. “Hughes is often referred to as
the founder of Jazz poetry since he was the “first African-American writer to make a
conscious use of both jazz and blue music in his poems.” (Davidas 268) His poem that was
nationally recognised was The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Hughes poetry questioned the
American society for its racial discrimination. He emphasize on equal rights for the African -
American to come out of the racial issues. The Harlem Renaissance talks about music,
religion, and the politics of race. The period was a celebration of Creativity, literal
renaissance of the Afro-Americans. The Weary Blues by Hughes is one of the best jazz poems
in the history of African-American Literature.
I heard a negro play
Down the Lenox Avenue the other night

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By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway...
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.
(Weary Blues 1923)

In the last line the singer seems to endure the pain in his heart and releases it through his
music. He plays the music till the night gets darker and finally he sleeps like a man who is
dead. Thus, the singer releases his pain, anger, frustration and pity and finally he sleeps in
peace which only a dead man can achieve. The setting of the poem is Lenox Avenue which is
one most popular street of Harlem.

Jazz by Toni Morrison has the same Harlem setting. It shows the development of Black
musical culture. The word jazz is used in the novel as a metaphor that depicts the history and
the past traumas of the Negros. The music and the jazz in the novel blend with African
heritage and the American tradition. Morrison writes fiction that uses the form of Jazz such as
Call response, Swing, Improvisation, polyrhythm, strong individuality and strong collection.
It was a self discovery where people tried to sound good and make themselves visible
through this art form. The influence of the Jazz is also found in the poetry of Philip Larkin.
Larkin was also a jazz reviewer/critic for almost about a decade between 1961to 1971. Larkin
contributed a daily column in “Daily Telegaph” . Larkin authored a All What Jazz: A Record
Daily. We can hardly understand the writers well like Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison,
Nathaniel Mackey, August Wilson without the jazz music. Ralph’s novel Invisible Man
depicts jazz, folktales , the blues. Ellison engraved his own black identity to show his
visibility and shows how the American life was influenced by Afro-Americans. Invisible Man
changed the view of the readers through his writings about race and identity and the man’s
search to restore its tarnish image and to make black visible in the American society through
their own distinctive culture. The value conveyed in Jazz music go beyond the superficial
structure.)
“What did I do/To be so black/And blue” An invisible man hears the silence of
sounds. In writing Invisible Man “He posted instead that blacks had created
their own traditions, rituals and a history that formed a cohesive and complex
cultures that was the source of a full sense of identity.” (Anne Seidlitz

The jazz paintings fulfilled the dreams of the jazz musicians. It was legitimate high art music
worthy of appreciation. It became a cultural asset, Life supporting for the African –
Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a novelist and a short-story writer considered and named the
beginning of 1920’s as “The Jazz Age”. The first half of the 20th century is the period where
jazz made a real progress. .

“The Viilage Vanguard” is a jazz club in the New York City since 1935. “The Viialge
Vanguard” was initially dedicated to the folk music and poetry reading and in 1957 it
became strictly jazz. a form of folk music which came into existence from the songs sung by
the black rural while working in the fields). The rhythmic patterns appear to originate largely
from “body rhythms," such as stomp, clap, and pat etc. Robert Palmer states: "The patting,
(as per the ex-slave’s version reported in 1853) 'is performed by striking the right shoulder

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with one hand, the left hand with the other while keeping time with the feet and singing”.
The music was “inextricably grounded in the black experience in America” (Grandt 14).

American literature was also influenced by the Jazz with regard to the subject matter and
style “Protest literature consists of a variety of approaches, from the earliest literary efforts
to contemporary times. These include articulating the plight of enslaved persons, challenging
the larger white community to change its attitude toward those persons, and providing
specific reference points for the nature of the complaints presented. In other words, the
intention of protest literature was—and remains—to show inequalities among races and
socio-economic groups in America and to encourage a transformation in the society that
engenders such inequalities”. (Trudier Harris). . Jazz never followed the traditional pattern.
It became popular among teens. Since parties were a common part of American Life, the
music added colour and fun to the parties and in due course of time white enjoyed and were
gradually inclined to this new form of music. Jazz got the recognition from the whites who
took interest in the flourishing cultures of the African-Americans.

The sanctification of the pure art form was realized by the Lincoln centre where it created a
myriad impression in the mind of the audience as listeners and in the mind of the readers as a
serious art form. “ Jazz literature narrates the African American experience in a white world
order, telling stories of struggle, triumph and the formation of a Negro identity that defied
negative perception of blackness” (Sawyer 2011 ) Jazz was the only form of dance music in
the United States. The real happiness and essence of life can be achieved through music and
prayer. Music gives wing to the mind and in itself the great healing factor. No matter from
which region we belong music has always been a universal phenomenon. Music is loved
adored and appreciated by all. And is the biggest companion of loneliness. Music as we know
all is synonymous with happiness. The melody, tune, harmony and composition and the
synchronisation makes all the difference. The music of the marginalised became the centre
of desire. Music is literature as it reflects the society.

REFERENCES

1. Sawyer. A. Theriault., Jazz Writing: Identity and Multiculturalism in Jazz Literature 2011,
Vol 3, No 6, p-1
2. Trudier Harris, African American Protest PoetryJ. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English,
Emerita, University of North Carolina, National Humanities Center Fellow.(March 21, 2015)
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/aaprotestpoetry.htm
3. Grandt, Jurgun E ”Kinds of Blue: Toni Morrison, Hans Jawowitz, and The Jazz Aesthetic”
African American Review 38.2 (2004): 303-322. Music Index web 21 Nov 2011.
4. Ludigkeit, Dirk. “Collective Improvisation and Narrative Structure In Toni Morrison’s Jazz”
Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 12.2(2001):165-187 MLA International Bibliography.
Web 21 Nov 2011.
5. Hughes, Langston, “The Weary Blues” Poets. org Web 01September 2015.
6. Anne Seidlitz, An American Journey Ralph Ellison, August 24th ,2005. Retrieved on 24th
March 2015.
7. Armstrong, Louis. “Black and Blue” Jazz Rock Genius January 1st 1929, Web 01 September
2015.

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