Title: "In the Blood": Emotion, Blackness, and the Quest for Authenticity in 'Cool' Jazz, 1953-1963

Author: Michael Spencer

Advisor: Rachel Rubin

Abstract:
My research examines issues of race, authenticity, and cultural aesthetics found within the criticisms of a popular subgenre of jazz known as "cool jazz." My aim was to decipher the meanings of the critics' often coded language, to understand how and why they issued their criticisms, exhibit what they reveal about race-based identities, and how these criticisms situated within the socio- political context of the civil rights movement in 1950s. The bulk of primary source material consisted of articles found in Down Beat magazine. Attending the Isham Library at Harvard University, I scanned every issue of the magazine from 1950 through 1964. Additionally, I also consulted electronic archives such as JSTOR and the UMass Music Index. For secondary sources, I utilized the UMass Boston library stacks as well as stacks located in the Boston Public Library- Copley branch. In the text of my Final Project, I argue that the analyses of the critics of cool-Nat Hentoff, Ralph Gleason, Barry Ulanov, et. all.-offer a window onto the larger matter of race relations and the intellectual pursuit of authenticity in music, specifically in jazz. The cool jazz debates essentially transcend the discussions of whether the music was simply "good" or not. By arguing that the music is "bloodless" and lacks "emotion," the critics saw cool jazz as void of, and in direct opposition to, "blackness." "Blackness," they argue, is inextricably tied to "authentic" jazz. The one true jazz, according to these critics is emotional; it is "fiery," and played "with guts"-with "black emotion"-or played utilizing historically- speaking African American musical construction techniques. The critics of cool also fashioned ideas of manliness and masculinity by projecting cool jazz as effeminate and weak and arguing that authentic jazz must be masculine. In essence, these critics saw cool jazz as a symbol of white bastardization of black culture, recognizing that the music experimented heavily with European or "white" musical techniques and that it had not an acceptable amount of African American musician practitioners. The critics ultimately felt the need to issue these criticisms in order to preserve the integrity of black culture because of their intellectual position, their perceived "right" to define jazz, and because of their "hipness" or oneness with the African American experience. In essence, these criticisms of cool jazz were influenced in large part by predominant Cold War conceptions of race and authenticity. They reflect a particular facet of the fear of integration at the time in terms of cultural survival and racial identity in jazz. Finally, they reveal a need to preserve white participation in black art forms in the face of the civil rights movement and the corollary demands of black musicians and critics for autonomy or some ownership and control over their own culture.