[Dixielandjazz] Certain Attitudes on Jazz prior to 1940. was Beethoven vs. Jazz

[Steve barbone]

David Richoux tubaman at tubatoast.com wrote


>The timing of that original article makes me think of the attitude of
>the nazi party towards jazz and swing music. i wonder if Hitler read
>HL Mencken?

>I found this article from The Nation by Brian Morton on the nazi vs.
>jazz subject: http://tinyurl.com/msngv   ( a password request will
>show, just click cancel. )
>it is too long to post here.

Fun article you referenced. The Nazis banned just about all forms of jazz
tying it into supposed racial inferiority of Negroes who played/started it
and Jews, who promoted it. Their own Charlie's Orchestra did attempt swing
though.

Benny Goodman records were banned . . . but not Artie Shaw. Why? Because the
Nazis did not realize Shaw was Jewish. They thought he was either the son
of, or related to British intellectual/writer George Bernard Shaw.

The Russians also banned jazz for a while. in 1928 Maxim Gorky wrote a neat
article about the grossness of jazz music in PRAVDA.

"There are rumblings, wails and howls like the smarting of a metal pig, the
shriek of a donkey, or the amorous croaking of a monstrous frog. The
insulting chaos of insanity pulses to a throbbing rhythm. Listening, for a
few minutes to these wails, one involuntarily imagines an orchestra of
sexually driven madmen conducted by a man-stallion brandishing a huge
genital member, The monstrous bass belches out English words; a wild horn
wails piercingly calling to mind the cries of a wounded camel; a drum pounds
monotonously; a nasty little pipe tears at one's ears; a saxophone emits its
quacking nasal sound. Fleshy hips sway, and thousands of heavy feet tread
and shuffle. The music of the degenerate ends finally with a deafening thud,
as though a case of pottery had been flung down to earth from the skies."

Good definition to use the next time someone asks "What is Jazz?" :-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve