The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-14
CORONATION OF JAZZ.
Europe Welcomes with Enthusiasm
Americas Dance Novelty.

1t appears from what experts in such
matters now say that jazz has really ear
| rived More than that it has been
crowned as musical fact. OF course, if
you are highbrow you are shocked But
civilization, or at least the perpetual eff
fort toward civilization, is just one shock
after another.
/ First the highbrows were shocked at the
! recognition Of ragtimc 1Ifey pointed out
contemptiously that syncopation wasn't
new at all-that List had used it III his
Hungarian rhapsodes and that other com
/ posers had dallicd with it iii their playful
land not quite proper) moods. 1t hurt
their feelings dreadfully that rag should
/ be recognized as something more than
simply syncopation with a quality in it
/ very hard to write to musical notes, and
| moreover, that it was America contribu-
| ton to distinctive music They were will
/ ing to have the biggest composers recog-
nize the distinctive waltz of Spain, the
quite different emphasized first beat waltz
OF Germany, the mazourka of Poland and
the rhapsodlc whimsicaity of Hungary
all peasant inventions, all wild, free-g grown
musical slang. But it went hard that
America should produce anything original
that wasn't original at the top. Unfor
tunately most original, flavorsome, dis
tinctive things come up from below and
not down from above
i Well, then came Jazz" What is Jazz?
Who'll take the responsibility of saying
what it is? Who in Austria's musical
academies for example, could have told
what was the peculiar, different something
IN the Second Rhapsody? Walter J.
Kingsley, who is quoted as an authority,
says that Jazz" is supersyncopation.
That's mouthful. And jazz is an ear
ful. just plain outsider might say that
the new jazz element was sliding note.
Consequently 1t can't be played truly ex-
cept by the aid of an instrument capable
of sliding note-like the trombone or
the saxophone. But there is another dis
tinctive element, the sudden halt, az if the
band had studded its toe and all hands
came tumbling back into step again as
soon as they could This accentuates the
rag feature which gets much of its
dance fascination from the effect of per-
uniting the dance itself to take many of
the initial beats, leaving the orchestra
as kind of accompaniment
The jazz dancer, the specialist in this
with the development of jazz music it
self. Ile-and she-have blossomed in the
cabarets
Then Europe got it. Europe had al
ready gone hysterical in its time over
rag. The kings who-once-were giggled over
IT. Duchesses danced it Now they have
jazz DO you jazz . has become pop
ular greeting One cable despatch says
| ,f
4 have never in all my years of expert
ence been as busy as I am now" one OF
the best known dancing teachers in Lon
don said recently. Il have more pupils
in classes and for individual instruction
than | have ever had, more applications
from pupils than | can possibly accept
The majority of my pupils are women
and girls, but | have plenty of young
officers and even middle-aged officers who
try hard They all want to learn the
> latest dance, the jazz, ana any variations
upon it on would think to hear the
descriptions that all London was in a
kind of jazz delirium. Make all due al
lowanec TO- artistic exaggeration IAN
London means about the same as "All
New York or "All Pittsburg' or "All
St. Louis.
Nevertheless, jazz has arrived 1t has
caught the fancy of the world Jimmy
Europes jazz band really made a tremen-
dous hit on the other side. When the
Hell Fighters of the Fifteenth infantry
marched up Broadway, New York on
their return from the front, the great
fact about the famous coIored contingent
was Jimmy Europe's jazz band up at the
head of the line
When jazz is played by an orchestra
and not by simple band, the person
whom James Whitcomb Riley called "the
little man in the tin shop is an exceed
mgy important unit He plays the bass
drum with his FOOT, the snare drum.
the ''bones," the bell, the triangle, the
cowbells, the locomotive whistle and Other
nameless accessories. O yes. he is busy.
And he always seems to have most Of the
fun. Most people, l fancy, feel as Riley,
the poet, felt-they would like to take a
short turn at being ''the little man in the
tin shop" He is the humorst of orches-
tratlon-it is he who puts in the point OF
the joke.
An enthusiastic writer from abroad
states the case: "The lights seem to
sway and CLEAN and glsten more than
ever before, the musicians are intoxicated
with energy, the dancers triumphant with
movement. This is the era of energy.
movement, perpetual motion The iazz
is the symbol