THE FUTURE OF JAZZ

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1929, Page 7

THE FUTURE OF JAZZ

A recent cable message from London tells us tiiat at a secret meeting of darning instructors the death blow was given U) jazz by reviving the tango, per medium of a big tango “drive” all through England. It is further stated tiiat certain dances will oust other nances in course of time, and that the pioneers among dance hall proprietors with the requisite courage to introduce the waltz, lancers and other oldtime dances will reap a golden harvest. The displacement of jazz, however, is not the simple proposition that is suggested by the cable. After more than a quarter of a century’s vigorous growth jazz music or “jazz” has an all-too-hrm hold and its fate will not be decided at secret meetings of dance masters of any other kind of masters. Jazz, for weal or woe, has introduced certain elements into music which were formerly non-existent. It reflects the spirit of the age and cannot be abolished by resolutions or counter-strokes in the way of propaganda. Its ultimate fate. from, a musical standpoint, depends entirely upon the attention tha it will receive from composers worthy of the name. Jazz, at the moment, awaits a real genius to do for it what Johann Strauss did for the waltz last century. Fox-trots, Blues. Charlestons and forms of steps hitherto unknown, if accompanied by nrusi of an imaginative musician, will neither stale or tire the really big public; these dance pieces will arrive and depart, they will revive and fade out, but those that abide will become the classics of their own particular department of art. Quite apart from dancing, jazz may evolve its own art form, as did the waltz under the skilled attentions of Schubert, Chonine and Brahms. Who can tell what will be the outcome of the concentrated effort 1 of men following in the wake of Gershwin and Eric Coates? It seems thal from the history of the waltz we may justifiaby deduce the most likely developments of the future of jazz. Nowadays, fox-trot tunes are turned out like sausages, but it is a case oi history repeating itself. Reference tithe small army of dance composers of the early nineteenth century show; that they turned out watzes literally by the hundred. A minute fraction oi this enormous output survives to-day. but they constitute the finest gems of of their kind—the “Blue Danubes” of yesteryear By opera, symphony, ’suite, instrumental, fantasia of ballet a fruitful field for jazz will be exploited by the composers of to-morrow. Mernll sums up iba future of jazz succinctly when he says; “Jazz is essentially music for the dlallce, but hitherto it haw concerned itself eithei v ith ballroom steps. It has not yd ventured into the world of (Jussieu 1 dnnung. 'I he jazz idiom in the liltlld c; of a master of ballet music opens up wide possibilities. The dances which would be enacted on the stage would not have to be those with which we associate syncopated music in the ballroom ; they might be quite different in character, either from/ those or from the lightning capers of certain agile vaudeville performers.

The steps for the jazz ballet will have to be thought out afresh, and tin terpsichOjTea-n element wi|l naturally include miming as well as actual dancing ; there may be a story as definite as those of ‘The Fire Bird,’ ‘Petrouchka’ or ‘Tiie Three-Cornered Hat.' Stravinsky himself might even feel disposed to try his hand at this new art form. His piquant orchestration, his love otf muted trumpets, his strong sense of rhythm, his gift of bizarre and and grotesque effects, could give us some really striking music for jazz ballet of an artistic kind. Jazz is the pro duct of a restless age—an age in which the fever of war is only beginning to abate its fury, when men and women after their efforts in the great struggle are still too much disturbed to be content with a tranquil existence. Amid this seething, bubbling turmoil jazz hurries along its course, riding exultantly on the eddying stream. Nevertheless theT'end of civilisation is not turned to artistic uses or else vanish utterly from our midst as a living force But even if it disappears alto get her it will not have existed in vain For its record? will remain as an inter'astiug human document—the spirit of the age written in the music of people” —Karl Atkinson in the “ Auckland Star.”