RACE SUPREMACY AND JAZZ.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 228, 15 March 1928, Page 8

RACE SUPREMACY AND JAZZ.

In a scathing condemnation of the cult of jazz in The National Review, Sir Henry Coward, remarking that he is not a pessimist, because he is a strong evolutionist, goes on to say that “though there is evolution in the mass, we may have devolution in nations and individuals, and this is the danger the white races will have to guard against. The witness of history is that the decay of great nations has been caused by the ethics and morality derived from the form of their pleasure.” He points out that since President Wilson enunciated the doctrine of self-determination every na tion claims an equality with the white races. The coloured races have developed a new sense of importance and are collectively challenging the supremacy of the whites, and unless the whites are prepared to make sacrifiees their supremacy will pass. ' Sir Henry Coward holds that jazz should be denounced and made taboo among white races, because it is debasing the race mentally and morally. It is, he says, a low type of primitive music, both in structure and mode of performance, and is also decidedly atavistic. It is founded on crude rhythms suggested by stamping and clapping. Its vulgarity is heightened by the exaggeration of .syncopation, and it debases both music and instruments by making both farcical. Another indictment is that it deadens and vulgarises the perception of tone qualities. “The person who is unconscious of such bad taste is on a level with the rich parvenu who stuffs his rooms with all sorts of gaudy ornaments and adorns his walls with oleographs,” says Sir Henry Coward. His most crushing condemnation is that jazz is a dead-end composition which cannot progress, being bound by the nature and limitation of the instruments used. “No matter how it is tricked out jazz can be made nothing but the essence of vulgarity,” he says. Sir Henry Coward explains that he emphasises these debasing influences because these and all other characteristics of jazz indicate devolution, atavism, and a relapse towards the standards and crudities of the cave man and the negro of the southern plantations. Worse still, the popularity of jazz and its reaction on subconscious memory evoke practices and usages of the past, such as immodest dances, which lead to in fact, have already led to—a lowering of the prestige of the white races. If it be allowed to continue the penalty will fall in the form of a more depraved taste and further loss of prestige in future generations. Sir Henry Coward quotes an Afghan who, writing to the Morning Post, said, “Although the mere suggestion that j you should adopt the American ne- | gro’s mode of life would shock you profoundly, you do not hesitate to accept, and indeed to glorify, the most grotesque of his saltatory antics, with their unspeakable names, and these you allow, and even encourage, your young sons and daughters to perform. Probably you are unaware that these (Continued in Next Column)

dances are the relics of very ancient negro fetishism, which had its genesis in African worship of the unclean. Sir Henry Coward remarks, in conclusion, that music need not be “highbrow” so long as there is point or pleasant nonsense in the words and a , straight, rollicking time. J