Harlem Stride in New York, Hot Swing in Chicago

Which city was most important to jazz in the 1920s—Chicago or New York? Why? What role did social, economic, and racial conditions play in creating the particular climate for jazz in that city? Was there a Chicago or Harlem style of jazz? If so, what was it, who played it, and what distinguished it from others? Whose (band or individual) art best represents the culture and community of the city you chose? Why? Please provide references.

While New York's contribution to all styles of jazz in the 1930s is unsurpassed, the 1920s were a time when New York and Chicago had distinctly different types of jazz. New York jazz, usually for respectable middle class consumption, mainly followed the European vein of big band melodies and harmonies, thorough composition, and cool, tight playing. The big bands of Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson epitomize the typical New York jazz scene, with strict leadership and guidance within a larger band. Chicago jazz, by contrast, designed for dance halls and dens of vice, was hotter and much more unhinged, allowing for creative energy which was much more experimental and avant-garde. The Austin High Gang is the clearest early example of this style of competitive, showy instrument playing within a loosely structured composition. While such a simple assessment of the two cities might lead one to believe that Chicago was putting out the more creative and superior jazz, the development and evolution toward Harlem stride piano which was taking place within New York at this time provided the syncopation and improvisation which allows me to say that New York was the more important site of the evolution of jazz in this period.

The most monumental figures in the development of creative phrasing within New York were James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller. Gioia captures the immense importance of Harlem stride piano in the development of jazz when he states that Johnson would use musical devices as various as classical interpolations, counterpoint exercises, and he even experimented with jazz combos (p. 97-8). Without the evolution of ragtime and boogie-woogie into stride piano, New York jazz would only be a representative of thoroughly composed, tightly performed European music, and would have been lacking the improvisational energy of African American dance music. While Chicagoans such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa developed a hot dance style nearing swing while they performed in Chicago, the Harlem stride piano greats also captured this rhythmic energy, while supplementing a much tighter big band style which satisfied the harmonic and melodic tastes of upper class consumers of European music