Jazz's impact on american soci

Ralph Ellison once described American culture as "jazz-shaped." He meant that African-Americans have provided the essence of the nation's cultural style: "the sudden turns, the shocks, the swift changes of pace (all jazz-shaped) that serve to remind us that the world is ever unexplored, and that while a complete mastery of life is mere illusion, the real secret of the game is to make life swing." [David, 2003]

Jazz is said to be the fundamental rhythms of human life and man’s contemporary reassessment of his traditional values. Volumes have been written on the origins of jazz based on black American life-styles. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of gospel, blues, and field hollers seems to point out that jazz has to do with human survival and the expression of life. It is a music of extreme intricacy and substance and the series of events that unraveled in order for jazz to become the music it is, are as remarkable as they are myriad. The history of jazz is more than just a record and progression of a musical style, it's also the history of people and of community. Jazz history is replete with contradictory values like racism and

Jazz musicians have helped to erode racial prejudice. They were able to break down some of the long established barriers. In time, color lines began to blur and interracial jazz bands formed. Black and white jazz musicians formed bonds based on their music and gradually saw themselves as workers in similar creative enterprises. Mixed audiences in northern urban areas began to put aside their prejudices. Jazz has had its share of criticism and faced opposition. However, jazz managed to survive its detractors and went on to become widely accepted. So dominant was its impact on American society that the 1920s came to be called the "Jazz Age."

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