A major in Finance and Management Information Systems with a minor in Economics, Bradley Buss hails from Plano, Texas; he wrote this essay for Timothy Bradford’s “Spirituals to Hip-Hop” class.
Exposition:
Duke Ellington’s “The Tattooed Bride” is a masterpiece of narrative jazz big-band music, playing the sounds that tell the story of a freshly married bride and groom. On their wedding night, the groom suddenly recognizes the shocking fact that his young bride is covered all over with a multitude of tattoos. Notably, tattoos were generally considered taboo for women in the 1950s, particularly in mainstream Western society. Women who got tattoos were often stigmatized and seen as promiscuous or unfeminine. Ellington’s music distinguishes itself with its addition of complex harmonies and the unique use of reed instruments, such as clarinet, flute, and bass clarinet, in the saxophone section. I live for the music that speaks to our universal consciousness, music that tells a story so truthfully you want to continue to listen to the rich sounds of an uncertain beginning, powerful climax, and colorful conclusion. When I listen to the Bride’s story, it reminds me of the tale I lived through with my jazz experience at the University of Oklahoma. The fine arts system, personified in its function as a force restricting the growth of jazz, views the music as a “tattooed bride” of sorts, not fully accepting and supporting the growth of jazz academia in a way that sustains its development.
In the twenty-first century, teenage years are not typically spent studying and appreciating historically depreciated jazz music. My journey into the world of jazz began in my middle and high school band years where I fortunately attended public schools surrounded by constant support for this genre of music. I was able to earn the top tenor saxophone chair for the Texas Music Educator Association All-State Jazz Ensemble 1 during my junior and senior years of high school. My musicianship during this time was a vehicle that drove my ambitions in life to a level I had never experienced before. To me jazz is hard; one day I think I have it all figured out and the next my psychological grasp of the music is out the window—and I appreciate that. The musical challenges I faced when learning jazz tested my perseverance, grit, and responsibilities as a person. In retrospect, all these years of practice have meant everything as I dive into new fields of work. I’ve realized that the effect of great jazz education builds impactful future generations of leaders in all areas of study, not just music.
As I observe the musical world of higher education, it seems as if jazz music is studied, established, and cherished more so in some colleges than others. Since the dawning of an 1800s general music degree based on the whiteness of Anglo-Saxon European sound, the collegiate push for the development of jazz academia could be summarized as a large act of reluctance and struggle. One might argue that jazz music’s improvisational and naturally complex structure should not be prioritized over the pure fundamentals of classical music in studies for the higher educated. I tend to think differently. Nevertheless, I discovered that it is a complex process to create a successful jazz program at the university level. It takes several contributing factors to work together in tandem: appropriate funding, support, a vibrant cultural scene, and, arguably most importantly, jazz being truly accepted into the music school system. One could potentially provide one factor without providing the others. It requires a testament of time and a true sense of goodwill to develop a truly household-name jazz program in this country. This dilemma begs the question: Why keep American music students from focusing on a signature American-rooted music?
Conflict:
The picture is complicated. Let’s start from the perspective of a passionate student advocate studying jazz at OU. The drive to pursue research in this particular direction stems from the very problem happening on the University of Oklahoma’s campus. Being a part of the OU band’s student fundraising team leadership, a member of OU’s jazz ensemble, and practicing/performing jazz saxophone player, I consider myself a promoter of jazz programs in universities and schools. Like the abstract and unsettling beginning of “The Tattooed Bride,” my initial reaction to jazz not being supported was a struggle to locate the issues that plague jazz development in Oklahoma and universities across the country. The goal of fostering jazz prosperity need not involve altering the entire structure of college funding at OU for jazz education. My research focuses on elucidating the historical backlash between jazz and its establishment in musical academia, specifically tracing back to the inception of a jazz studies degree in 1947.
Initially, I believed the faculty did not support developing our jazz program (as this is a real case at other colleges throughout the country); however, this isn’t a problem with OU’s faculty. Every single one loves jazz and wants to support it. This is seen in the more recent push for an OU jazz degree to get established, more festivals, and more guest artist appearances. In reality, the problem lies in the music school’s structural separation of OU jazz within OU bands and the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts, which hinders funding and development efforts of jazz at OU.
The College of Fine Arts at OU includes visual arts, dance, drama, music, musicals, and theater. The “Music” section includes the jazz ensembles and is a piece included in the overall OU bands division of the music school. In other words, the jazz ensembles represent a small slice of an already small proportion of the fine arts school. As a result, funding efforts are inevitably hindered and development of jazz is unfortunately stunted. I work closely with the fundraising team for OU bands and have gathered some figures to support this point.
Figure 1.1 via givesooner.org:
Here’s a graph displaying the Giving Day pull-in from donors to the top 10 colleges at OU that raised the most money. Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts managed to raise $121,077 with 383 total gifts given. This figure reveals that Fine Arts funding is not comparable to the largely established colleges of Engineering and Business, which already works against the efforts of even raising money for fine arts. OU has been given the nickname the “Harvard of the West” with its familiar colors and plentiful Ivy League inspiration on campus life. The university’s focus on a great dance program reflects that. However, a new American musical development such as jazz has not flourished in an environment where Anglo-European-inspired art is so prevalent.
Figure 1.2 via givesooner.org:
Moreover, this figure represents OU Giving Day from a more specific fine arts perspective. As you can observe, the Pride of Oklahoma raised the most money with $53,542 and 203 gifts received. The music fund raised $1,637 with 28 gifts received. This visual representation displays the small slice the jazz program receives from the lack of funding compared to other colleges at OU. It is important to note, from my personal knowledge, that the jazz program is allowed to tap into the music and Pride of Oklahoma fund, but only to a very limited extent. The Pride needs funding for large expenditures, such as multiple away games or bowl games with the expanded Big 12 and the future move into the SEC. With these larger-than-music school issues at hand, jazz is unfortunately sidelined.
Diving into the issue of the lack of financial support starts with the fundamental effort of trying to fundraise from college students. College students don’t want to spend more money on the university when they are already paying tuition and struggling to make ends meet with the increasingly prevalent student debt crisis. Obviously, considering the data above, donors and funding organizations may prioritize other areas of study, such as STEM or business, over the arts. They may view these areas as more practical or essential for the future workforce, leading to less funding for fine arts programs. Even so, most large donors to music are business or STEM people. The funds fueling the Weitzenhoffer family’s investment came from various sources including oil money, resulting in their name on the OU Fine Arts complex. Rich donors who appreciate the arts are a gold mine to music programs across the country.
Returning our focus to OU, we can see that its jazz foundations were belatedly laid. Again it takes several years to build a successful jazz program and “the origin of the OU Jazz Program, in its current form, can be traced back to the late 1980’s when the bass professor, John Williams, agreed to direct the jazz band” (Wilkinson). More recently, OU has been more focused on developing the jazz program by adding a major to the curriculum, allowing music education to work towards completing the jazz minor, and participating in the highly praised Jazz Education Network Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The touring, promotion, and recording of good college jazz is an example of how to successfully develop a jazz program. The NPR podcast “How did Denton, Texas become an unlikely jazz mecca” explains how the University of North Texas turned a hole-in-wall, weird place like Denton into arguably one of the richest jazz cities in the country, rivaling the likes of New York and Chicago. Unlike OU, UNT started early in the 1940s. Even though jazz was treated like a bad word back then, the faculty at UNT successfully created a strong foundation for a great jazz program. The director of the One O’Clock Jazz Band, Alan Baylock, is interviewed in the podcast and explains that “degrees in music of the 1940s were dominated by classical music and it took multiple appearances at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival, releasing albums every year, going to the White House, touring in Russia, and getting the word out that Denton was the place the go to get a jazz degree.” The big takeaway is that good jazz takes time, and OU’s jazz development will also go through a slow, similar process.
This brings me to the next point about hampered jazz education in Oklahoma. A great jazz scene is a key component of a successful jazz program. Talented high school prospects want to play in great areas to harness their skills and network with other successful jazz musicians, yet the scene in the Oklahoma City metroplex is simply not as developed as other jazz hearths within the United States. Places with developed jazz culture such as New Orleans and New York City result in developed jazz programs such as the prestigious New York jazz conservatories Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.
Downbeat Magazine‘s 2019 article “World’s Best Jazz Cities” discusses many different jazz scenes and factors that lead to their success. In particular, this article discusses how New York City is currently the world’s leading jazz capital, with more jazz record companies, recording studios, clubs, and musicians than any other city in the world. It mentions how musicians come to New York to test their mettle, play with the best jazz players, raise their profile, and gain national attention. The article also notes that many of the quintessential moments in jazz history were New York moments, and that the city still boasts legendary jazz clubs such as the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note. As singer and Chicago native Kurt Elling recently told DownBeat, “If you’re a jazz musician, you don’t want to live your whole life and not live in New York” (“World’s Best Jazz Cities” 44). The article also discusses how the city’s record companies include giants like Sony, Warner, and Universal, as well as independent labels like Pi Recordings and Smoke Sessions. Finally, the article notes that New York’s concentration of jazz opportunities is unparalleled, with opportunities for musicians to play different genres of jazz in one day and to progress from small, smoky clubs to bigger stages that pay lots of money.
Oklahoma City’s jazz environment is not as conducive to fostering the genre as other cities like New York. The city’s jazz scene is not as robust or extensive, which means that opportunities for jazz musicians to perform, collaborate, and network are limited. This lack of opportunities can make it challenging for jazz musicians to establish themselves and grow their careers. Another factor is the size of the city. Oklahoma City is a mid-sized city with a population of around 650,000 people, much smaller than other cities like New York or Chicago. This smaller population means fewer venues and opportunities for jazz musicians to perform and attract an audience, and fewer jazz musicians living there, which can limit the opportunities for collaboration and networking. On the bright side, OKC does have something of a jazz presence, and it is a great place for jazz students at OU to practice their skills. Only 30 minutes away from campus, late night jazz jam sessions at the 51st St. Speakeasy allow students to jam with some of the best jazz musicians in Oklahoma. Multiple OKC bars around the metroplex work together to keep the historic jazz legacy alive.
Rising Action:
Transitioning to the historical side of my findings, I began researching why jazz academia has experienced neglect in higher education by entering scholarly databases, and I found a scholarly source that supports this idea. Jazz definitely had a black/white racial aspect working against it throughout the country, yet it was notable to see Bill Dobbins’ article, “Jazz and Academia: Street Music in the Ivory Tower,” explores how racial aspects affected jazz development in the classroom. The problem Dobbins addresses is the general reluctance music programs had at a higher level to implement jazz bands and programs. He presents a problematic relationship between jazz, the traditional conservatory, and black and white American culture, arguing that white Americans need not understand the culture of black America as it does not increase economic social mobility. However, black Americans need to know “a great deal” about American culture to survive (31).
Additionally, Dobbins suggests it is imperative to search for ways the aesthetics of jazz and the academic music environment can structurally complement each other and that a thorough study of all aspects of American music will complement the performer. Dobbins creates a parallel between the cultural black-and-white divide in America he traces back to the main argument that the hinderment of jazz education is heavily related to racial concerns. Essentially, the reluctant treatment of jazz music places jazz musicians into a category of inferiority and scholars of illegitimacy that receives no respect from the faculty who organize the curriculum. This works directly against the development of jazz education across the country.
As I continued researching the historic setbacks jazz education faced, music school politics really began to reveal themselves. In an essay entitled “Jazz Education’s Struggle for Acceptance,” Bryce Luty examines the history of jazz education in America, focusing on the struggles and challenges that jazz education has faced in gaining acceptance and legitimacy in the music education system. Luty argues that “the word ‘jazz’ still has not reached the respectability to achieve artistic consideration” (53). The article highlights how jazz music has been historically viewed as a black art form and has been subject to racial discrimination and marginalization. This has led to a lack of resources and support for jazz education, particularly in underprivileged communities. Furthermore, Luty discusses how jazz education has been stigmatized as a kind of keepsake program rather than a legitimate form of musical education. The earlier forms of jazz bands were “not known as jazz ensembles, but were simply dance bands playing music in the jazz style of the early thirties” (38). When jazz education is referred to as a keepsake program, it is seen as one that exists mainly to preserve and celebrate the historical legacy of jazz music, rather than as a legitimate form of musical education that can provide students with valuable skills and knowledge. This attitude can lead to limited funding and resources for jazz programs and can contribute to the challenges jazz educators face in gaining acceptance and legitimacy within the higher education system, as well as a lack of recognition and respect for jazz as a serious art form. In addition, due to the improvisational nature of jazz music, it has been difficult to develop a standardized curriculum that can be applied across different contexts and teaching styles. With Luty’s perspective, one can acknowledge jazz education struggles as a product of a multitude of factors. Overall, it is a challenge to bring jazz education to the forefront without immense support, funding, and planning from faculty.
More historically speaking, the backlash associated with jazz music is highlighted by Nathaniel Rich in his Paris Review blog post “When Jazz was Dangerous.” Rich discusses how musical genres have life cycles similar to those of animals, with different stages of growth and decline. Even older and more established genres like Baroque music were once seen as dangerous and morally corrupt. Jazz in particular had a tumultuous beginning as a free and uncensorable art form that challenged societal norms in New Orleans. The editors of the Times-Picayune saw jazz as a threat to public order and called for its suppression. As Rich describes it, the newspaper “felt obliged to register its revulsion in an exuberantly racist editorial published during the summer of 1918, entitled ‘Jass and Jassism’.” Racism was common in these publications; they believed that jazz had no musical value and only had the potential to harm.
The belief that jazz was the “devil’s music” was largely influenced by societal norms and cultural biases of the time. Jazz originated as a free and uncensored art form that challenged traditional musical conventions, and its association with African American culture and improvisation made it unfamiliar and uncomfortable for some segments of society. Jazz in the educational setting also continues to challenge the deeply established roots of European classical music. The actual caution that comes from jazz isn’t the nature of the music itself but the way it’s presented to the general music student. Many classically trained music education students, especially those attending the University of Oklahoma, leave college with little to no understanding of how jazz works and how it can be taught to the new generations.
Climax:
The tattooed bride culminates in the solo clarinet (representing the bride) singing out to her groom, pleading for acceptance and love in a world where she is considered taboo. A voice of struggle is heard, highlighting the struggle of jazz education’s upbringing, the battle for the voices of struggle and freedom to be heard over the Western white classical cultured society that overshadows jazz topics in schools. Jazz promotes artistic invention, improvisation, fresh ways of expressing oneself, and the incorporation of ancient musical genres into new ones.
Today, organizations that advocate for jazz education present the idea that music school politics negatively affect how jazz is taught. In an article titled “It’s Deeper than the Notes,” Todd Stoll, the director of the JEN (Jazz Education Network Conference), shares his experiences as a jazz educator and emphasizes the transformative power of jazz music in helping students develop important life skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. He argues that jazz education goes beyond just teaching music and can be a powerful tool for social and emotional learning. The article also highlights the challenges faced by jazz educators in promoting jazz education and gaining recognition for its value in the education system. Stoll advocates for greater support and investment in jazz education programs to ensure they can continue to provide meaningful experiences and opportunities for students.
Most notably, black music was not a focus of institutionalized jazz teaching in its early years. Several of our biggest and most esteemed jazz institutions still don’t do much to involve black audiences, black audiences, black faculty, and black music. Indeed, it’s tragic. Even today, there are white academics who openly oppose black music and its deeper connotations, and the majority of the jazz music libraries used in high school and college jazz ensembles are composed and produced by white people.
Resolution:
The ending to “The Tattooed Bride” is happy. The bride leads the whole band in a bright shout chorus that evokes the feeling that life is reaching the silver lining. The depression is gone, spirits are lifted, life gets better. Personally, I continue to work closely with developing jazz in a place with rich African American history and culture like Oklahoma. The potential for jazz to grow as a prevalent art form in Oklahoma is possible, and the fact that it is currently denied is unacceptable.
In conclusion, jazz music has historically faced challenges in gaining acceptance and legitimacy in the higher education system, with some colleges valuing it more than others. These challenges are rooted in the racial dynamics of American culture, with jazz being viewed as a black art form that has been subject to discrimination and marginalization. Jazz education has also faced stigmatization as a keepsake program rather than a legitimate form of musical education, leading to limited funding and support for jazz programs. Despite these challenges, jazz educators and advocates continue to emphasize the transformative power of jazz music in developing important life skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking, and advocating for greater support and investment in jazz education programs.
Figure 1.3 
Over the fiscal year of 2023, the OU Bands Student Advancement Team led by Chauvin Aaron, the Development Officer for University Bands at the University of Oklahoma Foundation, has helped raise over $1.5 million for OU Bands. Gifts totaled 507 with 392 donors involved in the fundraising. Ultimately, it is of paramount importance for educational institutions to recognize the value of jazz music as a core component of American culture and history, and to promote greater diversity and inclusion in the study and performance of jazz music.
Works Cited
Dobbins, Bill. “Jazz and academia: Street music in the ivory tower.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (1988): 30-41. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40318208.
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra. “The Tattooed Bride.” Duke Ellington, Columbia’s 30th Street Studio, New York, 19 Dec. 1950. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkeqnXphZs
Kallao, Stephen, and Miguel Perez. “Sense of Place: How Did Denton, Texas, Become an Unlikely Jazz Mecca?” NPR, 5 Apr. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168199182/sense-of-place-jazz-mecca-denton-texas.
Luty, Bryce. “Part I: Jazz education’s struggle for acceptance.” Music Educators Journal 69.3 (1982): 38-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/3396019
“OU Giving Day.” Givesooner.org, https://givesooner.org/pages/home-2400.
Rich, Nathaniel. “When Jazz Was Dangerous.” The Paris Review, 24 Jan. 2018, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/24/when-jazz-was-dangerous/.
“School of Music.” The University of Oklahoma, www.ou.edu/finearts/music. Accessed 2 May 2023.
Stoll, Todd. “It’s Deeper than the Notes.” Jazz Education Network, 12 June 2020, https://jazzednet.org/its-deeper-than-the-notes/.
Wilkinson, Jay. “Jazz Program.” The University of Oklahoma, www.ou.edu/finearts/music/areas-ensembles/jazz. Accessed 1 May 2023.
“World’s Best Jazz Cities.” Downbeat Magazine, February 2019. https://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2019/DB1902_World%E2%80%99s_Best_Jazz_Cities/_art/DB1902_World%E2%80%99s_Best_Jazz_Cities.pdf