Infatuation vs. Love: French Audiences and Jazz

The 1920s Parisian audiences experienced a fascination and infatuation with African and African American artists. Their racism prevented them from feeling true love for the art and artists they encountered. French audiences separated themselves from Black artists, caricatured African culture, and dehumanized Black artists.

First of all, Parisian critics continually “othered” African American jazz. Levinson’s entire chapter on “Negro dance” is about creating a dichotomy between jazz and classical music. He purposely juxtaposes the two: “Such a contrast of black and white will, I believe, serve to emphasize the essential characteristic of the Negro dance.”¹ In the following pages, Levinson speaks in terms of “us vs. them.” Sure, he might express admiration at certain points, but he doesn’t express pure praise. There’s always something to take away from his positive comments. His comments on Josephine Baker’s “extraordinary and disturbing genius”² exemplifies this dichotomy. Levinson obviously felt a need to separate himself from Black culture while still enjoying and consuming it.

Furthermore, French audiences did not truly love Black culture because they were not interested in learning about authentic African and African American cultures. They wanted entertainment that would perpetuate their own projections, which were caricatures of the real thing. As a result, La revue negre had to be adapted to be more “savage” so that Parisian audiences would enjoy it.³ The “Danse sauvage” at the end was added to perpetuate the primitivist view of Black culture, and that’s the part that gained the most popularity among audiences.⁴ If the “Danse sauvage” hadn’t been added, La revue likely would have flopped with the audiences. The caricature was essential to their acceptance.

Finally, French critics dehumanized Black artists and cultures. Levinson capitalized on talking about the animal qualities of the performers.⁵ This intense focus on animal-ness took away from the human qualities of the artists. Visual artists such as Picasso had no problem displaying their works along with African art they had collected.⁶ Displays of visual art were easy: the African artists likely were unknown and far away, so the French were able to detach themselves from the artists’ humanity. In that way, it was easier to commodify African culture. Once Josephine Baker and her fellow performers arrived in Paris, however, the French were faced with real people with humanity. The French had to find further ways to separate themselves from Blackness, which manifests in the constant discussion of animal qualities.

The French had an obvious appreciation and admiration for Black cultures, but they could never fully love it due to their racist inhibitions. The caricature, othering, and dehumanization expressed by critics reflects their true attitudes.

I like singing spirituals, both concert spirituals and simpler arrangements. They’re quite popular in the choral world, of course, but spirituals come from marginalized Black cultures. White choirs perform these pieces, but the songs come from cultures that are not their own. The difference in this situation is that, in general, spiritual arrangements are not caricatures of Black culture. There’s not a lot of room for dehumanization. Spirituals are the real deal, a true piece of culture. As long as they are performed respectfully, without anyone falsely claiming another culture as their own, and with the knowledge of their history, it seems acceptable for spirituals to be performed. They should not be commodified as Black culture was commodified in France. White people should not take it upon themselves to write brand-new parodied spirituals with false dialects as Poulenc did with his Rapsodie.⁷