{"id":1232,"date":"2022-03-14T22:59:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T03:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2022-03-14T22:59:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T03:59:30","slug":"infatuation-vs-love-french-audiences-and-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2022\/03\/14\/infatuation-vs-love-french-audiences-and-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Infatuation vs. Love: French Audiences and Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

First of all, Parisian critics continually \u201cothered\u201d African American jazz. Levinson\u2019s entire chapter on \u201cNegro dance\u201d is about creating a dichotomy between jazz and classical music. He purposely juxtaposes the two: \u201cSuch a contrast of black and white will, I believe, serve to emphasize the essential characteristic of the Negro dance.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0In the following pages, Levinson speaks in terms of \u201cus vs. them.\u201d Sure, he might express admiration at certain points, but he doesn\u2019t express pure praise. There\u2019s always something to take away from his positive comments. His comments on Josephine Baker\u2019s \u201cextraordinary and disturbing genius\u201d2<\/sup><\/a> exemplifies this dichotomy. Levinson obviously felt a need to separate himself from Black culture while still enjoying and consuming it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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, <\/span>La revue negre<\/span><\/i> had to be adapted to be more \u201csavage\u201d so that Parisian audiences would enjoy it.3<\/sup><\/a> The \u201cDanse sauvage\u201d at the end was added to perpetuate the primitivist view of Black culture, and that\u2019s the part that gained the most popularity among audiences.4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0If the \u201cDanse sauvage\u201d hadn\u2019t been added, <\/span>La revue<\/span><\/i> likely would have flopped with the audiences. The caricature was essential to their acceptance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, French critics dehumanized Black artists and cultures. Levinson capitalized on talking about the animal qualities of the performers.5<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/sup><\/a> 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\u2019 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like singing spirituals, both concert spirituals and simpler arrangements. They\u2019re 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\u2019s 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 <\/span>Rapsodie<\/span><\/i>.7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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1<\/a> Andr\u00e9 Levinson, \u201cThe Negro Dance: Under European Eyes,\u201d in <\/span>Andr\u00e9 Levinson on Dance: Writings from Paris in the Twenties<\/span><\/i>, ed. Joan Acocella and Lynn Garafola (Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1991), 71.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/a> Ibid., 75.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3 <\/a> Bernard Gendron, \u201cNegrophilia,\u201d in <\/span>Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde <\/span><\/i>(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 115. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/a> Henry Louis Gates and Karen C. C. Dalton, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d in <\/span>Josephine Baker and La Revue N\u00e8gre: Paul Colin\u2019s Lithographs of <\/span><\/i>Le Tumulte Noir<\/span> in Paris, 1927<\/span><\/i> (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998), 6-8. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/a> Levinson, 73-74.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6 <\/a>\u00a0Gendron, 105-106.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7 <\/a>\u00a0Gendron, 111.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cothered\u201d African American jazz. Levinson\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4408,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4408"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}