In Jazz, Toni Morrison sought to create a novel that expressed the essence of jazz. In her introduction to Jazz, Morrison writes, “I wanted the work to be a manifestation of the music’s intellect, sensuality, anarchy; its history, its range and its modernity” (xix). Morrison explains that her intent is to create a novel that not only reflects the evolution of Jazz music but that captures the soul of the jazz movement. From its roots in the slave dances held in Congo Square and its cultivation by the early ensembles of New Orleans, jazz spread across American, affecting a nation’s conscious throughout the Jazz Age (Gioia 5). According to Toni Morrison, the so-called Jazz Age was “The moment when an African American art form defined, influenced, reflected a nation’s culture…” (xix). Morrison molds the settings, plot lines, characters, and structure of her novel to invoke the rich history, revolutionary spirit, and progressive style of jazz, as well as to illustrate characteristics of the music.
Morrison uses the settings in Jazz to reflect the history of the jazz movement, as well as address its extensive influence on the Harlem Renaissance-the period during the 1920s where there was a flowering of African American cultural, artistic, and intellectual awareness in Harlem (Huggins 15). Morrison invokes a world of Harlem addresses, rent parties, speakeasies, women’s clubs, and jazz music, in order to illustrate the significant link between the jazz movement and the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, Morrison uses flashbacks to addresses significance settings associated with the Great Migration-the period after the Civil War when masses of African Americans from the post-Reconstruction South moved to urban centers around the country such as New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago, hoping to find better opportunities (Tolnay). Morrison uses the settings in the novel to reflect the connection between jazz and African American culture and history.
Morrison creates characters and plot lines that bring to light the history of the jazz movement. The plot revolves around events and relationships in the lives of Joe and Violet Trace. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Joe and Violet meet in the rural South, got married, migrated to the North, and settled in Harlem. Their connection to both the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance mirrors the spread of jazz across the United States. As a result of the Great Migration, Harlem became the center for the popularization and progression of the jazz genre, as well as African American visual and literary arts. Thus, Morrison illustrates the link between African American cultural history and the emergence of modern jazz in Harlem through her characters, Violet and Joe Trace.
Morrison addresses the spirit of anarchy that was embodied in both the jazz movement and Harlem life. Jazz broke free of accepted musical structure and center on improvisation and soloists; these aspects of Harlem jazz are personal, chaotic, and revolutionary. Morrison structures the plot lines, narratives, and characters of Jazz to reflect these elements of musical anarchy, as well as to reflect the violent and anarchical spirit of the jazz moment and life in Harlem during the Renaissance. Stephen Knadler discusses the violence and spirit of anarchy that expressed itself through domestic relationships during the Harlem Renaissance. Knadler addresses the prevalence of domestic violence in New York during the Harlem Renaissance telling us that:
On February 8, 1928 the front-page headline in the New York Amsterdam News read, “Jealous Man Kills Woman and Self in Basement Apartment; the following week, February 15, 1928, domestic violence once again reached the front-page headline in the News-“Husband Under Arrest by Denies Part in Slaying”; On Feb. 29, 1928, the headline read, “Woman Stabs Man to Death with His Knife After Party, Held by Police when went to ask about him.” (Knadler).
Knadler tells us that these stories reflected the chaotic, private atmosphere of Harlem. These stories of female subjectivity and domestic violence reflect the personal side of the Harlem Renaissance. According to Knadler, “The stories of women with knives were less threatening to male readers than reassuring, for these stories of jealous, out-of-control woman reaffirmed a woman’s dependence on her man at a time when there was a loosening of traditional gender norms (Knadler). This chaotic and violent aspect of the lives of African American woman living in Harlem during the Renaissance is reflected in the actions of Violet.
The reader is immediately confronted by anarchy in Jazz; specifically, we are confronted with the horrific spectacle of Violet (who later is nicknamed Violent because of her actions) attacking the corpse of her husband’s teenage lover. We soon find out that Joe Trace is the girl’s murderer and are drawn deeper into the chaotic, violent world of Harlem. The actions of both Joe and Violet Trace result from their inability to accept the changing views regarding gender. Violet sees Dorcas as her enemy “Oh, yes she is. She’s my enemy. Then, when I didn’t know it, and now too” (85). Essentially, Violet Trace rejects the new loose sexual morality that Dorcas expresses and attempts to fight against it. In addition, her actions reflect the natural possessiveness and emotional nature of African American women (Knadler). However, Violet’s actions are revolutionary. Dorcas’ aunt, Alice Mansfield tells Violet “I don’t understand women like you. Women with knives” (85). Essentially, Alice Mansfield does not understand the loud and forceful actions of Violet and woman like her. Like a soloist’s instrument, Violet’s voice rises up through her actions to speak out against the changing sexual morality that threatened her personal relationship with Joe Trace.
Likewise, Joe Trace illustrates the possessiveness of African American males and the refusal to accept the new views to gender power. Joe kills Dorcas because she attempts to leave him. Joe is stilled tied to old views of sexuality. He links sex with possession. When Dorcas’ rejects him and seeks sexual fulfillment in another, Joe Trace speaks out against her use of gender power. The domestic violence that spread through Harlem during this period resulted from the violent rejection of changing sexual and gender norms. In addition, it reflected the chaotic and anarchical spirit of the jazz age-a time when both violence and sensuality were at the forefront of the musical, intellectual, and cultural lives of African American life.
For many, jazz music was considered erotic and sensual. White clubs in Harlem such as the Cotton Club marketed the erotic appeal of jazz (Gioia 123). In Harlem Renaissance, Huggins describes jazz’s association with the erotic when he says:
In cabarets decorated with tropical and jungle motifs-some of them replicas of southern plantations-they [whites] heard jazz, that almost forbidden music. It was not merely that jazz was erotic, but that it was instinctive and abandoned, yet laughingly light and immediate-melody skipping atop inexorable driving rhythms (Huggins 89).
The importance of sexual expression can not be dismissed when discussing the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age. Sexual expression became a trademark of jazz music, dance, and culture. Morrison addresses the sensuality of jazz music and the burgeoning of sexual expression during the Harlem Jazz Age through the sensual relationship between Joe Trace and his eighteen year old lover, Dorcas and descriptions of the Harlem jazz scene. The relationship between Joe and Dorcas is characterized by erotic, passionate love; their relationship revolves around secret sexual encounters and passionate emotions. Morrison describes the jazz scene when she writes:
Oh, the room-the music-the people leaning in doorways. Silhouettes kiss behind curtains; playful fingers examine and caress. This is the place where things pop. This is the market where gesture is all: a tongue’s lightning lick; a thumbnail grazing the split cheeks of purple plum. Any throwaway lover in wet unlaced shoes and a buttoned-up sweater under his coat is a foreigner here. This is not the place for old men; this is the place for romance (192).
When Morrison writes “playful fingers examine and caress,” we picture lovers caressing each other and jazz musicians playing their instruments. She shows us that “Silhouettes kiss behind curtain” and describes “a tongue’s lightning lick.” We hear the language or lingo of the jazz era when she says, “This is the place where things pop.” Likewise, we get the feeling that jazz is fresh, bold, and sensual when she says, “This is not the place for old men.” Morrison uses sensual characters, plot lines, and language to mirror the sensuality of jazz and the boldness of sexual expression associated with the Jazz Age.
Another important aspect of Morrison’s style is its modernity. At the core of the jazz was the radical fusion of European and West African musical elements in African American musical styles (Stearns 3). As a result, Harlem jazz composition and style was extremely progressive. The new jazz reflected elements of European composition (such as piano notation) and elements of West African composition (such as call-and-response and improvisation). In Jazz, Morrison uses modern literary styles to reflect the modernity of jazz music. The reader is taken back and forth between events of the past, present, and future. This manipulation of time is characteristic of modern fiction. Morrison manipulates time in the novel to reflect the connection between the Great Migration and the emergence of Harlem jazz. Like human memory and thought, the novel manipulates time and moves quickly from one idea to another. Similarly, the use of multiple narrators is characteristic of modern fiction.
The use of different narrators causes the reader to view similar events from different perspectives. The different perspectives of the characters are connected to the different views that existed in regard to jazz music during the Harlem Renaissance. Each of the characters has different opinions about jazz music. For example, Dorcas is drawn to jazz; whereas, her aunt is repulsed by it. In her creation of different narrators, Morrison brings to light the often conflicting views regarding the jazz and illustrates the importance perception plays in jazz appreciation. Consider this: Two people listening to the same jazz song will perceive it differently. One person may center in on the rhythm, feeling the sensuality of the music. On the other hand, a person listening to the same song may center in on the soloist, feeling the chaos of improvisation. Morrison creates different perceptions in the novel to illustrate both the history of jazz (the way the musical form and age were viewed) and to reflect the link between perception and musical appreciation (the understanding of music based on personal reflection).
Morrison uses flashbacks, multiple narrators, and a conversational style to mirror the modernity that characterizes the music of the Jazz Age. When reading the novel, the narrators seem to be talking to the reader; they skip around from one idea to another, use sentences, fragments, and pointed words or phrases. An example of this conversational narration style can be seen when Felice talks about her friend, Dorcas:
I knew about it from the start, but she didn’t know I did. I let her think it was a secret because she wanted it to be one. At first I thought she was shamed of it, or shamed of him and was just in it for the presents. But she liked secret stuff. Planning and plotting how to deceive Mrs. Manfred. Slipping vampy underwear on at my house to go walking in. Hiding things. She always did like secrets.
The reader feels as if Felice is gossiping to her. The section above lack proper punctuation and sentence structure; she omits commas and writes in fragments. As a result, the language mirrors the way people actually talk. For example, when people talk, they skip between one idea and another with little or no transition. For example, Felice discusses her knowledge of the affair between Dorcas and Joe Trace, her ideas about Dorcas’s involvement in the affair, Dorcas’s love of secrets, and Dorcas’s trickery. Thus, Morrison mimics conversation; when people talk, they use fragments, and switch from one idea to another.
Most important, Morrison uses her modern style to mirrors the composition of jazz music. Consider this; jazz music is composed of numerous voices (instruments), structured scales, improvised riffs, bold and crafty lyrics, and sensual rhythm. Paul Berliner discusses the structuring of jazz in Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation when he says, “Composed pieces or tunes, consisting of a melody and an accompanying harmonic progression, have provided the structure for improvisations throughout most of the history of jazz” (63). In Jazz, Morrison attempts to mirror the structure of jazz through her modernist composition. Morrison mimics jazz composition in her creation of the novel; she uses numerous voices, structured plot lines, improvised or disconnected sections, bold and poetical language, and sensual plot lines and imagery. Through her use of various elements of modern fiction styles and structures, Morrison brings to life the boldness, sensuality, tension, and history of jazz. In Jazz, Morrison addresses the importance of African American culture and musical forms on the ideas of the Jazz Age through her characters, settings, plot lines, and modernist structure, in order to reflect not only jazz history, spirit, and structure but the importance of the movement in providing a gateway for the wide-spread appreciation of African America art and thought.
Works Cited
Berliner, Paul. Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Huggins, Nathan I. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Knadler, Stephen. “Domestic Violence in the Harlem Renaissance: Remaking the Record in Nella Larsen’s “Passing” and Toni Morrison’s “Jazz.”.” African American Review 2004: 38. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. James Lide Coker III Memorial Library. 01 Nov 2005 .
Stearns, Marshall W. The Story of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.
Tolnay, Stewart E. . “The African American “Great Migration” and Beyond.” Annual Review of Sociology 2003: 29. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. EBSCO. James Lide Coker III Memorial Library. 1 Nov 2005 .
