Jazz, Jews and Henry Ford

This isn't about religion.  This isn't about politics. This is about Jazz and the world it was born into.
This is also about how a man can be both great and misguided at the same time.

I'm currently reading a book called, "Devil’s Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies: How America Gave Birth to Rock and Roll" by James A. Cosby.  
The rather clumsy title belies the superlative content.  I've been reading it for a couple weeks and have only put a small dent in it because every page sends me on a long, involved foraging expedition to learn more about what the author had presented.  The book is heavily footnoted with citations -- causing yet another flurry of searching for the cited material. 

My current investigation centers around jazz.  

I don't really listen to jazz in any purposeful fashion but there's no question about its validity as a musical form and its powerful influence on all music that followed it and any time spent studying the genre is time well spent.

Part of the book's intent is to look at all music that eventually played part in the development of Rock and Roll, but another part of the book's intent is to examine the social climates that lead to the formation of these various musical genres. 

The social climate relative to the creation of the Delta Blues was pretty obvious.  The Blues came from the isolated Black culture that was so suppressed due to racial hatred and the subsequent Jim Crow laws designed to perpetuate slavery in a then-acceptable fashion, that left hard physical field work as the only option for employment and lack of education as the glue that adhered these people to this life. Blues grew from the rhythmic and monotonous daily grind of working the fields.  Of course, this is a simplification. Like most things, it's far more complex. 

Jazz, on the other hand, was an urban development, more ensemble oriented, and more focused on freedom itself than the trials that lack of freedom incurs. Jazz gets its roots from Blues but also from the ragtime sounds popularized by Scott Joplin as well as the inclusion of brass instruments Creoles brought from Europe.  Ragtime which was popular in saloons and red light districts, developed into jazz and was embraced by the predominately Jewish songwriters and publisher of New York's Tin Pan Alley.  The Prohibition era (1920-1933) gave rise to speakeasies where bootleg liquor flourished along with Jazz  -- Jewish Jazz, that is.  Jazz grew from its Black origins in the deep South to its adoption, primarily by Jewish artists, in the North.  
The Blacks and the Jews were, in a sense, allies. 

“One of the interesting things, when you look at the history of African-Americans and Jews in popular music, is there is this very seductive narrative of a natural kinship.” [Jeffrey Melnick, a professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston:  citation]

Hopefully this helps to show the connection between Blacks and Jews in Jazz's formative years.

The early 20th century, much like the early 21st century (how little things have changed in 100 years) was a difficult time, to understate it, for both Blacks and Jews.  America, the country that touted in it's very Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," found loopholes whereas some men were less equal than others, making their rights not quite as unalienable. 

Possibly because two of these assailed groups, Jews and Blacks, were instrumental in the proliferation of Jazz, Jazz itself became a target for the hate-mongers of the time.

One of the prime hate-mongers was the otherwise great industrialist, Henry Ford. 

The book only gives this (to me, eye-opening) small tidbit:

"Automobile magnate, noted racist, and fierce anti–Semite Henry Ford wrote about jazz in his own newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, referring to the music of black jazz
players as '[m]onkey talk, jungle squeals … camouflaged by a few feverish notes,' and warning of “the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes” from Jewish jazz players."

A cursory Google search led me to this page: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/mayors-bid-to-censor-article-on-henry-fords-anti-semitism-goes-viral.html  
The above article is definitely worth reading in toto, but for me the most significant element was that it mentioned that Ford's articles in the "Dearborn Independent" (an odd name for a tightly controlled propaganda outlet) were compiled in book-form:

Many of the Independent’s articles were eventually compiled in a book, 'The International Jew,' that Hitler said was translated, reprinted and circulated throughout Germany, according to the 1923 article in the 'Chicago Tribune'."

Much to my surprise, I was able to secure a 1997 reprint (highly abridged with only 275 of the original 1000+ pages) of this book. The reprint was a flagrant attempt to appeal to White Supremacists by extolling and promulgating Henry Ford's hateful rhetoric, as can be seen by this quote (one of many) from the editor:

"The Zionist and International Jewish problem he [ford] talked and wrote extensively about still remains with us, perhaps more insidiously than ever, since this group, collectively, seems to control the media in important centers of the world, coupled with its dominance in the electronic means of communications that now control what can and cannot be read by us all."

Even the term "Jewish problem" is holocaustic rhetoric.  

Here are some selected excerpts from Chapter 11:

"Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes are of Jewish origin.
Monkey talk, jungle squeals, grunts and squeaks and gasps suggestive of calf love are camouflaged by a few feverish notes and admitted in homes where the thing itself, unaided by 'canned music,' would be stamped out in horror. The fluttering music sheets disclose expressions taken directly from the cesspools of modern capitals, to be made the daily slang, the thoughtlessly hummed remarks of school boys and girls."

"Jews did not create the popular of the song; they debased it. The time of the entry of Jews into control of the popular song is the exact time when the morality of popular songs began to decline. The 'popular' song, before it became a Jewish industry, was really popular. The people sang it and had no reason to conceal it. The popular song today is often so questionable a composition that performers with vestige of decency must appraise their audience before they sing."

"The Jew and the African period, being the entrance of the jungle motif, the so-called 'Congo' stuff, and other compositions which swiftly degenerated into a rather more bestial type than the beasts themselves arrive at. Running alongside this swamp strain was the 'ragtime' style of music which was a development of the legitimate Negro minstrelsy. Lyrics disappeared before the numerous 'cake-walk' songs that deluged the public ear.
Seductive syncopation swamped the harmony of the real song.
Minstrelsy took on a new life; glamorous youths mutter·dirges in low monotones, voluptuous females with grossly seductive gestures moan nasal notes no real musician can recognize. 'Piano acts' were made the rage; 'jazz bands' made their appearance. By insensible gradations now easily traceable through the litter of songs with which recent decades are strewn, we have been able to see the decline in the popular song supply.
Sentiment has been turned into sensuous suggestion. Romance has been turned into eroticism. The popular musical lilt slid into ragtime and ragtime has been superseded by jazz and crooning. Song topics became lower and lower until at last they are the dredges of the slimy bottom of the underworld."

"Money, and not merit, dominates the spread of the moron music which is styled Jewish jazz and swing.
Non-Jewish music is stigmatized as 'high-brow.' The people are fed from day to day on the moron suggestiveness that flows in a slimy flood out of 'Tin-Pan-Alley,' the head factory of filth in New York which is populated by the 'Abies' and the 'Izzies,' and the 'Moes', who make up the composing staffs of the various institutions. 'Tin-Pan-Alley' is the name given to the region in Twenty-eighth street, between Broadway and
Sixth Avenue, where the first Yiddish song manufacturers began business. Flocks of young girls who thought they could sing, and others who thought they could write song poems came to the neighborhood allured by the dishonest advertisements that promised more than the budding Yiddish promoters could fulfill. Needless to say, scandal became rampant as it always does when so-called 'Gentile' girls are reduced to the necessity of seeking favors from the Jew. It was the constant shouting <?f voices, the hilarity of 'parties,' the banging of pianos and the blaring of trombones that gave the district the name of 'Tin-Pan-Alley.' All America is now one great Tin-Pan-Alley, its entertainment, its youth, its politics, a blare of moronic Judaism.
The diabolical cunning with which an unclean atmosphere is created and sustained through all classes of society and by the same influence, will not be overlooked by any observer. There is something Satanic about it, something calculated with demonic shrewdness."

The above cited article concludes with this eerie pronouncement:

"Many historians and civil rights groups contend that Ford’s hate-filled words are fueling violence today with anti-Semitic acts on the rise, including the murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October, The Southern Poverty Law Center has cited Ford as a strong influence on growing neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups.
'Henry Ford was the most famous, most wealthy and most successful man in the United States at the time,' said Michael Rose, a historian and documentarian now working on a book and film exploring Ford’s anti-Semitic legacy. 'This is someone people aspired to be and be like. His book and his newspaper influenced people all over the world.'”

Ford's diatribes were mainly reserved for Jews. His racism,, however, was evident by his refusal to hire Blacks as factory workers until the post-WWI influx of Southern Blacks into the area, along with a growth in minority shareholders, and the refusal of unions to admit Blacks at the time, forced his hand and caused a change in his hiring practices for pragmatic reasons.  Ford, in fact, soon became not just a pioneer but a leader in desegregating the auto industry. 

I did not read all that

Laziness as a virtue has been greatly overstated.

Yararlı buldum

I haven't had time to read it all yet but I will. I'm posting so I can find this thread after it's buried under all the fluff.

I did skim a little. Isn't Jewish Jazz called Klezmer? Or maybe Klezmer is more like Jewish Bluegrass. That's what it sounds like to me. It's good stuff.

My dear sister, what you point to is as true as it is painful; but I thank you for bringing some light into these subjects. I did not know these ramifications of anti-Black and ani-Jewish racism.

One thing that you point to, the alliance between Jews and Blacks in the world of Jazz, was briefly mentioned by Billy Crystal in his speech at Muhammad Ali's funeral.

You see, Billy and Muhammad were lifelong friends, and they supported each other's charities, much like Nadal and Federer do today.

Billy Crystal's father was a music producer in the world of Jazz, so in Billy's house Blacks and Jews mixed and did music together.

Here is Billy Crystal's speech at Muhammad Ali's funeral:

I'm not familiar with the term Klezmer or its implications.

The book "Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany" by Michael Kater had this to say... and it's uncomfortably in tune with Henry Ford.

It's good to know that my great uncles Harry and George, who were some of those Tin Pan Alley musicians (Harry wrote the music for the song "Alice Blue Gown"), were considered subversive by a hard-core racist and anti-Semite.  And I'm glad to carry on my family tradition.  I never had any love for Henry Ford and this just reinforces that.

And I did read all of this--and I thank you for it, Sarah.

Thanks Rob!

Thanks George

.... and Harry, this is for you:

And I thank you for them, Sarah, and here's a link to the original recording:

https://youtu.be/-Ao63TvxvPk

Well I did read it all including the linked article, and I found it fascinating. Many people don't realize just how rampant racism in general and antisemitism in particular were in the US in the 1920s. In the South it was the time of the largest ever revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and saw the enactment of of many of the most restrictive Jim Crow laws and policies as well as the construction of a ton of those confederate general statues in parks and downtown streets that are now being taken down or moved. The 1920s also saw a high point in anti-immigrant feeling in the country (among the targets of which were Eastern and Central European Jews), leading to congress legislating an extremely restrictive quota based immigration system that targeted Catholics and Jews with laws passed in 1921 and 1924 (modeled after earlier laws from the1890s that targeted Asians). 

If you wouldn't mind I would like to link to your work here in the Open Discussion and Ideas forums. I will wait for you to respond.

Edith Day has an operatic voice.  She predated Judy Garland by more than 2 decades.  So the song had some lasting value.

Here's Frank Sinatra in 1940:

Yeah, Sarah, you just can't get around the subversive sound of the original--it's covered in jungle trash and animal sounds, isn't it?

Have you driven a Ford lately?

Ford was a genuine American original. He was criticized for living in the past (he was nostalgic about the childhood he fled), to which he replied, more or less accurately, “I invented the modern world.” He resisted hiring African Americans, but when he did start employing them, he was among the first major manufacturers to do so. He was the first employer to provide health insurance for his employees, but did so in ways that showed his concern for exerting greater control over their personal lives. He embodied many of the contradictions of his era.

His taste in music, naturally, expresses his prejudices.

Cosby’s book looks interesting.

I grew up with what is now called classic rock and still listen. Folk, Jazz, and Blues move me more today. As today is Friday, tonight I will be tuned into the Blues Show on KEWU, a local Jazz station. One of the highlights of my life was a night at Koko Taylor’s Blues Club with some friends from graduate school. One of them, a high school teacher in Chicago, was also the manager for the band performing that night, so we all got in as guests of the band. Blyther Smyth was the performer. He is the nephew of the great Delta Blues performer J.B. Lenoir.

Link away my friend. 

Your writing, and the breadth of your topics, never disappoint.  

Henry Ford's antisemitism is new to me, but there seems to be indications that he wasn't just a product of his time. see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm 

His relationship with Blacks, unlike that with Jews whom he hated, feared and considered evil, espousing the same rhetoric as Hilter would later on (Ford's "Dearborn Independent" articles are chillling)., seems to have been one of a feeling that they were merely inferior and not worth hiring -- until hiring Blacks proved beneficial.  If nothing else, Ford was a practical man.