Irresistible

James Reese Europe, identified in Schuller's Early Jazz as a major transitional figure in the pre-history of jazz on the East Coast, also recorded a tango, entitled "Irresistible." It's interesting to hear since its an early example of how jazz music was always connected to "Latin" music. From the "Latin" section of "St. Louis Blues" to a variety of other examples, early jazz was cognizant of Cuban, Mexican, Argentine, and Caribbean musical influences. 

The Painted Veil

Maugham's The Painted Veil is one of those novels I picked up on a whim from a used bookstore on the West Coast. Like Razor's Edge, it almost seems to have Orientalist themes (Tao, China, the inscrutable East), but is centered on the life of a frivolous young woman whose ordeal forces her to reconsider her life and relationships. And if one thought it would become a sort of Chinese Love in the Time of Cholera, one is sorely mistaken. There is no magic realism here. Instead, Maugham's short novel exposes the bankruptcy of English social climbing (Kitty Fane's mother) and colonial social hierarchies (British Hong Kong, Charles Townsend). Through Kitty's attempt to find some meaning and sense of freedom, along her own Way, the 1925 novel also addresses some of the fundamental problems of relations between the sexes. 

Yes, women can vote and have made a variety of advances, but the proper English woman was still expected to marry well and remain dependent on a male breadwinner. Kitty's struggle to avoid being a burden after Walter's death illustrates this dilemma quite well. The other major women characters in the novel likewise experience the limitations placed upon their gender, especially Kitty's mother and Dorothy, the wife of Kitty's lover. Both of them are in no small manner largely behind the success of their husbands, but it is only through their men that their status is assured. Maugham appears to have understood this very well, and hints at a future change when Kitty promises to raise her unborn daughter as a free woman. Intriguingly, it is through the selfless French nuns in Mei-Tan-Fu that Kitty begins to see some way out of the rather meaningless life she led before as a young bourgeois woman.  

Now, what is the importance of China in this novel? Empire and colonialism are persistent themes in the novel, and with the exception of Colonel Yu and the owner of a curio shop, none of the Chinese characters are named. Most are "boys," or servants and amahs. Hong Kong, with its vain and unintelligent colonial officials (particularly Charles Townsend, the lover of Kitty), appears to consist of nothing but polo, balls, dinner, and putting on airs. Empire has bred a society at home and abroad lacking in the virtues and larger meaning of life. However, when going to the heart of a cholera epidemic in mainland China, the encounter with death, "traditional civilization," and sacrifice provides an opportunity for Kitty to develop while coming to some degree of peace with Walter. Allusions to the Tao, the ability of Waddington and the French nuns to embrace locals, and think beyond the West seems to inspire Kitty to think of how trivial her infidelity and prior life was. In short, China becomes an opportunity for the protagonist to discover herself, albeit only the first step on that journey. 

Rubén

One of the earliest examples of recorded merengue from the Dominican Republic, "Rubén" does sound like it is influenced by danzón. A chapter in Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean suggests that modern Dominican merengue as we known it was influenced by the danzón-like music of the same name in 19th century Puerto Rico and Cuba but gradually adopted new rhythmic, lyrical, and aesthetic features in the Cibao region. Thus, the merengue as we know it was born in the late 19th century. This recording, which features some merengue-like features, also points do the earlier influence of creolized contradance. In that regard, it almost kinda sounds like Haitian méringue.

Justin Elie and Ludovic Lamothe

Thanks to the wonders of archive.org, Justin Elie's Vodoo Scenes (Priestess Dance) (Scenes Vaudouesques) can be heard from a 1928 recording. It is the earliest recorded song I have heard that is, allegedly, based on Vodou music. I am not sure who were the members of this "Haytian Orchestra" which recorded the piece, conducted by Eile, but it is interesting to hear more recordings of Elie's compositions. Like Largey has suggested, Elie's music does seem to invoke the "Amerindian" past of Haiti more so than "Vodou" directly. Other recordings from the 1920s can be found of Elie's Danse Tropicale No. 4 and two compositions by Ludovic Lamothe, Vacances and Valse aux etoiles. Vacances seems to me the most successful, although Valse aux etoiles has an elegant charm. Elie's tropical dance composition also sounds like a meringue, but of course of the salon type.

Ayizan

Ayizan is one of the more interesting Haitian musical groups I never heard of until quite recently. Led by Alix Pascal and other Haitian musicians in New York during the 1980s, Ayizan fused elements of jazz with Haitian rasin elements from rara and folkloric music. Pascal was also one of the forces that pushed for more jazz influences on Ibo Combo, which suggests he was a force for a stronger jazz influence on Haitian music since the 1960s.

St. Louis Blues/El Manisero

The Orquest Hermanos Castro jazz band, which would persist as a group until 1960, also recorded one of the earliest forms of "Latin" jazz. They managed to almost seamlessly fuse "St. Louis Blues" with "El Manisero," although still not quite as successfully as efforts of the 1940s. Nevertheless, this 1931 recording may be a good indication of how early Cuban jazz bands sounded. Leonardo Acosta's history of Cuban jazz indicates that many of the groups formed in the 1920s imitated the "society" music of Paul Whiteman and other white jazz groups. This is definitely true, but the 1930s ushered in some interesting developments in Cuban jazz. 

Pa' Cantón

Cuban son from the 1920s that references the Chinese population of the island.

Grandpa's Spells

Classic Jelly Roll Morton recording from the 1920s. Gunther Schuller's Early Jazz has increased my respect for the contributions of Jelly Roll Morton to the evolution of jazz. Looking past his boastful claim to have invented jazz, one can see how his best work with his Red Hot Peppers represented the height of the New Orleans polyphonic ensemble style in terms of composition. Through the musical stew of New Orleans, Morton drew from all genres to offer the world something new. Of course, one could also discuss the influence of "Latin" music on Morton, who was a descendant of Saint Dominguans, knew of Cuban music, and had a father who ended up in Haiti during the US Occupation.

Jazz (Laleau)

Jazz

Le trombone vient d'Honolulu,

De la Barbade, le saxophone,

Et le grand mulâtre au nez poilu

Qui grimace une chanson bouffonne,

Un soir, s'est enfui de Port-de-Paix.

"Mais avec qui des trois, se demande,

(Tous les trois ont de crépus toupets!)

Se demande la putaine flamande,

Avec qui passerai-je ma nuit,

Pour n'avoir pas une nuit d'ennui"?

Jazz Numero 2

Toque marron, gourmette en or à la cheville,

Tu disculpes l'amour où ton cœur s'ennuyait.

Et, comme au bout d'un vers trop fait, quelque cheville

Orgueilleuse, un rubis rutile à ton poignet.

Au cendrier, ton Abdulah s'épuise, Hortense,

Bleuissant de parfum ton rêve, ou ton ennui.

Et le nègre du Jazz décuple d'importance

Quand jusqu'à lui, tes yeux élargissent leur nuit.

Son rire alors, bordé de sang, fendu de nacre,

Vous griffe l'air qu'il hurle, en le scandant des reins.

Sanglots gluants du saxophone... Fumée âcre...

Et meurt le blues, parmi des lambeaux de refrains.

The above poems, from Leon Laleau's Musique nègre, published in 1931, provide an interesting example of jazz's influence on Haitian poetry at the time. An English translation of the first poem can be found here.

Adeline

"Adeline" is a classic méringue by François Alexis Guignard, the leader of Jazz Guignard in the 1930s. Named for his daughter, the song remained in the repertoire of Haitian dance bands for decades after the heyday of Jazz Guignard. Through Guignard's two sons, Felix and Edner, his influence on Haitian popular music persisted through groups such as Jazz des Jeunes and Hotel El Rancho's band. This version of "Adeline" by Webert Sicot, adds a extra layer of sound through two saxophones playing with and against each other, adding some jazz phrasings here and there. Quite beautiful. 

La Délaissée et ses soupirs

Haitian students from a Cap-Haitien school of music performing a composition by Occide Jeanty, La Délaissée et ses soupirs. Due to Occide Jeanty's significance in the larger history of Haitian music, it's a shame more of his works are not available online, particularly the méringue.

Aldous Huxley's Island

Huxley's Island, his utopian counterpoint to Brave New World, was not what I expected. Although I read Brave New World over 15 years ago, I recall a primitivist solution of sorts that Huxley promoted in the 1930s. Thirty years later, when Island was published, Pala, the Southeast Asian utopian society of the novel, is not a primitive society. Instead, Huxley seems to propose a fusion of sorts of Eastern and Western civilization for an attainable utopian world which adopts some of the material and technological advances of Western civilization in a sustainable manner. 

Instead of capitalism or communism, or mass consumption and a lack of preventative care, Pala continues its own traditions of Mahayana Buddhism, Shivaite practices, and moksha-medicine for a completely different social order. Written at the height of the Cold War, and with World War II a recent memory (indeed, Will Farnaby, the protagonist of the novel, was in Germany during the War), Pala must be how Huxley saw a possible solution between totalitarianism (of the fascist or Stalinist sort) on one hand, and the alienated, consumer societies of the West. 

Unfortunately for the people of Pala, their boy Raja and his mother, the Rani, are plotting with Colonel Dipa of nearby Rendang-Lobo to undo the society to bring industrialization, extractive oil industries, and the Sears Catalogue (imported manufactured goods). Undone by internal factors and the megalomaniacal Colonel Dipa (who is also sleeping with Murugan), Pala's society is destined to unravel. To what extent a society predicated on sustainable development, harmony with their ecological setting, and human happiness could last in a world threatened by the West, the East, and Global South nations hell-bent on imitating the worst aspects of either is resolved by the novel's conclusion. 

Indeed, can a society truly be utopian if it practices an isolationist foreign policy, like Pala? And just as Will Farnaby makes the momentous decision to side with the doomed residents of Pala, Pala's status as a utopia is terminated. Nonetheless, Huxley's vision of an ideal society deserves kudos for avoiding any form of primitivist or unforgivable Orientalist tone. However, it lives up to the worst of the 1960s counterculture: drug-fueled mysticism, perhaps as bankrupt as the inter-war mystics, and proto-New Agey solutions to the problems of modern life.

Cachita

A classic from the songbook of Rafael Hernandez receives an excellent Latin jazz interpretation from trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda. "Cachita" has rarely sounded better. 

Douze-et-Demi

Eructation pénible

du saxophone

qui crache

dans le soir lourd

des notes discordantes.

Dans la salle basse,

où flotte,

dense, 

un parfum de luxure

les couples

se trémoussant

au rhythme de la méringue

exhalent l'âcre odeur

de bêtes en rut. 

Et dans le coin ombreux

qu'illumine

son sourire de noire, 

je tâche d'étouffer

le spleen

que me tue.

The above poem, by Daniel Heurtelou, was published in La Revue Indigène. Unsurprisingly, the indigenist publication welcomed contributions such as the above, which immersed themselves in the folkloric and cultural practices of the masses. It is also a priceless account of the douze et demi balls popular among the working-class quarters of Port-au-Prince since the late 19th century. In J. Michael Dash's Literature and Ideology in Haiti, 1915–1961, he translates a section of the poem and highlights the eroticism and debauchery of it. The nightclub scene, melancholy, and undeniable sexual character of the the scene exemplify this. However, the poem is also a useful description, from a presumably bourgeois poet's perspective, of popular urban music of the 1920s. The use of saxophone, references to the meringue, discordant notes, and heavy odor of the venue are striking visual cues to the douze et demi balls of the era. 

According to Georges Corvington, the douze et demi balls arose in the second half of the 19th century. Because the cost of admission was douze et demi, they received said name. The earliest ones mentioned began with Carnival bandleaders who formed more permanent groups that performed regularly on Saturday evenings in Bel-Air and other neighborhoods. Corvington identified one of these pioneer Carnival bandleaders as Destiné of Bel-Air. In the 19th century, the previous instrumentation of these bands usually contained violin, clarinet, tambourines, and triangle. Presumably, other instruments associated with Carnival bands or parades could also be heard, such as banjo, guitar, mandolin, accordion, or  The favored dance was the "bambocha," noted by Corvington to be a relation to the meringue. However, since Carnival music in Bel-Air and other non-elite areas of the city were more likely to incorporate African traditions and elements of Haitian music, it is probable that these douze et demi orchestras did, at first glance, come across as "rough" or "discordant" compared to the elite balls, salons, and masquerades. 

Daniel Heurtelou

Intriguingly, Heurtelou's poem indicates the use of saxophone in these bands by the 1920s, although they were still performing meringues (perhaps more akin to the koudyay Carnival styles). New instruments that were also used in bands performing Cuban music or American jazz may even indicate the intrusion of said styles in the douze et demi bands. With the growth of Port-au-Prince during this time of US Occupation and further centralization, packed dancehalls providing entertainment for the urban lower classes would have been necessary. Furthermore, Haitian poets making literary use of this development perhaps mirrors that of African American poetic incorporation of blues and jazz elements. This cheap entertainment's appeal to hide or assuage the melancholy of the narrator may speak to his alienation under US Occupation, or, perhaps, the effects of US capitalist penetration into Haitian society. In short, much could be made of the use of free verse, the origins of the narrator's melancholy, and transformations in urban music during this era. 

Bertin Depestre Salnave

Salnave

Bertin Depestre Salnave deserves our attention as one of the Haitians involved with the evolution of jazz music. Unfortunately, finding information about his life and work can be difficult. Most information about his career in Europe refer to an interview published in a 1978 issue of Storyville, a jazz publication. Salnave discusses his musical origins in Haiti through influences from a musician uncle and Occide Jeanty, the illustrious director of the Musique du Palais. Then, in 1913, he went to France, where he studied classical music before joining a variety of bands and orchestras in the 1910s and 1920s. Indeed, the French and European music scene included a plethora of forms of music, so Salnave was exposed to Antillean, tango (he claimed to have performed with Tano Genaro's band), "syncopated" music from the US, and Western classical genres.

Florius Notte and His Creole Band Jazz de la Coupole included at least 2 Haitians in its early formation, Salnave and Emile Chancy. Chancy is presumably the same Chancy who launched his own band in Haiti, Jazz Chancy, one of the groups playing jazz-influenced music near the end of the US Occupation.

Salnave also joined Will Marion Cook's group in England, where he met a number of African American, Puerto Rican, and Caribbean musicians, such as Sidney Bechet. Like Jim Reese Europe, the Southern Syncopated Orchestra was a sort of transitional band that linked early jazz with ragtime and other forms of American popular music of the era. According to the Storyville piece, by the 1920s, Salnave was playing "jazz" proper with American musicians like Crickett Smith, a trumpeter. In addition, Salnave played saxophone in the band of Arthur Briggs, although he may have left the group before they were recorded. Nonetheless, he participated in a number of black American groups in Europe who were pivotal in exporting jazz. This meant Haitian and other Caribbean musicians were able to learn techniques, methods of playing, and stylistic conventions of African American musicians, which they later brought back to the Caribbean. 

Salnave with Arthur Briggs' Savoy's Syncopators Orchesta ca. 1924.

By the time he formed his own group, Emile Chancy, Jeff Sevestre, Firmin, and Florius Notte were members. Jeff Sevestre, possibly Geffrard Cesvet, may have become a bandleader in Haiti after returning from France. Undoubtedly, Salnave's band played a pivotal role in the transmission of jazz music to Haiti through musicians returning from France after performing with European, African American, Latin, and Antillean groups. These musicians, plus the presence of US Marines and their radio station, inundated the country with foxtrots, blues, tango, and Cuban music. According to Averill's study on Haitian popular music, the radio established by the US Marines was not accessible to the majority of Port-au-Prince, but concert programs for broadcasts in Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste indicate many bands that performed a repertoire of Cuban, American, and Haitian meringue tunes. Many of these bands also performed in clubs, bars, and public events, such as the Musique du Palais (directed by Occide Jeanty, then Luc Jean-Baptiste). Thus, the impact of jazz on Haitian dance music was shaped not only by the forces of US Occupation and its cultural impact, but Haitian musicians themselves who incorporated it into their local repertoire. 

1927 recording of "Mean Dog Blues" by the group of Arthur Briggs. Salnave is not featured, but this may be an indication of how the band sounded in 1924, when he was a member.

Lamentably, what became of Salnave after his return to Haiti is difficult to deduce. The Storyville article indicates his career as a jazzman ended when he returned to the island. But, in light of others affiliated with him who appear to have continued their music careers in Haitian dance bands, perhaps Salnave gave lessons or performed with local bands. Perhaps Haitians like himself may have refined some of the jazz influences with local groups who, since the late 1920s, included standards of that era in their performances. Some of the elements of jazz he claimed to have learned in Europe, such as call and response, going without written arrangements and saxophone improvisation may have been in-demand skills for their novelty and authenticity. In terms of recordings, "Brown Love," from 1933, features some of these techniques. Salnave plays in the "hot" style with fellow Haitian, Emile Chancy,, and the record features some intriguing but too brief soloing. The interesting thing to uncover here would be if the local jazz bands that formed by the late 1920s in Port-au-Prince were playing in a similar manner to Salnave's group in France. However, until someone uncovers any possible recordings of Jazz Scott, Jazz Chancy, or Orchestre Pantal Jazz, all we have to go on are 1930s recordings of a few Haitian dance bands from Alan Lomax. 

Quinze jours au Cap-Haitien

One of the interesting Haitian salon meringue compositions from the early 20th century, Quinze jours au Cap-Haitien by François Manigat sounds somewhat like a rag. Information about Manigat is scarce, but the introduction of the piece does suggest a ragtime influence. This indicates the degree to which Haitian musicians were following US music. 

Titoro

Billy Taylor, one of the most important post-swing jazz musicians who shaped the development of Haitian music in the 1950s, wrote "Titoro" for Haitian drummer Ti Roro. The song's melody almost sounds like a certain famous bossa nova tune, but it predates the song by a few years. While not using the tanbou or anything like that, Ed Thigpen manages to make the drumset come alive like Ti Roro. It almost sounds like hand percussion with the shifting tonality of Ti Roro. Clearly, Max Roach was not the only jazz musician who was influenced by the legendary Haitian drummer. Tito Puente also recorded the song, if you want to hear another version. 

Caravan Rara

Jazz standard "Caravan" receives the rara treatment in this delectable number from Mozayik. The use of rara rhythms is seamless and commendable. Unfortunately, the rara section only persists for a little over a minute, it shows the potential for Haitian rara/jazz fusion music, particularly as an uncommon form of "Latin" jazz. Perhaps the two share similar stylistic origins in the street music of New Orleans and Haiti?

American Civilization

American Civilization is one of those pivotal texts of CLR James often ignored or omitted from discussion. However, upon reading it, one gains new insights with regards to how James conceived the relationship between popular movements and their leaders. It also serves as a testament to the intellectual development of the Johnson-Forest Tendency of ca. 1950. Indeed, inklings of a rejection of vanguardism and the autonomous socialist vision of James manifest in American Civilization, which also triumphs for its forward-looking conception of American popular culture, individualism, and the the threat of totalitarianism. 

Indeed, American Civilization is refreshingly bereft of most of Adorno's disdain for US popular culture, while sharing a similar concern with the danger of alienation and totalitarian Plans. Like his other works of the period, James commits himself to a rejection of Stalinism, overly centralized bureaucracies, Catholic Humanism, and the disconnect between intellectuals and workers. Instead, the separation of labor of the body and mind is increasingly unnecessary as laborers have mastered new technology and benefit from mass produced literature, arts, and production. To paraphrase another line of James, philosophy must be proletarian. 

One supposes the remaining question is, what does one make of the actual trajectory of US civilization after 1950? The miners, UAW workers, and others, supposedly responding to a collectivized individual need for control of production, may be found among wildcat strikes today. However, what happened to the new socialism? The New Left and its failure during the resurgence of the Right and neoliberalism? I cannot help but think American Civilization successfully identified the problem of alienation and its impact on US popular culture and responses to it, but perhaps James incorrectly assumed the labor movement would, through spontaneous action and the need to control production, ultimately overthrow the capitalist order. To his credit, James avoids foretelling the future, but the struggle against alienated, mechanized existence seems as pressing as ever. 

Tavito Vasquez

Catchy number from a Dominican merengue saxophonist who incorporated jazz style and phrasing in his music. Jazz and merengue fuse quite well.