Jazz in the Community

 San Juan Hill and Leimert Park: The Communal Symbiosis

The novelty and beauty in jazz comes from its origins and development in the community. The fact that art is always in dialogue with the community surrounding it allows the potential of this symbiotic whole to be brought to its full fruition. Thelonious Monk’s upbringing in the culturally rich district of San Juan Hill and the blossoming of jazz culture in Leimert Park both demonstrate the lasting nature of this quality. Therefore through examining these communities this relationship can be fully understood.

Thelonious Monk was raised and instructed in the vibrant cultural cauldron of San Juan Hill in New York. The neighborhood was affluent in its diversity, and “[w]ith a diversity of people came a diversity of cultures. On West 63^rd Street alone, the aroma of Southern-style collard greens…of Jamaican rice and peas and fired ripe plantain. English was the main language in the community, but it came in a Carolina twang and a West Indian singsong lilt, in addition to a distinctive New York accent. Spanish and French were also spoken on those streets, with German and Yiddish along the white-dominated avenues” (Kelley, 18). This intense mixture provided the background for Monk from which his jazz could flourish. The combination of culture is inherent in the jazz idiom, and has provided for many of the memorable styles and motifs in the music. San Juan Hill was also known for its violence and racial struggles as well, which left an impact on the young Monk. The racially driven tension resulted in outbreaks among blacks as well as between whites and blacks. As Monk commented, “…every block is a different town” (Kelley 19). The dissonance imbued in the community may have well contributed to the dissonance in Monk’s music, his work dedicated to creating overall synthesized harmony out of individually clashing chords.

The community of Leimert Park has developed under many of the same conditions that San Juan Hill did. Created as an area of middle-income housing in Los Angeles, it soon hosted a large Black population. The trials of racial violence affected it strongly, especially the race riots of 1992. The outside held perception of the world on the area was one of only violence and drugs. From this strained condition however, the community was moved to share a rhythm, and then a harmony. The introduction of art to the streets allowed for the community to take an interest in itself, and the interest of the people in each other. The interdependence that developed as the jazz scene began to develop bound the people together and made the place more enjoyable and fulfilling to live in. Local artists and community leaders acted as catalysts, opening galleries, forming jam-sessions, and opening venues for performances. This opened the dialogue between the community and its art, and made the distinction between the two almost indiscernible. Young people challenged with anger and loss are encouraged to express their emotion through word and song; music has become an integral and vital part to the community, strengthening both in the process.

The statement, “Jazz is New York, man!”, then reflects not just an apt descriptor of that city’s influence and history in the development of the music, but also a more simple and powerful notion; Jazz is community. There can be no jazz without the influences of community, and there can be no community without the unifying nature of its art, whether that be jazz or some other music, or some other art. I believe the relationship between art and community is best represented as two halves of a whole, each defined by the other, and not complete when apart. 

Commented on Jacob Weverka