Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Music |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - African-American |
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U.S. History - World War II |
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Time Required |
| 2 class periods for activities 1 and 2; 2-3 class periods for activity number 3 |
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Skills |
| music appreciation literary analysis and interpretation information-gathering and research critical thinking speaking collaboration Internet skills |
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Date Posted |
| 6/24/2002 |
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Special Features |
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![Ken Burn](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090511171133im_/http://edsitement.neh.gov/sf_images/sf6/war2_small-icon.gif) Ken Burn's "The War"
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Jazz and World War II: A Rally to Resistance, A Catalyst for Victory
Introduction:The
Second World War had an enormous effect on the development of jazz music, which,
in turn, had a role to play in the American war effort. Jazz and jazz-influenced
popular music were a rallying cry for U.S. servicemen, and helped as well to boost
the morale of loved ones at home, who by listening to patriotic and romantic songs
on the radio and on their phonographs were encouraged to wage war on the home
front. The U.S.O. helped lift the spirits of U.S. servicemen at home and abroad
as it brought popular Hollywood and musical celebrities together to perform for
the troops. Jazz musicians also worked throughout the war on patriotic films.
There is an unintended tribute to the broad influence of jazz music (and of the
many prominent African American and Jewish American jazz musicians) in Hitler's
ban, in 1939, on jazz and swing music in Germany.
This lesson will help students to understand the effects that the Second World War had on jazz music
and the contributions that jazz musicians made to the war effort. The activities
below help students explore the role of jazz in American society and the ways
that jazz functioned as an export of American culture and a means of resistance
to the Nazis. Gathering together excerpts of important works by both jazz historians
and jazz musicians, the culminating activity helps students develop a broader
historical perspective on the effects that World War II had on the course of jazz
music. Guiding Question:
What effect did World War II have on jazz
and how did jazz contribute to the war effort?
Learning Objectives:
By
completing the exercises in this lesson students will:
- Gain awareness
of the importance of jazz as a form of American cultural expression and influence
in the world
- Experience different forms of jazz
- Learn how jazz
musicians involved themselves in the war effort
- Learn how the war experience
forever changed the jazz community.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson:- Visit
the Jazz Lounge, a feature of
the EDSITEment-reviewed Jazz: A Film
by Ken Burns; on this site, you and your students can explore the different
styles and instruments of jazz. Then visit the Smithsonian
Jazz website, where you can listen to different forms of the music; on
this site, go to "What
is jazz?", a part of "Jazz
Classes." The resources on these pages will give everyone an excellent
introduction to the music that was popular in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
- Give
your students time to explore the Jazz Classes resources. Each musician section
includes audio clips of the artist's music to which one can listen, in addition
to biographical information. You may wish to focus on the Duke Ellington and Ella
Fitzgerald sections, which have pertinent information on jazz in the 1930s and
1940s, and will be helpful in completing the activities described below.
- There
are also biographies available on Jazz: A Film
by Ken Burns. Click on Biographies and find additional information on Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald; next,
look up William "Count" Basie, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw.
- Using the
resources described above, you can review with your students the history of jazz
in the period leading up to World War II; knowing a little about this history
will help them in the activities that follow. Jazz flourished in the 1920s and
became the popular music in America from 1930-1946. By the mid-1930s, jazz was
played in Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles, and (especially)
New York; at that time, uptown Harlem was the center of the big band swing scene,
but yielded its place during the 1940s to Manhattan, which had become the center
of the bebop craze, a radical movement within jazz.
- For analyses of
these and other aspects of jazz history, see the excerpts that are transcribed
in Selected Reading in Jazz
History (available from EDSITEment as a downloadable PDF file); this document will be used in activity 4, below.
- For a list
of print resources on the history of jazz music, consult the Select
Bibliography (available as a downloadable
PDF file).
- For a list of suggested recordings, consult the Select
Discography (available as a downloadable
PDF file).
Suggested Activities
1.
The Jazz Life and American Society in the World War II Era: Focus
on Billie Holiday
- Learn about Billie
Holiday on the EDSITEment-reviewed Jazz:
A Film by Ken Burns. On the same site, there is the transcript (available
as a PDF file) of an interview with Artie
Shaw. You will need to scroll down and click on "Artie Shaw" to download
the PDF file; go to page 9 of this PDF file and read what Artie Shaw said about
Billie Holiday. Discuss the following questions with your students:
- What
were the events that seem to have shaped Billie Holiday's life?
- Why
do you think "Strange Fruit" was such an important and controversial song?
- Why do you think Holiday had such a difficult life?
2.
Swing and Nazi Germany: Jazz in Wartime Europe- In Jazz:
A Film by Ken Burns, go to Great
Depression: History in the Key of Jazz. You can read about jazz and the
Depression or simply skip down to the section on "Swing." Listen to "Sing, Sing,
Sing" on the audio clip. Then skip down to the last section entitled " A Glimpse
of Things to Come" and read the experience Duke Ellington had while traveling
in Europe in mid-1939. You can also listen to jazz critic Gary Giddins' discussion
of the appeal of swing.
- Also in Jazz:
A Film by Ken Burns, go to World
War II: History in the Key of Jazz . In the last section of this webpage,
entitled "Jazz in Occupied Europe," you and your students can read about the impact
that Nazi propaganda and repression had on jazz musicians and fans.
- Show
your students the movie Swing Kids. This outstanding film shows how swing music
became a form of resistance for young Germans who were anti-Nazi. It also shows
how jazz musicians were scorned for being African American and Jewish. Discuss
how the music was a form of protest and resistance for young Germans. Have students
read the Hans Massaquoi section in The Good War by Studs Terkel (Ballantine, 1984; pp.498-505). Massaquoi was a real swing kid and served as technical advisor for the film.
Also another excellent resource for the swing kids is a history text entitled
Inside Nazi Germany by Detlev Peukert (Cambridge University Press, 1987).
3.
Jazz and World War II- The Historical Perspective
- Go to
World War II: History in
the Key of Jazz. Read the discussion of the African American contribution
to the war. Discuss with your students the following question: Why did Downbeat
magazine refer to jazz musicians as "Soldiers of Music"? Ask students to give
several pieces of evidence to back up their opinion.
- Go to Women in Jazz, a feature on Jazz:
A Film by Ken Burns. Answer the following questions, based on the section which discusses what role
women played in jazz in the 1930s and 1940s:
- How did the war change
the way that women were involved in jazz?
- How did this compare with
the general workforce?
- How was a woman's place in society altered
as a result of World War II?
- Go to the webpage on Jazz:
A Film by Ken Burns dealing
with the Recording
Ban. Discuss with your students the following questions:
- Why do you think the musician's union instituted the recording ban
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What effect did the recording ban have?
- Do you feel that the recording
ban achieved its goal? Why or why not?
4.
Small Group Discussions: Selected Readings in Jazz History
Divide the class into small groups. Provide each of the groups with one or more excerpts selected
from Selected Readings in Jazz History (available as a downloadable PDF file). On each page of this downloadable file,
there is a different excerpt from the writings of historians, musicians, and biographers.
You may wish to provide groups with one or more of the following questions: - Think
about whether your reading focuses on individuals or a larger group. What does
it say about the relationship between the individual and the group?
- What
important issue is central to this particular reading?
- How do you know
this?
- If opinions are given, what explicit or implied facts support the
author's point of view?
- Do agree or disagree with what the author has
written? What is the basis for your position? Explain your reasons and provide evidence.
- What
other information would you need to better understand or evaluate your reading?
Extending
the Lesson
- Ask student groups to prepare PowerPoint presentations
on issues related to jazz and World War II. Some possibilities are the effect
of the war experience on musicians, the shift in popularity from swing to
bebop, the symbolism associated with World War II era popular songs, and the issue
of race in jazz and in World War II.
- Ask students to prepare song lyric
analyses of World War II era popular songs. They can access song lyrics to all
the most popular songs at Lyrics
World. Have them try to find recordings of the songs they selected and
present the song and their analyses to the class. Possible ideas for analysis
could include the following: ways in which women are portrayed; stereotypes which
appear in the lyrics; and reinforcement or challenges to American values of the
period.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
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