JAZZ—THE REACTION

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12507, 24 July 1926, Page 15

JAZZ—THE REACTION

The people who have rushed into print about jazz have either exaggeratedly exalted it or as exaggeratedly denounced it. There would seem to be jm sorb of cojnprorni.se. Yet in actual l act there has probably been no school of music—save hymns—that has attained so universal level of appeal, and that lias left its participants so Unmoved by the swirl of battle. On the jazz floor, united by the same rhythmic movement, are the devotees of classical music and the quite excellent people whom Brahms would noro •tiff. The warfare rages around them; not among them. In their own ranks, classicists and non-classicists, neithei •id© liari any illusion as to what jazz is—ami is not. All are well aware that it expresses, not tho exalted emotions of the spirit, hut tho rhythmic reaction to the surge of active, strenuous life. It locals the nica.-mre of a simple reaction to complexity, it intones the melody of inevitability, and tells us, in effect, that when all is said and done, from ibe tremor of the cosmos to the heart-beat of the individual, iilo is just -rhvthm. And the saxophones, with all their symbolic cacophony, Mar? the assurance triumphantly, oven in their most discordant notes, that life witli all its complexities can be reduce:! to a rhythmic Mvay o( responding feet; the rhythmic beat of hearts that np gue&tipns-f-* L,

while the jazz band sets the tune. That is all jazz pretends to offer to humanity. But humanity has shown itself universally appreciative of the gift of temporary oblivion to all save the mingled harmony of movement and sound.