JAZZ AND THE TROMBONE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 8

JAZZ AND THE TROMBONE

“NOBLE INSTRUMENT’S BRAY” A SCATHING CRITICISM. “Jazz is a low type of primitive music, both in structure and mode of performance,” said Sir Henry Coward, at a Sheffield Rotary Club luncheon. “It is founded on crude rhythms suggested by stamping the feet and clapping the hands. It always puts emphasis ou the grotesque by the banging and clanging of pots, pans, or any shimmering metallic substance, reinforced with special drums. It debases both music and instruments by making both farcical. The noble trombone is made to bray like an ass, guffaw like a village idiot, and moan like someone in distress. The silver-toned trumpet is made to screech, produce sounds like drawing a nail on a slate, the tearing of calico, or the wailing of a nocturnal tomcat. You cannot make jazz anything but the essence of vulgarity. “The popularisation of jazz, and the attendant immodest dances, has led to a lowering of the prestige of the white races,” he continued. “To prevent further loss of prestige we must bann jazz, because it has a subtle effect by setting up those sub-conscious reactions which, though slight, will waken dormant activities of long-forgotten habits or predispositions. Let Americans embrace jazz is they choose, but, as it is neither lovely nor of good report, we must taboo it in every shape and form until its baneful influence is gone.”