MEDIART
  • Home
  • About
  • BLOG
  • Praxis Greece
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • BLOG
  • Praxis Greece
  • Contact
  MEDIART

MEDIART

2023

International jazz day

30/4/2020

Comments

 

The Jazz scene and Cannabis

Picture
Jazz, while known for being born into the arms of African American culture, is a musical movement that represents the integration of other styles and cultures. It was born in the late 19th century and developed in the early 20th century in one of the most xenophobic and racist eras in America.
For this reason, jazz shows values ​​such as tolerance, unity, peace, mutual understanding, integration and intercultural dialogue.

In this article we are going to talk about an aspect of jazz music, perhaps not very well known. It is about the important relationship that existed between this music and marijuana.
The history of marijuana is closely related to the history of music, as well as many other arts.
They used euphemisms to refer to this substance. Cab Halloway was one of the first with the song titled "Refer man". Most of the public would have no idea what he was talking about. "Reefer", "gauge", "jive" and "weed" were some of the slang words jazz greats used when singing about cannabis. This terms would become some of the popular slang still in use today.

Not only were jazz musicians smoking it, but everybody knew that it gave them a leg up. When you got high on cannabis, the music slowed down a little bit and you can flow improvisationally.
Fats Wallace, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and many referent and great jazz musicians were speaking on the plant because the plant was something that was a way of helping them find their groove, mind and to create some of the most classic music that was ever created .
Jazz music was the new music of the 20th century and Louis Armstrong is its parent. He is the most important seminal figure in the development of jazz and it is known that Louis started smoking weed early on and smoked it every day of his live.

Cannabis began to be persecuted and prohibited because its use was mainly related to two racial groups: Black people and Mexicans. With false scientific reports, propaganda and racism, the government turned public opinion against this substance. Marijuana was made illegal partially because of the jazz scene. It was trying to prevent people from going to jazz clubs because it put black people and white people together, in particular black men and white women.

Then, this movement, culture and way to live and create the music, spreaded to other movements like the beat generation, the hippie movement... Later the relationship between music and marijuana persisted through Reggae music or HipHop. Nowadays, the issue of the weed goes mainstream because there a lot efforts to legalize it and make business but the racial disparity continue until today.

By Fernando Iturria

Comments

    Categories

    All
    Antifascism Day
    Christmas Holidays
    CLAP!
    Coming Together - Bringing Down Barriers
    COP21
    Democracy Day
    Film Festival
    Food Day
    Halloween
    Human Rights Day
    Imag'in
    International Day
    Peace Day
    Podcast
    Refugee Experience
    Stereo Typical
    Tourism Day
    UrbanArtVentures
    Video
    World-aids-day

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Jorge Franganillo