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"Untamed Music"
| Title: | "Untamed Music": Early Jazz in Vaudeville. |
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| Name(s): |
Lewis, Steven, author College of Music |
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| Type of Resource: | text | |
| Genre: | text | |
| Issuance: | serial | |
| Date Issued: | 2012 | |
| Physical Form: | computer | |
| Physical Form: | online resource | |
| Extent: | 1 online resource | |
| Language(s): | English | |
| Abstract/Description: | Vaudeville, which was one of the most influential entertainment genres in America at the turn of the century, was also important to the early development of jazz. Vaudeville's role in jazz history has not often figured into discussions of early jazz because the earliest jazz historians were record collectors who relied heavily on sound recordings to establish the history of the music, leading them to marginalize the contributions of musicians or bands that did not make records. Touring vaudeville, minstrel shows, and circuses played a crucial role in jazz's development and dissemination. Many of the influential jazz artists of the teens and twenties, such as Alvin "Zoo" Robertson, Wilbur Sweatman, Freddie Keppard, and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton began their careers playing in tents and theaters around the country as vaudeville entertainers. Traveling vaudeville shows were the most significant factor in the spread of jazz before the advent of recording, and brought early jazz to appreciative audiences even before 1917, when the first jazz recordings became available. After these initial recordings, the shows carried jazz to remote areas of the country where jazz records were less likely to be available. These shows continued to be important for the careers of jazz musicians until the mid thirties, when the ascendance of film and radio led to vaudeville's terminal decline. In this paper I explore in detail the role that touring vaudeville shows played in the development and popularization of jazz in the first decades of the twentieth century. | |
| Identifier: | FSU_migr_uhm-0143 (IID) | |
| Keywords: | jazz, vaudeville, early jazz, jazz history | |
| Submitted Note: | A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major. | |
| Degree Awarded: | Spring Semester, 2013. | |
| Date of Defense: | November 26, 2012. | |
| Subject(s): |
Ethnomusicology Musicology |
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| Persistent Link to This Record: | http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_uhm-0143 | |
| Restrictions on Access: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ | |
| Owner Institution: | FSU | |
| Is Part of Series: | Honors Theses. |
