Matthew Jordan's Le Jazz neatly explores the history of jazz music in France, from ‘the cakewalk’ that first invaded Paris in 1903 to the ‘battle for la Jeunesse’ of the 1950s, and convincingly illustrates ‘how a foreign cultural phenomenon once opposed by the dominant ideologies within French cultural discourse came to be taken for granted as part of French culture’ (p. 246). Using an ambitiously wide range of sources, the seven chronological chapters explore discourses surrounding the reception of jazz by both the French public and commentators, and demonstrate how debates about jazz have been constantly entangled with notions of French (cultural) identity. Consciously focusing on discourse rather than biography, Jordan argues that his ‘main concern is to understand how debates on jazz were used to fine-tune notions of what it meant to be French’ (p. 10). Indeed, by examining the discourses that surround jazz, the reader is better able to understand the place of discourse itself in the creation of popular cultural myths and ideology as well as how the ever-subtly changing notions of cultural identity are constructed.
Jordan asserts that there are three standard themes that are ‘repeatedly heard in French discourse on jazz’: ‘authentic’ Frenchness as it relates to great art or folk art; the construction of an ‘un-French other’ using the nègre as a signifier; and the Americanisation (or mechanisation) of culture; all of which are in evidence throughout the book.
The majority of the chapters follow a similar structure: Jordan presents commentaries from the supporters and opponents of jazz, weaving each side into larger debates on national identity as well as discussions on art, race, politics and economic pressures. Beginning his study in the first decade of the 20th century with the ‘jazz ancestor’, the ragtime cakewalk, allows Jordan to situate debates surrounding popular music within larger notions of an emerging national cultural identity: ‘Indeed, only during the last part of the 19th century did statements about something like a consistent notion of Frenchness – as opposed to more localised identity constructions – emerge in the French media. At the very moment that French identity was gaining consistency, the new thriving popular culture was shaking its imaginary foundations by constantly introducing new and exotic forms of enjoyment’ (p. 18). Jordan goes on to recount how the rhetoric surrounding jazz, and le dancing that accompanied it, was labelled a threat to the ‘cultural health and the “future of the race”’ by medical experts (p. 65), in large part due its bodily or primitive essence that undermined the more sophisticated, intellectual music traditionally embraced in France.
From the 1920s when jazz was more established in France, discussion moved away from diagnostics to ‘the emergence of two basic categories for differentiating jazz along so-called racial lines: “authentic” musique nègre and white commercial jazz’ (p. 73). Thus begins discussion, still heard in much French music commentary today, about the mass (re-)production of music. French commentators once shocked by the bodily traits of jazz are now looking to the authentic African characteristics as signs of resistance to ‘cultural Americanization’ (p. 76), and ‘black jazz’ was more acceptable than white ‘commercialized jazz’. At the same time, jazz had become symbolic of modern (urban) culture and was frequently cast as the ‘other’ to traditional (pastoral) French culture. Jordan uses a number of films, such as Roudes's 1923 La guitare et le jazz-band, to illustrate this dichotomy: ‘many films framed the conflicts of the day so that “traditional” French morality, one that resisted jazz-inflected modernity, would be seen as the answer to France's problems of cultural unrest’ (p. 86).
In Chapters 4–6 Jordan continues using opposing and supporting voices, while moving the discussion to encompass Josephine Baker and La revue nègre, again using discourse here to ensure he moves away from ‘rehashing the standard take on La revue nègre’ (p. 102). Post-Baker, Jordan examines the ‘Jazz Hot Years’ (Chapter 5) and the fierce debates, dominated by Hugues Panassié, surrounding ‘authentic’ jazz, before jazz once again became embroiled in racial politics at the outset of WWII where events such as the Exposition anti-juif ‘looked back nostalgically to a pre-Enlightenment order when European cultures had more “sane” racial hygiene’ (p. 197).
Jordan's final chapter tackles the postwar era, by which time, he notes, jazz was no longer considered un-French (p. 233). Although Panassié continued in his dogmatic ‘defence’ of authentic jazz as opposed to the commercial forms such as swing and bebop, ‘writing on jazz reflected the intellectual and cultural mentality of the postwar era. It was marked by a turn toward irony, relativism, and pluralism as a new generation of disillusioned critics, wary of totalizing arguments about culture, came to terms with an uncertain world’ (p. 233). Jazz's assimilation was thus complete.
Le Jazz does many things very well: while the debates surrounding jazz may be messy and, at times, contradictory, Jordan's writing is consistently clear and cohesive. This book is extremely readable. Its appeal should also be far-reaching and, although many French scholars may lament the lack of original quotations, the English translations throughout ensure that readers with little knowledge of French can fully understand the sophistication of the debates held within. Jazz enthusiasts, Francophiles, students and researchers of French music or culture will all find this book a welcome addition to their libraries as well as those interested in the art and culture of the first half of the 20th century (Cocteau, Surrealism, etc.). This is also a good source book for creating or updating French Culture courses as, first, there are many useful reference lists of potential primary texts (plays, books, etc.) that discuss jazz culture and, second, because Le Jazz persuasively illustrates how music reflects and contributes to debates on (French) cultural identity. For French departments still wondering whether music can be a legitimate area of study alongside literature and film, this book successfully contributes to the growing body of works that assert music's cultural and academic validity and, through its focus on discourse, provides important clues for how to study and teach it.
