Jazz And The Eence of America_Jazz

Jazz And The Eence of America由刀豆文库小编整理，希望给你工作、学习、生活带来方便，猜你可能喜欢“Jazz”。

Jazz And The Eence of America爵士乐与美国精髓Considering how jazz is transcribed in说到美国的爵士乐(jazz)，Chinese(jueshi), you may be 你可能从它的中文译名而推断为misledsintosauming that it is an 那是属于贵族的音乐。殊不知恰aristocratic cultural form.Nothing could 恰相反，它源于19世纪末的美国be further from the truth.It originated 黑人，那时他们处于社会的最底among black Americans at the end of the 19th 层。

century, at a time when they occupied the

very bottom of the American social heap.然而，来自当年被奴役受歧 So how has something that was created by

a once downtrodden and despised minority 视的黑人的音乐如今却进入到了

美国文化的主流地位，原因何在acquired a central place in today's

呢？美国驻华使馆教育交流中心American culture? Mr Darrell A Jenks,主任(也是《天窗》爵士乐队的鼓director of the American Center for

手)金大友先生为我们分析了这Educational Exchange, and also a drummer in

一现象。the jazz band Window, analyses the

phenomenon for us here.Jazz: the soul of

America

Perhaps the eence of America is that you说起美国的精髓，恐怕你找could never get two Americans to agree on 不到哪两个美国人有着相同的看just what that might be.After thinking 法。在对这个问题考虑一会儿之about it for a while, we might chuckle and 后，我们可能会笑起来并且说：say, “Hmm, seems like being American is a “嗯，看来身为美国人比我们当bit more complicated than we thought.” 初想的要复杂一点儿。”当然了，Certainly things like individualism, 强调个性，获取成功(即“美国succe(the “American Dream”), innovation 梦”)，创新以及包容是美国人突and tolerance stand out.But these things 出的方面。但这些特点集中在美come together because of our ability to work 国人身上是因为我们有彼此协作with one another and find common purpose no 的能力，而无论我们彼此会怎么matter how diverse we might be.不同，我们都可以找到共同的目

标。

Some, like African-American writer Ralph

Ellison, be-lieve that jazz captures the有些人，例如美国黑人作家拉eence of America.For good reason,for in 尔夫-埃里森，认为爵士乐抓住了jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned 美国的精髓，这么说是很有道理above come together.The solos are a 的，因为我上面提到的美国人的celebration of individual brilliance that 种种特征在爵士乐中都体现了出can't take place without thesgroupsefforts 来。爵士乐中的独奏是对个人才of the rhythm section.Beyond that, though, 气的颂扬，但若没有整个乐队的jazz has a connection to the eence of 节奏伴奏，个人才气也无法展现。America in a much more fundamental way.It 然而，除此之外，爵士乐还在更

is an expreion of the African roots of 基本的方面与美国的精髓有着联American culture, a musical medium that 系，它表现出美国文化植根于非exemplifies the culture of the Africans 洲，通过音乐媒介证明了非洲人whose culture came to dominate much of what 的文化已经支配了美国人的文is American.化。

That's right, in many respects America's的确，在很多方面，美国的根roots are in Africa.Read Ralph Ellison's 是在非洲。请读一下拉尔夫-埃里perceptive description of the 森关于非洲与欧洲各自不同的文transformation of separate African and 化在当年奴隶手中加以改变时所European cultures at the hands of the 做的敏锐描述：

slaves:

那些在院子里跳舞的奴隶们，“...the dancing of those slaves who, 透过庄园房子的窗户，模仿着里looking through the windows of a plantation 面主人们的庄重舞步，然后就把manor house from the yard, im-itated the 他们自己独特的舞蹈才华加进steps so gravely performed by the masters 去，以滑稽的动作讽刺白人，之within and then added to them their own 后他们继续将这些舞步加到他们special flair,burlesquing the white folks 独有的舞蹈中。那些白人，看着and then going on to force the stepintosa 窗外院子里的黑人，觉得被模仿choreography uniquely their own.The 是受到了恭维，那些衣衫褴褛的whites, looking out at the activity in the 黑人跳着不协调的宫廷舞步让他yard, thought that they were being 们感到好笑。此时，他们完全没flat-tered by imitation and were amused by 有看到这样一个事实：就在他们the incongruity of tattered blacks dancing 眼前，一种欧洲的文化形式已经courtly steps, while miing com-pletely 美国化了，它正通过来自非洲的the fact that before their eyes a European 一个民族所进行的嘲笑白人的活cultural form was becoming Americanized, 动而经历着质变(节选自拉尔夫-undergoing a metamor-phosis through the 埃里森的《与音乐共生》第83-84mocking activity of a people partially 页)。

sprung from Africa.”(Ralph Ellison, Living

with Music, pp 83-4).Jazz brought together elements from Africa而爵士乐则是把来自非洲与and Europe, fusing themsintosa new culture, 欧洲的音乐成分交融到一起，形an expreion unique to the Americas.成了一种新的文化，一种美洲所

独有的表现形式。

Out of this fusion came an idea that we源于这种融合而产生的一个Americans be-lieve central to our identity: 观念就是包容，我们美国人认为tolerance.Both cultures repre-sented in 这是我们特征的核心。在埃里森Ellison's paage eventually came to 所写的片断中提到的两种文化最realize each other's value.Americans 终都实现了各自的价值。美国人acknowledge that in diversity is our 承认多样化是力量所在；我们每strength.We learn every day that other 天都在获悉，其他文化、其他民cultures and peoples may make valuable 族，都可能对我们的生活方式做contributions to our way of life.Jazz music 出贡献。爵士乐是这种观念的化

is the embodiment of this ideal, combining 身，它把非洲和欧洲文化的内容elements from African and European 结合到一起，成为了独特的美国culturesintosa distinctly American music.音乐。

Jazz reflects two contradictory facets of爵士乐反映了美国生活相互American life.On the one hand it is a team 对立的两个方面，一方面爵士乐effort,swheresevery musician is completely 是集体行为，每一名乐手都完全immersed in what thesgroupsdoes together, 沉浸到整个乐队的演奏中，细心lis-tening to each of the other players and 聆听着其他乐手的演奏，并以每building on their contributions to create 个乐手的演奏为基础而创造出整a musical whole.On the other hand, the band 体音乐；另一方面，一个乐队又features a soloist who is an individual at 以独奏手为特色，他是极具个性the extreme, a genius like Charlie Parker 的，是像查理斯-帕克那样的天who explores musical territoryswheresno 才，他开创了前人从未涉足的音one has ever gone before.In the same sense, 乐领域。在同样的意义上，美国American life is also a combination of 人的生活是团队与个体的结合，teamwork and individualism, a combination 是个人才气与和他人合作的能力of individual brilliance with the ability 的结合。

to work with others.We hope that many Chinese friends can bring我们希望众多的中国朋友能their own unique contributions to our 够将其独特之处带进我们的音music, adding their own culture to our 乐，把他们的文化加入到我们美American heritage.As Ralph Ellison said of 国人的文化遗产中，正如拉尔夫-the US, “We have the Bill of Rights, the 埃里森说到美国时，“我们有民Constitution, and we have jazz.” 权法案和宪法，我们还有爵士

乐。”