The Jazz Age of New York City
During WWI, people across the United States had lived a conservative and a frugal life style. In the years following, freedom of the boom in the economic status of many, and the time of peace gave way to what is now referred to in the history books as The Roaring 20′s. This was a decade of celebration, of excess, and a time when the philosophies and the ideologies of wartime thinking was done away with. Artistic endeavors were now something that the people of the country invested in, be it at the cinema, or at the speakeasies listening to some of the finest musicians in the country’s history.
Music was everywhere, from the street corners to the fancy clubs to the best restaurants, New York City was alive with the vibe and the era of the Jazz Age. This was a time of rebellion, against the limited access to consume alcohol, and against all forms of government control for that matter. One of the best places to catch this vibe at the time, is now a famous idea…a feeling that was encapsulated in a movie not too long ago. It was the Harlem speakeasy, The Cotton Club. This club was a bit of an oxymoron, as at the time, only black performers performed, and the only people allowed to come to the club were white.
Huge celebrities at the time, Bing Crosby, Doris Duke and Cole Porter would attend the club with the sole purpose of seeing performances of musicians who are now legendary, but who at the time, would not be allowed in…other than to perform, such as Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington. It is hard to imagine now, that kind of separation, but I have to believe that a man such as Bing Crosby felt no separation from a man like Duke Ellington. That is the beauty of the arts, it is a world that is a bit apart from the trivial misconceptions. It is a world of the heart and of the soul. This was a time, filled with fashion and music and ideas that is still perpetuated today, in the hearts and the souls of the young Jazz musicians. And it all began in Harlem, in the 1920′s, in the Jazz Age.