Jazz And The Essence of America

　　Considering how jazz is transcribed in Chinese (jueshi), you may be misledsintosassuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among black Americans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the very bottom of the American social heap.

 So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in today's American culture? Mr Darrell A Jenks, director of the American Center for Educational Exchange, and also a drummer in the jazz band Window, analyses the phenomenon for us here. Jazz: the soul of America

   爵士樂與美國精髓

　　說到美國的爵士樂(jazz)，你可能從它的中文譯名而推斷為那是屬于貴族的音樂。殊不知恰恰相反，它源于19世紀末的美國黑人，那時他們處于社會的最底層。

    然而，來自當年被奴役受歧視的黑人的音樂如今卻進入到了美國文化的主流地位，原因何在呢？美國駐華使館教育交流中心主任(也是《天窗》爵士樂隊的鼓手)金大友先生為我們分析了這一現象。

  Perhaps the essence of America is that you could never get two Americans to agree on just what that might be. After thinking about it for a while, we might chuckle and say, "Hmm, seems like being American is a bit more complicated than we thought." Certainly things like individualism, success (the "American Dream"), innovation and tolerance stand out. But these things come together because of our ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse we might be.

 Some, like African-American writer Ralph Ellison, be-lieve that jazz captures the essence of America. For good reason,for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of individual brilliance that can't take place without thesgroupsefforts of the rhythm section. Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence of America in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of the African roots of American culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of the Africans whose culture came to dominate much of what is American.

    說起美國的精髓，恐怕你找不到哪兩個美國人有著相同的看法。在對這個問題考慮一會兒之后，我們可能會笑起來并且說：“嗯，看來身為美國人比我們當初想的要復雜一點兒。”當然了，強調個性，獲取成功(即“美國夢”)，創新以及包容是美國人突出的方面。但這些特點集中在美國人身上是因為我們有彼此協作的能力，而無論我們彼此會怎么不同，我們都可以找到共同的目標。

   有些人，例如美國黑人作家拉爾夫-埃里森，認為爵士樂抓住了美國的精髓，這么說是很有道理的，因為我上面提到的美國人的種種特征在爵士樂中都體現了出來。爵士樂中的獨奏是對個人才氣的頌揚，但若沒有整個樂隊的節奏伴奏，個人才氣也無法展現。然而，除此之外，爵士樂還在更基本的方面與美國的精髓有著聯系，它表現出美國文化植根于非洲，通過音樂媒介證明了非洲人的文化已經支配了美國人的文化。

 That's right, in many respects America's roots are in Africa. Read Ralph Ellison's perceptive description of the transformation of separate African and European cultures at the hands of the slaves:

 "...the dancing of those slaves who, looking through the windows of a plantation manor house from the yard, im-itated the steps so gravely performed by the masters within and then added to them their own special flair,burlesquing the white folks and then going on to force the stepssintosa choreography uniquely their own. The whites, looking out at the activity in the yard, thought that they were being flat-tered by imitation and were amused by the incongruity of tattered blacks dancing courtly steps, while missing com-pletely the fact that before their eyes a European cultural form was becoming Americanized, undergoing a metamor-phosis through the mocking activity of a people partially sprung from Africa." (Ralph Ellison, Living with Music, pp 83-4).

　的確，在很多方面，美國的根是在非洲。請讀一下拉爾夫-埃里森關于非洲與歐洲各自不同的文化在當年奴隸手中加以改變時所做的敏銳描述：

   那些在院子里跳舞的奴隸們，透過莊園房子的窗戶，模仿著里面主人們的莊重舞步，然后就把他們自己獨特的舞蹈才華加進去，以滑稽的動作諷刺白人，之后他們繼續將這些舞步加到他們獨有的舞蹈中。那些白人，看著窗外院子里的黑人，覺得被模仿是受到了恭維，那些衣衫襤褸的黑人跳著不協調的宮廷舞步讓他們感到好笑。此時，他們完全沒有看到這樣一個事實：就在他們眼前，一種歐洲的文化形式已經美國化了，它正通過來自非洲的一個民族所進行的嘲笑白人的活動而經歷著質變(節選自拉爾夫-埃里森的《與音樂共生》第83-84頁)。

 Jazz brought together elements from Africa and Europe, fusing themsintosa new culture, an expression unique to the Americas.

 Out of this fusion came an idea that we Americans be-lieve central to our identity: tolerance. Both cultures repre-sented in Ellison's passage eventually came to realize each other's value. Americans acknowledge that in diversity is our strength. We learn every day that other cultures and peoples may make valuable contributions to our way of life. Jazz music is the embodiment of this ideal, combining elements from African and European culturesintosa distinctly American music.

 Jazz reflects two contradictory facets of American life. On the one hand it is a team effort,swheresevery musician is completely immersed in what thesgroupsdoes together, lis-tening to each of the other players and building on their contributions to create a musical whole. On the other hand, the band features a soloist who is an individual at the extreme, a genius like Charlie Parker who explores musical territoryswheresno one has ever gone before. In the same sense, American life is also a combination of teamwork and individualism, a combination of individual brilliance with the ability to work with others.

    源于這種融合而產生的一個觀念就是包容，我們美國人認為這是我們特征的核心。在埃里森所寫的片斷中提到的兩種文化最終都實現了各自的價值。美國人承認多樣化是力量所在；我們每天都在獲悉，其他文化、其他民族，都可能對我們的生活方式做出貢獻。爵士樂是這種觀念的化身，它把非洲和歐洲文化的內容結合到一起，成為了獨特的美國音樂。

   爵士樂反映了美國生活相互對立的兩個方面，一方面爵士樂是集體行為，每一名樂手都完全沉浸到整個樂隊的演奏中，細心聆聽著其他樂手的演奏，并以每個樂手的演奏為基礎而創造出整體音樂；另一方面，一個樂隊又以獨奏手為特色，他是極具個性的，是像查理斯-帕克那樣的天才，他開創了前人從未涉足的音樂領域。在同樣的意義上，美國人的生活是團隊與個體的結合，是個人才氣與和他人合作的能力的結合。

We hope that many Chinese friends can bring their own unique contributions to our music, adding their own culture to our American heritage. As Ralph Ellison said of the US, "We have the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and we have jazz."

   我們希望眾多的中國朋友能夠將其獨特之處帶進我們的音樂，把他們的文化加入到我們美國人的文化遺產中，正如拉爾夫-埃里森說到美國時，“我們有民權法案和憲法，我們還有爵士樂。”