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Monday, April 24, 2000
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8A
Jazz flashback
Musical pioneer was at the University as jazz grew in America
By Derek John Special to the Kansan
"Jazz music is through, and the cause for its passing from public favor is that the people have come to realize that there are no real musical qualities in jazz and that it appeals only to the lowest feelings."
This proclamation from Professor Harold L. Butler, dean of the School of Fine Arts, appeared on the front page of the April 7, 1921 issue of the University Daily Kansas.
Echoing the prevailing notions of the time. Butler continued.
"Jazz is merely the animal side of music. Jazz is nothing but syncopated rhythm and has been the biggest cause of the undesirable dances which have been so prevalent of late."
Nevertheless, students were increasingly indulging their lowest feelings by turning their ears and feet to the syncopated rhythm of this relatively new form of American music. Butler, who exerted influence on the sphere of musical activity at the University of Kansas, was wrong in predicting the early demise of jazz.
An opinion in the October 10, 1922, Kansan stated "the faculty of the School of Fine Arts is certainly pursuing the logical method in its effort to kill the spirit of jazz" demonstrated Butler's efforts to snuff out jazz.
Needless to say, he was not successful.
Evidence exists in a backward glance at the past couple of months' musical activity at the University.
A visit from jazz drummer T.S. Monk in mid-February and the culmination of the Lied Center's year-long JazzTrain project were followed by the recent outings from KU's jazz ensembles. And on Wednesday, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performed at the Lied Center.
Trumpeter Quincy Garner, Kansas City, Mo. senior and member of KU's jazz ensembles, was especially excited to welcome Marsalis to the Lied Center stage.
"Wyton had a great personal influence in my life," he said. "In 1991, I had a chance to meet him. It was through a friend of the family that knew Wyton. He basically gave a little 14-year-old a private lesson in his hotel suite with my family present and several of his friends. It is a moment I will never forget."
Besides his benevolence and dedication to jazz education, Marsalis is also a large proponent of traditional jazz from the so-called "golden age." He draws much of his present inspiration from the music's past — a past that intersects with the University of Kansas.
Nearly 80 years ago the University saw the arrival of a talented young jazz bassist from Kansas City. Even among aficionados, Walter Sylvester Page is not exactly a household name, but he would become a crucial player in the still young and somewhat experimental realm of jazz. Inspired by Major N. Clark Smith, his band director at Lincoln High School, Page enrolled in music education in the fall of 1921 at the University, four months after Butler's diatribe against jazz music.
Records at University Archives show that Page was one of 60 or so African Americans in a student body of about 4,000. Although the campus
was a one-time abolitionist stronghold and Kansas still carried the moniker of "Free State," the Lawrence of Page's time at the University hardly resembled this idealistic notion of equality.
Bill Tuttle, professor of history and American studies and author of a soon-to-be published work about African Americans in Lawrence and at KU, paints a grim picture of University-backed segregation.
"African-American students in the 1920s were barred from intercollegiate athletics, the debating team, ROTC and the student council," Tuttle said.
More importantly for Page the budding musician, Tuttle said, was his "inability to participate in the KU choirs, band, or orchestra, and he would've been relegated to the worst seats at music concerts, as well. Furthermore, he could not attend University dances, live in the dormitories, and no white fraternity or sorority would pledge an African American."
In the 1922 Jayhawker yearbook, there is a picture of Page in the Upsilon Chapter of the traditionally African-American fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, which was located at 1101 Mississippi St.
Coincidentally, Garner is the current president of Alpha Phi Alpha. He said understood Page's position.
"It's safe to say that Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was the most comfortable community for Brother Walter Page," Garner said. "During that period of American history, many Black students had to find refuge in a community that was familiar to them. It really means a great deal to know that the great jazz bassist for the Count Basie Orchestra was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha at KU."
Although not much is known about Page's brief stay at the University — he quit school to pursue jazz full time in 1923 — a great deal of what is known comes from an interview with Page conducted by jazz historian Frank Driggs. It appeared in the first issue of *Jazz Review* in 1958, just
WALTER PAGE'S LIFE IN BRIEF
Feb. 9, 1900: Born Walter Sylvester Page in Gallatin, Mo.
- **Full 1921:** Page enrolled at the University of Kansas, where he took courses in piano, voice, music theory, music history and elementary music methods.
1923; Page left the University and toured with Billy King's roadshow.
1925: Page formed his territorial dance band, the Blue Devils, in Oklahoma City. The band toured Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma.
1935: Page joined the Barons of Rhythm, led by Bill "Count" Basie.
1936: The Barons grew in size and fame, evolving into Count Basie's Orchestra.
Dec. 20,1957: Page died
attended KU he took courses in piano, voice, music theory, music history and elementary music methods in the music department, which was in the newly completed Strong Hall.
After Page left the University, he would eventually lead his own territorial dance band, the Blue Devils, who were based in Oklahoma City. His music education, fostered at the University, in tandem with a powerful and innovative style on the bass, then led to his spot in Count Basie's Orchestra.
Chuck Berg, professor of film and jazz scholar, said the addition of Page to Basie's orchestra was a significant moment in Jazz
"I love Ellington. Still, for big band music that really got to people's souls as well as to their feet, Basie's band topped them all," Berg said. "For me, the Basie rhythm section anchored by Walter Page established the paradigm for dance.
established the paradigm for dance-cum-azz."
Top: Walter Page, who is highlighted,
was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha
fraternity during his brief stay at the
University of
Kansas. Photo
countess of University
Archives
Above: Quincy
Garner, Kansas
City, Mo., senior,
plays his trumpet.
Garner is the current president of
Alpha Phi
Alpha and a
member of KU's
jazz ensembles.
Photo by Lucas
Krump/KANSAN
Left: Music classes and band rehearsals took place within Strong Hall while Walter Page, jazz pioneer, attended the University. Photo courtesy of University Archives