Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: Although jazz was a successful commercial enterprise during the first half of the 20th century, by the 1960s it was no longer a music which attracted a popular audience. A variety of motivations -- preservation of an important African American cultural heritage, the elevating power of art, the desire to help promote underexposed artists, as well as the profit motive -- prompted a variety of black groups and individuals in the 1960s and beyond to participate in efforts to present jazz performance in African American communities and elsewhere.

Black entrepreneurs, especially clubowners, had a long history of promoting jazz. The distinguishing feature of this period is the primacy of the social/cultural component, the intention to serve a larger purpose beyond entertainment and profit.

This period also witnesses many efforts by musicians to organize and present/promote their own work and that of their fellow artists. The community groups and figures I discuss, including The East, Left Bank Jazz Society, the Oasis, Jim Harrison, and the Afro Brothers, are part of this same self-determination impulse. This paper will illustrate the ways in which African Americans sought to counter the increasing marginalization of jazz during the 1960s and beyond.