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(lè)與美國(guó)精髓

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

    然而，來(lái)自當(dāng)年被奴役受歧視的黑人的音樂(lè)如今卻進(jìn)入到了美國(guó)文化的主流地位，原因何在呢？美國(guó)駐華使館教育交流中心主任(也是《天窗》爵士樂(lè)隊(duì)的鼓手)金大友先生為我們分析了這一現(xiàn)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(shuō)起美國(guó)的精髓，恐怕你找不到哪兩個(gè)美國(guó)人有著相同的看法。在對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題考慮一會(huì)兒之后，我們可能會(huì)笑起來(lái)并且說(shuō)：“嗯，看來(lái)身為美國(guó)人比我們當(dāng)初想的要復(fù)雜一點(diǎn)兒。”當(dāng)然了，強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)性，獲取成功(即“美國(guó)夢(mèng)”)，創(chuàng)新以及包容是美國(guó)人突出的方面。但這些特點(diǎn)集中在美國(guó)人身上是因?yàn)槲覀冇斜舜藚f(xié)作的能力，而無(wú)論我們彼此會(huì)怎么不同，我們都可以找到共同的目標(biāo)。

   有些人，例如美國(guó)黑人作家拉爾夫-埃里森，認(rèn)為爵士樂(lè)抓住了美國(guó)的精髓，這么說(shuō)是很有道理的，因?yàn)槲疑厦嫣岬降拿绹?guó)人的種種特征在爵士樂(lè)中都體現(xiàn)了出來(lái)。爵士樂(lè)中的獨(dú)奏是對(duì)個(gè)人才氣的頌揚(yáng)，但若沒(méi)有整個(gè)樂(lè)隊(duì)的節(jié)奏伴奏，個(gè)人才氣也無(wú)法展現(xiàn)。然而，除此之外，爵士樂(lè)還在更基本的方面與美國(guó)的精髓有著聯(lián)系，它表現(xiàn)出美國(guó)文化植根于非洲，通過(guò)音樂(lè)媒介證明了非洲人的文化已經(jīng)支配了美國(guó)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(guó)的根是在非洲。請(qǐng)讀一下拉爾夫-埃里森關(guān)于非洲與歐洲各自不同的文化在當(dāng)年奴隸手中加以改變時(shí)所做的敏銳描述：

   那些在院子里跳舞的奴隸們，透過(guò)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(dú)特的舞蹈才華加進(jìn)去，以滑稽的動(dòng)作諷刺白人，之后他們繼續(xù)將這些舞步加到他們獨(dú)有的舞蹈中。那些白人，看著窗外院子里的黑人，覺(jué)得被模仿是受到了恭維，那些衣衫襤褸的黑人跳著不協(xié)調(diào)的宮廷舞步讓他們感到好笑。此時(shí)，他們完全沒(méi)有看到這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)：就在他們眼前，一種歐洲的文化形式已經(jīng)美國(guó)化了，它正通過(guò)來(lái)自非洲的一個(gè)民族所進(jìn)行的嘲笑白人的活動(dòng)而經(jīng)歷著質(zhì)變(節(jié)選自拉爾夫-埃里森的《與音樂(lè)共生》第83-84頁(yè))。

 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(chǎn)生的一個(gè)觀念就是包容，我們美國(guó)人認(rèn)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(shí)現(xiàn)了各自的價(jià)值。美國(guó)人承認(rèn)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(duì)我們的生活方式做出貢獻(xiàn)。爵士樂(lè)是這種觀念的化身，它把非洲和歐洲文化的內(nèi)容結(jié)合到一起，成為了獨(dú)特的美國(guó)音樂(lè)。

   爵士樂(lè)反映了美國(guó)生活相互對(duì)立的兩個(gè)方面，一方面爵士樂(lè)是集體行為，每一名樂(lè)手都完全沉浸到整個(gè)樂(lè)隊(duì)的演奏中，細(xì)心聆聽(tīng)著其他樂(lè)手的演奏，并以每個(gè)樂(lè)手的演奏為基礎(chǔ)而創(chuàng)造出整體音樂(lè)；另一方面，一個(gè)樂(lè)隊(duì)又以獨(dú)奏手為特色，他是極具個(gè)性的，是像查理斯-帕克那樣的天才，他開(kāi)創(chuàng)了前人從未涉足的音樂(lè)領(lǐng)域。在同樣的意義上，美國(guó)人的生活是團(tuán)隊(duì)與個(gè)體的結(jié)合，是個(gè)人才氣與和他人合作的能力的結(jié)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(guó)朋友能夠?qū)⑵洫?dú)特之處帶進(jìn)我們的音樂(lè)，把他們的文化加入到我們美國(guó)人的文化遺產(chǎn)中，正如拉爾夫-埃里森說(shuō)到美國(guó)時(shí)，“我們有民權(quán)法案和憲法，我們還有爵士樂(lè)。”