每周阅读 第七周
The Death and Resurrection of Jazz: A Real History of Arts in IndianapolisImagine: a summer night, live jazz, friendly banter, a cold drink…
In its prime, Indiana Avenue, or “Funky Broadway” as it was known, was a hub for black music and business in Indianapolis, Indiana, much like the well-known Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
As one of four avenues to the heart of downtown, the Avenue was also a social centerpiece in the surrounding neighborhood; in the 1930s and ‘40s, its nightlife was complete with entertainment, restaurants, and live street music of which jazz and blues were favorite genres.
Now in 2019, jazz music is a musical staple of Indianapolis’ arts renaissance. Jazz kitchens (restaurants that play live jazz music) and clubs around the city still host weekend concerts with Indy’s own jazz icons–beloved performers like saxophonist Rob Dixon and brilliant young artists like Joel Tucker alike. One such club, the Chatterbox, still features live jazz seven nights a week.
But the real history of jazz in Indy is much less linear: along with the Avenue, jazz music lapsed until it was resurrected more recently in Indy’s arts revival.
The real history
Indiana Avenue, the hub of Indy jazz, was the heart of a neighborhood along the White River, says local newspaper IndyStar, in an area eschewed by the wealthy for its dense insect populations and high incidence of infectious disease. It therefore became a space where lower-income African-American families and recent immigrants to Indianapolis settled.
As a blend of African and Caribbean rhythms and American post-Civil War blues, jazz thrived in the intersection of American cultures it found around the Avenue. The woes of WWII and economic depression were fertile ground for emotion-rich melodies like jazz on Funky Broadway.
But in the ‘50s, the tables turned on Indiana Avenue: in a post-war economy, urban development projects sought to beautify the city and a university was established just blocks away. Though both of these would seem to be positive “developments,” the construction of university buildings, the remodeling of apartments, and the “beautification” of the Indiana Avenue neighborhood indirectly displaced low-income families and thus silenced the nightlife on the Avenue.
This is called gentrification: the process by which increased taxes, housing prices, and costs of living push lower-income families out of their own neighborhoods.
Indianapolis construction and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’ expansion decimated the Indiana Avenue community—and with it, its jazz culture.
Breaking the silence
After decades of a lull, Indianapolis reawakened to the value of its arts and music culture, and began investing to revitalize classic arts and draw in new artists. To do so, it sought again to “develop,” but this time development meant renovating significant historic areas like the Avenue.
Again, the increased value of Indy’s historic arts districts unintentionally pushed low-income families out of those areas with increased property taxes and inaccessible luxury businesses. The difference this time was that many in Indy reminisced about its lost cultures such as live music on the Avenue, and undertook to revive them.
Several old-style jazz clubs and kitchens are still scattered around the city where friends might gather to step back in time or just enjoy a summer evening. It might seem at first that jazz is alive again, but a silent tragedy lurks behind upscale jazz kitchens:
While the music lives on, its home culture on Indiana Avenue was stolen, and organic life can never be transplanted or imposed.
Modern Indy jazz is but a shadow of the vibrant culture that was silenced in the pursuit of “development.”
翻译：
想象一下:一个夏夜，现场爵士乐，友好的玩笑，一杯冷饮……
在全盛期，印第安纳大道，或被称为“时髦百老汇”，是印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯黑人音乐和商业的中心，很像新奥尔良著名的波旁街。
作为通往市中心的四条大道之一，这条大道也是周边社区的社交中心;在20世纪30年代和40年代，它的夜生活包括娱乐、餐馆和现场街头音乐，其中爵士和布鲁斯是最受欢迎的流派。
到2019年，爵士乐将成为印第安纳波利斯艺术复兴的主要音乐。这座城市的爵士厨房(现场演奏爵士音乐的餐厅)和俱乐部周末仍会举办印第爵士的偶像音乐会——深受喜爱的演奏者如萨克斯笛手罗布·迪克森和才华横溢的年轻艺术家如乔尔·塔克。一个名为Chatterbox的俱乐部每晚仍以现场爵士乐为特色。
但真正的爵士乐在印第的历史并不是线性的:随着大道的发展，爵士乐逐渐消失，直到最近在印第的艺术复兴中重新复活。
据当地报纸《印地星报》(IndyStar)报道，印地安大道(Indiana Avenue)是印第爵士乐的中心地带，也是白河(White River)沿岸一个社区的中心地带，富人避开这个地区，因为这里昆虫密集，传染病发病率高。
因此，它成为低收入的非裔美国家庭和印第安纳波利斯新移民定居的地方。
印第安纳波利斯的扩张摧毁了印第安纳大道社区，随之摧毁的还有它的爵士乐文化。
经过几十年的沉寂，印第安纳波利斯重新意识到其艺术和音乐文化的价值，并开始投资振兴经典艺术，吸引新的艺术家。
为此，它再次寻求“开发”，但这一次的开发意味着翻新大道等重要的历史区域。
当音乐继续存在时，它在印第安纳大道上的本土文化被偷走了，有机生命永远不能被移植或强加。
现代印第爵士乐只是充满活力的文化的一个影子，在追求“发展”的过程中被沉默了。
https://www.enewsdispatch.com/jazz-adv/
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