A successful jazz musician, like any successful artist, must strike a balance between artistry and appeal. Jazz that is too progressive and artistic will not resonate with the public, but jazz that is too popular and appealing will not satisfy the musician’s artistic desires. And in New York and Chicago, jazz was able to deftly balance artistry and popularity. In both cities, jazz was developed in an environment that had the cultural and financial means to support jazz artistry. However in New York, not Chicago, jazz became a legitimate form of entertainment, an accessible form of entertainment. It, at times, transcended the trappings of race and social class to become the music of America. The unique environment and characteristics of New York in the 1920s made it the jazz city. New York was the jazz city because it was the birthplace of an endemic style of jazz and laid the foundation for jazz’s commercial success and popularity.

The demand and pressures on jazz creation were different in Chicago and Harlem. Chicago was an importer of New Orleans jazz acts with artists coming into a controlled, white-dominated setting. Perhaps the greatest irony in jazz is that New Orleans jazz developed and flourished in Chicago (Gioia, 45). Yet in Harlem, jazz was free to meet the tastes of the people. In 1920, the already established black middle class and migrating southern blacks controlled 70 percent of Harlem’s real estate (Gioia p.94). Much like the blacks in Chicago, this collective living in Harlem was set on self-improvement and self-sufficiency. But despite this apparent unity and directed intellectual movement, there was a constant tension or “ambivalen[ce] about embracing vernacular elements of African-American culture” between Harlem’s established middle class and the southern, country migrants (Gioia, p. 95). The piano, with both a deep European classical tradition and ragtime roots, was able to balance the appeals of the established and migrating blacks.

In Harlem, the piano gave rise to a new style of music. At rent parties, in which small admission fees were charged to cover the month’s rent, jazz became the music of the people, free from the oppression and constraints of the rich and privileged. Rent parties had a distinct dialogue between the performer and audience. The performer knew exactly what appealed to the audience and was able to adjust his styles accordingly. Clasically trained musicians like James P. Johnson, Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller and Art Tatum re-interpreted ragtime to appeal to the emerging culture desperate and hungry for entertainment. The Harlem Stride Piano combined the ragtime traditions, a new rhythm, progressive syncopation and European “method, system and style (Gioia, p.97).” The music at rent parties was accessible to a population of poor African-Americans, while jazz in Chicago was accessible to wealthy African-Americans at a number of South Side clubs. Despite its accessibility, stride piano lacked the refinement to appeal to the middle class. It had not yet distanced itself sufficiently from the southern vernacular. Yet, the stride pianists’ impeccable, dapper style influenced the eventual rise of a new, wider appealing style of music.

Duke Ellington bridged the racial and social divides with a distinct style of New York jazz. Duke, elegant and articulate, was enamored with stride piano as a youth, but in order to develop into a successful musician, he had to ensure he appealed to a wider audience. Without compromising his artistry, Duke created a sound which resonated with the poor and the rich, the white and the black. Duke’s leadership prowess resulted in an eclectic group that “offered little in the way of virtuosity… but boasted an excess of character (Gioia 120).” The “novelty of the new sounds (Gioia p. 120)” spoke to a variety of conditions. Duke utilized the abundant resources New York offered, e.g. recording studios, radio, diversity and wealth in unique ways to reach a black and white audience. Duke was New York jazz because was able to balance the diverse tastes of a diverse city with his innate artistry. Ellington, who is still culturally relevant today, pioneered a transcendent style of music which resonates even today.