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42
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Police Judges Deny
Jazz Causes Grime
Psychiatrist Also Plays Decisive Role in Music
Controversy at Los Angeles Which Finally
Acquits Jazz of This Charge
Not even the legal and medical professions
have been immune from contact with a musical
controversy that has lately been raging in Los
Angeles on the subject of jazz. A contributory
cause was an announcement from Antoinette
Sabel, executive secretary of the Los Angeles
Music Federation, to the effect that the band
concerts in the park this Summer would be
supervised by the federation to the total elimina-
tion of jazz. This ban was endorsed by the
music committee of the Park Board, it was an-
nounced.
More food for discussion was the considera-
tion of jazz at the biennial convention of the
General Federation of Women's Clubs, held in
Los Angeles. Local musical and civic circles
buzzed with talk about the arraignment of jazz
by the music chairman of the federation, Mrs.
Anne Faulkner Oberndorfer. Aftex watching
the trying of juvenile cases in a Los Angeles
court, Mrs. Oberndorfer declared: "Boys and
girls are going wrong in alarming numbers be-
cause they get drunk on jazz-intoxicants." On
the other hand, a prominent psychiatrist, Dr.
Aaron J. Rosanoff, gave this opinion: "Not only
is jazz not a cause of crime and criminality but
it is an excellent stimulus and often serves to
clear up a brain that has become immured in
deadening problems. Jazz is a release, a vent,
an outlet. Most juvenile criminals, and all crim-
inals for that matter, are inhibited in some way.
Jazz music should tend to socialize them, if
anything."
This clinical estimate of jazz was supported
by three police judges of Los Angeles, one of
whom, Judge James Pope, remarked: "I cannot
connect jazz with crime. Jazz is, in my opinion,
a healthy stimulant." Juvenile Judge Harry R.
Archibald weighed the case, pro and con, as fol-
lows: "Jazzmania is not a direct cause for
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moral degeneracy. It is just one expression
of the speed age. Wild music has its part in
fast living, no doubt, but I have had no cases
where jazz was wholly responsible."
A hostess at a Los Angeles dance hall gave
her testimony by pointing out a young couple
on the floor. Said she: "They met here and
were married here. Soon after' their baby was
born they were back here dancing. Twice every
week, regularly, they come up here to dance
while the mother takes care of the infant. She
says that one way to make her baby stop crying
is to put a jazz record on their phonograph."
"There is jazz and jazz," was the opinion of
one progressive musician, Alexander Stewart,
executive director of the Civic Music and Art
Association of Southern California. Other musi-
cians pointed out that jazz was undergoing a
change and that the old raucous style of play-
ing was giving way to a mellifluous performance
marked by sparkling harmonic coloring and
piquant rhythms. As testifying to this fact,
they cited the keen interest in jazz evidenced by
such famous musicians as Heifetz, Stokowski,
Godowsky and Schelling. They also called at-
tention to the fact that one of the famous jazz
orchestras had completed a tour of crowded
houses in the regular concert halls and with
serious critical comment from music editors in
the various cities.
eighty-five-year-old precedent established by the
British boat owners, who have heretofore em-
ployed only English musicians. However, Paul
Specht himself with his own original orchestra,
as well as three bands of his, had already ap-
peared at the foremost British amusement places
a year ago, under the management of Lyons &
Co., Ltd., caterers to the King by special ap-
pointment. Despite the effort of English labor
to bar Specht, the reception accorded the Amer-
ican musicians was so great that it resulted in
the present invitation to Specht from the Cunard
officials.
While abroad Specht is also to supply orches-
tras for the Stoll and Moss Empire Music Hall
Circuits in England, at the Claridge Hotel in
Paris and at the Winter Garden in Berlin. Paul
Specht at present has some two score orches-
tras which supply the music at the Alamac Hotel
in New York and other hostelries, for Columbia
Phonograph Co. and other recording companies,
musical productions and other amusement en-
terprises.
Singing "Just for To-night"
Emmetl O'Mara, who is now appearing as a
headliner over the Keith Circuit, is continuing
to feature "Just for To-night," the waltz song
which he sang in France during the World War,
and which has not yet lost its popularity. Mr.
O'Mara recently called at the offices of the
Edward B. Marks Music Co., New York, for
the purpose of securing a new vocal copy
and orchestration of the number, having worn
out his first copies through constant usage in
liis many engagements.
Paul Specht to Supply
Orchestras for Cunarders
Well-known American Orchestra Leader Sails
for England to Arrange for Placing Orches-
tras on Fifty British Ships of Cunard Line
New Sacred Songs
Paul Specht, popular dance orchestra impre-
sario and radio broadcaster, sailed last Satur-
day, July 12, on the "Berengaria" for London,
England, at the invitation of Cunard officials,
with whom he is to sign a contract for the
supplying of American jazz orchestras for the
entire fleet of fifty English steamships belonging
to that company.
With Specht will be the Carolina Club Orches-
tra, a band of young college students who are
the first unit to play for the English steamship
line under Specht's ma/iagement. This orches-
tra will supply the music for the representatives
for the American Law Association aboard the
"Berengaria," who are sailing for the exposition
at Wembley.
The employment of Paul Specht American
Orchestras aboard the Cunard boats breaks an
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