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Telltale Signs: BOONDOCKS AND JAZZ |
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 By Rodel Rodis
At first glance, the words "jazz" and "boondocks" share precious little in
common. One is generally associated with hip, urban, African Americans while the
other usually refers to back country areas populated by unsophisticated
"rednecks". The ironic exception is a comic strip about African Americans called
"Boondocks".
The dictionary defines "boondocks" as "hinterland, remote and underdeveloped
area". Derived from the Tagalog word bundok, meaning mountain, it became part of
the American lexicon during the "Philippine Insurrection" that followed the
Spanish-American War of 1898.
The Filipino "insurgents" resisted the American occupation of the Philippines
but could not engage the superior American forces in conventional warfare. They
had to wage a guerilla war mostly in the mountains as the rugged terrains
offered the only strategic advantage to the Filipinos fighting for their
country's independence.
Patrolling the boondocks in search of Filipino "insurgents" became the everyday
assignment for U.S. soldiers who were tasked with eliminating opposition to U.S.
rule.
Some 125,000 US soldiers were deployed in the Philippines from 1898 to 1903.
When they returned back to the US, they started using "boondocks" as part of
their regular vocabulary and it caught on quickly with the American public.
Many of these soldiers were conscripted into the US Army as part of their
states' National Guard units. Designated as their state's volunteers ("Wyoming
Volunteers", "Tennessee Volunteers"), they remained as a unit during their tours
of duty in the Philippines, returning back to their states as a unit after
completion of their military assignments.
The only exception to the common practice of assigning "volunteers" to their
state units was with African American "buffalo soldiers" who were assigned to
the segregated 24th and 25th infantry regiments. Many of these soldiers were
assigned as musicians to play in mobile bands to entertain the troops in the
boondocks and to provide music for ceremonial occasions.
These African American soldier musicians brought with them the music of their
particular localities and backgrounds - from Negro spirituals and gospel music
to work songs, field shouts, hymns, and songs of sorrow. Because they were often
in the boondocks, they had to improvise and draw from the music of their various
influences. The harmony, rhythm and melodies of their music eventually evolved
into what we now know as jazz.
Jazz is defined as "a style of music, characterized by a strong but flexible
rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and
chord patterns."
In its early years, jazz was played by small bands usually made up of a cornet
or trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and a rhythm section that included bass, drums,
guitar, and sometimes piano. When the band marched in the boondocks, the piano
and bass were replaced with a tuba.
"The three lead instruments provide a contrapuntal melody above the steady beat
of the rhythm, and individualities of intonation and phrasing, with frequent use
of vibrato and glissando, give the music its warm and highly personal quality."
These African American musicians, who honed their music in the Philippines,
returned back to the United States through San Francisco as with all US soldiers
assigned to the Philippines. But instead of taking the trains back to their
states, many of these African American musicians chose to remain in the San
Francisco Bay Area, where they formed music bands with their fellow comrades.
Their improvised boondocks music became the staple of early American jazz.
I first heard about the Philippine origins of jazz from a newspaper editor named
James Finefrock who called after I had written an op-ed piece about the Dewey
Monument in the center of San Francisco's Union Square ("To the Filipinos, Dewey
was no hero", San Francisco Examiner, October 30, 2000). In our conversation,
Mr. Finefrock informed me that there was once a street by Union Square called
"Manila Street" until a jewelry business named Shreve & Co. successfully lobbied
San Francisco authorities to rename the street "Maiden Lane" after the London
street where jewelers hawk their merchandise.
Mr. Finefrock then asked me if I knew that jazz has Philippine origins. No, I
said in surprise as he then related information he had gathered in his youth
about the origins of jazz. The early jazz musicians in the Bay Area at the turn
of the century, he said, had served as "buffalo soldiers" in the Philippine
American War. The friendships they forged there in the Philippine boondocks
continued when they returned to the US and settled in the Bay Area, he told me.
The information above came from him.
A former colleague of mine in the San Francisco College Board, Dr. Bill Marquis,
surprised me one day with his disclosure that his grandfather was a Filipino. As
a young man, his grandfather had stowed away on a ship bound for San Francisco
from Manila at the turn of the century. When he arrived at the port, immigration
officials asked his name and he answered "Marquez". Unfortunately, his thick
Pangasinan accent made the authorities misspell his name as "Marquis."
Young Marquez eventually met a beautiful African American woman from Berkeley in
the East Bay and fell in love with her. As it turned out, the woman's father had
served as a "buffalo soldier" in the Philippines and held Filipinos in high
regard which is why he did not oppose their marriage. That union produced
phenomenal grandchildren including two physicians in Houston, one, my friend
Bill who has a PhD, and another, Sylvia Marquis Harper, who is a captain in the
San Francisco Police Department, the highest-ranking "African American" woman in
the force.
Bill's great grandfather may have played in a jazz band.
Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com.
*******************************
Posted in Gutom.org with permission from Rodel Rodis
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Posted on Friday, May 13 @ 16:25:00 CDT by don |
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