Several music agents told me, there’s a new generation of young people, who would prefer listening to jazz. I always thought jazz was rather a factor before this depression. At least since 1932 it hardly seemed possible any longer to live on something like that. Several jazz musicians had to join dance bands, others began to work in totally different branches. Moreover I got the impression, bands like Benny Goodman’s wouldn’t do so well, just because they play so much jazz. But I may be wrong.
I appreciate wealthy young men, like John Hammond, trying to support even musicians from Harlem. But is our public ready for that?
Hammond tried to convince Goodman, to integrate tenor saxophone player Coleman Hawkins, who actually played in Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra. Goodman made just a few records with him in February, but objected to add Hawkins to public performances. The last I heard about Coleman Hawkins was, that he would have been on the way to Europe. So is our country really ready for jazz? If we listen to pianist Fats Waller’s radio programs, it shows how jazz is being sold nowadays: Not quite seriously.
Clarissa Smith — July 13, 1934
