Journey to the One: Jazz as an Expression of Islam, 1940-1970

Jazz and Islam have long existed in an intricate relationship, though few in the public are aware of it and scholars have only recently set out to study it.After Christianity, in fact, some suggest that Islam is the most consequential religious tradition to influence this uniquely American form of music.This dissertation examines that intersection through an analysis of the lives and music of four jazz musicians who converted to Islam during the first half of the twentieth century: Yusef Lateef, Art Blakey, Pharoah Sanders, and Ahmad Jamal.I argue that jazz was more than a neutral sonic vessel that musicalized an interior spiritual dimension, but was an Islamic religious experience itself, one in which these artists navigated and sounded out the most sacred of their beliefs.I combine an array of textual and media sourcesincluding liner notes, interviews, biographies, news clippings, and performance footagewith inquisitive listening.I show how these musicians cultivated a religio-musical aesthetic that communicated: felt mysteries of the heart and soul; a belief in the continuity of divine messengers and messages; God's radical and expansive oneness; and the importance of discipline and restraint.An intended consequence of this study is that it challenges prevailing narratives which have suggested that Black musicians often converted to Islam for wholly utilitarian reasons, i.e., to escape or abate the horrors of racism.While I acknowledge that this is indeed a part of the story, I encourage a re-centering of religion and an understanding of INTRODUCTION: THERE IS NO JAZZ BUT FROM GODOnto the bar he leapt.With one knee bent, he strutted across the top while blowing spiritedly into his tenor saxophone.Birdland patrons shouted and reached for his legs, apparently hoping to claim contact with the Alabama-born wonder.The lines in his suit told of its pressing, his oxfords of a recent chat with the shoeblack.And, as if by design, the pearly mouthpiece to which his lips clung matched the white, bejeweled headdress that he wore, its tail flung over his shoulder as he played."When Lynn blows, the joint really breaks up," wrote New York disc jockey Symphony Sid. 1 Lynn Hope was a vision.A mystery, even.He was billed as "The Amazing Man with the Turban" or sometimes "The Mad Arab." 2 In keeping with that brand, the tenor legend, who found his chops on the road with King Kolax, dazzled audiences with elaborate religious headgear, snake-charming instruments, and a demeanor that reveled in the exotic but also projected an intense calm that was the product of his devotion to Islam.Hope, or Abdullah Rasheed Ahmad as he was known to some, was not the first American jazz musician to become a Muslim. 3But he was certainly one of the most talked-about.By the beginning of the 1950s, virtually every newspaper or dime store slick that covered his doings foregrounded his religious identity.For example, The 1 "Lynn Hope Keeps Promise of Greater Band in Thrilling Opening at Ebony," Cleveland Call and Post, April 7, 1951, 7C, ProQuest. "Samisen or Delilah?" Cleveland Call and Post, April 14, 1951, 7C, ProQuest. A 1956 newspaper article that featured interview snippets from Hope indicated that, at that time, he had "been practicing for 15 years."This would

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