In a setting where conservatory degrees were still unknown, one's curriculum vitae was earned every night on the bandstand. This combative, macho culture, is rarely discussed, but remains a core value within the jazz community. In the biographies of Parker and Gillespie - and numerous other players - these painful setbacks take on the luster of defining moments, described with a fervor that recalls the backeyed adage about "separating the men from the boys." The accepted jazz cliché about "payin' one's dues" puts a more socially acceptable twist on this whole ritual - making it sound, after all, like some sort of economic transaction - but ignores the undercurrent of aggression that infuses this darker side to the jazz mindset. Who knows what modern jazz would have sounded like without this persistent desire for one-upmanship?
in "The History of Jazz" by Ted Gioia, Oxford University Press, Second Edition, 2011
