Jes Grew today
Jes Grew is never defined by Reed in Mumbo Jumbo, but its meaning is conveyed through the descriptions of symptoms -- the fervor and frenzy it possesses people with, the irresistible music and rhythms. In Mumbo Jumbo's era, Jes Grew manifests physically in many cultural arts, and notably, jazz. Jazz was a boundary-pushing new era of music and defied all the expectations set by the classics with its wild cadences and colorful improvisation. It also represented a controversial new culture for the younger generation, of swinging in jazz clubs and wild, positively scandalous dancing. Its roots in the unique blend of African-American culture in Harlem, where a wave of young and carefreely creative migrants concentrated from all over the country in an intense explosion of culture, gave jazz a history and a meaning. Jazz was cemented as a formation of cultural identity against the forces of disapproving Atonists, much like Harlem was an oasis for POC inside an unfriendly white city. Jazz...