HELP PLEASE! Jazz and Organized crime (1919-1960 / USA)

[Frank Bovenkerk]

Dear Corinne,


Did you write this thesis? I would love to read it.

Frank Bovenkerk
The Netherlands

Originally Posted by Corinne

Hello,

It's the 1st time I take part in a forum. So please forgive me if I am in the wrong one for my subject...!

I'm a French student preparing an English Master. I am currently working on a thesis.

My thesis' subject is :
From bootlegging of whisky to drug traffic, how did organized crime influence jazz music in the U.S.?

I want to prove that American organized crime (Sicilian or Irish mafia) had a real influence on jazz. During the prohibition (1919-1933), as the liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangters who readily took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. They opened many night-clubs in the big northern cities where illicit alcohol was sold. Moreover, they gave to many black jazz musicians the opportunity to perform, which allowed them to form bands and to developp their music. At the end of the Prohibition Era, for political reasons, many gangsters were arrested and many had to disappear from Chicago or New York. This was the end of the Gold Age for the jazzmen. What was then the new mafia's activities from the 1930s, except real estate? Drug traffic? Is it linked to the fact that many jazzmen of the 1940s change whisky for heroin?

From that moment, what happened to the jazz musicians? Did they change alcohol for marijuana and other stronger drugs?
Does anybody know when jazz musicans started to take drugs and why jazz musicians became the principal users of marijuana? Did it influence their music? Do you think that musical performance involve some type of stimulants like drugs, or even alcohol?

But my 1st question would be : do you know who did supply drugs to jazz musicians (before 1960)????

As you can see, I have a lot of questions, and I miss a lot of answers...I really need your help because it is very difficult to find information in France...

SO PLEASE, if you know anything about my subject, DO ANSWER ME!!!!

Thank you for your help.
Corinne