Comment on Jazz

It is difficult to separate 1920s Harlem, Prohibition, and jazz. On every rooftop in the spring and summer, jazz musicians lick their 'licorice sticks,' or clarinets. The low tones of saxophones and strident trumpets are everywhere. The music is at once sultry, sexy, filled with hope, violence, longing, and despair. There is something about it that makes you feel a little better, then a lot worse.