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You probably already have an opinion about jazz.

Maybe you love it. Maybe it reminds you of New Orleans, smoky clubs, or old records spinning in your grandparents' living room. Whatever comes to mind, it probably isn't controversy.

But jazz wasn't always celebrated.

Before it became one of America's greatest cultural exports, it was condemned as vulgar, dangerous, and immoral. The same music we now preserve, perform, and proudly claim as part of our national identity was once treated as a threat.

Immoral Until Profitable asks a simple question:

What else do we celebrate today that we first tried to erase?

Immoral Until Profitable

Research & Process

My research explored the history of jazz through books, newspaper archives, photographs, music, and historical records. As I uncovered stories of censorship, commercialization, and cultural appropriation, a larger pattern emerged. One that continues far beyond jazz.

In the studio, I layered paint, collage, typography, and found materials to create surfaces that feel like fragments of history. Every element is chosen to support the story, inviting viewers to look beyond the image and consider the forces that shape culture over time.

The Savoy

Acrylic in Custom Marquee Frame
48 x 24 inch

Chick Webb led the Savoy Ballroom’s legendary house band, helping define Jazz’s Swing Era, the rise of the Lindy Hop, and American dance culture. As one of the first major racially integrated dance halls in the United States, the Savoy became a rare space where Black and White audiences shared the same dance floor, showing how music and movement could push against the racial boundaries of the era.

Noise, Not Music

Gouache, Oil Pastel, Newspaper Tracings in Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

Jazz was initially met with resistance, criticized by older generations and authorities as immoral “devil’s music” because of its association with red-light districts and its unconventional sound. Many viewed early Jazz as chaotic and a threat to traditional values. Newspapers, churches, and social critics warned that the music encouraged rebellion, excess, and moral decline, while its free-flowing style and cultural roots challenged long-standing ideas about what American music and society should sound like.

Born & Raised

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Newspaper Tracings, Custom Frame
57 x 96 inch

New Orleans is widely regarded as the birthplace of Jazz, where African, Caribbean, Creole, and European musical traditions merged into a new improvisational form.

Chicago became a major hub for Jazz during the Great Migration, as musicians traveled north in search of new opportunities. In the city’s fast-paced urban environment, the music evolved into a sharper, more energetic, solo-driven style.

Kansas City developed a new style of late-night Jazz built on swinging rhythms and extended live performances. Its culture of musical freedom encouraged longer solos and helped shape modern Jazz. 

New York City became the defining center of Jazz, transforming the music into a national and global art form through recordings, radio, and iconic performance venues.

The Night Kept Swinging

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Paper, Cigarettes, Trumpets, Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

Beneath all the public outrage and cultural noise, Jazz was deeply rooted in lived experience, migration, and nightlife. Carried by performers, dancers, and audiences who embraced its freedom and expression, it spread rapidly across the country and eventually became the soundtrack of the “Roaring Twenties” and the Prohibition era.

Satchmo & The First Lady

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald are two of the most influential figures in Jazz history. Through his expressive trumpet playing and rhythmic phrasing, Armstrong helped establish the soloist as the center of Jazz. Fitzgerald, known as the “First Lady of Song,” transformed vocal Jazz with her innovative scat singing. Their celebrated recordings together captured the contrast and chemistry between Armstrong’s raspy vocal style and Fitzgerald’s smooth, elegant voice.

Prohibited

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Newspaper Transfers, Sheet Metal, Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

During Prohibition, police and government officials frequently used alcohol and “public morality” laws to raid and shut down Jazz clubs, particularly those connected to Black and immigrant communities. In many cities, these venues were portrayed as dangerous or disorderly spaces, reinforcing racial fears surrounding Jazz culture. While Prohibition laws applied to everyone, enforcement often fell unevenly, and minority-owned clubs were more likely to be targeted by surveillance, raids, and arrests.

Birth Of The Cool

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

Miles Davis was one of the most important innovators in Jazz history, continually redefining what the music could sound and feel like. Across multiple decades, he helped shape new styles of Jazz through landmark albums such as Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew. Later in his career, he incorporated influences from rock, funk, and electronic music into Jazz. Davis also helped launch the careers of influential musicians like John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock, extending his impact across generations of Jazz.

Immoral Until Profitable

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Custom Frame
48 x 48 inch

Led by religious leaders and critics, many Americans viewed Jazz as a threat to traditional ideas of “proper” music. Unlike the structured harmonies of European classical music, Jazz embraced improvisation and emotional expression, qualities critics often described as chaotic, vulgar, or morally corrupting. To many, the backlash reflected fears surrounding changing cultural values and the growing influence of African American culture.

Yours Truly

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Leather, Custom Frame
48 x 36 inch

As Jazz became increasingly profitable for radio stations and record labels, the industry often favored White performers who were seen as more marketable to mainstream audiences. Paul Whiteman became one of the most visible figures of this shift, promoted as the “King of Jazz” while performing a polished, orchestral style that made the music more acceptable to White middle-class audiences.

Play That Tune!

People once argued jazz would corrupt young people, destroy public morals, and unravel American culture.

Now we invite a jazz band into an art gallery.

To close the exhibition, Sacramento jazz collective SSRI filled the room with the very music that inspired the work. After spending weeks asking visitors to reconsider jazz's past, the exhibition ended with a simple reminder: sometimes the things we celebrate most are the very things we once feared.

The Room

Most people walk into this exhibition thinking they know what it's about.

Jazz. Music. New Orleans. Coltrane. It all feels nostalgic.

Then the newspaper headlines start talking.

The deeper you move through the room, the more familiar ideas begin to shift. Jazz isn't just America's soundtrack, it's a story about fear, race, censorship, commerce, and how yesterday's moral panic became today's cultural treasure. That's the experience these paintings were built to create: not to teach visitors something entirely new, but to make them see something they thought they already understood.