New Orleans, 1900
Why New Orleans?
◦ Mix of cultures
Creole
French
Spanish
White
Black
Caribbean
All the ingredients of jazz met and
mixed in the streets of New
Orleans
http://www.joy2learn.org/jazz/historyof-jazz/origins-of-jazz/
No
one knows for
sure which
musicians were the
first to play jazz
The most likely
candidate was
cornet player Buddy
Bolden
His music was
never recorded
It
was “free”
Improvised- music that isn’t
written down (improv)
◦ Never the same way twice
Music
centered in the black
community in the south
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=0TvxkpiD-zw
Each melody instrument has a
distinctive role in the song
Drums = Keep Time
Tuba/Bass = Bass line
Trumpet/Cornet = Melody
Clarinet = Embellishment
Trombone = “Tailgating” (slide)
Each musician puts personal
touches on the melody
King Oliver’s Creole Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o41DMsV5MF
A
White
group, blending
all styles around them
In 1917: recorded first
“jazz” recording in
NYC
◦“Dixieland Jass Band
One-Step”
◦“Livery Stable Blues”
A
white group playing
“black” music…
The band leader did not
help matters by saying that
white musicians in New
Orleans invented jazz
Tune
recorded by the Original
Dixieland Jass Band
Trumpet, clarinet, trombone,
rhythm section
Original recordings had no bass
line – why?
◦ Low frequencies made the
recording needle jump
◦ https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=89fZGnAdago
Bought
more than a million
copies at 75 cents eachmore than any single
record in history
Thomas
Edison joked that he
played jazz records backwards
because they “sounded better
that way”
Younger people loved it- it was
fast, exciting, and ideal for
dancing
However,
many white Americans
resisted Jazz Music
Jazz was considered rebellious –
like ragtime before it
Criticized by political/religious
leaders
Associated with stupidity, crime,
and interracial mingling
There were “professional” reports
that even tried to link jazz to
suicide, insanity, and indigestion
Jazz arrived on the scene just as
ragtime was beginning to
become ‘acceptable’ to dance to
(This will repeat itself)
Considered
a musical “novelty” –
everyone wanted to try it just
once to say they did
White
people could
“experience what it was like
to be black” without going
near a black person.
(This will repeat itself)
Audience
after WWI
for jazz expanded
Louis Armstrong
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