America 's Original Music Form : The Influence Of Jazz

About a century ago jazz was considered as popular music and was considerably the most influential movement at the time. In 1920, jazz had infected Kansas City and it could be heard on every corner of each street. It began around the early 1900s, when African American musicians congregated in the city of New Orleans. In the town of Storyville, musicians would share and improvise their music. Eventually, some musicians would leave New Orleans to share the “New Orleans music.” By the 1920s, after jazz had entered the vocabulary in 1917, indie music companies began recording jazz

In the city of New Orleans, from parades to clubs and from weddings to funerals, one element usually remained constant throughout all these events: the music that permeated the air. At most of these occasions, a band often performed as entertainment, providing many opportunities for musicians in the area to work. By the early 20th century, due to various factors such as mix of ethnicities and cultures with syncopated musical styles influenced by African-American traditions, the increase in non-reading musicians improvising melodies, and simply the existence of numerous brass bands, New Orleans had become an entertainment powerhouse that largely gave rise to the type of music called jazz. However, while there were many cultural and environmental influences on the emergence of the new genre, two main musical antecedents are associated with forming the basis of jazz: ragtime and blues.

The Jazz Age was a period of radical behavior and care free living. This new music structure started the crazy decade that would change American life. “In the US during the 1920s, jazz was far more than a new musical style or genre”. A Focus on culture, fashion, and mostly freedom became huge. “The Jazz Age became a touchstone for a wide range of social and cultural issues.”1 Also the freedom during the period allowed for many different ethnicities, including African Americans, to gain freedom within society. This new music

The birth of jazz music is often credited to African Americans, though it didn’t take long to expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterised by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class societies. Big cities like New York and Chicago were

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro Life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia clubwoman… turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifestations—likewise almost anything else distinctly racial…She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug as near white in smug as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist …to change through the hidden force of his art that old whispering “I want to be white,” hidden in the aspirations of his people, to “Why should I want to be white? I am Negro—and beautiful.”

Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul-the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. Yet the Philadelphia club woman , turns up her nose at jazz and all its manifetations-likewise almost anything else distinctly racial... She wants the artist to flatter her, to make the white world believe that all Negroes are as smug and as near white in soul as she wants to be. But, to my mind, it is the duty of the younger Negro artist, to change through the force of his art that old whispering "I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to "Why should I want to he white? I am Negro-and beautiful"

I. Introduction a. A testament to the United States' unprecedented prosperity in the Roaring Twenties, jazz's growing popularity sparked a grave controversy, with many viewing the appeal of jazz as either an annoyance or a threat. b. Should the testament to the United States’ prosperity in the Roaring Twenties about jazz’s growing popularity be viewed as an annoyance or threat? c. Jazz’s growing popularity in the United States in a time known as the Roaring Twenties, was a dramatic turning point in the American life. The growing of this musical industry meant jazz would be thrived in adversity and come to symbolize a certain kind of American freedom, and would be called upon to lift the spirits and raise the morale of a

Out of the streets of New Orleans, a new form of music arose. This new type of music was not known as African or European, but simply American. It was jazz. In 1900 jazz first developed, but it wasn’t until the

African Americans had a major role in the development of popular entertainment in America. Following the Civil War, black Americans, developed a new style of music called ragtime which eventually evolved into what we now know as Jazz. In developing Jazz, African Americans contributed knowledge of the dance and folk music of people across Africa. Together, these musical forms had a major influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century. Early jazz and blues recordings were made in the 1920’s and the early part of the 20th century saw a constant rise in their popularity.

In the middle of the 19th century, Congo Square became a center of musical expression. On these Sunday afternoons, a new form of music was born. Pioneered by those on the bottom of a society full of slavery and segregation, the origin of jazz was less a singular event than an evolving movement. None of those pioneers, however, could have anticipated the future of their developing art form. None could have foreseen that their informal rhythmic gatherings would eventually lead to nationally recognized big bands with more than 20 musicians and celebrity band leaders. The trajectory of jazz history is complex and rich, flowing from style to style and from region to region. Each step along the way from the early brass bands to the bebop bands

During the early 1900’s, a new style of music began to take shape in the colorful city of New Orleans. People from all over the world came to exchange stories, conversation, and music. Although it is a very hard genre of music to define, it is said that Jazz is the combination of European and African music that was brought in via the ports. With mostly an African American population, the musicians shared their music in Storyville - a cultural melting pot, and began to spread the “New Orleans Sound”. They contributed to what would soon be known as Jazz in 1917. The spontaneous nature of Jazz’s syncopation and sound makes it a very humanistic style of music and makes every performance original. Every day we improvise, whether it is in conversation or spur of the moment decisions. These truly unique elements caused Jazz to become a symbol of America, and changed music forever.

The Jazz Age was a national undertaking that took place in America during the 1920’s, also known as “the Roaring Twenties” from which both jazz music and dance emerged. Despite the era ending with the beginning of The Great Depression in the 1930’s, jazz has lived on in American pop culture. The birth of jazz music is often credited to African-Americans, but it soon expanded to America’s white middle class. This resulted in jazz being combined by both African-American traditions and ideals with white middle class society.

Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz

African Americans were responsible for bringing jazz music to Europe. Due to the fact that the people in Paris were far more excepting of colored people, many African American singer and dancers made their way to Paris to start their careers and a make a name for themselves. There are few cities in the world that are more associated with jazz than Paris (Pelzer). Most of the time, African American’s in Paris were just looked at by Parisians as entertainers (Stovall). These African American were objects of Parisian curiosity and fantasy, and the audiences were very much intrigued by the exoticism that went into so many performances. These foreign entertainers became the backbones of the Paris Jazz Age (Pelzer).

The 1920’s in American history seem to be very exciting. It was the height of the Harlem Renaissance, where African American literature, poetry, art and music emerged. You had all this African American talent growing and blasting into the mainstream. Historians refer to this time period as “The Jazz Age”. When jazz music was introduced to the public at clubs and dance halls it took off! People were either captivated by it, or appalled by it. Jazz was all about movement; it was driven by syncopation and improvisation, and for some it was considered “the devil’s music.” The novel Jazz by Toni Morrison allows you to wonder down the seductive streets of Harlem where it all began. The book gives a sense of both the scandal of Jazz music and the