The History of Jazz Essay

The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that took place in America during the 1920 's (also known as "the Roaring Twenties") from which both jazz music and dance emerged. This movement matched with both the equally phenomenal introduction of mainstream radio and the conclusion of World War I. The 1920s was the decade that marked the beginning of the modern music era. Some of the popular music genres were Jazz, Dance Bands, Blues, and Broadway. The decade marked the beginning of independent record companies, smaller operations that weren’t afraid to take a chance on music and artists that the bigger companies shied away from.

     The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the

Jazz music originated from New Orleans, Louisiana in the early 1900’s. The creation of the style came from a need for a phycological shield against the disasters from nature and society in New Orleans at the time. Jazz was the most original form that came from those troubles. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots from West African cultural and expressions, as well as African American traditions. Jazz started becoming more world-wide around 1910 and started introducing brass-band marches, French quadrilles, and biguine music styles. Later in the 1930’s dance oriented swing bands became very prominent to the style. From there Jazz music continued to grow and become

Thesis: Although Jazz music was first introduced over 80 years ago, the genre still influences artists and the new music they make to this day.

Hard Bop was played mainly from East Coast and Midwest Musicians. It evolved directly from bop during the 1950s, and was relatively neglected by the public. Cool Jazz on the other hand, consisted of mainly West Coast musicians. Some of the players of cool jazz are among the most popular musicians in jazz. Although the sound quality of

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.

Initially, the first jazz is said to have been played by funeral bands that wailed music full of soul and sadness as the followed horse drawn hearses down the streets of New Orleans. It was blues music though (Winfield 157). Many historians mark the start of the “Jazz Age” on November 12, 1917- the day the Department of the Navy closed a thirty-eight square-block neighborhood known as storyville in the city of New Orleans. Fearing the health of its sailors, the navy shut the doors of Storyville’s brothels and nightclubs, forcing

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

     The unique art form know as Jazz, was able to thrive initially in New Orleans. The most celebrated part of New Orleans was known as Storyville because it was a melting pot for Jazz. Storyville was so celebrated because it was the only region in the city that had brothels and pubs that allowed African Americans. Unfortunately, in 1970, President Roosevelt shut down the district in fear of violence between the natives and sailors. This resulted in a dispersion of jazz. Many artists traveled directly to Chicago after the closing of Storyville to restart their music.

Bop musicians rejected the idea of playing solely for an audience; they graduated from the roles of entertainers to the positions of musicians. Their music was not as melodic and hyperactive as swing. Subsequently, bop never became an obsession of popular culture, and remained introspective, for a largely introspective Beat culture.

Meltingpot.fortuecity.com states the in the 1930’s and 1940’s jazz was at it all time highest. Although it is unclear when jazz first started some believe jazz started in New Orleans. Work it way up toward other major cities throughout in Midwest, such cities as Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago have their own unique style of jazz. While the city of New Orleans was founded in 1719 by French men and for

Jazz music originated from New Orleans America and was initially known as “Jass”, the “ss” were later converted to “zz” meaning “cool”. In the 19th century Jazz was popularly featured in brass with an ensemble consisting of the saxophone, piano, cornet and the trombone dominating the music.

Jazz was inspired by African-American folk music, Blues and Ragtime in the early 20th century and introduced in New Orleans. According to the text book “Discovering Humanities”, “Jazz was “the” American music, and was almost as popular in Paris and Berlin as it was in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans” (468). The first feature of Jazz is improvisation, when a song was played there is no specific arrangement, it is spontaneously elaborated around a specific song (Listen, 386). A second feature is that there is a rhythmic style that involves highly developed syncopation. Syncopation occurs when accents in

Poor and black people played jazz. People started using the term “Jazz” in the 1900s. The recording industry helped jazz to evolve after World War I. Jazz became popular from the mid-1900s. Miles Davis was an American trumpeter, and he combined jazz with rock. People called this combination "Fusion." Swing and bop are branches of jazz, too.