The Role Of Jazz In New Orleans

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 has always been a part of the American tradition. Some may say they like Jazz for its rhythmic twist and turns. Others may love the soothing melodies from an improved Trumpet solo. All in all, Jazz has been an American staple and has molded today’s popular music, into what it is today. It’s very different from classical music, which is written out and strict. Jazz is much more. It’s made up of spontaneity and improvisation, which makes up an idea on the spot. There are many wide varieties in Jazz. There is Bebop Jazz, Avante Garde Jazz, Acid Jazz, Free Funk Jazz, Soul Jazz, Swing Jazz, and many, many more! These forms of Jazz can be seen and heard in some of your favorite music of Today. It’s been widely used by the world. There is an important reason as to why this genre contributes to the growing of music. We first take a look into the root of all Jazz. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the country of Africa was the first known country to use rhythm primarily for the element of musical expression, and ensembles composed entirely of percussion instruments created extended polyrhythmic works. These polyrhythms, which means the “layering of multiple rhythms.”, were record in Western music. African music did not use paper, or sheet music. Instead, they relied on Aural rituals, learned by ear and also used” spontaneity, which is later said to be known as improvisation”. In Africa, most of the music that was expressed was for religious

expanding, sharing it’s enthusiasm throughout the world. The evolution of jazz aroused the curiosity of the nation. As Blacks received their freedom, they were able to

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

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

Is it the Africans of the city who the music is directly connected to? Or with the popularization of Jazz did the White community want to claim it as thier own like they attempted to do with white jazz musicians?

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

     Jazz music is a blending of both black and white tradition and heritages. New Orleans was the center of many different ethnicities, such as French, Spanish, American, and African

New Orleans jazz is attractive to the military culture in the shared aspect that “New Orleans jazz developed as a synthesis of social and cultural factors that merged at a particular time and place in history” (Metzger and Ernest 406). Moreover, “the usual New Orleans musicians’ response to disaster … has long been an inclination to use music to mitigate the harsh realities endemic to a city that finds itself perennially in harm’s way” (Raeburn 812) in which, post-WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and most recently post-9/11, directly relates to military sentimentality. Further justifying the connection of the need to mitigate harsh realities with music, a sentiment shared between both New Orleans natives and U. S. Military communities, “the Naval School of Music add[ed] classes to perform in real-world settings that include performances in war-torn and developing countries” (Jones 52). This resulted in its recent curriculum “innovation [of] a New Orleans style brass band to provide the ability to send small, mobile acoustic groups to entertain audiences in difficult performance conditions” (Jones 52). The Naval School of Music takes direction from the employed fleet musicians and their supervisors’ feedback, rather than faculty, to quickly adapt a curriculum to the changing naval landscape (Jones 47-52).

Black jazz musicians were exploited by white people during the developmental era of jazz and did not benefit fully from their innovations. The history of white supremacy and the exploitation of African Americans which was evident in many instances in the 20th century was also in the jazz industry. Jazz originated in New Orleans as slaves looked for a way of expression but later became an artistic phenomenon that attracted audiences in Kansas City, New York, Chicago until the wave overtook the entire country. With time, musicians improvised the original jazz which then fragmented into cool jazz, Hard Bop, swing, etc. The role of white people in the developmental era of jazz and how it undermined jazz and denied black artists the full benefits

It had become the passageway to the rise of the newly discovered nightlife. Jazz has a very interesting history, Jazz is routed back the African American culture. It is though that jazz not only had African American roots but it has European roots as well. From the African American culture came jazz’s rhythm and blues, from European culture came the harmony and the instruments that

The origins of jazz music and dance are found in the rhythms and movements brought to America by African slaves. The style of African dance is earthy; low, knees bent, pulsating body movements emphasized by body isolations and hand-clapping. As slaves forced into America, starting during the 1600’s, Africans from many cultures were cut off from their families, languages and

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).

Even though Jazz music was predominantly of African-American audiences, it grew to all listeners of music regardless of their race. But, if we look at the audience of today, the listeners of Jazz music are white. Jazz was also able to grow during its height because of the fact that music was able to be recorded. This gave everyone the ability to hear this genre of music, even if they were not able to go out and enjoy it live. Also during this time and through the mid-century Jazz was the dance music of Americans. Jazz in fact influenced the younger crowds in how they dressed, their language, as well as a certain attitude. Most of all, Jazz, more than most other music, has been firmly related with the societal, political, and financial impacts of American urban communities and in addition the changing status of American workmanship and music all through the

As the jazz tradition was developing in the United States through the cross fertilization of African and African American culture, this jazz music would eventually reach all the way to South Africa. During the late18th Century in New Orleans (then controlled by Spain), every Sunday, slaves would gather at the Place des Negres, or Congo Square. In Congo Square, slaves were allowed to bring musical instruments and