Blog #1: New Orleans and the Emergence of Jazz

What did New Orleans contribute to the emergence of jazz at the beginning of the 20^th century? Why did jazz emerge in New Orleans instead of other American cities? What were some of the sources of New Orleans jazz as mentioned by Gioia? After considering the evidence that Gioia presents, what do you believe was the most important factor that explains why jazz emerged in New Orleans?

New Orleans played a crucial role in the rise of jazz as an art form. The city was a bustling hub for commerce in the 18^th century, and one of the biggest markets was the slave trade. The African slaves brought over their own forms of art with them, which resulted in the famous Congo Square. A large open space in the city, it became the place of congregation for slaves to come rejoice and dance on Sundays, their typical day off. The whites of the time found amusement in this, which led to the rise of the first form of pop culture, minstrel groups that mocked the African slaves and their customs and mannerisms.

Originally claimed by the Spanish, the French took ownership in the beginning of the 19^th century. Weeks later, it was sold to the US in the Lousiana Purchase. This frequent changing of hands led to the state, and especially New Orleans, to become a melting pot of culture and genetics. As it happened, many European slave owners took black slaves as their mistresses and producing mixed race children. These children were known as creoles of color, typically had lighter skin and raised and educated just as any other child of European descent. Eventually, some found issue with these mixed race folk being treated the same as white people. We’ll come back to this later.

First, we come to the blues. The blues emerged in the 19^th century as a common form of expression used by black slaves in America. In order to keep their owners at bay, slaves sang songs about their woes with subtle and multifaceted lyrics. This accomplished two things: it allowed slaves to communicate and express themselves in a discreet fashion, and it kept their owners thinking they were happy. After all, why should a slave sing if he isn’t happy? This style took on a form of its own and gained widespread acceptance even outside of slaves.

Now, towards the end of the 19^th century, the blues led to the creation of ragtime. This new style came about following the passage of Louisiana Legislative Code No. 111 in 1894, which designated anyone of any amount of African descent as a Negro. This caused major problems because, before, creoles and whites shared concert halls and classical music. But this legislation caused drastic segregation between whites and creoles, which left many classically trained creole musicians without work. So, they joined with the blacks in creating a new music, combining their virtuosic classical ability with the blues, resulting in the upbeat style of ragtime.

Now, ragtime eventually led to jazz. But why was New Orleans so important? The city being the melting pot that it is, it had a huge number of brass bands compared with any other major city. These bands led to the emergence of individuals like Buddy Bolden, the elusive father of jazz. Bolden became well known for his extraordinary mastery of the cornet, and combining key elements of blues and ragtime in a manner resembling jazz before anyone else. Bolden, among others, was known to play in the red light district of Storyville, which some took as a sign that jazz came about as music to accompany prostitution, but most historical accounts dispute this. Though his musical career was short lived, his styles influenced greats such as Jelly Role Morton, Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong and others.

The story continues of course, but these are some of the key ingredients in the emergence of jazz in New Orleans. It seems to me that the biggest factor was social strife, and the desire of blacks and creoles to develop a bigger and better form of music. I would say that they succeeded.